http://www.design.umn.edu/go/project/DAIP07
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Design and Its Publics: Curators, Critics and Historians
For the first time, the Design Institute (College of Design) and the
Department of Art History (College of Liberal Arts) are joining forces
to present an international conference on the state of contemporary
architecture and design discourse. In two days of conversation, our
distinguished speakers will offer reciprocal reflections on architecture
and design criticism and curatorial practice, contrasting the
perspectives from North America and Europe.
Design and Its Publics: Curators, Critics, and Historians will take
place on Friday and Saturday, April 27-28, 2007, 12pm - 6pm in Rapson
Hall Auditorium, in the College of Design, 89 Church Street,
Minneapolis, MN.
On the first day, the invited critics and historians will offer their
assessments of the significance of Minneapolis's new public architecture
within the larger sphere of a global architectural culture, and the role
of critical writing and mass media in shaping this culture.
On the second day, the invited curators/museum directors will describe
how they, too, shape public perception of design and architecture
through their curatorial strategies and acquisitions policies, exhibit
installations, and museum education programs.
Each group will serve as interlocutors for the other, in panel
discussions on both days, which will be moderated by the co-organizers,
Janet Abrams, Director, Design Institute, and Steven F. Ostrow, Chair,
Department of Art History, along with Tom Fisher, Dean, College of
Design. For more details on the context for this conference, and the
likely presentation and roundtable topics, scroll down below the speaker
list.
DAIP is made possible in part by funds from the Donald R. Torbert
Lecture Fund at the Department of Art History and the Scholarly Events
Fund at the College of Liberal Arts.
This event will be free and open to the public, and admission is
first-come, first-served by email application to design@xxxxxxx with
'DAIP' in subject.
Speakers:
FRIDAY APRIL 27 (12pm - 6pm)
Critics and historian assess Minneapolis's new public architecture
Frances Anderton, host, DnA: Design and Architecture, KCRW 89.9 FM, and
KCRW.com, Los Angeles
Ole Bouman, Director, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, and
editor-in-chief, Volume
Jean-Louis Cohen, Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of
Architecture, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York
Margaret Crawford, Professor of Urban Design and Planning Theory,
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
Maarten Delbeke, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent
University, Belgium, and Leiden University, The Netherlands
Suzanne Stephens Deputy Editor, Architectural Record, New York
Olivier Touraine, Touraine Richmond Architects, Venice, CA; Visiting
Professor, UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, and
Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation.
SATURDAY APRIL 28 (12pm - 6pm)
New curatorial strategies for architecture and design
Paola Antonelli, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum
of Modern Art, New York
Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design,
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Brooke Hodge, Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles
Joseph Rosa, John H. Bryan Curatorial Chair of Architecture and Design,
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Zoe Ryan, Neville Bryan Curator of Design, Art Institute of Chicago,
Chicago
Deyan Sudjic, Director, Design Museum, London; formerly architecture
critic, The Observer
Henry Urbach, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
DESIGN AND ITS PUBLICS: the background context
In the past few years, Minneapolis has experienced a renaissance in the
sphere of public architecture, with the opening of Herzog and de
Meuron's Walker Art Center expansion, Michael Graves' addition to the
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Cesar Pelli's new Minneapolis Central
Library and Jean Nouvel's Guthrie Theater. New projects are also in the
works, including the MacPhail Center for the Arts, Minnesota Shubert
Performing Arts and Education Center, and Frank Gehry's addition to his
earlier Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota
campus.
Minneapolis has, therefore, become a magnet for contemporary public
architecture, with corresponding attention not just from architectural
critics in scholarly and trade journals, but in general-readership
magazines and newspapers, across the country and around the world. The
city's architecture is clearly a 'hot' topic, but its larger
implications and consequences are only just beginning to be considered.
Several recent symposia and conferences — for example, Architects Shape
the New Minneapolis , the 2003-2004 series sponsored by the Weisman Art
Museum — focused on the new public buildings during their planning and
construction, and featured their architects in dialogue with local
critics and educators.
Design and Its Publics will move the discussion in new directions by
focusing on the reception, significance, contextualization and
presentation of these new buildings by architectural critics and
historians, writing both for scholarly and general audiences.
Rather than focusing exclusively on museum architecture (as the past
symposia did) or simply providing a forum for architects to present
their projects, this symposium will offer a stocktaking, as well as a
look forward. It will offer a broad critical assessment of Minneapolis's
new public buildings, analyzing them as exemplars of a global phenomenon
whereby individual cities seek to raise their cultural and economic
profile by hiring internationally-renowned architects to add signature
works to their skylines.
Meanwhile, a crop of recent curatorial appointments in architecture and
design has effected a 'changing of the guard' at some of the most
influential museums in the U.S. and Europe. These new curators will set
new agendas for these institutions, significantly shaping how
architecture and design are articulated to diverse audiences. Now is a
propitious moment to gather this group of opinion-leaders, to hear where
they think architecture and design are heading.
How will these new directors and curators shift consciousness of design
— among practitioners and the public — through their exhibitions,
publications, and gallery/museum environments? In light of the histories
of many museums, and the 'canons' of design with which they have become
synonymous, to what extent can this new generation of curators really
innovate, and turn their respective institutions in new ideological
directions? How will they approach the curatorial categories of
Architecture and Design: are these still distinct areas, or are such
departmental distinctions beginning to become obsolete? How has the
recent emergence of 'immaterial', digital artifacts and interactive
design affected both the form and content of both temporary exhibitions
and permanent collections?
These are some of the issues to be addressed at Design and Its Publics,
in individual keynote presentations, and in the roundtable discussions
that will draw together the ideas generated in the papers, and provide
opportunities for dialogue between audience and speakers.