Yearly Archives: 2011

Announcing the Artists for 2011 Art Project « Cheng-Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project

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Thank you to all the 120 artists from 47 different countries who sent in a proposal for the 2011 Cheng Long art project.  It was difficult to select just 5 from so many good proposals.  Here is the list of the artists selected to participate in the 2011 project “Children and Artists Dream of Greener Wetlands:”

Rumen Dimitrov – Bulgaria
Firman Djamil – Indonesia
Karen Macher Nesta – Peru
Julie Chou – Taiwan
Hsin-yu Huang – Taiwan

These artists will come to Cheng Long village for the installation period, April 8 – May 2, to create their site-specific environmental sculpture installations; the opening weekend for the exhibition is set for April 30 and May 1.  You can follow the artists’ progress on this Blog.  I will be posting more about each artist and what they are planning to create in Cheng Long.

I look forward to meeting all of the selected artists and welcoming them to Cheng Long, Taiwan.  Thanks again to all of those who entered, and we hope you will consider sending another proposal next year when we have a different theme and need different artists.

via Announcing the Artists for 2011 Art Project « Cheng-Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project.

Teaneck Creek – Artists’ Projects

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Lynn Hull, Migration Mileposts, 2004

Rick Mills, Professor of Printmaking at Long Island University, is also artist in residence at the Teaneck Creek Conservancy and through this has developed a programme of art and education.  He has involved a range of artists with environmental/ecological practices, as well as work with children and young people in local schools. Using resources of the site, both natural and man-made (a significant amount of concrete from roadworks was at some point dumped in the Conservancy) the site now demonstrates their motto: Where nature, history and art come full circle.

Works address the specificity of the local (Ariane Burgess’ Turtle Peace Labyrinth) as well as the larger landscape of migration (Lynn Hull’s graphic work highlighting the origins and destinations of birds migrating through Teaneck Creek).  They reference other artists working in natural contexts (Mills homage to Ian Hamilton Finlay), as well as the issues of sustainability (Eduardo Rabel’s mural project). 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.

Go to EcoArtScotland

Museum of London – Sustainability Statement

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The Museum of London is the leading museum for London. Understanding the environmental impacts of our activities and reducing these where possible is an important element of being a leading museum and an area where we are committed to continual improvement.In the following areas Museum of London will;

Management and legislation

  • develop and continually improve its information gathering, target setting and reporting on environmental issues
  • reflect environmental and sustainability issues in its public programme (exhibitions, events, activities) where relevant
  • encourage all staff to work in an environmentally responsible manner and to contribute to improving performance
  • ensure compliance with all relevant legislation, statutory regulation and codes of practice from Display Energy Certificates to disposal of hazardous materials

Resource consumption (energy and water)

  • monitor its energy and water consumption regularly
  • seek to implement energy and water efficient solutions as part of maintenance upgrades and major refurbishment projects
  • continually raise staff awareness and encourage a culture of responsible energy usage
  • use harvested rainwater for toilets where possible and for all garden irrigation
  • continue to look for ways to improve the energy efficiency of stores
  • monitor, maintain and run environmental control equipment at an optimum level reducing energy wastage
  • reduce its carbon footprint through a combination of the measures in this policy

The three ‘R’s (reducing, re-using, recycling) and waste management

  • increase the use of our website as a source of information rather than printed materials
  • reduce waste through minimising consumption, re-using and recycling
  • provide recycling containers and bins, and recycle paper, cardboard, glass, plastics (as accepted), cans and tins as a minimum at all sites
  • consider alternative options for equipment and materials before disposal
  • minimise the use of chemicals harmful to the environment to a level consistent with the needs to properly
  • and safely conserve objects
  • dispose of used and surplus chemicals in a safe and responsible manner using licensed contractors

Building and refurbishment

  • require all new building and refurbishment work to improve environmental performance through design, construction and operation for both public and back of house areas
  • carry out energy and environment appraisals and assessments in line with best practice when refurbishing premises
  • maintain high standards of energy and environmental management, including noise
  • ensure the Museum will not contaminate soil, ground and surface water from buildings, building materials or gas
  • require tenders, where necessary, to specify what Environmental or Waste Management Systems have been put in place and to monitor these

