#Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund

[old-powwow-days]

Nizhónígo Hadadít’eh, They are Beautifully Dressed

Currently on exhibition at RISD Museum through September 29nth 2024

Diné (Navajo) apparel design is constantly evolving, often in response to historical events. After Spanish colonists introduced Churro sheep to what is now the Southwest United States in the late 1500s, Diné developed a Navajo-Churro breed that produced wool ideal for weaving. By the 1800s, Diné women were creating wool blankets, mantas, and other forms of apparel. After the 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo subjected Diné to US federal government rule, forced assimilation, and American capitalism, Diné apparel transitioned from woven wool textiles to sewn commercial fabrics. As non-Natives began collecting Diné textiles, Diné weavers also created designs for hanging on walls. The patterns woven by Diné women in the 1800s reflect Diné aesthetics and beliefs. While we can appreciate these works through the lens of art and design, it is a disservice to overlook their cultural meanings. Diné bizaad (Navajo language; pronounced de-NEH biz-AHD) has no word for “art,” but Diné style is distinct and married to hózhó (balance, beauty, and harmony; HOZH-oh). This idea is demonstrated through symmetrical geometric design, light and dark color, and the continuance of the practice by way of matriarchal teaching. Diné textiles were and continue to be sources of design inspiration, as well as objects of cultural appropriation. Despite hardship, Diné resilience drives creativity forward. We honor and appreciate the generations of Diné weavers who, through hózhó, have designed beautiful garments for beautiful people.  –Sháńdíín Brown (Diné), Henry Luce Curatorial Fellow for Native American Art Shándíín Brown, Henry Luce Curatorial Fellow for Native American Art Tʼáá íiyisíí ahéheeʼ (thank you very much) to Diné weaver Chris Brown, Diné scholar Ty Metteba, and Thierry Gentis, curator of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, for their contributions to this exhibition. Special thanks also to Diné artist Darby Raymond-Overstreet for designing the exhibition title and thumbnail. Diné Textiles: Nizhónígo Hadadít’eh (pronounced nizh-OH-NEE-go hah-dah-DEET-eh) is the work of the Henry Luce Curatorial Fellow for Native American Art, which is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.

[madforfashiondude]

High Museum Of Art And Dallas Museum Of Art To Present Pioneering Design Exhibition Exploring The Spectrum Of Sensory Experience

High Museum Of Art And Dallas Museum Of Art To Present Pioneering Design Exhibition Exploring The Spectrum Of Sensory Experience

Debut of New Works by International Designers In Archibong, Matt Checkowski, Misha Kahn, the Ladd Brothers Laurie Haycock Makela, and Yuri Suzuki speechless: different by design Opens at the Dallas Museum of Art in November 2019, Travels to the High Museum of Art in April 2020

The High Museum of Art (High) (Atlanta, Ga.) and the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) (Dallas, Texas) announced the…

[armeniaitn]

A Doctor of the Diaspora, With Artsakh in His Heart

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/society/a-doctor-of-the-diaspora-with-artsakh-in-his-heart-49367-14-08-2020/

A Doctor of the Diaspora, With Artsakh in His Heart

Dr. Raffy Hovanessian

A Remembrance of Dr. Raffy Hovanessian (1938-2020)

BY LEVON LACHIKYAN English rendering by CHRISTOPHER H. ZAKIAN

A physician, in the truest sense, is not defined solely by his choice of profession. What defines him is a lifelong impulse to help others: a commitment to treat fellow human beings with compassion.

That’s how I have always understood the medical calling, in its highest expression. The doctors endowed with these qualities are rare, and very precious. So when we lose such a noble figure, we should do more than simply mourn that doctor’s death. We should acknowledge, and celebrate, the life and accomplishment that preceded his passing.

Our community—our world—lost such a shining example this spring, in the person of Dr. Raffy Hovanessian. An Armenian-American physician of the highest caliber, Dr. Hovanessian was a well-known—and beloved—public figure throughout the Armenian world. His death at age 81 on May 27, 2020, following a long, brave battle against cancer, brought to a close an astonishing lifetime of accomplishment, compassion, and benevolent work.

He was born in Jerusalem, on August 16, 1938—the eldest child of two survivors of the Armenian Genocide. They instilled in their son the qualities that would be the foundation of his consequential life: a life inspired at the deepest level by his Christian faith and Armenian heritage, and nourished by the spiritual strength Raffy drew from his family, his church, and his homeland.

Family One iconic image guided Raffy throughout his life: the memory of his father, Arakel. Raffy would often lovingly refer to his father in conversation as “a simple shoemaker”; but it was clear that to this grateful son, Arakel Hovanessian was so much more: a patriot, a man of moral vision. To illustrate that feeling, Raffy would quote his father’s explanation for having six children: “Son,” the Genocide survivor would say, “we lost so many souls in my generation. So this too is a way to serve our nation: by having many children.”

Raffy’s mother Diruhi was a nurse—and the likely inspiration for his youthful decision to become a doctor. But the medical vocation also held a logical attraction for a boy with an instinct to help others. His parents encouraged him in every way they could. His father surprised Raffy one day by giving him a violin. When the boy asked how the instrument would help him achieve his goal in medicine, his father replied that a good doctor needs precise, agile fingers, and the violin would be excellent training for that.

The family resided in Aleppo throughout Raffy’s primary education, but for his medical training he applied to the American University in Beirut. It was while living in that city that Raffy met the beautiful Armenian woman who would become his future wife, Shoghag Varjabedian.

“I glorify God’s blessing for giving me a wife like Shoghag,” he repeated with joy throughout his life. “She has always been a support for my spirit, an inspiration to lead me forward. At the same time, she is an ideal mother and grandmother to our three children and seven grandchildren.”

“Together, these two were a most exemplary couple,” said longtime friend Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, currently the Armenian Church’s Pontifical Legate of Western Europe. “They complemented each other in every way. And through their partnership, numerous vital projects were brought to life.” One of the most important of these projects was the rescue of America’s St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, which was in danger of shutting its doors. During that crisis in the 1990s, the Hovanessians’ leadership largely ensured the seminary’s ongoing vitality as an educational institution, which persists to this day.

Some three decades earlier, when Raffy and Shoghag settled in Chicago in the mid-1960s, they had brought a similar energy to the local Armenian community, helping to establish an AGBU center in the city and its Sissag H. Varjabedian Armenian Saturday School.

The family took a special interest in the advancement of Armenian artists. Arriving in Armenia in the wake of the 1988 earthquake, Shoghag recognized the quality and talent of a number of Armenian painters. As an art connoisseur and curator of numerous prestigious contemporary art exhibits, she was enthusiastic about introducing these artists to a wider, international audience. But she was also moved by the poor conditions in which they lived. Together with her husband, Shoghag worked intensely to create secure lives for the painters, so they could continue to reside in Armenia while exhibiting their work abroad. “Our goal was to allow talented Armenian artists to stay in their homeland, so that we would not lose them abroad,” she said.

This is the attitude they brought to all the arts in Armenia: a sense of duty to preserve the country’s native creativity. I vividly remember the visit Dr. and Mrs. Hovanessian paid to the Octet Music School in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri, which had been devastated by the 1988 earthquake. After listening to the impressive performances of the gifted students, they decided on the spot to support the higher education of several young talents, and later made active efforts to improve the school building and its resources.

Throughout their many visits to Armenia, the Hovanessians would frequently be in the company of their children—and later their grandchildren—in order to expose the new generations to the unique sights, sounds, tastes and aromas of their ancestral land.

Church Raffy Hovanessian grew up in an atmosphere of religious faith, observance, and piety—and those habits of the spirit remained with him throughout his life. As a boy attending Aleppo’s Emmanuel College, he become engrossed in the Bible, conversant in its stories and message. He put these lessons to active use in the way he conducted himself.

“The church has always been in me,” the doctor would later confess. He was convinced that if Armenians had not embraced Christianity, their nation would have ceased to exist as an entity in history. At a more personal level, the Armenian Church, with its deep and rich spiritual power, was where he would seek guidance, consolation, and encouragement at every crossroad in his life.

He would build many friendships based on such shared character. A notable one was forged in Beirut, where he befriended a young clergyman named Karekin Sarkissian. Their relationship was a great source of joy in Raffy’s life, and a source of pride as well, as he watched his friend scale the church hierarchy to become a bishop, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, and finally the Catholicos of All Armenians: His Holiness Karekin I.

In more formal roles, Dr. Hovanessian was a longtime member of the Diocesan Council of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, serving as its vice chair. Twice, in 1995 and 1999, he was elected to represent the Diocese at the National Ecclesiastical Assembly convened at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Fellow church delegates from across the globe chose Raffy to chair those historic gatherings.

