NEW AMERICAN CITY: Artists Look Forward
Sept. 9, 2006 - Jan. 27, 2007
Arizona State University Art Museum
10th Street and Mill Avenue, Tempe
Herberger College of the Arts
NEW AMERICAN CITY will explore the role of artists and the art being produced in our rapidly changing city. Installed in four galleries and throughout the ASU Art Museum space, the exhibition will feature twenty-three artists who live and work in Maricopa County. Their work demonstrates a marked level of experimentation and investigation, exploring media, processes and styles to comment on the here and now.
Public Programs:
TUESDAY NIGHT LECTURE SERIES:
September 26, 2006, 7:30pm
Location: TBA
Illuminating the Mirror - Reflections on WaterFire by Barnaby Evans
Introduction and response by Dean Wellington Reiter, ASU College of Design
Sponsored by the ASU College of Design
Evans will reflect on his award-winning environmental art installation, WaterFire, a series of one hundred bonfires suspended just above the surface of the Providence, Woonasqquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers. The artwork runs for two thirds of a mile through the parks in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, and is lit from April through October on selected dates. The project has played a role in the revitalization of downtown Providence.
Evans received a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Brown University in 1975. Other examples of his work include Rikyu's Second Dream (1993), an installation piece for Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art. His inspiration comes from Japanese Zen and Wabi Sabi design aesthetic.
January 23, 2007, 7:30pm
Location: ASU Art Museum
Lecture by Mark Robbins
Introduction by Dr. Renata Hejduk, professor of Architecture, ASU College of Design
Supported by the Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation
Robbins will talk about the ways in which architecture and art practice can function as critical factors in creating a deeper understanding of the social and physical aspects of the city. He will present some of his earlier site-specific installation and newer photographic work, which seeks to present the complexity of social reality, unvarnished by the fuzzy nostalgia embraced by the marketplace. At a larger scale he will show examples of cultural and academic institutions that have begun to participate in remaking the American cities.
Robbins is dean of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University. His work bridges the fields of art and architecture, exploring the complex social and political forces that contribute to the built environment. Robbins was the Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C., where he developed an aggressive program to strengthen the presence of innovative design in the public realm. Previously he was the Curator of Architecture at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, and he was an Associate Professor in the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University from 1990 to 1999. He was the Shure Visiting Critic at the University of Virginia; the TVS distinguished Critic at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a visiting critic at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. Notable among his awards are the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation, and the State Arts Councils of Ohio and New York. Robbins was a Fellow in the visual arts at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2002-03, and has received two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts as well as residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation and the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism.
October 17, 2006, 7:30pm
Location: ASU Art Museum
Lecture by Matthew Coolidge
Supported by the Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation
Matthew Coolidge is the Founder/Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), a research organization exploring landscape issues. His talk will specifically address Phoenix and issues of land use from the perspective of his innovative research throughout the West.
Neither an environmental group nor an art collective, CLUI resists categorization by maintaining a diverse, eclectic program of activities that invite a closer examination of "humankind's interaction with the Earth's surface." CLUI engages in projects such as Event Marker, a series of signs similar to roadside historical markers that are erected to commemorate significant but obscure land-use phenomena like bomb test sites and film locations. CLUI also produces exhibitions such as The Best Dead Mall in America and A View into the Pipe (an excavation exposing Los Angeles' main sewer pipe, offering a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the metropolis). Other activities include interpretive programs like the Land Use Database, an online resource of unusual and exemplary sites throughout the United States designed to educate and inform the public about our landscape as it is altered to accommodate the complex demands of society.
SATURDAY BRUNCH SERIES:
October 28, 2006, 10:30am
Location: ASU Art Museum
The Book Launch
Dr. Patricia Gober will speak at the launch of the 50+-page, color catalogue for the New American City exhibition. The catalogue will include essays by Gober, the exhibition curators Heather Sealy Lineberry and John Spiak, and artist and poet Kade Twist, and installation images of the exhibition.
