Northern Lights presents Experimenting with Art in Public Places :: October 10-11, 2008 :: Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN.

Experimenting with Art in Public Places is a symposium free and open to the public, presented by Northern Lights with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, which will explore ways to support and present experimental art practices in public places, including in the virtual realm, outside the traditional white cubes and black boxes of cultural institutions. It brings together local and out-of-town artists, curators, producers, and presenters for a collaborative conversation about the public sphere as a site for works of art and art practices that spark the imagination but also challenge perceptions - artistic, cultural, social, political.

REGISTER FOR FREE SYMPOSIUM: Experimenting with Art in Public Places takes place at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. To register and reserve a space, email aov [at] northern.lights.mn.

KEYNOTE: SuttonBeresCuller
October 10, MCAD Auditorium
6:30 pm reception
7:00 pm keynote

SuttonBeresCuller (John Sutton, Ben Beres, Zac Culler), a 3-person collaborative from Seattle will give a keynote talk about their experimental art practice in the public sphere. SuttonBeresCuller’s work deals in the realms of experimentation and discovery through site-specific installation, performance and sculpture. SuttonBeresCuller’s most recent project is Mini-Mart City Park. With Mini-Mart City Park, SuttonBeresCuller is returning a blighted piece of ubiquitous commercial architecture to nature and the public sphere by transforming a brownfield, the site of the former Perovich Bros. Gas Station, into a public park and botanical conservatory in the Georgetown neighborhood in south Seattle. According to the artists, “It is our goal to create a new model for dealing with brownfields across our country and potentially our globe. This project has been envisioned as a prototype for what we hope will become an eco-arts franchise.”

EXPERIMENTS WITH ART IN PUBLIC PLACES SYMPOSIUM
October 11 - MCAD Student Center, 9:30 am - 5:00 pm

9:30 am - ART(ISTS) ON THE VERGE

Moderator: Kristin Markholm, Director, MCAD Gallery Northern Lights recently awarded grants to 6 emerging artists “working experimentally at the intersection of art and technology, with a focus on practices that are social, collaborative and/or participatory.” In part, Experimenting with Art in Public Places is an opportunity for these artists to “boot up” their practice, and, Pecha Kucha style, Avye Alexandres, Kevin Obsatz, Andrea Steudel, Pramila Vasudevan, and Krista Kelley Walsh will each have 6 minutes - 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide - to present their projects.

10:15 am - JULIE LAZAR, A PERSONAL HISTORY AND FUTURE OF EXPERIMENTAL ART PRACTICE

Julie Lazar is a trail blazer in the support and presentation of experimental art. She was a founding Curator then Director of Experimental Programs for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1981-2000). In New York, Lazar led development programs at PS 1 Center for Contemporary Art, The Hudson River Museum, Rockefeller University, The Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. As a curator, Lazar specializes in commissioning new art works in all media.

11:30 am - PANEL: PLAYING IN PUBLIC

Moderator: Jack Becker, Executive Director, Forecast Public Art. As more artists begin to explore and create for the public realm, the definition of public art expands. Today it can be almost anything and anywhere. There’s no job description, no book of rules. What constitutes public art seems limited only by the artist’s imagination. While it’s not all fun and games, the freedoms afforded artists make it attractive and compelling. This panel will look at a range of projects that have played with our expectations for art in public spaces. With R. Luke DuBois, Wing Young Huie, Piotr Szyhalski, Marcus Young.

1:30 - PANEL: TECHNOLOGIES OF ENGAGEMENT

Moderator: Carl DiSalvo, Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. New technologies have clearly enabled new means of engagement with an audience, whether through networks of delivery or interactive and participatory installations or both. Technologies does not always mean “Computers! or Internet! or iPhone!”, however, and this panel will explore a more nuanced idea of the technologies of engagement, from the recent past into the near future. With Chuck Olsen, John Schott, Scott Stulen, Diane Willow.

3:00 - PANEL: BUILDING AN AUDIENCE / COMMUNITY FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL

Moderator: Diane Mullin is Associate Curator at the Weisman Art Museum If “build it and they will come” was part of the first generation of technology-enabled community-building projects, experience has shown that building a true community for experimental public art that goes beyond the memorial or the plop is not an easy matter. This panel will explore successful strategies for building a committed audience for experimental art practice over the long term. With Tom Borrup, Doryun Chong, Carl DiSalvo, Doug Geers, Peter Haakon Thompson.

7:00 pm - late - PERFORMANCE: hearSIGHTED AT THE WEISMAN ART MUSEUM

hearSIGHTED is an evening of music, dancing, food and drink at the Weisman Art Museum, presented in celebration of the exhibition Hindsight is Always 20/20 by R. Luke DuBois. See the exhibition and hear performances by University of Minnesota electronic music students in the galleries. Catch a special musical performance by DuBois at 9:30 p.m. Following the performance, kick up your heels to electronic grooves spun by Minneapolis-based DJ ETones.

REGISTER: Experimenting with Art in Public Places is free, but seating is limited for the symposium, which takes place at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. To register and reserve a space, email aov [at] northern.lights.mn.

SUPPORT: Experimenting with Art in Public Places is a public progoram presented by Northern Lights October 10-11, 2008, with the support of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Jerome Foundation, through its support of the Art(ists) On the Verge grant program. Northern Lights is supported by the McKnight Foundation.