It’s common to think of art and design as tools used to express personality or individual taste but, as demonstrated by the artist duo Haas & Hahn in Rio de Janeiro’s infamous favelas, the two can be used to execute large scale, site-specific projects that serve as exercises in community building…
Participation and responsibility builds better communities, I think this is what Jane Jacobs championed. Great last paragraph.
(Source: epsteinian)
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Sabrina Tavernise writing for the New York Times on the lively discussion around altering building restrictions in Washington D.C.
I want to know this old man.
Review of Carrie Hott’s Understanding a Whale Fall/Whale Watch at Adobe Books Backroom Gallery (San Francisco) for ArtSlant.com hot. off. the. press.
Exhibition dates: September 30-November 6, 2010
Curated by: Devon Bella
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) today announced a collaboration with the City of Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs, toward the day-to-day preservation of the Watts Towers in a one-year agreement. LACMA will provide staff-time and expertise to identify repairs to the Towers, preserving the unique outdoor public landmark, and the City will provide $150,000 in funds towards this effort.
LACMA will reach out to other local institutions including the Getty, the California African American Museum, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and others, for their expertise and recommendations in support of LACMA’s efforts. LACMA will also partner with community members to address local concerns about the way the Towers are cared for and managed, and to recommend a long-term plan. Tours, community festivals, and other art center and park-related programs will continue to be operated by the Department of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center.
LACMA’s specific scope of work will be to undertake a review and assessment of the City’s existing conservation and preservation plans for the Watts Towers, and to develop a comprehensive management plan, including an organizational structure and long-term budget for conservation efforts, suggesting potential collaborations, and identifying possible funding sources. LACMA will provide day-to-day oversight and monitoring of conservation and preservation of the Towers and of the implementation of minor restoration and repairs, under the direction of the museum’s Conservation Center. LACMA will also engage with potential funders that could provide resources to raise awareness of the Watts Towers and present the conservation and other program needs.
LACMA Director Michael Govan said, “By expanding LACMA’s mission to include the care, preservation, and interpretation of architectural and sculptural works of art within the community that are at risk of neglect and deterioration, we are changing the way LACMA functions as a museum, from what we collect to how we work within the community more directlyThis is amazing news.
(via hyperallergic)
Michael Carey, Woman with Birds, 2009.
(Located at J.P. Murphy Playground, 1960 9th Avenue at Pacheco Street in San Francisco, CA) (via)
Kyle Chayka writes in Hyperallergic about one Massachusetts towns’ movement to allow women to go topless in public.
Drawing a correlation to aesthetics in art, Chayka writes:
Clearly, the whole publicly-topless woman issue is not such a big deal in sculpture parks. In that sense, art seems to exist in a different realm than humanity, a depiction having less significance than the Real Thing.
Akin to the spirit of the FEMEN movement in Ukraine, I think women being topless is actually a really great platform for discussion and activism; and the association of women depicted in the art world is poignant one. It could just be the SF heat getting to me (great time to take off shirt)… but I am really interested in the way these movements engage, and perhaps parallel, preceding dialogues.
(for Grandmam)
Suzanne Lacy discusses a public performance piece organized in Oakland, CA.
I love lecture series.
Part of the Nelson, New Zealand Art Festival, Oi You! is a proclaimed call to action inspired by urban art. This festival of outdoor works bills some interesting participatory activities and perhaps some promising initiatives by regional collectives and artists. Or, as New Zealand’s The Big Idea calculably writes, ”The works range from urban cool to social comment to Banksyesque juxtapositions.”
I am looking forward to seeing some photos of the weekend.
Other highlights: Banksy, of course.
Review of Teddy Cruz and Tanya Aguiñiga’s current exhibition, Lineas: New Modes of Contemporary Urbanisms, at Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose, CA.