In 2014, the Eastern Diocese honored Dr. Raffy Hovanessian as its “Armenian Church Member of the Year” during ceremonies at St. Vartan Cathedral in New York City, surrounding that year’s Diocesan Assembly.

But above and beyond such public distinctions, Raffy’s first and deepest motivation was always to live up to his father’s counsel “to love the church and serve the church.” Wherever life took him, he followed it with the intense conviction that the Lord was guiding his steps.

Homeland From his earliest years, patriotic Armenian songs were always in Raffy’s ear—often sung by his father. Armenian recordings and radio were part of the ambient sound of the Hovanessian home throughout his life; Raffy would quiet a crowd when an Armenian broadcast came on with the phrase, “Yerevan is speaking.”

But it took until 1986 for him to arrive for the first time in Armenia. He did so in the company of his son Armen, and together they scaled the heights of Dzidzernagapert to burn incense at the Genocide Memorial in memory of their ancestors.

He became a much more frequent visitor in the years following Armenia’s independence—difficult as that time was with its dearth of electricity and heating. He would travel there every three to six months, usually in his professional capacity as a physician. His natural compassionate spirit was energized as never before when he witnessed the hardships being endured by his countrymen, and Raffy vowed to do whatever he could to stand by his people, and encourage their progress.

In his heart, Raffy paid little heed to the constricted political boundaries of his homeland. For him, Armenia included Javakhk and Artsakh, and the Armenians resident in those regions were equally the focus of Raffy’s attention and concern.

His motivation in all things was a commitment to national ideas, the preservation of Armenian identity and, more personally, a desire that his life would not be lived in vain. To these ends, he made his influential mark on the diaspora’s numerous educational and charitable organizations, among them the Armenian Assembly of America (where he was a board member from 1986 to 1989) and the Armenian General Benevolent Union (where he sat on the Central Council from 1989 to 2000).

Standing out among these efforts was his fruitful leadership role in the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR), the humanitarian aid, relief, and development organization of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. Dr. Hovanessian became an initiator and promoter of countless FAR projects, often focusing on the reform and advancement of medicine, medical education, and healthcare in the young Armenian Republic.

He was instrumental in launching FAR’s “Regional Doctor Training Program” in 2005, which trained physicians in Armenia’s far flung provinces, as well as programs that gave special attention given to medical personnel from Javakhk and Artsakh. I can envision Raffy during the press conference announcing one such effort in 2011, where he stood among officials of the Ministries of Health of Armenia and Artsakh, the State Medical University, and FAR. Dr. Hovanessian’s beaming face expressed the deep satisfaction he found in these undertakings.

The truth is that following the Soviet Union’s collapse, healthcare systems among the former Soviet republics were on a hazardous path to failure. The programs and fundraising shouldered by Dr. Raffy Hovanessian, through FAR and the Armenian-American Health Professionals Organization (AAHPO), gave Armenia and its medical professionals a fighting chance to improve their skills and upgrade the country’s health system, with benefits felt in the treatment of countless Armenian citizens. Today, most of the physicians and medical personnel working in Armenia and Artsakh have taken advantage of one or more of the innovative training programs resulting from these efforts.

Realizing that competent nursing played a crucial role in the healthcare systems of rural Armenia and Artsakh, Raffy prevailed upon his close friend, the great American-Armenian benefactor Nazar Nazarian, to fund a top-notch training and continuing education program for nurses. The practical model of first-aid training that emerged from the program has proved vitally important in a region that is under constant threat of war from Azerbaijan. It has also been effective in managing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Dr. Hovanessian also contributed to the progress of Yerevan State Medical University—becoming its “unofficial ambassador to America,” in the words of Dr. Gevorg Yaghjyan, a former vice-rector of the university and a board member of the FAR Medical Alumni Association.

A Doctor’s Prescription In the final seven years of his life, Dr. Raffy Hovanessian fought a battle against cancer. He fought courageously, but also quietly: refusing to surrender a single moment to regret or self-pity; never losing any of his characteristic optimism. To the very end he met with leaders in the business and medical circles of the Armenian-American community, always promoting the importance of the programs he was involved with—always stressing the utmost imperative of their continuation.

As an immediate legacy of his passing, he left a bequest to the Fund for Armenian Relief to establish the “Raffy Hovanessian Educational Foundation.” Once again, the target of his concern was Artsakh and the development of its healthcare system.

Certainly, the name of Dr. Raffy Hovanessian will be remembered with honor, in death as it was in life. During his lifetime he was the recipient of numerous awards, from entities around the world. He was grateful for such recognitions—he was especially charmed that both he and Shoghag had been awarded America’s Ellis Island Medal of Honor—while accepting them in a spirit of genuine humility and detachment. The glory of name-recognition was never Raffy’s motivation. What drove him, filling his life with consequence and joy, was the work itself, and the chance it presented to do a good turn to others—especially to his own people.

It’s not surprising that as a physician, Dr. Hovanessian was concerned with the health and well-being of his countrymen. He gave voice to that sentiment in an interview he once gave: “Let us never forget that we are Armenians,” he said. “Our great connection to each other is that we belong to the same nation. The blood flowing in our veins is distinctive, unique; to infect it with mutual jealousy, animosity, and opposition would be a costly mistake.”

Though uttered years ago, those words speak with poignant urgency and meaning to our own day. They provide the perfect note on which to conclude this remembrance of a patriotic Armenian—and a physician in the truest sense.

Read original article here.

[mauriceevansart]

We are excited to open Nu Africans for public viewing. Nu Africans, a body of work by Maurice Evans & Grace Kisa, aspires to and succeeds in centering the Black woman in her own power and grace . Due to Covid-19 restrictions and our desire to keep visitors and our staff safe, viewing will be by reservation only. Beginning July 16, Hammonds House Museum will open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday through August 30. Tickets are $7 per person. Museum members are admitted free. Tickets must be purchased in advance for non-museum members and reserved in advance for members. Only ten (10) visitors will be allowed in the museum at a time. Each time block will be forty-five minutes. All visitors must adhere to the following protocols: STAY HOME! if you are experiencing symptoms related to Covid-19 or if you have been exposed to the virus within 14 days prior to your desired museum visit. Please be mindful of the health and wellness of other visitors and the museum staff and stay at home. WEAR A MASK. All visitors must wear a face mask. There are NO EXCEPTIONS. SOCIAL DISTANCE. Social distancing directions will be visible in the museum. SANITIZE YOUR HANDS. We will provide a station at the front door of the museum for you to sanitize your hands before entering the museum. Please contact the museum at business@hammondshouse.org if you have questions. We look forward to seeing you and sharing the beautiful exhibition. —————- Nu Africans is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts & Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and Christopher Swain. Hammonds House Museum is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Artist Engagement Fund. Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information visit www.npnweb.org. #hammondshousemuseum #mauriceevans #gracekisa #nuafricans https://www.instagram.com/p/CCbEx7HhtoB/?igshid=1f7obygs4q01t

[trascapades]

💻🎨#ArtIsAWeapon #NewExhibit #VirtualOpening @hammondshouse presents Nu Africans, an exhibit by Maurice Evans @moesart10 and Grace Kisa @studiokisa, which opens virtually tonight May 15, 2020, 7:00PM EST. Music by @salahananse. Register for this experience: www.hammondshouse.org/events/ _______________________ Reposted from @hammondshouse: Hammonds House Museum exhibits Nu Africans, by Maurice Evans and Grace Kisa as our first digital visual event. Sharing their experiences as Africans on both sides of the Atlantic was the catalyst for Nu Africans. Maurice was frustrated by how African Americans and continental Africans could not see their similarities, only their differences. He eventually came to the understanding that African Americans and Africans of the diaspora, through their individual circumstances, have evolved into their own tribe of Nu Africans. In collaboration with 40 women from around the African diaspora, they have created an exhibition which aspires to center the Black woman in her own power. *********************************** We are creating an experience where you see the work, speak with the artists and get it in with an after-party set by DJ Salah Ananse. As with any Hammonds House event admission is free for members and $7.00 for non-members. Register via the link in our bio to receive a link and password to the event. It’s a BYOB night. We look forward to seeing you!****************** This exhibition is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts & Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Christopher Swain and Hammonds House Members and Donors. Hammonds House Museum is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Artist Engagement Fund. Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. #hammondshousemuseum #hammondshousedigital #gracekisaandmauriceevans #nuafricans #avirtualjoint #BlackArt #VirtualExhibit #BlackArtists #AfricanArt #AfricanArtists #TraScapades #BlackGirlArtGeeks🤓 https://www.instagram.com/p/CAN4crjAY5_/?igshid=lz7grdevwbfa

