PUBLIC OPENING RECEPTION/ STUDENT WELCOME BACK PARTY:
Sept. 8th – 7-10 p.m.
Local Bands Playing on Plaza – 8-10 p.m.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS:
A number of public events including lectures, book signing, workshops and tours will take place throughout the run of the exhibition. Please see information below and sign-up for the ASU Art Museum e-nnouncement mailing list.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE:
Available October 28th, 2006
NEW AMERICAN CITY: ARTISTS LOOK FORWARD
Few models exist for the future of metropolitan Phoenix. According to urban planners, geographers, community leaders, economists and activists, what distinguishes the Phoenix area from other cities is its youth, astronomical growth, geographic limitations, desert environment and its active arts community.
The city has a growing cultural infrastructure with artists living and working throughout the city. The downtown art scene draws thousands of visitors each month in addition to weekly art walks at the Scottsdale galleries, and contemporary art exhibitions open regularly at non-profit spaces across the Valley. Artists are playing an active role in envisioning the city’s future, developing clusters of studios, co-ops and galleries and revitalizing neighborhoods in the process.
New American City: Artists Look Forward explores the role of artists and the art being produced in this context. What is the role of art and visual culture in the city’s current development, and in its future? Installed in four galleries, the nymphaeum and throughout the museum space for a total of over 9,500 square feet, the exhibition features twenty-three artists who live and work in Maricopa County. Their work demonstrates a marked level of experimentation and investigation, exploring media, processes and styles to comment on the here and now. The artists re-imagine the possibilities of art as we re-imagine our city.
ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION:
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT:
Our goal is for New American City: Artists Look Forward to become a platform for conversations about the possibilities and opportunities for the integration of art in the development of Phoenix. After meeting with art, design, business and political leaders across the metropolitan area, it has become clear that our programs need to focus on this issue. Our community discussions and formal partnerships with community organizations will guide the development of programs to benefit and engage a broad community.
THE ART AND ARTISTS SELECTION PROCESS:
The process of selecting the art involved multiple steps to facilitate an open, respectful dialog that will continue beyond the exhibition. In addition to consulting with art and design professionals on recommendations, an open call was made to locate unknown and under-represented artists who are living and working in Maricopa County. The curators reviewed over one hundred and fifty submissions, selecting more than eighty artists for studio visits. The art in the exhibition matches the liveliness and complexity of the city. It ranges from painting and photography to installations of land art and art with new technologies. All of the work reflects upon the city, whether personal impressions of living and working here, or broader questions and aspirations for our future.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE:
A 56-page, color catalogue documenting the art in the exhibition and the conversations generated by its presentation with essays by the curators, artist Kate Twist and geographer Patricia Gober. In order to photo document the installations in the exhibition, the catalogue will first be available at a Book Launch Event on October 28. See information below.
TUESDAY NIGHT LECTURE SERIES:
September 26, 2006, 7:30pm
Location: TBA
Illuminating the Mirror – Reflections on WaterFire by Barnaby Evans, artist, Providence, Rhode Island
Introduction and response by Dean Wellington Reiter, ASU College of Design
Sponsored by the ASU College of Design
January 23, 2007, 7:30pm
Location: ASU Art Museum
Lecture by Mark Robbins, dean, School of Architecture, Syracuse University, New York
Introduction by Dr. Renata Hejduk, professor of Architecture, ASU College of Design
Supported by the Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation
October 17, 2006, 7:30pm
Location: ASU Art Museum
Lecture by Matthew Coolidge, Founder/Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Los Angeles
Supported by the Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation
For more complete details on all programs, visit the New American City Public Programs
SATURDAY BRUNCH SERIES:
October 28, 2006, 10:30am
Location: ASU Art Museum
The New American City Book Launch with Dr. Patricia Gober, professor and co-director of the Decision Center for a Desert City, ASU
Other recent publications on Phoenix and their authors will be available, including fiction writer Jon Talton.