This fall in Phoenix sees the confluence of publications and exhibitions exploring a critical mass of artists living and working in the metropolitan area, influencing the current life of and the future of our city. Some of these other publications will be represented and available at the brunch including the anniversary publication for Eye Lounge, a downtown artists' cooperative, presale of the book, Phoenix: 21st Century City, sponsored by Maricopa Partnership for the Arts and Culture, and Jon Talton with his newest fiction release, Arizona Dreams. Gober's recent book, Metropolitan Phoenix, explores the efforts to build a sustainable desert city in the face of environmental uncertainty, rapid growth, and increasing social diversity. Published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, the book will be available for purchase and book signing.
Gober, essayist for the catalogue, is Professor of Geography at ASU and co-Director of the Decision Center for a Desert City which studies water management decisions in the face of growing climatic uncertainty in Greater Phoenix. She received a PhD in Geography from the Ohio State University in 1975 and her research centers on issues of migration, retirement communities, and environmental change in metropolitan Phoenix. She is especially interested in the use of science for real-world decision-making. She is a past President of the Association of American Geographers, currently serves as the Chair of the College Board's Advanced Placement Human Geography Committee, and was recently appointed to the National Research Council's Committee on Geography which provides independent advice to society and to government at all levels on scientific, technical, and policy matters related to geography and geographic analysis.
January 13, 2007, 10:30am
Location: ASU Art Museum
Why is Creative Capital in Arizona? by Ruby Lerner with grant recipients Liz Cohen, John Leañños, Beverly McIver and Mark Newport.
Supported by the Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation
Lerner will discuss Creative Capital's role in a recent statewide survey – also sponsored by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Arizona Partnership for Innovation -- on working conditions and support structures for Arizona artists. At this critical time in our growth, can we attract and retain creative workers in the state? The New York-based Creative Capital is building a process for all states to better understand how artists are supported and working towards strengthening those systems. Arizona was one of the first states selected for such a study. The survey was also partially funded by the Arizona Community Foundation.
Lerner is the Executive Director of Creative Capital, a nonprofit organization that acts as a catalyst for the development of adventurous and imaginative ideas by supporting artists who pursue innovation in form and/or content in the performing and visual arts, film and video, and in emerging fields. They are committed to working in partnership with the artists, whom they fund, providing advisory services and professional development assistance along with multi-faceted financial aid and promotional support throughout the life of each project.
The morning will conclude with short presentations by past Arizona artist recipients of Creative Capital grants. Audience members will have an opportunity to question the speakers about Creative Capital, the survey and the artists' projects.
January 27, 2007, 10:30am
Location: ASU Art Museum
Exhibition Closing/Dialog Just Beginning by Dr. Nan Ellin
Ellin will discuss the current state of the creative community in Phoenix, the confluence of publications and exhibitions this fall, and possibilities for the future. In recent years, exponential growth in Phoenix has combined with an historically independent spirit, potential for self-(re)invention, and relatively low cost of living to attract an impressive concentration of creative people while also inspiring and nurturing homegrown talent. As a result, the Phoenix metropolitan area has seen a flourishing of expressive arts of all kinds along with concurrent transformations in urban form and lifestyle.
Ellin will sign her two recent books. Phoenix: 21st Century City captures this historic moment as the Phoenix region evolves into a vibrant world-class metropolis with a unique character. Integral Urbanism casts a wider net, looking at how to build vital cities and vibrant communities for the 21st century.