[viparts]

ARTnews in Brief: Warhol Foundation Research Grants and More from July 23, 2019 – ARTnews Tuesday, July 23, 2019 A New Artist in Residence at Ikon Gallery The Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England, has named Dean Kelland, an artist from the area, as its new artist in residence. Kelland will work with the HMP Grendon, a local prison, for the next three years to create work alongside the incarcerated community that will ultimately be showed in exhibition at HMP Grendon yearly. The residency will also include public programming that will look at art’s relationship to the criminal justice system. Seattle Art Fair Renews Museum Acquisition Fund For the second year in a row, the Seattle Art Fair will offer the city’s Frye Art Museum a $25,000 budget for purchasing works on view in the show. At last year’s fair, the museum used the funds to buy works by Toyin Ojih Odutola and Ellen Lesperance. The fair runs August 1 through 4 this year. Warhol Foundation Names Spring 2019 Research Fellows The Andy Warhol Foundation in New York will award $224,000 in spring research grants this year, with fellows receiving up to $50,000 each. Funds will support research by curators Peter S. Briggs (of the Museum of Texas Tech University), Jaime DeSimone (Portland Museum of Art in Maine); Polly Nordstrand (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College); Catherine Taft (LAXART in Los Angeles); and Olga Viso (El Museo del Barrio). Joel Wachs, the foundation’s president, said in a statement, “Each of these curators will explore important, previously unexamined work by experimental artists and forgotten movements. Their projects will introduce new perspectives and approaches to exhibition making while also influencing the field of contemporary art scholarship.” Monday, July 22, 2019 A $10 M. Gift for the Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts has received a $10 million donation from the C. Jean & Myles McDonough Charitable Foundation, the largest single donation in the institution’s history. In 2015, the foundation gave the museum a $4 million endowment gift for its directorship. Matthias Waschek, WAM’s director, said in a statement that the gift “reflects Jean’s lifelong devotion to the museum, which she describes as her second home. For years, she served as a forward-thinking trustee and as a docent extraordinaire, who introduced thousands of school children to the museum collection.” CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain Bordeaux Gets New Director The CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporarin Bordeaux in France has picked Sandra Patron as its new director. Patron is currently the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sérignan, France, and she will start in her new position in September. She fills a position that has been open for about a year, after Maria Inés Rodriguez, the museum’s former head, was fired, sparking controversy. Zeitz MOCAA Makes Two Curatorial Appointments The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town has hired Storm Janse van Rensburg as senior curator and promoted Tandazani Dhlakama to the position of assistant curator. Janse van Rensburg most recently served as head curator of exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, and he has curated shows elsewhere in the United States, South Africa, and Germany. Dhlakama, who joined Zeitz MOCAA in 2017, has worked as education manager at the museum’s Centre for Art Education. Powered by WPeMatico

[caveartfair]

This Dealer Fought for African-American Artists for Decades—the Market Is Now Paying Attention

David Hammons, Bill T Jones, Philip Mallory Jones at Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, 1983, 1983. Dawoud Bey Rena Bransten Gallery

In the early 1970s, when a graduate student in her early twenties named Linda Goode Bryant was trying to start a gallery in New York City devoted to formally subversive black Conceptual artists, the dealers on 57th Street, for the most part, turned up their noses. She couldn’t even find someone to rent her space.

“When I called realtors to try and find a space on 57th Street, most of the realtors hung up,” Bryant said recently over the phone. “They said, ‘Well, what kind of gallery are you going to have?’ And I said, ‘I have a gallery that shows the work of black artists’—clink. Every time, you know—clink.”

Norman Lewis, Celestial Majesty, 1976. Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.

Now, decades after Bryant opened Just Above Midtown (JAM) in 1974 and helped launch the careers of artists such as David Hammons and Howardena Pindell, visitors to the VIP preview of Frieze New York this morning saw much more than just a booth of JAM artists—Frieze presented an entire multi-booth section devoted to the gallery’s legacy. (The Museum of Modern Art is also getting set to pay tribute to Bryant; on Tuesday, it announced that it will mount a show about JAM in 2022, curated by Thomas J. Lax.)

For the second year in a row, the organizers of Frieze New York asked a curator to put together a section at the fair devoted to a single art dealer—a sort of mini-exhibition that takes place across a few booths at a fair; very much the product of a curator’s vision, but also featuring works for sale. Last year, Matthew Higgs asked a group of galleries to bring work by artists whose careers were boosted early on by Hudson, the uncompromising Lower East Side dealer who watched as his artists got big, even as his gallery stayed small. Case in point: In 2018, Takashi Murakami—who had one of his first U.S. shows at Hudson’s Feature Inc. gallery—was featured in a booth presented by Gagosian, and David Zwirner showed a selection of Raymond Pettibon works.

Rock, 2019. Lorna Simpson Hauser & Wirth

Magician, 2019. Lorna Simpson Hauser & Wirth

For this year’s edition, the fair asked Franklin Sirmans, the director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), to honor Bryant and the artists she championed long before the mainstream art market embraced them. Some of the artists Bryant showed at JAM now have the full machinery of mega-galleries promoting their work all over the world. Norman Lewis will be presented by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, while Lorna Simpson will be presented by global powerhouse gallery Hauser & Wirth—which, according to sales reported at Art Basel in Hong Kong in March, is now selling new works by Simpson for more than $400,000.

In an interview with Bryant and Sirmans a few days before the opening of the fair on Randall’s Island, they discussed how the special section came together, and JAM’s legacy—not just in the world of gallery circuits and art fairs, but in the institutional context, as well. Sirmans said developments such as PAMM’s Fund for African American Art—which has been endowed by Jorge Pérez and the Knight Foundation since 2013—and the increasing prominence of black board members at U.S. museums in general can both be partly attributed to JAM.

Senga Nengudi performing Air Propo at JAM, 1981. Courtesy Senga Nengudi and Lévy Gorvy.

“I think of somebody like A.C. Hudgins, who’s been close to JAM forever—that’s somebody who serves on the board of MoMA now,” said Sirmans, referring to the art collector who has been on the Museum of Modern Art’s board since 2012 and recently joined the Rauschenberg Foundation’s board.

At institutions around the country, Sirmans added, there are now more black collectors and patrons on museum boards—including the one he directs.

“I know for me personally, coming to Miami, it was like—I walked into a room, and there were several people there who looked like me and knew the history of these artists,” he said. But for a long time, that was not the case.

“Why is she here?”

Untitled (Baseball), 1966. Howardena Pindell MCA Chicago

Champ, 1989. David Hammons Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Bryant started JAM as a way to show black Conceptual artists who had no other place to exhibit, and immediately started to cause a stir among her more staid colleagues in the neighborhood. David Hammons had his first New York show in 1975 at JAM, and it proved radically different from what was being shown among the old-guard spaces. Titled “Greasy Bags and Barbecue Bones,” it featured lines of black hair glued to fat-soaked brown bags from a fried chicken joint.

“For the most part, that strip from Madison to Sixth Avenue was like ‘Why did you rent her space?’” Bryant said. “‘And why is she here?’���

At the time, Sirmans was growing up in Harlem, some 50 blocks north, with a father who was becoming a pretty serious art collector, buying work from and supporting the careers of Ed Clark and Al Loving. But Sirmans said Just Above Midtown wasn’t quite on the radar of his art patron father—or his own.

Septehedron 34, 1970. Alvin Loving Jr. Whitney Museum of American Art

“JAM was always like, ‘Whoa, this is something a little too cool for my father,’” Sirmans said. “And I didn’t know it very well. When the gallery opened, I was a kid.”

Sirmans said he first encountered Bryant and JAM’s legacies when he contributed to the catalogue for the exhibition “Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art,” which opened in November 2012 at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. He focused on a JAM artist, Lorraine O’Grady, as well as another, Adrian Piper. He immediately did a deep dive on the space, and began plotting a potential show.

“In the back of my head, at least from that point, was always this idea: ‘Wow, I would love to do a show just about Just Above Midtown,’” he recalled.

Art Is. . . (Dancer in Grass Skirt), , 1983/2009. Lorraine O'Grady Alexander Gray Associates

Bryant has returned to the art world in the last few years after an extended break. After closing JAM in 1986, she went to work for New York City mayor David Dinkins before making documentary films through the Active Citizen Project. In 2008, she started Project EATS, a sustainable farming initiative with farms upstate and on rooftops in New York City. (Project EATS will have a booth alongside Frieze’s JAM tribute section, and 10 percent of the fair’s gross from the sale of works in the special section will go to the nonprofit.)

The art world learns to JAM

Ming Smith, Red Hot Jazz Europe, 1982. Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson.

