Artists + Institutions, Common ground, mak center center for art and architecture, los angeles. 2012
ARTISTS + INSTITUTIONS: Common Ground is a live public participatory event at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House on the evening of October 4, 2012 from 7-9 PM. All communities of Los Angeles are invited to join in table discussions hosted by special guest artists and representatives of art institutions of Los Angeles.
PRESS RELEASE:
Event:
The curated tables are first come first served with open seating for public participation and residents of Los Angeles are welcome to join in and switch tables throughout the event. A total of 6 large round banquet tables will be hosted by special guests: Micol Hebron (LA Art Girls), Ashley Hunt (Artist), Bill Kelly Jr. (Independent Curator), Aandrea Stang (formerly of MOCA), Sue Bell Yank (The Hammer) and Philip Yenawine (ArtMatters). In addition, each table will be co-hosted by a member of the media and press, as well as a member of notch, an ensemble collective that works with hospitality and culinary interventions, offering refreshing intermissions shifting points of view between discussion prompts.
Twenty questions, authored by leading contemporary curators, artists and institutional art administrators, will be served at each table, and the general public will be asked to join in the dialogue. These questions act as a conversational prompt, are open for debate, and offer insight and rigorous inquiry into the ethics and practices of curatorial programming and public participation in relation to artists and institutions. The event promises an evening of critical discussion and lively debate, comfortably hosted within the historic rooms and gardens of the Schindler House.
Artists + Institutions: Common Ground is a public program offering an intellectual environment to explore the current state of Los Angeles contemporary artists and artist-run initiatives, graduate art school programs, and contemporary art museums, as well as educational focused public programming.
Background:
With increasing international visibility, Los Angeles has become a vibrant collaborative environment for art and culture. However, informal discussion about the dynamics between artists and institutions often occurs on the margins of public events amongst the public, critics, and strangers. The Artists + Institutions Summer 2012 salon series was a response to recent interest in public visibility and questions of ethics around contemporary art museum programming.
The series concludes with a question posed to the public: What Is The Common Ground For Artists And Institutions? The purpose of the public program is to continue the debate on the varied definitions and boundaries of power dynamics in the cultural production in Los Angeles with invited participants representing academic, institutional and independent creative positions and interests.
