Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Fruits of Summer

by Joe Fusaro | Aug 3, 2011

Summer offers fantastic opportunities for educators of all kinds to catch interesting group shows and special exhibitions that are happening before we start up the engines again in the fall. …

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Meet Me at the Met

by Michelle Millar Fisher | Aug 3, 2011

Open Enrollment | Meet Me at the Met

by Michelle Millar Fisher | Aug 3, 2011

In homage to the recently-opened summer indie movie Horrible Bosses, I thought I’d dedicate this, my first column since the close of the spring semester, to that annual rite of …

Community Arts Training Institute: A Conversation with Roseann Weiss

by Francesca Wilmott | Aug 1, 2011

Community Arts Training Institute: A Conversation with Roseann Weiss

by Francesca Wilmott | Aug 1, 2011

During my time as a guest blogger for Art21, I’ve examined various initiatives that have transformed the cultural landscape of St. Louis. Despite the city’s dwindling population, the arts are …

Creative Rebuild: Theaster Gates in Hyde Park, St. Louis

by Francesca Wilmott | Aug 1, 2011

Creative Rebuild: Theaster Gates in Hyde Park, St. Louis

by Francesca Wilmott | Aug 1, 2011

Artist Theaster Gates likes systems. And what he likes more than a system itself is knowing how to leverage it. Though formally trained in handling clay, Gates also uses the …

Of Monuments and Memorials: St. Louis Modernism and Juan William Chávez’s Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary

by Francesca Wilmott | Jul 26, 2011

Of Monuments and Memorials: St. Louis Modernism and Juan William Chávez’s Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary

by Francesca Wilmott | Jul 26, 2011

Notable attention has turned to what many consider the golden age of modern St. Louis—the 1950s—when the city reached its highest population and garnered international attention for its architectural contributions. …

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice with Sanford Biggers

by Thom Donovan | Jul 21, 2011

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice with Sanford Biggers

by Thom Donovan | Jul 21, 2011

Images from popular culture abound in Sanford Biggers’s work, and particularly from hip-hop, East Asian Buddhism, and the Antebellum and Afro-Futurist African-American. Two images that have become particularly emblematic for …

Testing the Limits: Cultural Activism in the Gateway City

by Francesca Wilmott | Jul 19, 2011

Testing the Limits: Cultural Activism in the Gateway City

by Francesca Wilmott | Jul 19, 2011

When the 2010 U.S. Census figures were released in February of this year, many in St. Louis were alarmed. According to census data, the city’s population declined eight percent in …

Activist Archiving with Mona Jimenez

by Beth Capper | Jul 19, 2011

Activist Archiving with Mona Jimenez

by Beth Capper | Jul 19, 2011

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qh6jRzjmcY] The oft-repeated cliche about the early video movement in the United States is that it was driven by groups of people who came together with a collective desire to …

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Cengiz Tekin

by Elizabeth Wolfson | Jul 12, 2011

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Cengiz Tekin

by Elizabeth Wolfson | Jul 12, 2011

If Şener Özmen (the subject of last month’s Turkish and Other Delights post) is the godfather of Diyarbakır’s contemporary art community, then his long-time collaborateur, artist Cengiz Tekin, is its …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching About Poverty and Homelessness

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 29, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching About Poverty and Homelessness

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 29, 2011

This past Saturday, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow wrote an op-ed piece called Them That’s Not Shall Lose which highlighted, as James Baldwin put it, how expensive it …

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice with Carlos Motta

by Thom Donovan | Jun 17, 2011

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice with Carlos Motta

by Thom Donovan | Jun 17, 2011

While Carlos Motta’s work exists through a number of different media, I think of it primarily as putting forth a series of socially and politically committed archives. These archives are …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Extended Play

Using Art21 Video Exclusives

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 15, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Extended Play

Using Art21 Video Exclusives

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 15, 2011

If you follow the Art21 blog and work with Art21 materials you know full well there are plenty of opportunities to see and share a huge variety of video about …

EVERYTHING TRANSFORMS

by Din Heagney | Jun 15, 2011

EVERYTHING TRANSFORMS

by Din Heagney | Jun 15, 2011

I first met Maya Kramer at a dinner party she was hosting at her home in one of the tree-lined compounds of the former French Concession in Shanghai. But it …

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Şener Özmen

by Elizabeth Wolfson | Jun 14, 2011

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Şener Özmen

by Elizabeth Wolfson | Jun 14, 2011

While preparing to travel to Diyarbakır, the largest city in southeastern Turkey, I discovered that telling Turkish people who live outside of that region that you’re going to visit Diyarbakır …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 William Kentridge: Anything is Possible

Reflecting on Teaching with William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 8, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 William Kentridge: Anything is Possible

Reflecting on Teaching with William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 8, 2011

This past Saturday I sat down with a small group of wonderful teachers at the Jacob Burns Film Center’s Media Arts Lab for the second part of a two-part workshop …

Problematic: Answering Questions with Questions

A Problematic Introduction

by Lindsay Lawson | Jun 7, 2011

Problematic: Answering Questions with Questions

A Problematic Introduction

by Lindsay Lawson | Jun 7, 2011

It’s complicated. Last year, over 3 million Facebook users willingly adopted this dubious relationship status even after the drop-down menu expanded to accommodate eleven statuses, including newer options like civil …

Flash Points

EMPATHY VIRUS

by Din Heagney | Jun 6, 2011

Flash Points

EMPATHY VIRUS

by Din Heagney | Jun 6, 2011

“People kept telling me art can’t change the world; so I stopped calling what I do art,” says Carl Scrase, a young Australian artist who shot to local fame with his …