Then, in 2017, an entire room of “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power”—the widely celebrated show of African-American artists that started at Tate Modern before traveling to the Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges, and The Broad—celebrated Bryant and her gallery. Such institutional recognition may have seemed impossible in the 1970s, when Bryant said she had to hand over a list of black artists to the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and plead with him to acquire works by any of them.

But decades later, the stature of galleries clamoring to represent JAM artists is astounding. In addition to the partnerships between the Norman Lewis estate and Michael Rosenfeld, and between Lorna Simpson and Hauser & Wirth, Senga Nengudi will be presented in the fair jointly by New York’s Thomas Erben Gallery and Sprüth Magers, which has galleries in Berlin, London, and Los Angeles, though Nengudi is also represented by global powerhouse Lévy Gorvy. Garth Greenan is showing Pindell—though it should be noted that earlier this year, the tastemaking London gallery Victoria Miro announced that it will be repping the artist in Europe. Dawoud Bey’s photographs of performative moments and actions by Hammons will be presented by Rena Bransten Gallery and Stephen Daiter Gallery, while O’Grady’s works will be presented by Alexander Gray Associates. And the photographer Ming Smith will be shown by Jenkins Johnson Gallery, which has spaces in Brooklyn and San Francisco.

The Birmingham Project: Imani Richardson and Carolyn Mickel, 2012. Dawoud Bey Rena Bransten Gallery

Other JAM artists not included in the special section at Frieze New York are also making strides in the market. Fred Wilson has long been represented by Pace, one of the world’s most powerful art-dealing outfits. Last year, Susan Inglett Gallery announced that, going forward, it would be representing Maren Hassinger. And later this month, Hammons will have his first show in Los Angeles in 45 years—and it will be at Hauser & Wirth’s block-sized campus in the city’s downtown arts district.

“You’ve got so many young scholars and dealers who are now looking back at history—and changing that history or at least making it a more inclusive history,” Sirmans said.

Dan-Bashi, 2018. Fred Wilson Bronx Museum: Benefit Auction 2018

Untitled (Zadib, Sokoto, Tokolor, Samori, Veneto, Zanzibar, Dhaka, Macao), 2011. Fred Wilson Maccarone

And despite the strides artists shown by JAM have made in the past decades—and the current demand for work by black artists that has seen new records set every auction season—there is still a lack of African-American presence in the art market and in arts institutions. Last year, T Magazine published a story titled “Why Have There Been No Great Black Art Dealers,” noting the relative lack of African-American dealers in Chelsea. One dealer noted in the story that having three black-owned galleries in the same fair in 2017 was still “groundbreaking.” A recent study found that only 4 percent of all curators nationwide were African-American—though that is double the number in 2015, when just 2 percent of all U.S. curators were African-American.

For Bryant, the key is not getting discouraged by such statistics, and taking a leap of faith. In 1974, the artist Romare Bearden told her she would need $50,000 to start a gallery. She didn’t have anything close to that, but opened her space anyway—because she had other assets to go on. Today’s aspiring African-American gallerists should do the same, she said.

“They can say, ‘Maybe I can’t do it this way, but I have X, Y, and Z resources right now,” Bryant said. “And those resources don’t have to always be financial. Because I can tell you, it was a family that created JAM. It wasn’t Ms. Bryant by herself.”

from Artsy News

[my-house-of-fashion]

Florence Knoll Bassett’s mid-century design diplomacy

https://images.theconversation.com/files/257820/original/file-20190207-174873-8lb3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip

Architect and designer Florence Knoll Bassett poses with her dog, Cartree, in this photograph circa 1950. Courtesy Knoll Archive

The look, feel and functionality of the modern American office can be traced back to the work of one woman.

Florence Knoll Bassett, whom Architectural Record called the “single most powerful figure in modern design,” died at 101 on Jan. 25.

In the early 20th century, offices consisted of rows of dark, heavy desks and chairs, with the executive desk angled toward an office door.

Knoll, who believed that a building’s interior was as important as its exterior, introduced an office aesthetic based on function. She interviewed people about how they did their job so they could do it efficiently and comfortably. She then went on to design products like the Model 1500 series – a desk that allowed drawers and cabinets to be added to the frame based on need.

The press coined a term for her “humanist interpretation of European modernism”: the “Knoll Look.” Her clients included CBS, Connecticut General, Alcoa and the University of Michigan, and you’ll see her influence in mid-century period pieces like “Mad Men.”

The U.S. State Department had also noticed Knoll’s growing reputation. As part of a Cold War propaganda effort to align consumer choice with political choice, they used her and her “look” to help establish and promote an American identity abroad.

Reimagining the textile

Knoll attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art, a school that’s considered the birthplace of American modernism, where she was a classmate of future star designers Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and Benjamin Baldwin.

She eventually moved to New York, where she joined the architectural firm of Harrison & Abromovitz in 1941. While living and working in New York, she met Hans Knoll, the owner of a small furniture company, and she joined his firm in 1943. The couple married in 1946; that same year, the H. G. Knoll Company was renamed “Knoll Associates,” and the Knoll Planning Unit, which focused on interior design, was set up. Florence was named head.

“I am not a decorator,” she famously declared in a 1964 New York Times article that credited her for revolutionizing office design as an architect in a predominantly male profession.

Frustrated by the challenge of finding fabrics suitable for use on modern furniture, Knoll initially used men’s suiting fabrics for upholstery and interiors.

Then, in 1947, Knoll Textiles, which worked closely with the Planning Unit, was launched, giving Knoll the opportunity to develop, market and sell printed and woven textiles.

“Textiles were among the most visible and industrially innovative products produced in the U.S. in the 1950s and impacted many aspects of postwar life,” Berry College historian Virginia Troy told me in an interview.

Wartime rationing, which included clothing and textiles, had ended in 1946. As the economy grew, so did the appetite for textiles. Used for upholstery, curtains and carpeting, they were integral to modern architecture: They could unify open floor plans, serve as dividers and separate work areas from living spaces.

Knoll’s unobtrusive textile designs – which tended to feature subtle colors – often included geometric or biomorphic prints and woven fabrics in which vertical and horizontal weaves formed a pattern.

Her textiles were quite different from the brocade and chintz cabbage roses sold in most of the era’s textile showrooms.

Branding and selling America abroad

Around this time, the U.S. government started sponsoring international expositions to introduce the American people and their innovations abroad – what historian Robert Haddow called “Pavilions of Plenty.”

The most famous is probably the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, during which then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev held their “kitchen debate” and argued about the merits of capitalism and communism.

But there were smaller exhibits that preceded the American National Exhibition in Moscow including “How America Lives,” which was held in Frankfurt in 1949, and “America at Home,” an exhibition in Berlin that took place in 1950.

In 1951, the Traveling Exhibition Service – now called the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service – asked Knoll to curate and design an exhibit. She had been recommended by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., the director of the Museum of Modern Art’s Good Design program. It also didn’t hurt that Knoll was known in some government circles. She had designed Secretary of War Henry Stimson’s office, and Knoll Associates had outfitted government buildings in the U.S. and Europe.

Titled “Contemporary American Textiles,” Knoll and the Planning Unit designed an exhibit that, like her office designs, was meant to be experienced as a whole. The self-lit aluminum-framed pavilion included its own drop-in floor, and double-sided wall panels assembled from textiles were hung by straps and braced by cross-wires.

For a 2018 exhibit titled “A Designed Life,” organized by UMBC’s Center for Art, Design & Visual Culture, I recreated Knoll’s original exhibit using photographs and plans from the Archives of American Art.

For the 2018 exhibit ‘A Designed Life,’ the author rebuilt Knoll’s ‘Contemporary American Textiles.’ Dan Meyers, Author provided

Brightly colored panels were used to make rooms within a room. Sight lines formed by triangular shapes and patterns directed visitors through the exhibit, offering a continuously changing viewpoint described by the magazine Interiors as “kaleidoscopic.”

The display showcased over 150 well-designed, mass-produced and readily available fabrics; in the forward of the accompanying catalog, Knoll described the textiles as “designs of beautiful color in all price ranges.” Over 50 of these fabrics were sold under the Knoll Textile label.

The recreated Knoll exhibition allows visitors to participate in the original ‘kaleidoscopic’ experience. Dan Meyers, Author provided

The goal was to sell the idea of capitalism, America and democracy in a post-war Europe that was anxious to rebuild, and it appeared in West German and Austrian schools, museums and trade fairs.

Government records note that the exhibit was included in the 1952 Berlin Cultural Festival and presented in 1953 in Munich and Essen. The U.S. Embassy in France also sponsored its display in a 1954 Parisian trade show dedicated to household management.

