Curators' Talk: Visualizing Social Movement Cultures

A multi-media  presentation by curators Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee, January 23, 2009

4:30pm - McConomy Auditorium, UC

Followed by the exhibition reception for "Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now," at the Miller Gallery (across the grass from UC), 6-8pm.

 

With “Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now,” Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee have curated an extensive collection of almost 1000 posters, flyers, photographs, videos, films, audio and other ephemera produced by social movements in over 40 countries. Beginning with the Civil Rights movement and following social justice movements up to today's fight for the environment and against capitalism, Signs of Change sheds new light on the important interplay between cultural production and drives for social change. The works in the show not only represent millions organizing for societies to transform, but also raise important questions about the functions and forms of art and culture in our times. The exhibition provides a dialogue with the past, and creates a previously unwritten context and history for the important cultural work of social movements up to the present.

Their interactive lecture will take audiences through the works in the exhibition, providing historical context to the show as well as exposure to the process of organizing it. It will include images, video, audio, and discussion. 

Dara Greenwald is a media artist and PhD Candidate in the Electronic Art Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her collaborative work often takes the form of video, writing, and cultural organizing. She worked at the Video Data Bank from 1998-2005 and taught DIY exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2003-2005.
 
Josh MacPhee is an artist, curator and activist currently living in Brooklyn, New York. His work often revolves around themes of radical politics, privatization and public space. His most recent book is Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate (Soft Skull Press, 2008, co-edited with Favianna Rodriguez). He also organizes the Celebrate People's History Poster Series and is part of the political art cooperative Justseeds.org.

For more information, visit the Miller Gallery website. 

Co-sponsored by the School of Art Lecture Series