2/11/2001
Panel
Mass MoCA, North Adams
...to Explore Climate for Artists Working. A panel of experts featuring Michael Brenson, former New York Times art critic and author of the recent book on the history of funding for artists in America, Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the Place of the Visual Artist in America, to discuss the current environment for art-making in America.
...To Explore Climate for Artists Working.
(North Adams, Mass.) In the mid-1990s conservatives in Congress gutted the
National Endowment for the Arts and eliminated the fellowship program for
individual artists, arguing that the agency was funding unacceptable
projects. For 30 years since its creation in 1965, the NEA had generously
awarded grants - $52 million, in fact - to 5,000 artists with no strings
attached, and the end of the fellowship program has left open the question
of just how artists should be funded. On Saturday, November 3, MASS MoCA
will host a panel of experts featuring Michael Brenson, former New York
Times art critic and author of the recent book on the history of funding for
artists in America, Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the
Place of the Visual Artist in America, to discuss the current environment
for art-making in America.
The panel at MASS MoCA will also include Linda Shearer, director of the
Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) and Joseph C. Thompson, director of
MASS MoCA, and will be moderated by Jennifer Dowley, director of the
Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and former director of museums and
visual arts for the NEA.
Brenson's book, upon which the discussion is based, presents an analysis of
funding for artists in the late 20th century. Though congressmen had
expounded eloquently in 1965 about the nation's need for artists, no one
came to their defense as funding was cut in the 1990s. In the book, Brenson
explores what happened to change the government's relationship with artists.
He examines the values embedded in the NEA's grant program, its impact on
artists' lives, the peer-panel evaluation process at its heart, and the
continuing vulnerability of visual artists in contemporary American society.
Publisher's Weekly said, "Brenson is clearly an NEA partisan, but his
arguments are well documented and passionately made."
Michael Brenson served as art critic for The New York Times from 1982 until
1991. He is known for his writings about sculpture and public art,
including Visionaries and Outcasts, and holds a Ph.D. in Art History from
Johns Hopkins University. He is a former Getty scholar and teaches at the
Center for Curatorial Studies and MFA program at Bard College. He is
currently working on a biography of artist David Smith. Brenson lives in
New York City.
Moderator Jennifer Dowley has a long history of work with programs for
artists including her five years at the NEA for which she received two
distinguished service awards. She was the founding director of the
internationally respected artists' community Headlands Center for the Arts
in Sausalito, California. In her current role as president of the Berkshire
Taconic Community Foundation in Great Barrington, Massachuestts, Dowley is
guiding the growth of the foundation to better serve the community.
Linda Shearer has been director of the Williams College Museum of Art since
1989. During her tenure she has organized numerous exhibitions including
ARTWORKS: Amalia Mesa-Bains, Vito Acconci, and Kiki Smith. Prior to WCMA,
Shearer was curator of contemporary art at The Museum of Modern Art and was
responsible for the PROJECTS program, a nationally acclaimed series of
exhibitions of new art.
Joseph C. Thompson, director of MASS MoCA spearheaded the creation of the
largest center for contemporary and performing arts in the United States
from its inception in 1987 through the present. Thompson expanded the
institution from its initial mission as a venue for the display of
contemporary visual works, to a center that encompasses all forms of visual
and performing arts.
Tickets to Contemporary Artists After the Culture Wars on Saturday, November
3, are $5 or free with museum admission.
Williams College students are
admitted free.
On November 3, MASS MoCA's galleries will be open from 11
A.M. to 5 P.M.
the panel starts at 5.
Tickets may be reserved by
visiting the box office or calling 413.662.2111 during museum hours.
Through October 31, the galleries are open from 10-6 every day.
Starting
November 1, MASS MoCA's galleries are open 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. every day
except Tuesday.
MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in
the United States, is located on Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre
campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.
Lenora Farrington
Marketing Assistant
MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247
413-664-4481 ext. 8111
FX: 413-663-8548
lenora@massmoca.org
Contact:Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org
MASS MoCA,
1040 MASS MoCA Way,
North Adams, Mass. 01247 413.MOCA.111
http://www.massmoca.org/performing_arts/index.html