artonpaper magazine

The Graphic Unconscious
Peter Nesbett talks with Philagrafika 2010 artistic director José Roca

Please check out this fascinating conversation between Peter Nesbett and Philagrafika’s José Roca in the November/December 2009 issue of artonpaper magazine:

http://artonpaper.com/bi/v14n02/profile.php

(Philagrafika received a 2009 PEI Implementation grant)

You will not be disappointed!

Daniel Fuller interviews Stacy Switzer, Artistic Director, Grand Arts. A Symphony in 3 parts…

I absolutely love small art scenes that seem to have the ability to catch you by surprise. It’s the beauty of the internet--the gift of being able to follow from afar scenes in cities we have never visited. Of course, there are interesting communities in Portland and Providence, Houston and Oakland, but I maintain that over the past two years or so, no non-native has been more interested than I have been in Kansas City. And, not only have I never been a resident, but I have never set foot within the city limits. Sure, the Steven Holl Bloch building addition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art grabs all of the headlines (Time magazine ranked it #1 on the "The 10 Best New and Upcoming Architectural Marvels" list), but there is something about the funky artist collaborations and the multitude of interesting non-profits that makes the city seem like a utopia in the middle of Tornado Alley. In case you have not visited in person or haven’t had the online tour, here is the lay of the land: the Kansas City Art Institute cranks out creative kids, and houses the H&R Block Artspace, an incredibly interesting collegiate gallery. Recent grads used to hightail it for the greener pastures of fame and fortune in New York or Chicago. (A problem Kansas City shares with many a small city.) The development of the Charlotte Street Foundation, which provides unrestricted financial awards to individual artists (not to mention professional development support), has made it viable for a creative class not to just remain, but to flourish. Just down the road from the Art Institute and the Nelson-Atkins, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art has been mounting innovative exhibitions since 1994. Just when it looked as though the Crossroads, one of the largest arts districts in the U.S. and home to the city’s First Fridays, was about to lose its anchor warehouse building due to gentrification, the Kemper stepped in and opened the Kemper at the Crossroads. This is a completely new venture that is sure to solidify relationships with the young artists of the neighborhood and open the museum to wider audiences. Another new kid on the block sits just across the river in Kansas City, Kansas: the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, at Johnson County Community College. It is the largest museum of contemporary art within a four-state radius. You may be asking how I am able to follow all of this from Philly. It’s tough, but made easier with the help of the Kansas City art blog Shorttage (“Where funds are low and creativity is high”). My favorite posts are the reviews of opening night hors d'oeuvres.

Of course, there is one institution that has been conspicuously left out of this discussion, one of my favorite curatorial programs in the country: Grand Arts. I’ve always admired the imaginative work of the Artistic Director of this quintessential alternative space, Stacy Switzer, whose exhibitions attempt to confront current political/racial/ecological issues. Switzer and Grand Arts maintain a program that continually challenges artists and audiences alike in unexpected ways by treating galleries as laboratories, not pristine white boxes. When PEI announced the creation of our Curatorial Consultation Program, I instantly knew that it would be a tremendous benefit to our region to have Stacy involved. Luckily, Andrew Suggs, Director of Vox Populi, agreed, and our first match was made. It is our hope that Stacy’s ideas will be as inspirational to Vox as they have been to us.

I was fortunate enough to have Stacy answer a few questions about the state of the arts in Kansas City, as well as her hopes for her upcoming experiences with Vox:

Continuing ...

Daniel Fuller: Over its history Grand Arts has exhibited more than 70 projects by artists. The fascinating thing about your program is that, more than solely curating exhibitions, you use the spaces as co-producers, foremen who commission and fully assist artists in the realization of their wildest dreams. You provide financial, technical, logistical support and even maintain an onsite 4,000-square-foot fabrication studio. Artists that have worked with you tell me there isn’t a more flexible residency program around. If alternative spaces are defined by the capacity to risk failure, how do you measure/define success? Have there been projects that initially felt impossible, yet ended triumphantly? Do you ever have to just say “no” to an artist’s idea?

Stacy Switzer: These are great questions! And they are ones which we find ourselves asking, responding to, and returning to again and again. Curatorially, we look for projects that have a certain urgency about them—things that feel like they need to be in the world. As for measuring success, the way we define it is different for most every project, and depends enormously upon what the artist wants and needs from the project and from their experience with Grand Arts. The conversation about these needs and goals develops over time—and it tends to be a very intuitive, intimate dance between the artist and our staff and other collaborators. Everything, including the core ideas for a project, tends to evolve and shift over the course of a collaboration, which for us is usually about one to three years. We encourage this as part of our process and what we offer to artists—space and time to ponder, rethink, and revise.