Procurement

  • aim to balance sustainability considerations with Value for Money principles
  • ensure materials used and goods purchased derive, where possible and relevant, from sustainable sources
  • work with catering partners to offer organic and fair-trade food and drink where possible
  • consider the sustainability policies and practices of suppliers and contractors
  • ensure all paper and printed materials for general use are, as a minimum, Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified

Travel and transport

  • encourage the use of public transport by staff and visitors
  • support cycling and car sharing initiatives
  • limit journeys by Museum vehicles to essential operational requirements
  • ensure Museum vehicles are maintained to ensure they run economically
  • consider different transport options when moving objects on loan, whilst ensuring care of collections

Approved by the Museum of London Executive Committee in February 2011

Land Arts of the American West

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Apply: UNM IS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2011 FALL PROGRAM.

Land Arts of the American West is an ongoing experiment in an interdisciplinary model for an Arts pedagogy based in place. The Land Arts program provides students with direct, physical engagement with a full range of human interventions in the landscape, from pre contact Native America architecture, rock paintings and petrogylphs to contemporary Earthworks, federal infrastructure, and the constructions of the US Military. Land art includes gestures both grand and small, directing our attention from potsherd, cigarette butt, and track in the sand to human settlements, monumental artworks, and military/industrial projects such as hydroelectric dams, interstate highways, mines, and decommissioned airfields.

Each year the Land Arts program travels extensively throughout the southwestern United States and north central Mexico to live and work for over fifty days on the land. Our time is divided between investigating cultural sites such as Chaco Canyon, Roden Crater, Hoover Dam, Wendover Complex of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Juan Mata Ortiz, Spiral Jetty and the Very Large Array and working in the variety of eco-niches provided by our campsites at places such as the Grand Canyon, Grand Gulch, Gila Wilderness, Bosque del Apache and Otero Mesa Grasslands. Our current focus is on the issues of sustainability with a particular interest in food production and water use in the southwest.

Visit: The Land Arts of the American West student blog

HISTORY

Bill Gilbert started the Land Arts program in 2000 based on ten years of field programming at Acoma Pueblo and Juan Mata Ortiz, Mexico. In 2000, John Wenger served as co-director contributing his experience of over 25 years in the wilderness of northern New Mexico and southeast Utah. Starting in 2002, the Land Arts program has developed as a collaboration between Gilbert and Chris Taylor. Professor Taylor currently directs the Land Arts program at Texas Tech University, http://landarts.arch.ttu.edu/. In 2005 and 2007, Erika Osborne co-directed the program in the field. In 2009 Catherine Harris joined the program as new faculty in the Art & Ecology area at UNM and Jeanette Hart-Mann (Land Arts program 2000) has assumed responsibility for the program field logistics.

BOOK

In 2009 the University of Texas Press published the book, Land Arts of the American West, presenting the ongoing collaboration in which artist Bill Gilbert and architect Chris Taylor investigate and create land art with their students. The book is organized around places visited over the first seven years of the program. The over 400 color photographs are accompanied by descriptive information about the site’s natural and human history; student journal entries presenting first-person experiences; essays by William L. Fox, Ann Reynolds, J.J. Brody, and Lucy Lippard; and interviews with Mary Lewis Garcia, Graciela Martinez de Gallegos and Hector Gallegos, and Matthew Coolidge. Woven throughout the text is a conversation amongst Gilbert, Taylor, and writer William L. Fox, covering the Land Arts program’s origins, pedagogic mission, field operations, interactions with guest lecturers, and future directions.

project::endangered species

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ENDANGERED SPECIES – This temporary public art project uses transit vehicles and their environments as a medium, investigating relationships between city and region, social and environmental values. From January into April 2011, four Endangered Species buses will circulate throughout San Francisco, dispatched to different routes each day.