Flash Points

PUBLIC AMNESIA

by Din Heagney | Jun 2, 2011

Flash Points

PUBLIC AMNESIA

by Din Heagney | Jun 2, 2011

History isn’t was. History is. No matter how much we wipe our feet at the front door, we track history through the house. Leaving its muddy footprints all over the …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Installation in Installments

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 1, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Installation in Installments

by Joe Fusaro | Jun 1, 2011

Each year the graduates and upperclassmen I work with look forward to their final project as a way of leaving a stamp on the school itself. Students are asked to …

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Gregory Sholette

by Georgia Kotretsos | May 27, 2011

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Gregory Sholette

by Georgia Kotretsos | May 27, 2011

Gregory Sholette is a New York-based artist, writer, and founding member of Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D: 1980-1988), and REPOhistory (1989-2000). A graduate of The Cooper Union (BFA 1979), The University …

The Space Outside Your Head: Some Concluding Thoughts

by Amy Whitaker | May 24, 2011

The Space Outside Your Head: Some Concluding Thoughts

by Amy Whitaker | May 24, 2011

Over the course of writing this blog, I have learned that many of my posts are about art and economics. More broadly, they are about creativity and friendship, and how …

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions (for Contemporary Practice) with Not An Alternative

by Thom Donovan | May 19, 2011

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions (for Contemporary Practice) with Not An Alternative

by Thom Donovan | May 19, 2011

I encountered the art group Not An Alternative for the first time about a month ago in Corona, Queens, where Tania Bruguera (featured last month in 5 Questions) had assembled …

Adam Smith As an Artist

by Amy Whitaker | May 19, 2011

Adam Smith As an Artist

by Amy Whitaker | May 19, 2011

Part 2 of what art and economics have to do with each other. . . . A few years ago I came across a biographical sketch of Adam Smith, founding …

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Juozas Cernius

by Georgia Kotretsos | May 17, 2011

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Juozas Cernius

by Georgia Kotretsos | May 17, 2011

Juozas Cernius is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. He has received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004) and his BFA from Concordia …

The Friends and Family Plan: Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse

by Amy Whitaker | May 17, 2011

The Friends and Family Plan: Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse

by Amy Whitaker | May 17, 2011

This post is about a show that’s up at Craig F. Starr Gallery until May 27—a collection of artworks by Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse. This isn’t a review because …

Better Not Bigger: What’s Next for Art Museums?

by Amy Whitaker | May 16, 2011

Better Not Bigger: What’s Next for Art Museums?

by Amy Whitaker | May 16, 2011

In the next two weeks, museum leaders gather in two places—art curators in New York May 15-17 and everyone in Houston May 22-25—to contemplate the future of the field. How …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Ending in Catharsis, or A New Original

by Joe Fusaro | May 11, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Ending in Catharsis, or A New Original

by Joe Fusaro | May 11, 2011

Work by Laura Siragusa, Nyack High School, New York Spring is in the air. The end of the school year is upon us, or for those who bob and weave …

Monday Painter/Sunday Banker

by Amy Whitaker | May 10, 2011

Monday Painter/Sunday Banker

by Amy Whitaker | May 10, 2011

I am so pleased to be a new guest blogger at Art21. We were encouraged to introduce ourselves in our first blog post, and so I thought I would write …

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Aslı Çavuşoğlu

by Elizabeth Wolfson | May 10, 2011

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Aslı Çavuşoğlu

by Elizabeth Wolfson | May 10, 2011

A small black and white newspaper photograph hangs on the wall of Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s studio, located in an old warehouse in Istanbul’s Karaköy district. The photograph is crowd shot, taken …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art: The First Three Years

by Joe Fusaro | May 4, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art: The First Three Years

by Joe Fusaro | May 4, 2011

This week Teaching with Contemporary Art here on the blog turns 3. Frankly, I can’t believe that I’ve been writing this column for three years. At the same time, it …

Center Field: Art in the Middle with Bad at Sports.

Center Field | Visons for Chicago: Public Art with Organizer Daniel Tucker

by Abigail Satinsky | Apr 26, 2011

Center Field: Art in the Middle with Bad at Sports.

Center Field | Visons for Chicago: Public Art with Organizer Daniel Tucker

by Abigail Satinsky | Apr 26, 2011

I’ve known Daniel Tucker for about five years now and I’ve always thought of him as a true Chicago artist, somewhere in between artist, organizer, writer, and administrator and always …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Rochelle Feinstein

by Joe Fusaro | Apr 20, 2011

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Rochelle Feinstein

by Joe Fusaro | Apr 20, 2011

This week’s post should really be titled “Rochelle Feinstein Teaching Me” but I’m trying to be consistent… Prior to May 1st, please treat yourself and check out The Estate of …

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Love Everyone’s Futures

by Michelle Millar Fisher | Apr 20, 2011

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Love Everyone’s Futures

by Michelle Millar Fisher | Apr 20, 2011

The rain finally stopped this past Sunday so that 1001 chairs (or at least a good few hundred of them) could be set up outside Chinese embassies across the globe …

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | In Poor Taste,* Lunch with Jani Leinonen

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Apr 20, 2011

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | In Poor Taste,* Lunch with Jani Leinonen

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Apr 20, 2011

I was waiting in line to buy a movie ticket when I heard the news: Jani Leinonen had been incarcerated. Conversations with my Finnish friends in the previous weeks had …