Some of the questions we always consider are: Is the artist taking a significant leap within their practice? Have we as collaborators brought everything we have to the table in terms of creative problem solving? Is the artist connecting with a certain audience they hoped to reach? How will the artist be able to leverage the project they’ve worked on at Grand Arts into further opportunities down the road?

It’s true that for some of our most technically and logistically challenging projects, success can be defined in part by just seeing the work through to completion. William Pope.L’s 2008 flag project, Trinket, for example, presented some extraordinary technical challenges. We needed to figure out how to make a colossal American flag (three stories high and more than twice as long) whip around violently in an indoor space, where the ceiling was not much taller than the flag itself. The aura around the flag needed to feel dangerous, like it was blowing so hard it could hurt you, but at the same time we wanted the flag to have a certain proximity to viewers… so that you could reach out and touch it if you dared. After beginning with some homespun experiments, and moving on to consult with a wind engineer and industrial HVAC specialists, we ended up working with a wonderful person from the Hollywood special effects industry who retrofitted giant propeller fans—the kind they use to make tornadoes for movies like Twister—to make them work for us. The final work was spectacular, but we weren’t sure how we were going to make it happen until just a couple of months before it opened. We took a quick trip to L.A. to do tests in a sound stage, and when we finally saw the test flag up and flying, it was a very emotional moment.

I think Pope.L’s project is a poignant example because his work is itself so often about failure. And risk and the potential for failure are embedded in everything we do at Grand Arts. As are—again—adaptability, change, revision. There have only been a couple of times in Grand Arts’ history where we’ve had to suspend work on a project because of a conflict in expectations or schedules or what have you. One of these projects, which is still very dear to me, came to a stop due in part to differences among collaborators (Grand Arts was in the role of mediator) and in part because to do justice to the idea, it would have taken some truly astronomical resources. Done wrong, it could have collapsed and killed someone—so even though I was heartbroken to stop work after more than a year of research and development, I like to joke now that we escaped a falling ceiling, and maybe a manslaughter charge!

DF: Are you at all concerned with the provincial nature of the national arts press? Unless a big splash is made (like with the Steven Holl Nelson-Atkins addition), Kansas City art spaces seldom receive the attention they deserve because there just aren’t many regional critics. Can this actually be considered an advantage, an opportunity to be experimental instigators and take more artistic risks?

SS: Yes, I think you can see it as an advantage, and historically, I believe it has offered artists coming to Grand Arts from other places a degree of freedom that they might not feel elsewhere. But it’s also important that magazines such as Art Papers and others are beginning to cover more of what is going on in Kansas City, because artists here desperately need the critical dialogue and feedback.

DF: Obviously you are aware that in the course of five years the Pitch (Kansas City’s weekly version of Philadelphia’s City Paper) named you: Best Curator (2006), Best Solo Exhibition (2008) and Best Curatorial Debut (2004). Your trophy shelf must need reinforcing! An incredibly impressive aspect of these awards may be what the paper wrote about your shows: “We don't always understand, or even like, the high-concept installations at Grand Arts, which in the past year have included Aidas Bareikis' garish squadron of debris; Nadine Robinson's Revelations-inspired light sculptures; Neal Rock's large-scale, silicone abstractions; and a boat.” This was written while awarding best curator. I find this accepting, willingness to look, learn and trust your curatorial voice to be far beyond what is often seen in local press. Does this openness extend to your viewing public?


How does Grand Arts think about its audiences and how do you engage with them?

SS: That quote from the Pitch is pretty funny, especially if you take a look at the boat! It was an exquisitely beautiful installation by the artist Michael Jones McKean, but also rather intimidating in scale and (I suppose this is what they were getting at) in concept.

Of course, it’s great to be welcomed and recognized in the ways you described. Kansas City has a very sophisticated art-going public, and people always expect to see something challenging when they come to Grand Arts. This too is part of Grand Arts’ founding mission—to present work that might not be seen otherwise in Kansas City, or anywhere. For this and other reasons, Grand Arts occupies its own niche locally, regionally and nationally. On the one hand, we maintain something of a low profile because our mission is so completely artist-focused. We don’t have a membership, and we aren’t out in the community raising funds—so these things make us rather unusual from the outset. At the same time, we want people to visit and to have meaningful exchanges with the artists and the work. And it is important for us to maintain some visibility on a broader scale, both for the artists we work with and for the momentum of our program.

