threewallsSALONS

 

"Historically, [discourse]... was a gesture fraught with risks before becoming goods caught up in a circuit of ownership." – Michel Foucault

threewallsSALONS are open, topical conversations, where the public is invited to participate in a moderated conversation around current issues in contemporary art practice. For these open-forum discussions, threewalls invites a group of respondents to be on hand and part of the discussion, but everyone is welcome to come and be apart of the dialog.

Now announcing the 2011 SALON series. Check the Archives to learn more about past Salons.

 @work

2011 SALON Schedule:

Curating the Turn
Tuesday, February 1, 7:00 p.m.

Crisis-Free Arts Criticism
Tuesday, March 1, 7:00 p.m.

Unschooling Arts Education
Tuesday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.

Arts Administration
Tuesday, April 26, 7:00 p.m.
 

Traditional labels for arts workers don’t hold much water any more. On the one hand, notions of artistic practice, curatorial practice, arts writing and arts administration are expanding and blurring. But on the other hand, those categories are also being professionalized through graduate degree programs and related critical activities (such as symposia and arts journals). This simultaneous fluidity between, and attempt to define, different “art professions” reveals a real paradigm shift in the roles arts professionals play in the creation, exhibition, and discussion of new artwork, a shift that has been called the “educational turn” by some.

For this SALON series, @work, we ask: what is the nature of this paradigm shift, what are the conditions that are producing it, and why is it happening now?

Our investigation highlights the tensions and conflicts that this shift produces. As we explore the evolving definitions of curator, arts writer, arts educator and arts administrator, we ask: Is the self-reflexivity apparent in much of today’s curatorial projects a symptom of a simmering self-doubt about what curators are good for? Is the democratization in art criticism through new online platforms still just a fantasy? How do art workers in all disciplines negotiate shifting power dynamics as they encroach upon each other's territories? And how can we all take advantage of this newfound flexibility in ways that are mutually beneficial and, at the same time, good for the art world?

To explore these questions and many more, we are inviting a host of artists and art professionals to discuss how this shift has affected their practice, professional relationships, and their stakes in these shifting power dynamics.

@work is a special threewallsSALONS series curated by Rebecca Hernandez and Ania Szremski, both MA candidates at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Art History, Theory and Criticism and Arts Administration. Held on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm, SALONS feature guest respondents in round table discussion with the public about currents in the contemporary visual arts.

threewallsSALONS are an ongoing project that invites creative producers and thinkers into the gallery for an open-forum discussion about currents in contemporary visual art and culture. SALONS pose a discussion topic, gather a few key contributors and then open up the floor for discussion between those actively engaged in the 'question' and anyone and everyone who would like to come and be a part of the conversation.