Since Spring 2008, a new organizational form and research focus has emerged for the Center for Arts in Society. Now underway, the Public Art Cluster—the first of what we expect to be a range of future research clusters—involves an active constituency from the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Studio for Creative Inquiry, and faculty members from the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University.  Co-directed by John Carson of the School of Art and Jon Klancher of the English Department, the Public Art Cluster is developing public events, conferences, performances, courses, and research volumes currently focused on two major projects—Controversy in the Arts, and Performance/Ecology, with a third possible project to be announced later this year.  The topic of public art holds great contemporary interest and import both within Carnegie Mellon and at the national and international levels, and will help widen recognition of the Center.   We invite your participation in these projects of the Public Art Cluster (please contact the project directors below).  Upcoming events will be posted on this page for Spring 2009.  We also want to invite proposals for new research clusters that the Center for Arts in Society can develop in coming years.

Millennium Park, Chicago

CURRENT PROJECTS

Performance and Ecology
Director: Wendy Arons, School of Drama, CFA
(warons@andrew.cmu.edu)

Despite the fact that the looming ecological crisis will likely be the primary drama of the 21st century, ecology and the environment have had low visibility in the professional theater world or  in the field of theatre and performance studies. This initiative aims to call attention to the power of performance and theater to raise awareness about ecological issues and stimulate activism, build coalitions, and generally use the powerful "presentness" of live performance to move and inspire spectators to action and change. The aim of the initiative will be to bring together scholars from the humanities, arts, and sciences as well as community activists and stakeholders who are interested in contributing expertise and knowledge to an original performance piece.

Components of this initiative include:

    * A "mini-conference" on intersections of Performance and Ecology with a planned edited anthology of articles growing out of the conference.
    * Courses on the history of environmental theater and the history of environmental controversies in relation to the arts.
    * Public talks or panels on the intersections of performance and ecology.
    * Staged readings of plays from the "Earth Matters" Eco-drama Festival to be held at the University of Oregon in spring 2009.
    * An invited guest artist/ writer/ director to develop and stage the performance piece.
    * A series of workshop/rehearsals to devise a public performance piece, culminating in a public performance in Pittsburgh.
  

Controversy and the Arts
Director:  Andreea Ritivoi, Department of English, H&SS
(aritivoi@andrew.cmu.edu)
When, how, and why does a work of art produce controversy?  Building on CAS's study of controversies in the arts during the past five years, this project unites faculty members and graduate students from the arts and humanities who are interested in developing theoretical and practical approaches to arts controversy from cross-disciplinary perspectives.  We also emphasize the role of the artist in provoking conflict as well as representing current conflicts to stimulate response from a range of audiences. Depictions of symbols from Abu Ghraib, for instance, or new renderings of familiar American symbols in an art work, can bring controversy to another level of discourse. Invited speakers, roundtable workshops, and planned events will focus on such questions as:

• What is a controversy and how do we develop frameworks of analysis to grasp how controversies work?  How do understandings of controversy vary from time to time and place to place?   How can we tie the study of public art controversy to broader problems of argumentation and communication?  
• How do individual artists represent controversy in or outside of their artistic field of production, and for what purposes?
• 
  What is the role of the public, or of public spaces, in the creation, management, and resolution of an art controversy?

• When do "controversies" turn into "conflicts" that demand resolution on an interpersonal or intercultural level?
• 
  Do conflicts (political, personal, cultural, or artistic) create opposing positions that constitute a "controversy"--and how?

Outcomes of the initiative will include: collaborative projects; a template for faculty and graduate student research; exhibitions; a publication in book; and potentially a conference on "Controversy and the Arts."
 
We expect members of this group to be working on specific, historically and culturally based projects or case studies at the same time as they contribute to an evolving interpretation of art controversy and related concepts, like conflict and debate.

 To propose other themes for future research clusters, please contact Paul Eiss, Director of the Center for the Arts in Society, at pke@andrew.cmu.edu

Friday, November 13
12:00 noon
Baker Hall 255B (Swank Room)

Carrie Ruiz
Assistant Professor
of Hispanic Studies
Department of Modern Languages

"Pieces from the Past: Contestation around Francoist Monuments in Modern-day Spain"

This talk will focus on the current state of fascist monuments in Spain in relation to the Historical Memory Law, passed in 2007. This law calls for the removal of all shields, insignias, plaques, and commemorative elements of the Franco era from public spaces. As a direct result of this law, there are many conflicts that have surfaced as Spain opens up its historical scars. Attention will be given to the controversy surrounding this new policy and to three specific cases where the presence and/or removal of monuments have received an enormous amount of contestation on part of the public and the media. Hence, the presentation will explore the problematic issues that arise in regard to national identity, memory, and history in modern-day Spain.

Sponsored by the Controversy in the Arts Initiative of the Center for the Arts in Society.

Announcements

The (Im)permanence: Cultures in/out of Time volume is now available through the Penn State University Press.