Our approach to audiences tends to shift a bit with each project. We have a core group of very loyal visitors, but we are also constantly trying to tap into other segments of the community, and testing different strategies to do this. Also, as you know, the very notion of ‘audience’ is debated in the museum world. spurse, an interdisciplinary collective we recently worked with, engages this debate as part of the content of their work, by asserting that audiences and visitors do not exist—only participants and collaborators. Thus there is an institutional critique embedded in spurse’s work that cannot merely be ‘presented’ by Grand Arts or any other venue that wants to welcome and engaged its ‘visitors.’ The question of who comes to an exhibition, how, why, and speculation about what they might ‘take away’ from their experience in the gallery becomes a point for serious philosophical wrestling. And admittedly, the audience for this kind of wrestling might be extremely small. It might just be the fly on the wall while we’re duking it out amidst a pile of canvas scraps, sewing machines, and plant specimens. But Grand Arts can be a place for this kind of wrestling—a rowdy, good-natured fight that tumbles over from the stage of the gallery into the protected sanctuary of the administrative offices, and even back into the fabrication shop (again, figuratively speaking!) among the tables saws, welding equipment, etc. There aren’t many places like us out there.

The Conclusion…

DF: Do you use social media or other forms of technology to reach out to your audiences? If not, why not? Also, do you produce publications? What’s your approach to documenting your programs?

SS: We finally finished the redesign of our website about a year ago, and it’s working great for us. It’s very simple. One of the main points is to create a more public archive of the projects we’ve done, with the brochure essays, which we also print, published online. We added a blog to the site and are still experimenting with different ways to use that. As for social networking, I do this in a very unofficial way. Like a lot of curators, I think, my Facebook page is half personal, and half professional. As for an official Grand Arts page, we don’t have one right now. But I’m easy to find, and we like to connect with artists and other art people in a more personal way.

DF: I had mentioned to you before that back in 2005, the show What’s The Matter With Kansas? at Rare Gallery in New York piqued my interest in what is happening on in the mid-West. Seth Johnson’s work blew me away. You had mentioned that there was another similar exhibition at one of the art fairs in Miami. These shows are terrific, but can’t compare to the exposure of the Heartland exhibition co-organized by the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago (where it opens October first) and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Heartland explores the challenges of working within the interior of the United States, and Kansas City plays a major role with three artists/collectives participating: Carnal Torpor, Cody Critcheloe, and Whoop Dee Doo. What does/could this mean for the morale of a city to be out of the national limelight, yet internationally recognized as being innovative?

SS: Good question. First, I think all of the artists you mentioned are especially brilliant at navigating the split between living and working in a smaller city, and participating in a larger national and international art and music scene. They are incredibly savvy and unbelievably supportive of one another. I think in many places you’d see cut-throat competition among a group of artists who are so talented, capable and ambitious. But here, each of them owes their individuals successes in large part to the others, and there really is a spirit of shared accomplishment. So you have people like Peggy Noland and Ari Fish, who are amazing local fashion designers, doing the costumes for Critchloe’s band SSION. Meanwhile, images of Critcheloe and Seth Johnson modeling Ari’s own designs are popping up on Project Runway, while Ari is also a member-at-large of Johnson’s collective, Carnal Torpor. Johnson and Jaimie Warren, who is the ringmaster of Whoop Dee Doo, used to run a gallery together. And Whoop Dee Doo often features performances by SSION.

An exhibition like Heartland is fantastic for bringing additional attention—perhaps especially from a more conservative segment of the museum world—to all of these artists. But the artists are gaining international exposure and managing their careers on their own, in a very DIY fashion. They are doing things like blogging for VICE magazine, opening pop-up shops in Berlin, and producing music videos for other bands… so I’d say their morale is excellent, regardless of whether Artforum reviews their work, which is beginning to happen, too.