To date, there’s no known physical trace of this exhibit.

Was it thrown away or donated to a German school or museum in order to earn some goodwill? Was it discarded because the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, which authorized international public diplomacy, discouraged the presentation of these exhibitions back in the United States?

I have no way of knowing.

I do know, however, that Knoll was proud of this exhibit: When German architect Walter Gropius praised it, she wrote that it was “a great honor.” And she included sketches, plans and photographs of “Contemporary American Textiles” in her papers that she donated to the Archives of American Art.

The exhibit is a reminder that one of the country’s most influential designers was also one of its great ambassadors.

This article discusses an exhibition project "A Designed Life" that received from funding the National Endowment for the Arts and the Coby Foundation. The funding is managed through UMBC. I have not received any personal support from these grants.

Source link

from http://www.houseoffashion.co.za/florence-knoll-bassetts-mid-century-design-diplomacy/

[csrgood]

Bacardi USA Donates $5 Million to Florida International University

FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management has announced a $5 million gift from Bacardi USA dedicated to a new and unique educational program tailored for the spirits industry. The gift will create the Bacardi Center of Excellence, which will position the top-ranked school as a leader in beverage management education and partner with one of the world’s most historic and leading spirits companies.

The Bacardi Center of Excellence will provide student scholarship opportunities, promote community events and provide pathways to entrepreneurship. The Bacardi Beverage Innovation Fund will be used to establish a beverage curriculum and create collaboration opportunities between Bacardi USA and FIU faculty. The Bacardi Scholarship Endowment will offer students financial assistance and establish professorships.

The gift also expands programming at FIU’s CasaCuba. CasaCuba seeks to provide a dynamic home for the discussion and study of Cuban affairs - history, policy and business - and the celebration of Cuban culture. The initiative is bringing together scholars, policymakers, business leaders, students, and the community at large to realize a multidimensional Cuban cultural center and think tank that will be housed in a state-of-the-art facility at FIU’s Modesto Maidique campus. Family-owned Bacardi was originally founded by Don Facundo Bacardí Massó in Santiago de Cuba in 1862. Today, Bacardi Limited is the largest privately held spirits companies in the world and South Florida is home to the regional headquarters for North America.

"At FIU we are proud to partner with Bacardi, a company with deep roots in our community and a legacy of success that goes back to Cuba more than a century ago," said FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg. "This gift will fuel a perfect combination of tradition and forward-looking projects that will benefit our students and the entire community for generations."

"We are proud to strengthen the hospitality and tourism management work at FIU while connecting with the future talent of this industry," said Pete Carr, President of Bacardi North America. "As a company proud of its Cuba origins, we are excited to support CasaCuba and help spotlight the culture that is forever a part of our story."

In addition to the Bacardi Center of Excellence and the Bacardi Beverage Innovation Fund, Bacardi USA’s $5 million gift will also create the Bacardi Classroom, a Bacardi Spirits Management Track, and BacardiTeach, which includes micro-credentialing opportunities for FIU students, Bacardi employees, on-premise partners and branded educational programs for bartenders. The Bacardi Scholarship Endowment will support the previously mentioned initiatives, as well as the Bacardi Scholars, a multiyear blended scholarship program.

“Our partnership with Bacardi USA will positively affect our university, our school’s programs, and the hospitality industry, plus it will greatly enhance the hands-on learning experience for our students,” said Michael Cheng, dean of the Chaplin School. “We are honored to be part of a relationship that will leave a lasting impact.”

“We greatly appreciate Bacardi USA making such a sizeable investment supporting the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management,” said Wayne Chaplin, chief executive officer for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and a member of the family for which the school is named. “Giving back in the communities we serve and advancing educational opportunities for future leaders in the hospitality industry are values that Southern Glazer’s and Bacardi USA have in common. This gift will go a long way to further enrich the world-class beverage education program at the school that my family and Southern Glazer’s have been proud to support.”

With this gift, Bacardi USA becomes a major investor in FIU’s Next Horizon campaign, the university’s effort to raise $750 million in support of student success and research excellence. FIU’s Next Horizon campaign has raised more than $552 million.

About Bacardi Limited: Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, produces and markets internationally recognized spirits and wines. The Bacardi Limited brand portfolio comprises more than 200 brands and labels, including BACARDÍ® rum, GREY GOOSE® vodka, PATRÓN® tequila, DEWAR’S® Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin, MARTINI® vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES® 100% blue agave tequila, and other leading and emerging brands including WILLIAM LAWSON’S® Scotch whisky, ST-GERMAIN® elderflower liqueur, and ERISTOFF® vodka.

Founded more than 158 years ago, in Santiago de Cuba on February 4, 1862, family-owned Bacardi Limited currently employs more than 7,000, operates more than 20 production facilities, including bottling, distilling and manufacturing sites in 11 countries, and sells its brands in more than 170 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited. Visitwww.bacardilimited.com or follow us on Twitter @BacardiLimited or Instagram @BacardiLimited1862.

About the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management:  Florida International University's Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management is distinguished as one of the top hospitality programs in the United States and the world. It is ranked in the top 50 globally, #1 for its online program, #1 in the Southeast region of the U.S., and it is best in value. More than 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students from across the nation and around the globe choose FIU for its outstanding reputation, advantageous campus locations in Miami, expert faculty, rich curriculum and fast-track career opportunities in the international hotel, foodservice and tourism industries. In August 2006 FIU unveiled the first U.S. school of hospitality and tourism in Tianjin, China. The Marriott Tianjin China Program, ranked #1 in China, is FIU's largest international program, with a capacity for up to 1,000 students. For more information about Florida International University's School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, visit http://hospitality.fiu.edu/.

About CasaCuba: CasaCuba at Florida International University is bringing together scholars, policymakers, business leaders, students, and the community at large to realize a multidimensional Cuban cultural center and think tank that facilitates the discussion and study of Cuban affairs - history, policy, business - and the celebration of the Cuban experience. CasaCuba has attracted influential board members, recruited a uniquely qualified team, obtained a prominent land donation from FIU, and received significant philanthropic support, including prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The iconic and state-of-the-art center is projected to break ground in 2021 and open in 2023. CasaCuba will feature galleries for interactive exhibits, as well as a state-of-the-art venue for events, performances, and dynamic programming. For more information: https://casacuba.fiu.edu/

About FIU: Florida International University is Miami’s public research university, focused on student success. According to U.S. News and World Report, FIU has 42 top-50 rankings in the nation among public universities. FIU is a top U.S. research university (R1), with more than $200 million in annual expenditures. FIU ranks 15th in the nation among public universities for patent production, which drives innovation, and is one of the institutions that helps make Florida the top state for higher education. The Next Horizon fundraising campaign is furthering FIU’s commitment to providing students Worlds Ahead opportunities. Today, FIU has two campuses and multiple centers, and supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA, with more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. The university has awarded more than 330,000 degrees to many leaders in South Florida and beyond. For more information about FIU, visit www.fiu.edu.

Media Contact: Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management Ivonne Yee-Amor 305.299.2091                                        iamor@fiu.edu  news.fiu.edu @FIUNews   CasaCuba Michelle Ayala 305.570-2632 mayala@roarmedia.com

source: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/43672-Bacardi-USA-Donates-5-Million-to-Florida-International-University?tracking_source=rss

[zachwhitworth]

The New PSU Art Museum That No One Asked For

Whether Portland State University students like it or not, Neuberger Hall will be undergoing major renovation over the next couple years. The building’s completion is projected for August 2019, leaving its former academic occupants displaced until then. Some students were not aware of this renovation until only recently, even though the project was publicly announced in late Spring 2017. While students are still relatively in the dark regarding the renovation overall, the inclusion of a new art museum in this project has been a seriously overlooked and forgotten detail.

While announcements of Neuberger Hall’s renovation have kept the addition of an art museum in the project as a side note, it is not an addition that should be downplayed. Upon its completion, the museum will occupy 7,500 square feet between the building’s lower two floors, featuring entrances on both the South Park Blocks and SW Broadway. Admission will be free to students and the public.

The museum will be under the name of Jordan Schnitzer, the real-estate developer and art collector who donated $5 million toward the renovation. Schnitzer’s reputation in the regional art world is seemingly second to none, being that he is one of the largest art patrons in the Pacific Northwest and personally holds a collection of over 10,000 fine art prints. If you aren’t familiar with Jordan Schnitzer, you still may have seen the names of his parents, Harold and Arlene Schnitzer. Among the family’s long history of arts patronage, their names mark the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s main building, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall downtown, and the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize offered annually at PSU. Though hailing from a powerful family legacy, Jordan Schnitzer himself has played a significant role in the Northwest’s art culture, having donated or lent artwork to many key art institutions in the area.