Ellin is Director of the Urban & Metropolitan Studies Program at the ASU School of Public Affairs. She holds an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. She has previously taught at the University of Cincinnati, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), University of Southern California, and New York University. She was a Fulbright Scholar in France where she carried out research for her dissertation on the European New Urbanism. She is the author of Postmodern Urbanism (1996; revised edition, 1999) and the editor of Architecture of Fear (1997). Her numerous articles and essays have appeared in Lotus, History of European Ideas, Journal of Architectural Education, Design Book Review, Thresholds, Intersight, Urban Studies Review, The Hedgehog Review, Shade, and the Encyclopedia of New York City, among others. Having explored degenerative and reactive trends in urban design, Ellin explores reconstructive and proactive alternatives to these in her new book entitled Integral Urbanism (June 2006). Ellin is currently working on a book about Phoenix as a city emerging creatively, entitled Phoenix: 21st-Century City (forthcoming October 2006) and is Associate Editor of the 3-volume Encyclopedia of Urban Studies (Sage, forthcoming 2007). Ellin is an urban design columnist for the Arizona Republic and consults with both the public and private sector on issues related to urban growth and development.
FRIDAY NOON LUNCHTIME SERIES:
September 22, 2006
12noon
*Location: Eye Lounge Gallery, Phoenix
The Artists of Eye Lounge
A gallery talk and tour of the downtown Phoenix artist collective space Eye Lounge with artist Kate Timmerman.
September 29, 2006
12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
New American City artists Matthew Moore and Carrie Marill.
October 6, 2006
12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
New American City artists Sherrie Medina, Liza Cohen Hita, and Ernesto Fonseca.
October 20, 2006
11:30am
*Location: Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL), Security Building, 234 N. Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Phoenix
Sky Harbor as the Phoenix Waterfront
Wellington Reiter, New American City artist and dean of the ASU College of Design.
November 17, 2006
12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
New American City artists Mayme Kratz and Randy Slack.
December 1, 2006
12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Here a Century and Gone Tomorrow: The Destruction of a Chicano Barrio
Chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures and Regents' Professor of Spanish, Women's Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities at Arizona State University, Dr. David Foster.
December 8, 2006
12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
The Role of the Arts in Revitalization
Phoenix visual artist and writer Greg Esser. Esser established the artist-run contemporary exhibition spaces eye lounge, 515, and Sixth Street Studios in downtown Phoenix.
December 15, 2006
12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Public Life/Private Space in the New American City
Professor of Architecture, ASU College of Design, Dr. Renata Hejduk.
New American City: Artists Look Forward is organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum and is made possible in part through an investment by Najafi Companies.
Investment support also provided by an anonymous donation, Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation, Houston's and Bandera of the Hillstone Restaurant Group, Wespac Construction, Inc., Michael Levine, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Lori and Howard Hirsch, Treg Bradley, Libby Decker and T.J. Decker, ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability and School of Sustainability, Cindy Dach and Greg Esser, The Katherine K. Herberger College of the Arts Dean's Investment Fund, and Friends of the ASU Art Museum. Additional financial support provided by Beth and Pat Moroney, Robin and Bill Charles, Sharon and Paul Fannin, Ellyce and Eddie Shea, and Tana and Ridge Smidt.
In-kind support provided by The Lavidge Company, Eddie Shea Design, Item Magazine, ASU College of Design, Changing Hands Bookstore, ASU College of Law's Art Advocacy Program and Center for Law, Leadership and Management, and Interlingua.
ASU Art Museum INFORMATION:
Cited in Art in America as “the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona," the Arizona State University Art Museum explores art and its impact on individuals and society.
The ASU Art Museum is located in the Nelson Fine Arts Center, southeast corner of 10th St. and Mill Ave.
Tues. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.;
Wed. – Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The Ceramics Research Center is located on northeast corner of 10th St. and Mill Ave.
Tues. – Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 pm.
Tours may be arranged two weeks in advance. (480) 965-ARTS (2787). Free and open to the public.
PARKING:
Free parking available in ASU Art Museum-marked spaces at the south end of Tempe Center at the Ceramic Research Center, located at the NE corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street. Sign in at the desk in the museum lobby.
RETURN TO NEW AMERICAN CITY: ARTISTS LOOK FORWARD