There are many other excellent artists working in Kansas City, of course, and their sense of the City’s place on the larger stage will really depend on whom you ask. On the one hand, there’s incredible vibrancy and energy around art and artists here. It’s cheap to live, easy to navigate, and there’s a growing infrastructure for funding, free studios and other forms of support, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Urban Culture Project and Charlotte Street Foundation. At the same time, artists are frustrated by the relative lack of a gallery system that might help export their work to the Coasts and beyond, and the attendant failure to nurture collectors who will ‘buy local.’ I believe these things are coming, though. There are new people on the scene, such as Cara Lewis of Cara and Cabezas, who seem ready to try to take things to the next level of professionalism.


DF: Your time here in Philadelphia consulting for Vox Populi is approaching and I am wondering if you might have any early thoughts about Philadelphia? Any initial aspirations or accomplishments you hope to help Vox achieve?

SS: I am very excited to be working with Vox Populi, and to get to know more about what’s happening in Philadelphia. I’m not sure, but it does seem like there might be some strong parallels between the art scenes in Philadelphia and Kansas City. I want to use this opportunity to open some lines of communication between artists and curators in both cities, and explore the possibilities for exchange.

I think it’s far too early to put forward any kind of agenda in terms of how Vox’s approach to curatorial issues might evolve or develop. Vox is a collective, and I’m an outsider. That said, I do hope to work with the group to identify a variety of different models and approaches that they might incorporate, as it suits them. Stay tuned!

PEI December Curatorial Roundtable: The Curator-in-Residence

Ana Paula Cohen, 2009-2010 Curator-in-Residence at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College
In conversation with Kate Fowle, Executive Director, iCI (Independent Curators International)
Cultural institutions frequently make resources available for artist-in-residence programs. These programs can be found across the globe, bringing institutions opportunities to increase diversity and further build a creative atmosphere. However, those same institutions seldom develop similar models to bring in international curators. As Curators-in-Residence become acquainted with the dialogues of the local network, new curatorial perspectives may culminate in exhibitions not normally produced in the region. Residency programs can serve as tools that open up communities, build contacts with new practitioners, and promote further research in emergent practices. Speakers' bios below.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 3-5 PM,

Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage1608 Walnut Street

Space is limited so please respond to Daniel Fuller, PEI Senior Program Specialist,via email at dfuller@pcah.us, or by phone at 267-350-4932, by December 1st.

Ana Paula Cohen
2009-2010 Curator-in-Residence at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College Ana Paula Cohen (São Paulo, 1975) is an independent curator, editor and writer. She was the adjunct curator of the 28th Bienal de São Paulo – “In living contact” (Oct-Dec 2008), and the co-editor of the publications related to the project. Cohen has co-curated the project Encuentro Internacional de Medellín 07 (Jan-June 2007, Medellín, Colombia), in which she created, in collaboration with other artists and curators, a new center for contemporary art – La Casa del Encuentro. Within the framework of the Encuentro, she curated an exhibition on Cildo Meireles’ work, at the Museo de Antioquia. Since 2006, she has initiated and is part of the editorial team for the newsletter of Mabe Bethonico’s project museumuseu. Since 2004, she co-founded and has been the curator of the project istmo – flexible archive , in São Paulo.

Kate Fowle
Executive Director of iCI (Independent Curators International)Fowle was most recently International Curator at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. There she played a key role in developing the first year of exhibitions, commissions and public programming. Prior to her time in Beijing, Fowle spent six years in San Francisco at the California College of the Arts, where she was the director of the MA Program in Curatorial Practice, which she founded in 2002 with Ralph Rugoff, (iCI curator for Shoot the Family ). During her tenure as program director Fowle built extensive international networks, bringing over 100 artists, curators and writers from places as diverse as Chiang Mai, Paris, São Paulo, Johannesburg, Copenhagen, Beijing, Vilnius, Frankfurt, Tokyo, London, and Mexico City, to share their knowledge and expertise through lectures, round-table discussions, symposia and an annual journal.

NEW IN THE PEI LIBRARY

Come on in and READ ‘EM!



Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985
A groundbreaking anthology that captures the essence and the edge of the contemporary art scene. Focusing on key theoretical and aesthetic issues in contemporary art in cultural, historical, and socio-political contexts –including media, architecture, postmodernism, multiculturalism, identity politics, censorship, AIDS, postcolonialism, globalization, technology, and spectatorship – this volume brings together a broad selection of important contributions that map out the role that critical theory has played in contemporary art. This anthology mixes established and emergent art voices, including scholars, curators, critics, and artists. Interdisciplinary in approach and drawing on a wide variety of sources, Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985 brings together scholarly essays, artists’ statements, and art reproductions to capture the vibrancy and dissonance that defines today’s art scene.