If you’ve visited the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, you may also recognize Schnitzer’s name. The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is UO’s flagship art center, placed under the name following the museum’s expansion during the 1990s with Schnitzer’s donation.

PSU will not be the second university with a museum Jordan Schnitzer has his name on either. Washington State University in Pullman currently has its art museum under renovation, re-opening this April as yet another Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Both museum administrations in Eugene and Pullman have been discussing how they can differentiate from one another and navigate separate publicity.

As if that weren’t enough, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported in June 2017 that Schnitzer is “in talks for a fourth Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Corvallis, at Oregon State University”. This means Neuberger Hall will shelter the third of four JSMAs.

Jordan Schnitzer aside, it is difficult to speculate exactly what this new museum will mean for PSU and its students. The museum will be sharing floors with the student service offices on the first floor, also squeezing in with the classrooms and art studios on the second floor. It will be integrated with everyday campus life, not existing as just a solitary entity.

Is this a good thing? Many schools have art museums, so it may only be natural that PSU is trying to follow suit, but students certainly did not ask for one. Though only time will tell, university art museums too often are notorious for ignoring their students.

A university museum is as much an institution as an independent city museum, and its place within a school setting invites another level of bureaucracy. It is an institution inside an institution. This setup positions university museums to function both as their own separately-managed entities and as school-administered organizations.

One of the major necessities for any museum is money to operate, and the approach to funding varies from campus to campus. Some receive much of their money through their respective universities, but many more tend to be primarily reliant on grants and generous patronage. A museum can lose much of its funding if its university faces financial difficulties or has not budgeted properly, leaving them to look to outside communities. A museum would have to operate with grants that require targeting an audience consisting mostly of non-students, and fundraising efforts are directed similarly.

During the June 7, 2017 press conference addressing the Neuberger Hall renovation and JSMA inclusion, the museum’s budget was briefly mentioned. “Included in this gift is an amount to establish a funded endowed museum director position,” said Schnitzer. “We got the university to commit to a budget to operate the museum, so it will be funded and be able to operate”. However, no specifics of that budget were included.

Though the museum and director position were said to be initially paid for, there has been no mention of the long-term sustainability. Even if PSU has agreed to an operational budget, where will that money come from? PSU is showing they have already abandoned the JSMA through this unclear beginning, and as with any campus museum, abandonment by the university always leads to reliance on outside fundraising.

Art museums on college campuses are fundraising machines. Yes, they are spaces for art, but they are also honey to wealthy potential donors. While campus museums sometimes offer free admission, there are normally membership rates identical to city museums. The JSMA in Eugene has its membership ranging from $45 to upwards of $1000, and that’s pretty standard. There are even “patron circles” consisting of the most elite donors who give between $1500 and $5000. While campus museums tend to offer student membership rates that are heavily discounted, it’s the most basic membership. Outside patrons who are willing to pay through the nose are yielded an assortment of perks, of course including an invitation to VIP museum parties.

Because university art museums normally appeal to this crowd, they find themselves competing with city museums. Neuberger Hall is only a short walk from the Portland Art Museum, raising questions of the need for a museum at PSU and how the proximity of the two museums will affect one another. A trend at university museums is a desire for recognition from the larger art world, and it reflects in their programming. A museum could go to great lengths to feature work by majorly popular artists, much like University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery did in 2016 when it held a massive (and controversial) Paul McCarthy sculpture exhibition.

The new JSMA may challenge PAM, and it will certainly create difficulties for existing art spaces at PSU as well. While the JSMA will essentially be replacing Neuberger Hall’s Autzen Gallery, there are still five other galleries on campus. The student-run Littman and White Galleries in Smith Memorial Student Union will have their decades-old roles as PSU’s core contemporary art galleries placed on the line, and the JSMA’s larger presence is poised to threaten their continued existence.

There is always potential for problems to manifest from university museums. Though this can appear as competitiveness with other art spaces, it’s not always obvious. A museum administration might waste money on over-the-top campaigns or artworks, compromise their budget to host bigger shows, or take advantage of student and non-student employees. The institution-within-an-institution setup does not often yield transparency, keeping internal conflicts and controversy behind closed doors. University museums are well-insulated and shielded by both their institutions and their own reputations as cultural centers. That unique positioning also makes them tough to openly criticize, leaving mistreated employees to risk art world alienation and their careers if they opt to call out an irresponsible or corrupt lead curator/director.

The non-transparent nature of these institutions-within-institutions is primed to spark rumors. The lack of details available regarding the new JSMA have left PSU students with no way to expect what exactly they’re getting when Neuberger Hall eventually re-opens. It has led to speculations based on what little information individual faculty have been able to offer when students ask about the situation.

One such speculation that has been in the air came about after the June 7, 2017 press conference. “[The JSMA] is going to provide, I understand, a recurring point of access to the extraordinary Jordan D. Schnitzer print collection,” said Pat Boas, Director of the School of Art + Design. The vague words were interpreted by some as suggesting Schnitzer’s extensive collection would be partially stored in Neuberger Hall, as storing and maintaining artwork is standard at other university museums.

Upon recent inquiry, the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation addressed this concern via email. “The Foundation has no operational connection to the museum and therefore will not be storing work from its private collections at the PSU museum,” stated Catherine Malone, the JSFF Collection Manager. “We look forward to collaborating with PSU staff in the future to bring exhibitions from the JSFF collections to the museum on a prearranged basis. Unfortunately we are unable to provide ‘access’ in a broader sense due to privacy, staffing, and insurance concerns.” This clarification did not answer all the remaining questions about the JSMA, but it is reassuring to have at least one speculation dispelled.

Will the museum be a positive or negative addition to PSU? It is hard to say for sure until Neuberger Hall reopens and the museum kicks off, but the minimal details available leave the whole project tasting bad. When it opens, students and faculty need to hold the museum accountable. Negative signs must be recognized and managed in order for it to actually be beneficial to the people paying to attend this institution.

To avoid the downfalls and messy business of other university museums, the JSMA has to steer clear of emulating them. Hosting VIP parties and exclusive events is a sign of catering to wealthy patrons, allowing those with money to sway the path of the museum’s programming away from student interests. Students need to be a priority, not big-name popular artists or sensationalized exhibitions. Student artwork must be given regular space like the Autzen Gallery formerly provided.

The entire PSU student body overall should never see a new museum fee when receiving tuition bills either. The total costs of attending PSU have increased too much to be adding on yet another expense. Since the university claims to have agreed on an operational budget, it should not require an additional charge to students.

To get it right, this new museum will have to value student-oriented programming above all else. School of Art + Design MFA students should be welcomed to display their work, and undergraduate seniors should at least have access to the museum for their thesis exhibitions. An Art + Design faculty biennial exhibition should be hosted by the JSMA as well, especially considering it is common practice at many other university art museums, and it is important for students to be exposed to their own instructors’ work in that type of formal environment.

These requirements have to supplement other shows and programming, of course. What isn’t student or faculty art should be largely experimental. The unique positioning of university museums within their respective institutions primes them for exhibiting material that is out-of-the-box and might be out-of-place at a standard art museum. These shows must facilitate conversation and make radical efforts to engage with non-art students. As a multi-use art center, the JSMA needs to adopt the mindset and operational values of the student-centered art galleries it aims to replace, or any serious care for contemporary art at PSU will fade away.

This new art museum will bring a big change to PSU when it is eventually unveiled. It is set to integrate itself into campus life, which will either be wholesome or detrimental. The fronting of the project by Jordan Schnitzer raises questions of who and what the museum will really be for, and PSU’s release of very few details sustains the uncertainty and skepticism surrounding it. Establishing a university museum may be an invaluable cultural and educational addition to PSU, but it also invites new levels of institutional politics. If the JSMA travels down the wrong path, the result will be a huge waste of money and space at student expense. It would be unwise to underestimate this museum.

[micaramel]

Artist: Pooh Kaye

Venue: Shoot the Lobster, New York

Exhibition Title: Object Actions 1975-1980

Curated by: Josephine Graf

Date: May 12 – June 18, 2017

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release, video and link available after the jump.

Video:

Pooh Kaye, Table-Walk, 1976, digital transfer from Super 8, 1 min. 34 secs.

  Pooh Kaye, Climb, 1976, digital transfer from Super 8, 1 min. 11 secs.

  Pooh Kaye, Dig, 1975, digital transfer from Super 8, 55 secs.

  Pooh Kaye, Swim, 20177, digital transfer from Super 8, 2 mins. 34 secs.

  Pooh Kaye, Going Out, 1980, digital transfer from Super 8, 2 mins. 35 secs.