FROM THE PROJECT SITE: The idea came when I learned the SFMTA’s “Transit Effectiveness Project” was measuring maintenance, driving efficiencies, ridership statistics, the bread and butter of transportation engineers work. But no one was discussing aesthetics, or what wider impacts and meanings transit has. It seemed to me that an assessment of effectiveness should include these criteria too.

Like street trees, sidewalk cafes, and parks, public transit vehicles can be lively, as well as useful visual elements of everyday urban life. But the buses are so assaulted by advertising, it’s as if our transit system is not our own. But whose environment is it? How can we best look after the places we live? Public transit is about pooling and sharing resources. Bringing the bus together with local ecosystems and  vulnerable animal species was a natural fit once I started to think about it that way.

The project is also a metaphor of the relationships it addresses, like a fractal whose structure is similar at different scales. The images on the buses are at the center, but they are activated as the buses circulate through different neighborhoods and circumstances. And in parallel to the buses, there is the project website, which opens doors to information and partnerships with area non-profits whose work addresses the questions the project is raising: what is beauty in everyday life? what are our responsibilities to the resources we use? How is ownership and power divided between people – and between species?

As the project evolves I’ll be updating this webpage. For more on how I’ve been thinking about Endangered Species, please see my article “In and Out of Place” in ANTENNAE: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. And for more on the species and organizations behind the project, please browse the project website. Photographs of the buses are posted on Flickr here.

I am grateful to the many people who have helped with Endangered Species, as well to these supporting institutions: Community Initiatives, a San Francisco-based fiscal sponsor which is a 501 (c)(3) organization; the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority; SPUR; and the San Francisco Arts Commission, Potrero Nuevo Fund of Tides Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, San Francisco Foundation, Adobe Community Foundation, and Christensen Fund.

via project::endangered species.

4X4 Dance Body And The Environment

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4×4 is an eleven-day event on the theme of dance, body and the environment for dance or movement artists, choreographers and artists working in related art-forms.

“Somewhere in the midst of ‘sustainability’ lies an inspiring vision of transformation. As movement artists we will take our dance and choreographic practice into this territory, developing and deepening our sense of the self within the body, to inspire and engender a vital reconnection between humanity and the planet”.

Artists of any discipline and level of experience are welcome to participate in all or just part of the event.

The content and structure of the event will evolve, responding to the needs and interests of the guest artist and participants. The timetable will include taught workshops, performances, discussions, and study labs, with time and space for self-organised and spontaneous activities.

4×4 takes place at two distinctive locations:

The Findhorn Eco-village – a major international centre dedicated to personal and planetary transformation, with access to The Universal Hall Arts Centre theatre, dune-lands, gardens, woods and coastline.

Dundreggan, Glen Moriston, Scottish Highlands – a 10,000 acre estate, owned and run by the charity, Trees For Life, who work to help restore the Caledonian Forest.

www.treesforlife.org.uk/dundreggan

The rural and community settings offered by both locations, shared meals and relaxed social spaces will combine to offer a unique and stimulating environment in which to study, practice and engage with other artists.

To enable and encourage as many artists to participate as possible, the price for unfunded independent artists is equivalent to accommodation + food + £15 per day! Please enquire for the price of funded or supported places. Scottish artists may be able to apply to Creative Scotland’s Professional Development fund.

Please contact us for further information about the event, up to date pricing, guest artists, accommodation and travel options.

via 4X4 Dance Body And The Environment.

Environmental Artist in Residence – McColl Center for Visual Art

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Charlotte, NC
Deadline: Ongoing-May 1, 2011 for first selection
Media: Sculpture, Installation
Geographic restrictions: None
Residency period: From weeks to 3 months

Call for established and emerging artists, design professionals and collaborators to create works of environmental art in the public domain. Opportunities for installations that go beyond interacting with the urban environment and become remedial interventions. The Environmental Artist-in-Residence (EAIR) program encourages artists to have beneficial impacts on the urban life through creation of art that is scientifically relevant, meaningful and beneficial environmental art.

Prospectus: http://www.mccollcenter.org/documents/eair_application_2.2011_.pdf
Information: http://www.mccollcenter.org/
email: eair@mccollcenter.org