Check out this great piece on Culturehall

Feature Issue 51, August 25-September 7. SOCIAL PLACES

It features former Art and Social Practice MFA student Eric Steen and also mentions Open Engagement.

Image: Eric Steen, Glasgow Beer and Pub Project

Article on The Age.com about Harrell and the Art and Social Practice Program at PSU.

The Event: A tour of Wealth Underground Farm, a gourmet dinner w/ drinks, and then a thought provoking
movie, all to benefit a small local farm in your community!
The Farm: We are a small CSA farm growing a variety of organic vegetables, fruits, and flowers, working to
strengthen the community and local foods economy of our bioregion, Skyline-Forest Park and the Portland
neighborhood of St. Johns.
The Dinner: An outdoor gourmet meal prepared with our very own organic farm raised meat, vegetables,
and fruits. Drinks included.
The Movie: Our Daily Bread. A documentary made in 2005 that takes an honest look at industrial agriculture and
the world of mechanized food production. Offered as a thought provoking contrast to the practices on our farm.
We will be projecting the film outdoors in the garden. Attendence optional. (This film is not appropriate for children)
When and Where: September 25th, 2010 @5pm   -   14019 NW Newberry Road
Tickets: The cost is $100 per plate. This includes everything. If you or someone you know would like to make a
reservation please RSVP to us at: Wealth.underground@gmail.com

Profile: BECAUSE OF PSU…

“I helped strangers complete their building and art projects.” — Zach Springer, Master of Fine Arts

Zach Springer

Degree: Master of Fine Arts

What’s next: Teach art and continue his collaborative art projects

Zach Springer loves to help people make and fix things.

As a Master of Fine Arts student, he has helped more than 30 friends and strangers with everything from building a chicken coop to sewing a quilt.

Springer started his collaborative handyman service, called “Build Something Together,” as a project in Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice program, which focuses on using art to engage society.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life, but it was a natural progression to call it my art,” he says.

Springer got his start with collaborative building projects on construction sites as a child. His father, a contractor, would take him to work with him, and the workers would help him with small projects such as building a bike ramp.

He connects with people who need help through his website, buildsomethingtogether.com. He mostly uses free and recycled materials and rarely charges for his services.

For one project, he helped a first-grade class at Portland’s Laurelhurst Elementary design, build and paint 27 birdhouses to auction at a school fundraiser. For another, he created a rooftop garden with park benches, a playhouse and two murals for the YWCA.

His website has taken him to New York, Kansas City, and Vancouver, B.C., Toronto to do community art projects and participate in shows. He plans to continue Build Something Together after graduation.

Condensations of the Social

Curated by Sara Reisman

Pablo Helguera, Portland State University’s Social Practice MFA Program, Mary Mattingly, Mladen Miljanovic, Tim Rollins + K.O.S., and Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Exhibition dates:

June 19 – August 1, 2010

Artists’ reception:

Saturday, June 19, 5 – 8 pm

Image: Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Touch Sanitation, 1978-80. City-wide performance with

8,500 NYC Sanitation workers. Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.

Harrell will be speaking at this two-day conference that will bring together international artists, curators, and writers to discuss and debate the changing relationship between art and education. Speakers have been invited to present critical ideas on collective and participatory practice, pedagogical experiments and how such art can be understood and discussed.

Deschooling Society takes its title from Ivan Illich’s seminal 1971 book, one of the most influential radical critiques of the education system in Western countries. Issues at the heart of that critique have been increasingly debated within the art world in recent years, and the subject of education has attracted renewed attention from artists, curators, and collectives. Pedagogical models are currently being explored, re-imagined, and deployed by practitioners from around the world in highly diverse projects comprising laboratories, discursive platforms, temporary schools, participatory workshops, and libraries. Simultaneously, progressive globalization has led to a revaluing of the collective knowledge and agency of local communities.

Speakers include: Christopher Robbins (keynote), Martha Rosler (keynote), ARTSCHOOL/UK, Lars Bang Larsen, Dave Beech, Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Marcelo Expósito, Harrell Fletcher, Jeanne Van Heeswijk, Pablo Helguera, Hannah Hurtzig, Suzanne Lacy, Carmen Moersch, Nils Norman, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Paul O’Neill, Marion von Osten, Irit Rogoff, Ralph Rugoff, Terry Smith, Lisa Tickner, Gediminas Urbonas, Mick Wilson.

29 – 30 April 2010, 10am – 6pm
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XX

We are currently in the process of planning Shine a Light: A Night at the Museum at the Portland Art Museum for the second year in a row.

The event consisted of six hours of performances, installations, tours, workshops, and games by artists from Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice concentration MFA. The projects were centered on artist and audience participation. Visitors experienced the Museum’s spaces and collections in new ways.

The night was an overwhelming success with close to 2000 people in attendance. We hope that this year will be even better!

Check out this great video of the first Shine a Light:

Shine a Light from Irina Karin on Vimeo.

The low-residency Art and Social Practice MFA program is a unique combination of mentorship, community collaborations/partnerships and an annual conference on socially engaged art practice at PSU that brings together artists, curators, scholars and students from around the world. This program blends critical and professional engagement with social engagement on a global and local scale.

Beginning in the fall of 2010 we will implement the low-residency MFA program in Art & Social Practice that will be connected to the annual Open Engagement conference as the focal point of this distance education program.

This program will accept 4 students annually with a focus on the representation of global diversity.

The three year program will focus on field work, public pedagogy, and community collaboration/partnership. Students will connect their art practice to research in the field through their electives and community partnerships, promoting cross-disciplinarity. This work and research conducted by the MFA candidates will be presented annually at the Open Engagement conference leading up to their final graduate project in the third and final year of the program.

The resident MFA in Contemporary Art Practice Art and Social Practice concentration at PSU will work in concert with the Low-Residency MFA Art and Social Practice to explore and promote similar methods: a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of art and social practice, a student-centric learning atmosphere in which students can shape the direction of their education and study, community mentorship and access to internationally acclaimed visiting artists, faculty, and the development of a worldwide network of scholars working in socially engaged art and the promotion of local fieldwork.

Each year the conference will be organized around a variety of themes related to the interests of the students in both the Art and Social Practice MFA concentration and the low-residency program. As a group the students select three artists to invite to the conference as featured artists under the understanding that they are also selecting individuals whom they wish to learn from and work with. The conference also provides the opportunity to annually share their work and research as well as be immersed in the current thinking and work in their field.

More information on application requirements and deadlines will be posted with in the next few weeks.