Conference Program

Unruly Engagements was part of CIA’s year-long series of events and exhibitions exploring socially engaged art. Below is the schedule from the conference that took place from November 6-8, 2014.

Thursday, November 6

7:15pm

Friday, November 7

9:00–11:45am [2 concurrent sessions]

Socially Engaged Art and the Public Sphere, Part 1 

• Gabriel Villalobos Villanueva, Faculty of Architecture at UNAM, Mexico City: “Which Public Sphere?” 
• Laurencia Strauss and Maura Pelletieri, Washington University, St. Louis, MO: “Impossible Wants”
• Barbara Caveng, Independent artist, Berlin: “'Though this be madness, yet there is method in it’—Three Unruly Projects”
• Carol A. Stakenas, (SPAN) Curator-at-Large, Jules Rochielle, (SPAN) Founder, and Director of Social Design Collective, John Spiak, Director/Chief Curator at Grand Central Art Center (Santa Ana, CA), and Christina Vassallo, SPACES' Executive Director (Cleveland): "Social Practices Art Network, (SPAN) Survey and Together Workshop launch"

Historical Precedents and Present Strategies of Social Practice

• Craig Smith, School of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts, University of Florida: “The World Series of Relation: Spaces of Encounter”
• Allison Rowe, Independent artist, Toronto: “The Instrumentalization of Social Practices”
• David Gutiérrez Castañeda, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Southern Conceptualism Network: “Restitution Exercises: Suzanne Lacy and Skin of Memory (Medellín, 1999)” 
• Carol Zou, Head Poncho, Yarn Bombing Los Angeles, Otis College of Art and Design Graduate Public Practice: “Crafting the Social: Refiguring Social Practice through Women's Work”
• Izabel Galliera, Art and Art History Department, McDaniel College, MD: “Socially Engaged Art in Hungary’s Second Society, 1956-1980”

12:15–1:15pm

Lunch On Friday

Ben Kinsley, Jessica Langley, Jerstin Crosby, Independent artists, New York City: “Janks Archive: A Collection of Insult Humor from Around the World”

1:30–4:15pm [two concurrent sessions]

Urban Design and Design in the City as a Force for Change

• Kajsa G. Eriksson and Lena TH Berglin, Vague Research Studios, Gothenburg, Sweden: “Fluid Design: Resilient Artistic Processes in Public Space”
• Dru McKeown, TOIstudio, Cleveland: “Performative Installations: Greening Gordon Square, 2686 Ones, and Other Projects”
• Allison Schifani, Postdoctoral Scholar, Digital Humanities, Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland: “Speculative Urbanism: Imagining Rust Belt Futures”
• Jeffrey Kruth, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Kent State University: “Seeking Alternative Commons through the Community Design Process in Cleveland”

Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics

• Taliesin Thomas, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, and Director, AW Asia, New York: “Al Weiwei and Social Activism in the Internet Age”
• Michael Stone-Richards, College for Creative Studies, Detroit: “Care, Play, and the Subject of Social Practice”
• Liza Kim Jackson, York University, Toronto, Environmental Studies/Red Wagon Collective and Nancy Halifax, York University, Toronto, Critical Disability Studies/Red Wagon Collective: “Difference, Immiseration and Art in a Women's Shelter”
• Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky, Public Studio, Toronto: “Visit Palestine: Change Your View”
• Justine Williams, Performance and Interactive Media Arts, Brooklyn College (PIMA), and Yale School of Drama: “Let’s All Watch How We Watch: The Machine Poetics of Machine Project, a Trans-disciplinary Art Space for the Digital Age”

5:00–6:00pm 

Exhibition Panel Discussion

• Maj Hasager (Denmark)
• Dor Guez (Israel)
• Susan Jahoda (New York City)
• Chi-Yu Liao (Taiwan)
• José Carlos Teixeira (Portugal)
• Caroline Woolard (New York City)
• Moderated by Bruce Checefsky, Director, Reinberger Galleries,
  Cleveland Institute of Art

6:00–8:00pm

Exhibition Opening Reception

Community Works: Artist as Social Agent

Saturday, November 8

9:00–11:45am [2 concurrent sessions]

Artists as Activists: Voices from the Great Lakes Region

• Amy M. Mooney, Curator and Associate Professor of Art History, Columbia College Chicago, and Neysa Page-Lieberman, Curator and Director of Exhibitions, Performance and Student Spaces, Columbia College Chicago: “RISK: Empathy, Art, and Social Practice”
• Melissa Smedley, Artist-at-Large and Nanette Yannuzzi, Artist/Rabble Rouser: “Frack Age”
• Keith Hayes, Designer, Milwaukee: “sp/acement”
• Marin Abell, Catron Visiting Artist/Professor, Washburn University, KS: “Before the Casinos Come”
• Justin A. Langlois, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and Broken City Lab, Vancouver, BC: “Antagonism as Form”

Student Agency and Society: Visions for the 21st Century Art School

• Tina Carlisi, Concordia University, Montreal: “Student Movement/Student Agency: New Visions for the 21st Century Art School”
• Erin Colleen Johnson, University of West Georgia, and Rachel Reese, Georgia State University: “Cross-curricular experience and social practice in the urban and rural fine arts classroom”
• Paul Stewart, Tate Gallery, and Teesside University, and Mary O'Neill, University of Lincoln, UK: “’Just Say No’: Alternative Strategies to Art Education”
• Carol Padberg, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford: “Rethinking the MFA! (Or, a Cautionary Tale of Academic Boldness)”
• Maureen Connor, Social Practice Queens, Queens College, and Susan Jahoda, University of Massachusetts, Amhurst: “Pedagogy Group: Teachers’ Lounge”

12:15–1:15pm

Lunch on Saturday

Misha Rabinovich (Los Angeles), Caitlin Foley (Los Angeles), and Zach Dunn (Ann Arbor), artists, educators, and co-founders of the Disaster Solutions Institute: “Energizing Community with Mobile Sauna Sweat Batteries”

1:30–4:30pm

Socially Engaged Art and the Public Sphere, Part 2

• Brett Hunter, School of Art and Design, Alfred University, NY: “Threads in the Fabric: Artists, Citizenship, and Communities”
• Anna Hart and Tilly Fowler, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London: “Terms & Conditions [A Performed Public Reading]”
• Catherine Bernard, Art History, SUNY College at Old Westbury, NY: “Guerilla 2.0”
• Annabel Manning, Independent artist, Charlotte, NC: “Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid, a Collaborative Art Project between Annabel Manning and Immigrant Youth Forum, United 4 the Dream and Familias Unidas”

• Jen delos Reyes, Art and Social Practice, Portland State University, OR: “Unruly Engagements: Closing Remarks”