The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art
In this book Martha Buskirk addresses the interesting fact that since the early 1960s, almost anything can and has been called art. Among other practices, contemporary artists have employed mass-produced elements, impermanent materials, and appropriated imagery, have incorporated performance and video, and have created works through instructions carried out by others. Furthermore, works of art that lack traditional signs of authenticity or permanence have been embraced by institutions long devoted to the original and the permanent. Buskirk begins with questions of authorship raised by minimalists' use of industrial materials and methods, including competing claims of ownership and artistic authorship evident in conflicts over the right to fabricate artists' works. Examining recent examples of appropriation, she finds precedents in pop art and the early twentieth-century readymade and explores the intersection of contemporary artistic copying and the system of copyrights, trademarks, and brand names characteristic of other forms of commodity production.

Out of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh
In 1986 Hsieh announced that he would spend the next thirteen years making art but not showing it publicly. This final lifework—an immense act of self-affirmation and self-erasure—came to a close at the turn of the millennium. For many Hsieh is a cult figure. The rigor and dedication of his art inspires passion, while the elusive and epic nature of his performances generates speculation and mythology. After years of near-invisibility Hsieh has now collaborated with the writer and curator Adrian Heathfield to create this meticulous and visually arresting record of the complete body of his artworks from 1978-1999. Out of Now is the first extensive critical account of these remarkable works. Heathfield's astute meditation is complemented by an intensive exchange with the artist and a set of letters from leading art theorists Peggy Phelan and Carol Becker, and the internationally acclaimed artists Marina Abramovic, Santiago Sierra, and Tim Etchells. This exquisitely composed volume is essential reading for all those interested in art history, conceptual art, visual culture, and the practice of performance.



Art and Electronic Media
Art and Electronic Media is the latest installment in the THEMES AND MOVEMENTS series, a collection of groundbreaking sourcebooks on the prevailing art tendencies of our times. This is the first book to explore mechanics, light, graphics, robotics, networks, virtual reality and the possibilities afforded by the web from an international perspective. It outlines the importance of figures previously neglected by art history, including engineers, technicians, and collaborators. Included are works by over 150 artists, both familiar. The book is divided into seven thematic sections arranged chronologically. Art and Electronic Media is a lucid, accessible, and authoritative evaluation of continually developing media. As part of the THEMES AND MOVEMENTS series, Art and Electronic Media is intended for uninitiated readers and scholars alike. They include a complete overview of each theme or movement, situating individual artists' work in the context of modern art.


The PEI library is available to constituents of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, by appointment only, 9am – 5pm, Monday – Friday. To make an appointment call 267.350.4930 or e-mail mailto:pei@pcah.us

Franchise Two

Are you as witty as Last year’s winner, The League of Imaginary Scientists, from LA???



From the apexart website:

'considering the same boundary between art and business. again'

Based on the idea of creating its own franchise, apexart is currently holding a worldwide open call for 250-word proposals asking participants why the franchise should come to their town and provide all of the support necessary to produce an exhibition.

March 13 - April 17, 2010
APPLY HERE
Accepting applications from anywhere, now through December 15, 2009

As the art world adopts strategies from the world of business, cultural organizations have set up franchises around the globe. For the second year, apexart is joining this trend and setting up its own franchise in a new city.

This competition is an opportunity for anyone from anywhere to create their own temporary apexart in your city, town or village. For a four-week exhibition from March 13 - April 17, 2010, you will be the director, curator and/or staff of your own apexart franchise with a budget, a modest salary, and almost complete control. We will provide the funding (up to 10,000 USD), along with the necessary guidance to make your curated exhibition happen. This includes an apexart brochure in an edition of 10,000 and its distribution around the world to more than 108 countries and a visit or two from us.

The Franchise is an opportunity to help bring an idea to fruition in a new place and to give someone an interesting opportunity. This year we will exclude people in large cities like New York, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo from applying, and invite submissions from locations with less than 500,000 people. Places such as Moshupa or Priboj, Baton Rouge or Lübeck, Cadiz or Az-Zawiyah, Heidelberg or Zinder.

To participate, please submit a reason in the form of a 250 word essay, along with four images, to tell the jurors why apexart should come to you. We encourage applicants to use the 250 words in any way they see fit. Applications will be accepted until December 15, 2009.

