March 4 conference explores art as social action

A University of Louisville conference March 4 — “Public Art and the City 2016 - Art as Social Action: Louisville Implications” — will examine art’s role in bringing change and affecting the future of cities and neighborhoods. The free, public symposium will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium on the Belknap Campus. UofL’s Center for Arts and Culture Partnerships organized the event with support from the Liberal Studies Project, fine arts department and College of Arts and Sciences. Parking is available for a fee at the nearby Speed Art Museum garage on Third Street. Keynote speaker will be Mary Jane Jacob, executive director of exhibitions and exhibition studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and former chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and in Los Angeles. Taking her work outside museum spaces, she has organized site- and community-based programs in cities including Chicago, Atlanta and Charleston, S.C. Jacob will discuss the use of art as a social force and in sustained engagement with locations. Three panel discussions will focus on:

1. Artists’ housing and exhibition spaces. Panelists will include Paducah tourism official Fowler Black, UofL glass artist Che Rhodes, gallery operator Chuck Swanson and filmmaker-real estate entrepreneur Gill Holland discussing challenges and opportunities in neighborhood resettlement and redevelopment.
2. Governmental and cultural interchange. Speakers will include Gretchen Milliken, Vision Louisville; Ramona Lindsey, West Louisville Women’s Coalition; the Rev. Cindy Weber, Jefferson Street Baptist Center; and Jim Turner, Samuel Plato Academy of Historic Preservation Trades, discussing peace, carpentry, entertainment and other public art-linked local projects.
3. UofL initiatives in western Louisville. University faculty and staff will discuss community engagement efforts underway in the city.

For more information, contact Peter Morrin, director of UofL's Center for Arts and Culture Partnerships, at 502-852-2361 or peter.morrin@louisville.edu.