June 12–September 1, 2013
Opening reception: Wednesday, June 12, 6–8pm
Mills College Art Museum
5000 MacArthur Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94613
Museum hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–4pm,
Wednesdays 11am–7:30pm. Closed on Monday
T 510 430 2164
The Mills College Art Museum (MCAM) is pleased to present West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965–1977.
In the heady and hallucinogenic days of the 1960s and ’70s, a diverse range of artists and creative individuals based in the American West—from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest—broke the barriers between art and lifestyle and embraced the new, hybrid sensibilities of the countercultural movement. West of Center illuminates the unique works of these individuals through videos, photographs, drawings, ephemera, and other original and re-created objects and environments.
The countercultural movement has typically been associated with psychedelic art, but West of Center presents psychedelia as only one dimension of the larger, artistically oriented, socially based phenomenon. The wider integration of art practices, political action and collaborative life activities is foundational for so much contemporary art and culture.
West of Center, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, brings together a range of projects by groups and individuals including the Ant Farm Collective, San Francisco’s extravagant theater groups the Cockettes and the Angels of Light, former Black Panther Emory Douglas, Drop City commune in southern Colorado, modern dancer Anna Halprin, light show producers Single Wing Turquoise Bird, and the Womyn’s Lands of Southern Oregon.
West of Center is co-curated by Elissa Auther, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado, and Adam Lerner, Director and Chief Animator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.
This exhibition is supported, in part, with funds provided by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Public programs
Visit mcam.mills.edu for full details.
West of Center Opening Reception featuring Cockette Chaos! A Total Extravaganza
Wednesday, June 12, 6–8pm
Mills College Art Museum
Free shuttle service provided from the MacArthur Bart station.
West of Center Screening: The Cockettes
Palace (1971), directed by Syd Dutton and Scott Runyon, 23 minutes
Elevator Girls In Bondage (1972), directed by Michal Kalmen, 57 minutes
Wednesday, June 26, 7pm
Danforth Lecture Hall, Mills College Art Center
Followed by a Q&A with original Cockettes, Fayette Hauser and Rumi Missabou.
West of Center Screening: Drop City
Drop City (2012), directed by Joan Grossman, 82 minutes
Wednesday, July 10, 7pm
Danforth Lecture Hall, Mills College Art Center
West of Center Screening: Ant Farm
Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm (2011), directed by Elizabeth Federici and Laura Harrison, 77 minutes
Wednesday, July 24, 7pm
Danforth Lecture Hall, Mills College Art Center
Followed by a Q&A with original Ant Farm members Chip Lord and Curtis Schreier
West of Center closing reception
Wednesday, August 28, 6–8pm
Mills College Art Museum
West of Center Screening: Anna Halprin
Breath Made Visible (2009), directed by Ruedi Gerber, 82 minutes
Friday, August 30, 7pm
Danforth Lecture Hall, Mills College Art Center
Body Dances with Anna Halprin
Saturday, August 31, 2–4pm
Rothwell Center, Mills College
10 USD (Free for Mills College students, faculty and staff)
About the Mills College Art Museum (MCAM)
Founded in 1925, The Mills College Art Museum is a forum for exploring art and ideas and a laboratory for contemporary art practices. Through innovative exhibitions, programs, and collections, the museum engages and inspires the intellectual and creative life of the Mills community as well as the diverse audiences of the Bay Area and beyond.
Media contact:
Maysoun Wazwaz
T 510 430 3340
[email protected]