January 13, 2007, 10:30am
Location: ASU Art Museum
Why is Creative Capital in Arizona? by Ruby Lerner, executive director of Creative Capital, Inc., with grant recipients Liz Cohen, John Leaños, Beverly McIver and Mark Newport.
Supported by the Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation
January 27, 2007, 10:30am
Location: ASU Art Museum
Exhibition Closing/Dialog Just Beginning by Dr. Nan Ellin, Director, Urban & Metropolitan Studies Program, School of Public Affairs.
For more complete details on all programs, visit the New American City Public Programs.
FRIDAY NOON LUNCHTIME SERIES:
September 22, 12noon
Location: Eye Lounge Gallery, Phoenix
Kate Timmerman
September 29, 12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Matt Moore, Carrie Marill
October 6, 12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Sherrie Medina, Liza Cohen Hita, Ernesto Fonseca
October 20, 11:30am
Location: Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL), Security Building, 234 N. Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Phoenix
Wellington Reiter
November 17, 12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Mayme Kratz, Dan Britton and Randy Slack
December 1, 12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
David Foster
December 8, 12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Greg Esser
December 15, 12noon
Location: ASU Art Museum
Renata Hejduk
For more complete details on all programs, visit the New American City Public Programs.
SELECTED INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS:
- City tours that explore a diverse range of urban art spaces with an onboard expert guest lecturer, such as visits to artist-generated developments and studio/warehouse districts;
- Lectures by national and local leaders in urban issues and the arts with local respondents;
- Networking and professional programs to benefit artists and design professionals living in the Valley, drawing upon the list of 150 original submitting artists and partnerships to market such opportunities;
- Art InterAct program, an innovative video project with high schools from across the Valley will introduce students to contemporary art and artists, issues of their city, and to opportunities for personal achievement at the university;
- 56-page, color catalogue documenting the art in the exhibition and the conversations generated by its presentation with essays by the curators, artist Kate Twist and geographer Patricia Gober
For more complete details on all programs, visit the New American City Public Programs.
SUPPORT:
Organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum and is made possible in part through an investment by Najafi Companies.
Investment support also provided by an anonymous donation, Maurice R. and Meta G. Gross Foundation, Hillstone Restaurant Group, Wespac Construction, Michael Levine, Inc., Arizona Commission on the Arts, Lori and Howard Hirsch, Treg Bradley, Libby Decker and T.J. Decker, Cindy Dach and Greg Esser, The Katherine K. Herberger College of the Arts Dean’s Investment Fund, and Friends of the ASU Art Museum. Additional financial support provided by Beth and Pat Moroney, Robin and Bill Charles, Sharon and Paul Fannin, Ellyce and Eddie Shea, and Tana and Ridge Smidt.
In kind support provided by The Lavidge Company, Eddie Shea Design, Item Magazine, ASU College of Design, Changing Hands Bookstore, Interlingua and the ASU College of Law, Art Advocacy Program and Center for Law, Leadership and Management.
ASU ART MUSEUM’S MISSION AND VISION:
Our vision for the ASU Art Museum is to be recognized as a global force in exploring art in contemporary society. Founded in 1951, the ASU Art Museum is one of the region’s oldest and most respected museums. With over 12,000 objects in the collection and a schedule of twenty exhibitions per year, the Museum provides a dynamic arena for the discovery of art, artists, and ideas to educate and engage the global community. It collects, preserves, interprets and exhibits works of contemporary art, especially the work of artists from the United States and Latin America. Our programs reach adult and youth populations across demographics, and stress education and the communal role of the arts in building bridges and understanding among peoples.
ASU ART MUSEUM PRESENTATION:
Co-curated by Heather Lineberry and John D. Spiak, New American City: Artists Look Forwardwill be installed in the Arizona State University Art Museum’s Nelson Fine Arts Center location.
DURATION:
New American City: Artists Look Forward is open at the ASU Art Museum:
September 9, 2006 through January 27, 2007
Tuesdays, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m;
Wednesdays – Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m;
Sunday and Monday – closed.
Image credit: