Archive for February, 2011
The Great Mondini!
Franco Mondini-Ruiz, a San Antonio-based artist, was in town last week for a site visit in preparation for his fall 2011 exhibition at the Ceramics Research Center, which will focus on a unique installation of our permanent collection.
Franco is an exuberant, over-the-top painter, sculptor and performance artist, and the initial plans for his show at the CRC involve three parts: Dulce: Bisque Without Borders; Limpia: Revisiting the Collection; and, during his September 30th reception, Tienda Franco, his store of curios — plus a margarita machine and a live DJ.
Franco is represented by Frederieke Taylor Gallery, in New York City, and was featured in the 2000 Whitney Biennial.
Stay tuned for more mischievous adventures!
—Peter Held, curator of ceramics
ASU Art Museum, Ceramics Research Center
More Similar Than Different + Tent City Jail Tour Opportunity
Lately we have been using the tag line “ASU Art Museum is a community incubator re-thinking the museum through sustainability, diversity of knowledge and shared human experience – recognizing we are more similar than different.” This was extremely apparent this past Friday evening as I stood in the Museum’s Turk Gallery for the public reception of Gregory Sale’s It’s not just black and white, having conversations, sharing stories and observing what was occurring before my eyes.
There was a great diversity among the over 1,200 individuals who attended the season opening reception, with backgrounds as wide as the imagination – a former inmate, a deputy chief from the sheriff’s office, parents of a young lady who had lost her life in prison, lawyers, the editor of Arizona Prison Watch, the mental health director for Maricopa County Correctional Health Services, the justice system coordinator for Maricopa County, the executive co-directors of the Arizona Justice Project, the adult probation supervisor for Maricopa County Adult Probation, educators, artists, activists, students and community members.
(L to R) Dr. Dawn Noggle, Mental Health Director, Maricopa County Correctional Health Services; MaryEllen Sheppard, Deputy Chief, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office; Amy Rex, Justice System Coordinator, Maricopa County; John Spiak, Curator, ASU Art Museum; Sue Ellen Allen, Co-founder and Executive Director, Gina’s Team; Lindsay Herf, Executive Co-Director, Arizona Justice Project; Katie Puzauskas, Executive Co-Director, Arizona Justice Project; Gregory Sale, Artist
It was truly heartening to see all the individuals collectively, not just in the same room, but having respectful and informed conversations with one another. They come to the conversations through direct experiences, knowledge, insights. They all expressed concerns, talked about budget issues, shared their struggles with perceptions and prejudices, creating conversations with one another within the context of Gregory’s project. There was talk about the possibility of joint board meetings, scheduling outside one-on-one lunches and using the space for future dialogue and activation.
Their approaches, roles and ways of taking on issues may differ, but it was very clear to me they all share passion – a passion to see that the world becomes a better place. Whether it is creating positive education or rehabilitation programs from the inside, monitoring current systems that may be failing, assisting inmates with opportunities once they are on the outside, or preventing people from getting to the inside in the first place, these individuals all embodied what it means to care as human beings.
I was able to recognize throughout the evening: We are more similar than different.
I encourage you to share in the experience. Gregory has a few upcoming events that are open to the public and may be of interest.
The first is An Inside/Outside Prison Writing Workshop, with former inmates and former prison employees, which will take place Tuesday, March 1 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. here at the Museum. The second is an opportunity to tour Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Tent City Jail on Wednesday, March 2 at 2:00 p.m.
These are just the beginning of programming for the course of this ASU Art Museum Social Studies initiative residency.
You can sign-up for the Tent City Jail tours and keep posted on all project activities through the It’s not just black and white website at the following address: http://itsnotjustblackandwhite.info/
– John Spiak, Curator
It’s not just black and white is supported a grant from
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Additional Blog Posts
Angela Davis, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Youth in Detention = Social Practice
Reconnecting – It’s not just black and white
Dream like you mean it: The Mother-Daughter Distance Dance
Another Active Week and the Schedule for April
Waiting for Release, Sentencing Reform & Welcoming Home
Invitation to Join Us for Volunteer Event – GINA’s Team
Inside & Outside – It’s not just black and white
More Similar Than Different + Tent City Jail Tour Opportunity
You can’t move forward until you know where you are
Olympic Gold Medalist, Gina’s Team and PVCC Students!
IT’S NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE: Gregory Sale – Social Studies Project 6
Olympic Gold Medalist, Gina’s Team and PVCC Students!
This morning’s activities in the gallery kicked off what should unfold as an amazing day. Gina’s Team Co-founder and Executive Director Sue Ellen Allen and board member Misty Hyman (Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist, 200m Butterfly) met with interns of their organization to discuss organization building. Sue Ellen and Misty led them through conversation and brainstorming to help guide them moving forward.
Adria Pecora, Art Faculty at Paradise Valley Community College, brought her students by to discuss curatorial practice.
Both groups came together as artist Gregory Sale provided an introduction to his residency project It’s not just black and white. The individuals had an opportunity to meet and discuss the issues of the project with one another through informal conversation.
This afternoon the activities continue to build in the Museum. Angela Ellsworth, her “sister wives“, musicians and DJ are here setting up in the Kresge Gallery in preparation for tonight’s performance; our crew is completing the installation of Re-Thinking the Faculty Exhibition; and the Clay Club is setting up at the Ceramics Research Center for the Silent Auction Benefit.
We look forward to seeing you here tonight !
– John Spiak, Curator
It’s not just black and white is supported a grant from
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Additional Blog Posts
Angela Davis, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Youth in Detention = Social Practice
Reconnecting – It’s not just black and white
Dream like you mean it: The Mother-Daughter Distance Dance
Another Active Week and the Schedule for April
Waiting for Release, Sentencing Reform & Welcoming Home
Invitation to Join Us for Volunteer Event – GINA’s Team
Inside & Outside – It’s not just black and white
More Similar Than Different + Tent City Jail Tour Opportunity
You can’t move forward until you know where you are
Olympic Gold Medalist, Gina’s Team and PVCC Students!
IT’S NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE: Gregory Sale – Social Studies Project 6
You can’t move forward until you know where you are
The Social Studies initiative is guided by open process. Whether it was the fully democratic creative process driven by artist Jarbas Lopes, the opening of the decision making process allowed by artist Josh Greene, or exposing ourselves to the new state of the economy and housing crisis through the volunteer vampire and zombie actors trained and directed by artist Jillian Mcdonald, active participation has always been key to Social Studies’ success.
image credit: stephen gittins
Over the past couple of months, in preparation for Social Studies Project 6 with Gregory Sale, the artist and I have been visiting correctional institutions and organizations involved with all aspects of justice. We’ve been inside the Florence and Eyman State prisons, The Towers county jail complex, and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. I’ve had the great fortune to meet with individuals involved with the GED education, Legacy and ALPHA programs inside the system. We’ve had members of their teams here in the museum, working on logistics planning to insure positive results. We’ve met with the leadership of Gina’s Team, an independent inmates’ needs organization; University of Arizona professor Richard Shelton regarding his Creative Writing Workshops at the Arizona State Prison; dancers and choreographers working with Journey Home and Girl Scouts Beyond Bars; and members of social justice and human rights organizations. I’ve met passionate people, working both inside and outside the system, involved with these programs, and heard from both facilitators and participant of their benefits.
image credit: john spiak
Gregory has orchestrated these visits, and, without his passion, openness, dedication and hard work, these connections would not be possible. This process has allowed us to have direct conversation with those involved in the programs from a different perspective: the instructors, the supervisors and the participants. We have met with them, explained what we were up to and the overall vision for the project. We’ve asked for volunteers, giving them all the details we possible could and providing them every opportunity to opt out if they did not feel comfortable.
image credit: john spiak
Working with Gregory has provided a unique opportunity. He is an artist of our very own community, one who has been actively involved in performance and social practice since the mid-90s, when he and I first met. As an artist and educator, he has been an active participant in the Social Studies series from the beginning, engaging his students with each visiting artist during their six-week residencies. With his background as a former charter arts high school teacher, a curator of education, an employee of the Arizona Commission on the Arts and currently an Assistant Professor of Intermedia at ASU’s School of Art, his connections to the community are established and strong. He is truly someone I trust and respect.
image credit: stephen gittins
The fact that Gregory is a local artist has allowed the first opportunity in the Social Studies initiative to extend the residency from six weeks to three months.
As I stated in the title of this post, you can’t move forward until you know where you are, so this is where things start within the museum gallery structure with Social Studies Project 6.
image credit: stephen gittins
It’s not just black and white begins with the current state of corrections in the U.S. and Arizona, most specifically Maricopa County. We know it’s extremely complex, and when these issues are raised in public settings the discussion often becomes heated and passionate. It comes from all directions, and we’ve heard it so many times, comments like, “You must not be tough on crime,” “You’re acting like a victim,” “They have been victimized,” “It’s an issue of public safety,” among many others. Each of us comes to the conversation with our own backgrounds, stereotypes, perceptions and prejudices. The messages get driven home to us through media and other sources, but so rarely are our own opinions based upon direct experience. The passions needs to be there, but with respect and knowledge. The respect for differing opinions, the respect for differing situations, the respect for the individual, the respect for one another as human beings, and the knowledge that comes from firsthand experience. It’s my opinion that conversations can only move forward when everyone is welcome at the table – those with different knowledge bases and from different backgrounds, with diverse experiences and insights.
image credit: john spiak
This past week we began the in-gallery activities of It’s not just black and white. We invited inmates from the Maricopa County Jails’ ALPHA Program to join us at the Museum. They worked as artistic collaborators with Gregory and his team of current and past students as part of the residency, all volunteering to participate in the project. Background checks were run by MSCO on all participants, and MCSO officers were present to insure public safety.
image credit: john spiak
The ALPHA is a re-entry and rehabilitation treatment program, designed to reduce crime, recidivism and substance abuse.
image credit: john spiak
We started the day with a brief introduction and again, explained that if there were any components of the project anyone was not comfortable with, there was no obligation or pressure to participate. We took everyone together on a museum tour. We shared works from the Re-Thinking the Faculty Exhibition being installed, our Americas Gallery permanent collection, and the FUNd exhibition. We talked about the complex works of Jon Haddock, artists from CUBA, Deborah Butterfield and the art and society focus of our institution. We returned to the gallery and took coffee and soda orders from all present, then got to work. When the drinks arrived, we distributed them, but the work continued. We took a break for lunch, sitting together to enjoy a meal and continued getting to know one another, talking honestly and openly.
image credit: john spiak
As you can see from the images posted (and slideshow below), it was a day of activity, conversation and building relationships – group discussions, one-on-one opportunities, introducing collaborators to members of our community who are part of Gregory’s advisory committee.
image credit: john spiak
The week started at the current state of corrections, but quickly moved into the building of relationships, open dialogue and direct experiences. Through participation, continued open dialogue, performances, lectures, panels, tours and artistic gestures scheduled over the coming months, it is my hope that these conversations and experiences will continue to move forward in positive directions and with positive outcomes.
image credit: john spiak
As It’s not just black and white moves forward, you will continue to see activities taking place in the gallery and throughout the community, both scheduled and improvised, that build upon this conversation. Gregory’s official website for the project will go live this week, so I will make sure to post a link on our blog when it’s ready. He’ll be posting schedules, tour sign-ups, images and much more, as we will continue to do as well on our own blog, website, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
image credit: john spiak
Everyone is welcome at the table, so I strongly encourage you to visit the gallery at several different times during the course of the three-month residency, to get a sense of the project as a whole. The outcome of the project depends on your involvement and your input. A good place to start is by attending the ASU Art Museum Season Opening Reception which takes place this Friday, February 18 from 7-9pm – it’s free for everyone!
image credit: stephen gittins
I look forward to your participation, insight and knowledge moving Social Studies and issues of our community forward!
– John Spiak, Curator
It’s not just black and white is supported a grant from
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Additional Blog Posts
Angela Davis, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Youth in Detention = Social Practice
Reconnecting – It’s not just black and white
Dream like you mean it: The Mother-Daughter Distance Dance
Another Active Week and the Schedule for April
Waiting for Release, Sentencing Reform & Welcoming Home
Invitation to Join Us for Volunteer Event – GINA’s Team
Inside & Outside – It’s not just black and white
More Similar Than Different + Tent City Jail Tour Opportunity
You can’t move forward until you know where you are
Olympic Gold Medalist, Gina’s Team and PVCC Students!
IT’S NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE: Gregory Sale – Social Studies Project 6
Spring Season Opening Reception!
Mark your calendar: Next Friday, February 18, is a “you don’t want to kick yourself for missing this” evening here at the ASU Art Museum and Ceramics Research Center.
From 7 to 9 p.m., we’ll be celebrating the official opening of four shows: Collecting Contemporary Art: the FUNd at ASU; Re-Thinking the Faculty Exhibition 2011; It’s not just black and white: Gregory Sale — Social Studies Project 6; and Citadel, an installation by Phoenix artist Patricia Sannit at the CRC.
Before the reception, from 6 to 7 p.m., guest curator Robert Atkins will give a special preview tour of the faculty exhibition at the Museum; a silent auction to raise funds for the CRC also begins at 6.
And starting at 7, artist Angela Ellsworth and the “sister wives” will present a performance titled “Where the Skies Are Blue.” It’s the first time in the Valley that audiences will have a chance to see the work that has brought Ellsworth so much recent acclaim in the U.S. and in Australia, and deservedly so: These performances are spell-binding.
See you there!
Thinking about Re-Thinking…
On Tuesday evening, a good crowd (in both size and composition) gathered at the Museum to talk about…the Museum, and museums in general.
As part of our Re-Thinking the Museum series, we invited Darren Petrucci, head of ASU’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, to moderate a panel featuring ASU Art Museum Director Gordon Knox; Richard Toon, head of the Museum Studies Program in ASU’s School for Human Evolution and Social Change; and Adriene Jenik, head of the School of Art in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Unfortunately, Adriene Jenik was unable to attend, but she sent artist Gregory Sale in her stead, supplied with an elegant and cogent quote of her own. Adriene was missed (she was, as one panelist pointed out, the only non-male), but given that Gregory is the artist whose exhibition “It’s not just black and white: Gregory Sale — Social Studies Project 6” is featured in the gallery where the panel took place, things worked out quite nicely.
Richard kicked the proceedings off by announcing that there IS no such thing as a museum, then pulled back slightly to explain that 1) the museum has gone through tremendous changes since its inception, and the pace of re-thinking it is speeding up exponentially, and 2) the museum is a fundamentally contradictory institution in that it is both democratic AND elitist. Today, he noted, “We look to the museum as therapy. What happened to our revolutionary approach to social issues?…We do a lot of self-censoring.”
We won’t recount the whole evening’s dialogue, but here’s a recap of some of the ideas worth chewing on:
Gordon Knox: “The walls of the museum are dissolving in the face of digital evolution.”
Gregory Sale: “I’m part of the experiment. Can a museum operate much as an open studio? Can it accommodate being really messy?”
Richard Toon: “Sixty percent of the population in the Valley has library cards. Something like 5 percent of the population attends museums.”
Sara Cochran (curator of modern and contemporary art at the Phoenix Art Museum, who was in the audience): “We need to make ourselves relevant to a more diverse population.”
Barbara Meyerson (founder and executive director of the Museum for Youth in Mesa, who was also in the audience): “Museums, as they reinvent themselves, are missing the boat, and that boat is critical thinking. Why aren’t museums taking a leadership role on this? It falls to us (since no one else is doing it).”
One thing everyone seemed to agree on: There’s a dearth of public realms in Phoenix, and the museum provides that essential public realm. And a fact we might consider as we move forward: According to Richard Toon, there is no more successful “museum” than the zoo.
The evening concluded with a pat on the museum’s back (museums in general, not any one museum specifically) from Barbara Meyerson, who mentioned the extraordinary number of visitors to the Met’s exhibitions on Islam just following 9/11. Museums don’t always know they’re succeeding, she said, until something like that happens.
Next Tuesday evening, the discussion continues with Ian Berry, from The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. Berry will speak on “A Manifesto of Yes: Optimistic Practices in Art and Teaching.” 6 p.m. at the Museum. We hope you’ll join us.
ASU Art Museum 