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A conversation about the shifting dynamics in how artists and communities interact in Philadelphia
Slought and The Artblog are pleased to announce "Activism, Evangelism, Art," a public conversation with artists and educators Pepón Osorio, Ken Lum, Aaron Levy, and Amy Sadao as respondent, on Monday, March 23, 2015 from 6:30-8:00pm. The conversation seeks to bring together diverse voices from the Philadelphia cultural community for a wide-ranging discussion about the shifting dynamics in how artists and communities interact in Philadelphia.
By foregrounding the term "evangelism" in this conversation, we seek to complicate conventional understandings of how artists and communities interact, and raise complex questions about advocacy and authorship. We also seek to explore the resonance of this term in Philadelphia, where there is a rich history of evangelism across civic and religious registers, beginning with historical groups such as the Quakers (1660-) and Richard Allen's African Methodist Episcopal Church (1794-), the printing of Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776), and more recently in the cultural community the work of Mural Arts (1986-) and Spiral Q (1995-). By calling attention to these historical precedents, we seek to enable a conversation about the relationship of this city's past to current artistic practices and the contemporary imagination.
In evoking the term "evangelism" we also acknowledge art historian Grant Kester's formative essay "Aesthetic Evangelists" (1995), which critically explores the power dynamics between artists and communities. Join us for a lively discussion concerning these issues and others, including the development of social trust and the role of ownership and collaboration, in community art practices in Philadelphia today.
Featured conversants include:
Amy Sadao is the Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Sadao served for ten years as the Executive Director of Visual AIDS in New York City. (Read more)
Pepón Osorio is a Puerto Rican-born artist based in Philadelphia. For decades Osorio has worked collaboratively with communities to create and exhibit work. Osorio teaches at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. (Read more)
Ken Lum is a Vancouver-born artist and the co-curator of Monuments Lab, a public art and urban research project. Lum is the Director of the Fine Arts Undergraduate Program and a Professor in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. (Read more)
Aaron Levy is the Executive Director and co-founder of Slought and a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of English and the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. (Read more)