Newest Features
Why would one want to shift from a life dedicated to the production of art to one invested in resolving educational problems? The question sounds more interesting than it actually is. It presumes that both activities are distinctly different, demanding that a person jump from one to the other to bridge a gap. The traditional view is that art making is a private and intimate activity. Meanwhile education, well or ill defined, is a public service. While in art one has relative entrepreneurial freedom, in education one submits to regulations, quantitative assessments,…
A collection of performance art photography spanning decades, the book ‘this moment: missives from another world’ provides a unique insight into the history of performance art in Boston, Massachusetts and beyond through the perceptive lens of artist Bob Raymond. Performance art is a set of potentials; there is no standard for how a work or a performance manifests. The medium permits the space for the artist to examine, question, and push limits. As a result, performance unfolds in real time which often means the work can take unexpected directions, making documentation an…
Boston is a transient city. Each fall, legions of artists enroll in graduate programs throughout the city to nurture their talents and connections, and approximately two years later, many move on. While they are here, some of these artists are presented via exhibition or editorial to the city, and many inform and evolve the Boston art community. So why do so many leave? And how does the city affect their practice? In Elsewhere, we seek to reconnect with some of these former Boston artists, to discuss their reasons for leaving, and to…
By editors Lisa Crossman and Céline Browning In the spirit of Black Mountain College, this text is written in a collaborative first person, thinking of Leap Before You Look through the lens of our own experiences as an art historian and practicing artist and educator. Our shared commitment to the arts, education, and writing led us to ponder how a show staged to teach us about the legacy of Black Mountain College—the mythical incubator of art and education experimentation—could give us new perspective on our own creative endeavors, and ultimately question: How should…
This is the first installment of a new series focusing on arts pedagogy, incorporating course syllabi and first-hand experience to open dialogues. Here, Cathy McLaurin, an interdisciplinary artist who is currently Visiting Faculty in Performance and Senior Thesis Program at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston shares her syllabus for Open Studios, a performance art class. Performance Open Studios From September 2012 – May 2013, I taught Performance Open Studios* at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA). Open Studios students develop their own work in and…
Drawing Redefined, on view at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum through March 20, 2016, is an entrancing show, with a presentation that is at once spare and sumptuous. All the works on view spring from a drawing practice, although they are also rooted in a sculptural tradition. Throughout the show, the audience is prompted to consider process as conceptual content—a prioritization that may lead one to think about the origins of the categories of art-making, and whether this categorization is in fact helpful. The five exhibiting artists: Roni Horn, Esther Kläs, Joelle Tuerlinckx, Richard…
This interview is part of the “Boston Common” series that highlights the people and institutions that shape Boston and New England’s culture sector. It features a discussion of Voorhies’s new role as the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center at Harvard University, programming at the Carpenter Center, and its place in the Greater Boston arts scene. This interview was edited for clarity. Lisa Crossman: How would you explain the Carpenter Center to someone who’s never heard of it? James Voorhies: The Carpenter Center is an incredible building designed…
Aside from Laurence Weiner’s Dewey Square mural, A TRANSLATION FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER, the best public art I’ve come across in Boston lately is something in the basement of Goodwill in Davis Square, Somerville. There against the back wall of the otherwise forlorn space, was a double- hung, forty foot rack of t- shirts meticulously arranged in a rainbow of colors. Within each hue is an improbable number “color shifts,” all fit snuggly into the dimensions of the space. It was hard not to see the “rainbow rack” as sort of…