News
Wealth Underground Farm Fundraiser
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…
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, Smack Mellon, NY
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.
OPEN ENGAGEMENT THIS WEEKEND!
URGENT NOTICE ABOUT ATTENDING OPEN ENGAGEMENT
Dear potential Open Engagement attendee.
We are very excited about the upcoming coming conference, as we know many of you are. We have been receiving emails daily from people who plan on attending.
When planning this event a difficult decision had to be made—do we have the conference be completely open to the public, or do we close the event to presenters only?
With over 140 presenters and many students from our sponsoring institutions it would have been a completely sensible move to not have this event be public.
However in the spirit of access and the inclusion we decided to allow this event to be open to all (with priority access being given to presenters, students and volunteers), first come first serve.
As we get closer to the conference we want to stress the reasons for this structure. We know that some of you might be disappointed that there will not be room for you in all of the sessions, but we felt that this disappointment was better than complete exclusion from the conference.
We hope that all of you will be patient and understanding during Open Engagement if you experience high attendance levels.
For complete information on how to attend the conference please read the HOW TO ATTEND section of the openengagement.info website. This section will clearly list the events that we anticipate will be at maximum capacity as well as which sessions we think would be most accessible.
Thank you for understanding, and your excitement. We are truly looking forward to have you here in Portland with us for Open Engagement.
All my very best,
Jen Delos Reyes and the Open Engagement Planning Committee
Build Something Together Workshop Series this weekend at SEA Change Gallery
Build Something Together Workshop Series this weekend at SEA Change Gallery, 625 NW Everett Street PDX. Come check it out!
The workshop schedule is as follows:
May 1 – Build Something Together Workshop Series pt.1
12:00 Sandwich Making with Crystal Baxley
1:00 Micro Terrariums with Vanessa Robertson-Rojas
2:00 How To Ask Questions with Ally Drozd
3:00 Talking to Strangers with Sandy Sampson
4:30 Raft Building with Connie Hockaday
May 2 – Build Something Together Workshop Series pt.2
12:00 Collaborative Knitting with Elysia Contreras
1:00 Book Binding with Dasha Shleyeva
2:00 Easy Planter Boxes with Katherine Ball
3:30 Cat Play Structures with Hollis and Kindred
8:00 Zoo Bombing with JP Huckins
Conference: Deschooling Society
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
Shine a Light, again
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.
Museum Museum and Mark Dion
Today marks the end of a week long intensive here are PSU with artist Mark Dion. The students spent the quarter leading up to his visit researching the concept of museum. This past week was full of long days, great food, lively discussions, presentations from Mark, field trips to museums, and the planning of the project that the students will create with Mark.
The exhibition is scheduled to open on May 14, 2010 as part of the Open Engagement conference in Portland, OR.
For more information on the project visit: http://themuseummuseum.tumblr.com/ and http://psumuseummuseum.blogspot.com/
Photo: class photo with Mark Dion
Public Classroom and Project Space
This week marked the inaugural use of the Art and Social Practice MFA concentration off site classroom. This downtown storefront space is the home of our classes as well as a public space for lectures, discussions, workshops and exhibitions that will engage the community.
The space is also used as a hub for all students in the MFA Contemporary Art Practice Program at PSU to work directly on a project with a visiting artist that will be made public in that space. This project is connected to an intensive seminar led by that invited artist. This invitational teaching position and public project is an initiative of the Art and Social Practice concentration and is tied to the annual Open Engagement conference. Mark Dion is one of the featured presenters at this years conference and is also the first artist to lead the students in seminar that will result in the creation of an exhibition here at PSU.