  Images:

Images and videos courtesy of Shoot the Lobster, New York

Press Release:

It was 1975 when Pooh Kaye—then twenty-four and recently graduated from Cooper Union—shot Dig in a forest on the outskirts of New York City. The film opens skyward to a treetop clearing, before panning shakily to the ground where, in a patch of leaf-strewn soil, a naked Kaye crouches on her knees with head and elbows tucked beneath her.

From this child’s pose she begins clawing at the dirt, pressing her body headfirst into the ground, ass in the air, as she clears space with her hands. Shot on Super 8 that has been pixilated (the frame rate slowed to achieve stop-motion effect) the film races jerkily forward, exacerbating Kaye’s frantic motion. Displaced dirt gets swept up into a shifting pile of soil on her back that, partially camouflaging her, disintegrates the line demarcating body from ground. Towards the end of the fifty-five second film, Kaye stills. Her breath, registered as slight shifts of vertebrae, remains the only visible movement. In the last seconds she rises suddenly to all fours, staring mischievously into the camera, panting. With her impish gaze she dispels any possible misconceptions as to her intent: this is no communion, she is no earth mother. The image flickers to black.

Dig is the first of a string of Super 8 films that Kaye produced between 1975 and 1980, followed by Climb and Table-Walk (both 1976), Swim (1977), and Going Out (1980). Like Dig, these are all brief and pixilated and capture her body, often naked, performing the task-like movements suggested by their titles. Climb, for example, documents her repeated attempts to shimmy up a structural column in her otherwise bare Canal Street loft, wearing only a grass hula skirt. In Swim she lays across a chair—itself perched on a table—and “doggy paddles”; she performs the titular activity precisely, but in mid-air and going nowhere. Save Dig, all of the works take place in apartments in New York: the city habitat serves as both set and pre-condition to her actions. Pooh Kaye: Object Actions 1975-1980 presents these films together for the first time since 1996, when they were screened at Anthology Film Archives.

The production of these films intersected with a period in which Kaye was working closely with Simone Forti, who in the the 1960s had pioneered what came to be known as postmodern dance. And in several respects, Kaye’s films encapsulate key tenets of dance and performance art of the time: the movements they capture are task-like, pedestrian—rigorously casual, even. Simultaneously choreographies, performances, films, and documents, they speak to the profound interdisciplinarity of this moment in downtown New York. Yet these films also turn from this paradigm, embroidering their pared-down actions with proscribed elements like narrative and theatricality, heightening an absurdity that was perhaps always latent in the dance lineage from which they emerge. In doing so, Kaye introduces a psychological excess that would increasingly come to dominate her work as a choreographer and filmmaker from 1980 onwards, and which one can retrospectively see percolating under the surface of New York’s larger artistic climate in the 1970s.

-Josephine Graf

Pooh Kaye (b. 1951) received her BFA from Cooper Union and her MFA in Dance and Media from Bennington College. Her films have been shown at institutions including the The Kitchen, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston; The Chicago Art Institute; The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; EMPAC Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY; and were featured in the film programming of the 1985 Whitney Biennial. Her dance company, Eccentric Motions, was founded in 1983 and has performed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Lincoln Center, New York; The Kitchen, New York; The Joyce Theater, New York; American Dance Festival, Durham, NC; and Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, MA; among other venues. Kaye is the recipient of six National Endowment dance fellowships, a Guggenheim fellowship for dance, and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships.

Link: Pooh Kaye at Shoot the Lobster

Contemporary Art Daily is produced by Contemporary Art Group, a not-for-profit organization. We rely on our audience to help fund the publication of exhibitions that show up in this RSS feed. Please consider supporting us by making a donation today.

from Contemporary Art Daily http://bit.ly/2rJ3FJv

[madforfashiondude]

High Museum Of Art To Mount Largest Posthumous Exhibition Of Southern Photographer Clarence John Laughlin’s Work

High Museum Of Art To Mount Largest Posthumous Exhibition Of Southern Photographer Clarence John Laughlin’s Work

Career-Spanning Exhibition Will Feature more than 80 prints from the Museum’s unparalleled collection of Laughlin’s photographs

Dubbed the “Father of American Surrealism,” Clarence John Laughlin (1905–1985) was the most important Southern photographer of his time and a singular figure in the development of the American school of photography. This upcoming spring, the High Museum of Art (1280…

[lindsayleigh203]

Local Miami Art Programs Threatened by Cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts

The Perez Art Museum’s program “Brick x Brick” could be impacted due to cuts

By Lindsay Thompson

MIAMI – Students at Edison Senior High School crowd around their hand-built miniature film set, where they will be working on short stop motion film for the next three weeks. The film is focused on exploring different elements of film, and the finished product is aiming to have a positive and uplifting message.

Being from mostly lower-income homes, these students would not have the resources to make this film, or the ability to take classes to learn how to make a stop-motion film if it were not for the “Brick x Brick” after school program.

“Brick x Brick” is an after school program created by the Perez Art Museum for local, at-risk teens in the Miami area.

The program focuses on using the PAMM’s architecture and exhibitions to, “to inspire integrated problem-solving and new skills in the fields of architecture, computer graphics, geography, sociology and specific art interventions,” according to the mission statement.

One look at “Brick x Brick’s” blog shows the benefits that students are getting out of the program; from creating designs with “sun print paper,” to directing stop motion movies, to creating virtual spaces with graphic design programs.

The program stirs creativity and encourages teens to use their abilities to not only express themselves, but to see how these skills can help to better their communities. They are focused on inspiring the next generation to create and move to constantly improve Miami.

But now, the program is under fire and may lose their funding. “Brick x Brick” was a recipient of The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which is being defunded under the Trump Administration.

Without the NEA, the “Brick x Brick” program could be in danger. The Perez Art Museum is not idly waiting for this to happen, and is instead stepping up to defend the importance of the arts, this endowment, and their “Brick x Brick” program. “The NEA has been instrumental in laying the foundation for some of PAMM’s most impactful youth programs,” says Franklin Sirmans, Director of the Perez Art Museum, in an open letter to the art community.

Without the NEA to support the program, the Perez Art Museum is going to have to search for private investors to back them. Otherwise, many young aspiring architects and artists may not realize their potential or their passion for developing and bettering their community through different artistic mediums.

The Perez Art Museum is not alone in this fight to save the endowment and their program. The Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami also recognizes the importance of the National Endowment for the Arts, and is coming forward to show support.

Jill Deupi, the Beaux Arts Director and Chief Curator at the Lowe Art Museum, expressed the importance of the program, even though the Lowe does not currently receive funding from the NEA.

“Though the Lowe is not a recipient from the NEA at present, the Museum fully recognizes, and is fundamentally committed to, the value of the arts in creating a citizenry that is educated, engaged, and tolerant of a plurality of viewpoints,” Deupi says.

Though the threat of losing funding for the arts is looming, the art community in Miami is coming together to show their support for one another, and to stress the importance of the importance of the National Endowment for the Arts, all while waiting to hear of its fate.

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High Museum Of Art To Reunite Romare Bearden’s “Profile” Series For 2019-20 Touring Exhibition

High Museum Of Art To Reunite Romare Bearden’s “Profile” Series For 2019-20 Touring Exhibition

More Than 30 Of Bearden’s Iconic Autobiographical Works Will Be Shown Together For The First Time In Nearly 40 Years

n fall 2019, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, will premiere “Something Over Something Else: Romare Bearden’s Profile Series,” the first exhibition to bring dozens of works from the eminent series together since its debut nearly 40 years ago. Having opened on Sept. 14, 2019and…

[caveartfair]

A contemporary art center in Northern California will deaccession the majority of its collection.

Napa, California’s Rene and Veronica di Rosa Foundation, which runs the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, has voted to cease collecting and has announced plans to sell most of the 1,600 works in its collection.

The center was founded by former Napa Valley winemaker Rene di Rosa in 2000 and is home to the collection of Rene and Veronica di Rosa. The collection primarily consists of artists from Northern California. Several hundred works from the collection will remain at the institution, but the majority will be deaccessioned to fund the museum’s endowment.

Robert Sain, the museum’s director, told ARTnews:

This is a textbook example of completing the transition from a private individual’s extraordinary endeavor to it being a public-facing institution. [. . .] We’ve got a great program to deliver to the community, but in order to keep doing it, the board has made these important decisions.

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Rene de Rosa died in 2010 and the foundation has not acquired a new work since. Now, as an official non-collecting entity, the focus will shift slightly. According to Artforum, Brenda Mixson, president of the foundation’s board of directors, said, “As non-collecting entities, our emphasis will be on commissioning and supporting working artists and expanding the artistic experiences available for visitors.”

