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This website is an archive of previous AIC activities.

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Conference Report

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Conference Schedule
Saturday October 15, 2011

10:00 am - 11:30 am RISD Museum, 20 North Main Street, Providence

Site visit: Distant Mirrors

with Ellen Driscoll (RISD Professor and Head of Sculpture) and Marcel Lussier (Materials Recycling Facility Business Manager at Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation)

12:00 pm - 2:30 pm Ximedica, 55 Dupont Drive, Providence

A Conversation with Holly Ewald (Urban Pond Procession) and Drake Patten (Steel Yard Executive Director)

*includes lunch from Apsara, 12-12:45PM

3:00 pm - 5:00 pm The Spot Underground, 15 Elbow Street, Providence

Site visit: Jewelry District site-specific public art installations

with Betsey Biggs (Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies, Brown University) and students

* Projects will be on view 1-4PM; maps will be available on the corner of Point and Richmond Streets (near Olga's Cup and Saucer) starting at 1PM and at the Spot starting at 3PM. We will convene at the Spot at 4PM for a discussion of the work.

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Roots Cafe, 276 Westminster St, Providence

A Conversation with Carol Bebelle, Artistic Director of Ashe Cultural Arts Center (New Orleans), Dorothy Jungels (Everett), and Elmo Terry- Morgan (Rites and Reason Theatre), moderated by Nehessaiu deGannes (Independent Actress, Poet & Rhode Island College Faculty)

Connected and Consequential Rhode Island

Working in Context: Scope, Scale and Space in Providence
Saturday October 15, 10am - 9pm
Various locations throughout Providence, RI

Connected and Consequential Rhode Island Quad

AIC projects don't develop in the studio – they live at the intersection of art and other fields (science, health, urban planning, education, etc). We work in Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island. AIC also has helped to create a forum for critical, cross-disciplinary inquiry outside of academia, while at the same time leveraging openings in the intellectual and creative repositories held by academic institutions.

Other AIC Rhode Island supported events have included: Make It Better (RISD health and design forum), the Urban Pond Procession, Who Made Us Creative? Fishbowl at New Urban Arts, a 1-book book club at Libertalia, a Women in Science and Animation Salon at Thames & Kosmos, and an event with Ellen Driscoll around her piece Distant Mirrors.

One of the major goals of this convening is to further develop the content being presented – to help define and structure the next iteration of the presenters’ work by making connections between people, institutions and ideas.· AIC hopes to engender rich dialogue around these exemplary creative practices and to reveal unique attitudes, skills, and implications for creatives who want to work in this way.


Program

Click here to download a copy of the Working in Context program as a PDF.

Case Studies

DISTANT MIRRORS

The sculpture Distant Mirrors, made of #2 plastic, floats in the Providence canal – an archipelago of forms created as a visual allegory for the disastrous predicaments of our oil-based global economy. Recently, forgoing the intimacy of her early morning rounds to delicately extract #2 plastic material from people's recycling bins, Ellen plunged into the sheer volume (and dirt) of the receiving end of the county waste system. Marcel Lussier, who accepted a bold "cold call" from Ellen describing her work, became an essential part of Ellen’s systemic exploration.

HOLLY EWALD AND DRAKE PATTEN

Two exemplary cultural leaders, Holly and Drake, discuss the trajectory and nature of their arts and environmental work and the tensions they encounter among their studio, social, and administrative practices. As they engage the larger world and the systems that power it, how do they describe to themselves and to society the value of their bridge-building? Where do their identities as artists, women, and individuals fit in?

JEWELRY DISTRICT


For the Fall 2011 course Art/Place, Betsey Biggs and her students have been working intensively in Providence’s Jewelry District, creating public artworks in response to the narrative and aesthetic prompts of this contested space. Included in this presentation is a tour of the artworks and a discussion of the artmaking process and the complexities of the places in our lives.

ASHE, EVERETT, and RITES AND REASON

Located in Central City New Orleans, Ashé Cultural Arts Center has established a successful practice of cultural art presentation and production, community development, artist support, and the creation of partnerships and collaborations that amplify the impact and reach of its outreach and support efforts. Ashé's theatre work exemplifies a collaborative, integrated neighborhood-oriented artistic practice in dynamic conversation to the articulated needs from its community. This evening’s presentation with leading Providence based theater artistic directors focuses on Ashe’s method of developing their theatrical work with neighborhood residents, and how they positioned themselves as a housing provider after the storm in an effort to serve this work more fully.

Speaker Bios

Click here for the speaker biographies.

Videos

Click here for the videos page.

Photos

Click here for the photos page.

Conference Reports


Click here to read Patricia Phillips conference report.


Sponsored by Artists in Context, with generous support from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism.

Sponsors

The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Barr Foundation, The LEF Foundation and the City of Providence, Department of Art, Culture and Tourism.