Dialogues All Around...

Contemporary Museum, Baltimore
ANNOUNCING THE 2009/10
NEW ART DIALOGUES SERIES

CARLOS BASUALDO
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 7:00 PM

In collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of Art Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism

Falvey Hall, Maryland Institute College of Art Campus 1300 Mt. Royal Avenue

Carlos Basualdo, Keith L and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, comes to Baltimore to share his experiences curating on the global stage. The curator of numerous international exhibitions, Basualdo most recently served as lead organizer of Bruce Nauman's celebrated exhibition in the United States Pavilion at the recent Venice Bienniale exhibition.

MICA Students/Staff/Faculty and Contemporary Museum Members: FREE General Admission: $10Students: $5

COMING IN 2010:

RICHARD VINE
Managing Editor of Art in America
Thursday, February 11, 2010

MEL CHIN
Artist
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

PEI November Exhibitions Picks

Queens Museum of Art
Duke Riley: Those About To Die Salute You
Nov. 2, 2009-Mar. 13, 2010
This exhibition is the second installment of a multi-part residency that began with a recreation of a Romanesque bread and circus naval battle or naumachia that drew more than one thousand toga-clad spectators to a World’s Fair reflecting pool adjacent to the Museum. Riley converts the QMA’s Small Triangle Gallery into a diorama revisiting that event through the detritus of the battle - armor, elements of the coliseum backdrop, battle-scarred vessels - while multi-channel video brings the “props” to life. In addition, Riley will be unveiling Morituri Te Salutant (2009), a special edition print depicting the event in laser engraving and dry-point on Plexiglas printed on paper handmade from the same phragmites reeds that Riley harvested in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the construction of his naval vessels.



Studio Museum Harlem
30 Seconds Off an Inch
Nov. 12, 2009-Mar. 14, 2010
Curated by Philadelphia’s old friend Naomi Beckwith, this survey will bring together contemporary artworks by a group of artists who, having absorbed the lessons of U.S.-based Conceptual art and identity politics, imbue their respective practices with a critical sense of play and irreverence adopted from Fluxus, Arte Povera, Gutai and Neoconcretism, among other international movements. 30 Seconds takes the singular practices and conceptual methods of black artists active on the West Coast in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a starting point—work that inspired a bodily engagement in conceptual practice. It aims to show how this group of artists engages with the body and race in clever, subtle and astute ways.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Ktzysztof Wodiczko: The Veterans Project
Nov. 4, 2009 - March 28, 2010
Wodiczko's immersive new installation explores the chaos and confusion of war. For three decades, Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko has addressed timely political, social, and psychological issues in his artwork, creating over 80 large-scale public projections around the world. In these works, he transforms the stories, voices, and gestures of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances by projecting them onto public monuments and landmarks. In a new, projection-based work for the ICA, Wodiczko focuses on veterans engaged in active combat in Iraq, as well as Iraqi civilians. In ...OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project, the routine sounds of life are interrupted by the noise of destruction and chaos as Wodiczko’s narrative unfolds across three walls of the gallery.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The one hundred and sixty-third floor:
Liam Gillick Curates the Collection
November 27, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Liam Gillick curates a small selection of works from the MCA's collection as a complement to his major solo survey exhibition. The collection exhibition provides an institutional and historical context for the presentation of Gillick's own work while bringing an unexpected approach to presenting the collection into play. The exhibition reflects his fascination with the role of the collection within the museum, especially in the way that artists whose careers have developed less prominently than others are still represented in such a major institution's holdings and the circumstances involved in each case.

PEI tries to help make your day a little more manageable!

CNN Ranks Stressful Jobs that Pay Badly

#12: Curator



Median pay: $46,500

% who say their job is stressful: 89%

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which could also be the length of a curator's job description. Being responsible for priceless art, artifacts and antiquities is just another day's work for those in this field. Curators must also research and write museum articles, negotiate the exchange or loan of collections, coordinate with customs and art handlers and answer to directors, the board and artists themselves.

"What people see is everything beautifully installed," said curator Jason Andrew from Bushwick, N.Y. "What they don't see are all the extensive loan forms, all the hassle of trucking and shipping, the fights with private collectors and institutions to lend work. You're working up until the last second to create that great experience, and curators don't get overtime."

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/pf/0910/gallery.stressful_jobs/12.html