According to Artforum, Sain added: “We will continue to collaborate with the artists of the region and present their work, and we look forward to continuing to serve the broadest community possible through thoughtful exhibitions and inclusive education programs that engage people from all walks of life in ideas that matter.”

from Artsy News

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Rush to Secure Artwork as Irma Threatens Florida—and the 9 Other Biggest News Stories This Week

Catch up on the latest art news with our rundown of the 10 stories you need to know this week.

01  Miami artists and museums are bracing for Hurricane Irma.

(Artsy)

Museums and cultural institutions across Miami have announced widespread closures and are watching the weather in advance of Hurricane Irma, which was downgraded to a Category 4 storm Friday morning as forecasters became increasingly certain that it will strike Florida. Artists, too, are bracing for the storm, protecting their artwork as best possible, even if that means tying it to trees. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez announced a raft of school and governmental closures over the coming days. The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is following their lead, closing through Sunday but aiming to open on Monday at 10 a.m. “as long as the property is safe and accessible,” wrote Mark Rosenblum, its chief financial officer, in an email to Artsy. Reached early Wednesday afternoon, artist Adler Guerrier was packing up his studio, and moving works away from the windows. With Irma disrupting his preparations for an upcoming show, Guerrier was prioritizing finished pieces that must be removed from the studio, and finding ways to shelter others. “Most artists I’ve been in contact with are taking this very seriously,” he said.

02 German police have recovered a €2.5 million trove of stolen paintings and drawings by artist Georg Baselitz.

(via Reuters)

Police on Tuesday said they recovered 15 of 19 works stolen between June 2015 and March 2016 by an art courier and a father-and-son team of accomplices. While declining to reveal specifics about the stolen works at the owner’s request, authorities said they recovered the pieces when the accomplices attempted to sell them, raising the suspicions of an insurer who alerted police. All three individuals suspected in the crime have been arrested and charged. The four unaccounted works attributed to Baselitz, one of the most expensive living artists, are worth a combined €130,000, according to Reuters.

03 DNA tests using material from Salvador Dalí’s body, exhumed as part of a high-profile paternity case, proved that a 61-year-old tarot card reader is not the long-lost daughter of the famous painter.

(via The Independent)

The contentious exhuming of artist Salvador Dalí, which occurred nearly three decades after his death in 1989, was mostly for naught. Pilar Abel previously argued that Dalí had a “clandestine love affair” with her mother, Antonia Martínez de Haro, in the 1950s while she was his employee in the artist’s summer home in Port Lligat on the coast of Spain. While Abel grew up in Figueres, the same town as Dalí, she said she never approached him directly. She claimed to have found out about the affair from her mother and grandmother. For her part, Abel claimed she just wanted “the truth to be known.” Yet the DNA test conclusively disproved her claim. “This conclusion comes as no surprise to the Foundation, since at no time has there been any evidence of the veracity of an alleged paternity,” said the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in a statement. The statement also noted that the artist’s remains will “shortly be returned.”

04  The Louvre Abu Dhabi will open on November 11th after a series of construction delays.

(via The Art Newspaper and Artforum)

Planning for the museum, designed by architect Jean Nouvel,  kicked off a decade ago with the signing of a €10 billion contract with the Louvre. The Abu Dhabi museum’s collection includes 600 to 700 diverse works, half on long-term loan from 13 French museums and half from the national collection of Abu Dhabi. Hanging of the collection began on Monday, with the first delivery of art including statues on loan from the Louvre, a commission by Louis XIV for Versailles, and Abu Dhabi’s Roman column collection, among others. Museum director Manuel Rabaté has insisted that the arduous preparation will be completed in the allotted two months prior to opening festivities, which begin November 11th and continue through the 15th. Although the museum will not be completely up and running at that time, museum directors and diplomats from around the world are planning to attend - among them French President Emmanuel Macron. The first exhibition: “From One Louvre To Another”—on the history of Paris’s Louvre—is set to open December 22nd.

05  Artist Sam Durant’s controversial sculpture Scaffold will be buried, not burned as previously announced.

(via the New York Times)

On Friday, a Dakota representative announced that the 51,000-pound wooden sculpture will be buried in an undisclosed location in Minnesota at an undecided future date. The decision marks the denouement of a months-long saga that began when Scaffold attracted protests earlier this summer. The piece evokes the gallows where 38 Dakota men were hung in 1862, prompting charges from indigenous groups that it was insensitive. Durant and the Walker Art Center’s leadership quickly turned the fate of the piece over to the Dakota people in response to the outcry. The spiritual elder tasked with deciding the fate of the wood rejected early calls to burn the piece because fire carries spiritual connotations in the Dakota tradition. Others expressed hope that the burial will bring lasting resolution. “What to do since has been a dilemma, but we wanted to do something positive with this negative,” Tom LaBlanc of the Sisseton-Wahpeton band of Dakota, told the Times.

06  The National Endowment for the Humanities has pledged $1 million in emergency grants for preservation and restoration of cultural organizations following Hurricane Harvey.

(via the National Endowment for the Humanities)

Jon Parrish Peede, acting chairman of The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), announced the funds last Friday. The federal agency has partnered with Humanities Texas and Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in the “coordinated federal-state response.” The NEH has reported that it will provide the first $250,000 to the two state humanities councils to allocate according to local needs assessments. The initial sum will serve libraries, museums, colleges, and universities, among other establishments; however, institutions within the designated disaster zones may also apply for emergency grants of up to $30,000 from September 8th to December 31st. In addition, the NEH has promised to fund the outreach and damage assessment of both the Texas Cultural Emergency Response Alliance and the Heritage Emergency National Task Force.

07  Art Basel in Miami Beach has released the list of exhibitors for its 16th edition.

(via Art Basel in Miami Beach)

The list includes 268 galleries from 32 countries, just a hair under last year’s headcount. They’ll be spread out over a roomier layout, thanks to a renovation of the Miami Beach Convention Center, which, on completion, is set to provide 10 percent more space, for “larger booths, wider aisles and enhanced lounging and dining options,” according to the fair. There are 20 newcomers to the fair, nine from North and South America and 11 from Europe and Asia. The fair will open to VIPs on December 6th and run through December 10th.

08 As the Berkshire Museum moves forward with its controversial deaccessioning plan, Sotheby’s has released a detailed list of estimates for the works that will be auctioned.

(via ARTnews)

Since being announced last month, the sale of works by the Berkshire Museum has provoked continuous criticism. The expected $50 million in proceeds from the sale will go to fund operating expenses, which museum groups have said violates industry guidelines. Sotheby’s released a detailed breakdown of the estimates on Wednesday. Star lots include Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop (1950), expected to go for between $20 and $30 million, and the artist’s Blacksmith’s Boy – Heel and Toe (1940), estimated to fetch between $7 and $10 million. Francis Picabia’s Force Comique (1914) might also break the seven-figure mark, with a high estimate of $1,200,000. Two works by Alexander Calder were listed among the sale, but did not include estimates. Despite criticism from museum groups, it remains to be seen if the publicity will have an impact on auction totals.

09 A magazine publisher sued the U.S. Department of Corrections after a prison censor confiscated a recent issue for including an image of Peter Paul Rubens’s Adam and Eve.

(via artnet News)

Prison censors rejected a copy of The Humanist magazine mailed to a prisoner in Virginia, deeming the scantily-clad Adam and Eve in the 17th-century painting a violation of policies around nudity. In response, a Charlottesville attorney sued the DOC on behalf of the magazine publisher. “The right to read and learn is covered by the First Amendment, as is the right to communicate with others,” lawyer Jeffrey E. Fogel told artnet News. The department’s ban on nudity allows exceptions for “medical, educational, or anthropological content,” categories that Fogel argues encompass the Rubens work. He also noted that he has filed six similar suits against the DOC and won in every case.

10 A mural painted by Keith Haring for a Paris hospital, faced with destruction in 2011, has been restored.

(via the New York Times)

The newly refurbished work, Tower (1987), was unveiled Thursday following several years of work by William Shank and Antonio Rava (the duo previously restored a Haring mural in Pisa, Italy). Located on the exterior of an 88.5-foot stairwell, the mural had sustained decades of significant wear and tear. Conservators were initially concerned that they might be unable to save Tower, due the severity of the damage. But a fundraising campaign organized by gallerist Jerome de Noirmont and the Keith Haring Foundation managed to pull together the money necessary to save the artwork. This marks the end of the first phase of renovation at the Necker-Enfants Malades, the city’s primary pediatric hospital. Phase two will see a 97,000-square-foot garden planted around the base of the mural.

—Artsy Editors

Cover Image: Courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

from Artsy News