An international conference on art and social practice organized by SAIC’s Department of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies
November 6–8, 2014
Can art practice help us to cultivate a life practice?
This driving question—at the heart of this convening—seeks to take up the age-old question of what role can art play in making meaning in our lives, while probing more contemporary concerns about the artist as community practitioners and social change-makers.
Now in the field of art, it’s time for a deep, philosophical look into the subject aimed to bridge today’s divides between arts practices, while opening up our thinking around the reciprocal relationship of art and life. What can we learn from artists who are changing our communities and social landscape through their innovative cultural output and through the ways that they live their lives?
Over an intensive weekend artists, art students, and those considering the role of art in their own life practice will join artists and thinkers to contemplate why art is a meaningful way to live. Featured participants include: Lewis Hyde, poet, essayist, translator, cultural critic, and author of The Gift and Trickster Makes This World; Ken Dunn, philosopher, recycler, gardener, and founder of the Chicago Resource Center and City Farm; Ernesto Pujol, social choreographer, performance artist, and former monk whose embodied practice is a way of living and teaching; Crispin Sartwell, philosopher, journalist, educator, and author of The Art of Living: Aesthetics of the Ordinary in World Spiritual Traditions; and Wolfgang Zumdick, philosopher, curator, educator, and author of Death Keeps Me Awake: Joseph Beuys and Rudolf Steiner, Foundations of their Thought.
A full program and registration information will be released in early fall.
Curated by Mary Jane Jacob with Kate Zeller, this conference is held in conjunction with the exhibition A Proximity of Consciousness: Art and Social Action at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sullivan Galleries (September 20–December 20, 2014), and the publication of a four-volume series on Chicago’s history of social practice since the 1880s: Art Against the Law, Immersive Life Practices, Institutions and Imaginaries, and Support Networks distributed by the University of Chicago Press.
Support for this symposium is provided in part by Salzburg Global Seminar and Goethe-Institut Chicago, as well as SAIC’s academic consortium partners: Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Chicago.
About the Department of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies
The Department’s Sullivan Galleries brings to Chicago audiences the work of acclaimed and emerging artists, while providing the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and the public opportunities for direct involvement and exchange with the discourses of art today. With shows and projects often led by faculty or student curators, it is a teaching gallery that engages the exhibition process as a pedagogical model and mode of research. Comprising approximately 30,000 square feet, the Sullivan Galleries are the largest single contemporary gallery space in Chicago’s Loop. The Sullivan Galleries are generally free and open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 6pm.
About The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
A leader in educating artists, designers, and scholars since 1866, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) offers nationally accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees and post-baccalaureate programs to more than 3,200 students from around the globe. Located in the heart of Chicago, SAIC has an educational philosophy built upon an interdisciplinary approach to art and design, giving students unparalleled opportunities to develop their creative and critical abilities, while working with renowned faculty who include many of the leading practitioners in their fields. SAIC’s resources include the Art Institute of Chicago and its Modern Wing; numerous special collections and programming venues provide students with exceptional exhibitions, screenings, lectures, and performances. For more information, please visit saic.edu.
