Art Spaces Archives Project Presents Panel Discussion Panel to be held at the College Art Association's 97th Annual Conference

“Mitigating the Obvious Culture and the Search for Broader Humanity:
Bridging the Gap Between Us & Them”

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Art Spaces Archives Project (AS-AP) announces a panel discussion entitled “Mitigating the Obvious Culture and the Search for Broader Humanity: Bridging the Gap Between Us & Them," to be held at the College Art Association's 97th Annual Conference on Wednesday, February 25, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa Street, Concourse Meeting Room 405, Level 2.

The 2009 panel will explore the impact of visual arts groups, programs, and public installations upon groups not necessarily considered likely targets by the contemporary art establishment. Participants will explore whether alternative arts groups can successfully integrate into society or culture beyond the confines of museum, gallery, "white cube," or other defining spaces that have previously been codified as recognized venues for art. Over the last five years Art Spaces Archives Project has presented panels at the annual College Art Association Conferences that have addressed archives by investigating institutional holdings, living and defunct alternative arts organizations, and first hand narratives of creation in the alternative/avant-garde movement.

The panel will feature Edgar Arceneaux, Artist / Project Director, Watts House Project; Cindy Bernard, Artist / Director, The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound; Co-Founder, MOCA Mobilization; Joshua Decter, curator, critic, and Director of the Master of Public Art Studies: Art in the Public Sphere Program at USC; and Stephen Saiz, President, Board of Directors, Self Help Graphics & Art. Moderating the panel will be David Platzker, former Project Director of AS-AP, a non-profit initiative formed in 2003 to assess and survey the state of the archives of alternative and avant-garde art spaces throughout the United States. In 2007, AS-AP partnered with the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard (CCS Bard), an exhibition, education, and research center dedicated to the study of art and curatorial practices from the 1960s to the present day. David Platkzer is the president of Specific Object, a New York City gallery and bookstore.

 

About Art Spaces Archives Project

Art Spaces Archives Project (AS-AP) is a non-profit initiative founded by a consortium of alternative art organizations, including Bomb Magazine, College Art Association, Franklin Furnace Archive, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), New York State Artist Workspace Consortium, and The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. With funding provided by NYSCA, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, AS-AP has a mandate to help preserve, present, and protect the archival heritage of living and defunct for- and not-for-profit spaces of the "alternative" or "avant-garde" movements of the 1950s to the present by compiling a national index of alternative arts spaces, assessing preservation needs, and helping to establish best practices for contemporary art related archives. AS-AP's website, www.as-ap.org, serves as an online resource for information pertaining to collections and repositories containing the archives of the avant-garde, tools to assist in archiving, and other aids for scholars interested in alternative or avant-garde movements. -

 

About the Center for Curatorial Studies

In January 2007 AS-AP merged with the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard. CCS Bard is an exhibition, education, and research center dedicated to the study of art and curatorial practices from the 1960s to the present day. In addition to the CCS Bard Galleries and the newly inaugurated Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard houses the Marieluise Hessel Collection of more than 2,000 contemporary works, as well as an extensive library and curatorial archive that are accessible to the general public. The Center’s two-year graduate program in curatorial studies is specifically designed to deepen students’ understanding of the intellectual and practical tasks of curating contemporary art. Exhibitions are presented year-round in the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, providing students with the opportunity to work with world-renowned artists and curators. The exhibition program and the collection also serve as the basis for a wide-range of public programs and activities exploring art and its role in contemporary society.

For more information please call CCS Bard at 845.758.7598, write ccs@bard.edu or visit www.bard.edu/ccs.

 

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