Art:21—Art in the Twenty First Century
AN INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN SOLLINS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & CURATOR.
This October, Art21, Inc. will once again give Public Television viewers an opportunity to experience the vibrant and complex world of contemporary art and artists when Season Four of the award-winning series,
Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, premieres on PBS
(check local listings). The four-part series was created by Susan Sollins in collaboration with Susan Dowling. In the following interview, Sollins shares her insights on the significance and value of the groundbreaking series.
Q: How and why did you conceive of the idea for this series?
The series [
Art:21—Art in the Twenty-first Century] grew out of my experiences as a curator of contemporary art and as the Executive Director of Independent Curators International (ICI), an organization I founded and led for over 20 years. Under my leadership, ICI organized and traveled approximately 75 exhibitions of contemporary art to several hundred museums and other cultural organizations in this country and abroad. By coincidence, just toward the end of my years with ICI, I was asked by WNET/Channel 13 (the New York public television station) to work with them as a consultant on a new series that they were developing for local audiences – a series that needed a visual art component for which the station staff lacked skills and knowledge. It was through this consultancy that I began to learn about broadcast television, and to realize that the skills required to organize and curate exhibitions had something in common with those required to create a television series. So, I came to television from the point of view of a curator of contemporary art, rather than as a filmmaker, and as one who felt that art – of any era, particularly the contemporary – had not been presented well on television, but could be presented in a new and engaging way. I was aware that there had been few serious attempts to present contemporary art on public television almost since the inception of PBS, and none that were sustained over time. Thus, the field was open, and my idea for the
Art:21 series – including its component parts (book, Education and Outreach programs including an Educators’ Guide, and website) – was part of my concept from the beginning, as was my belief that the artists should speak directly to the viewer, without curatorial or critical intervention or interpretation. Once I had developed the initial ideas, I approached Susan Dowling, a life-long friend who had an outstanding and award-winning career as the Executive Director and Producer of
New Television Workshop, the experimental wing of WGBH, the prestigious Boston-based public television station where she worked with artists and independent filmmakers. We then worked together for four years to further develop the initial ideas, and to bring the first season to broadcast in 2001.
Q: How does Season Four differ from previous seasons of Art in the Twenty-First Century?
Each season has to some extent reflected the time of its creation – in general, the two years prior to broadcast. This season differs from past seasons in that the profiled artists touch on political concerns far more than in past seasons, even if their own work is not overtly concerned with the political.
Q: How were the artists selected for Season Four? What was it like to observe and interview them?
I hope that
Art:21 audiences will take away a confidence that they can look at art on their own, and an understanding of the complex skills and knowledge that artists bring to their lives work.
Q: Why is it important for the general public to have an understanding of contemporary art and artists?
It is very important for the public to have an understanding of contemporary art and artists because our artists reflect the time in which we live, provide role models for creative thinking, and mirror and inform us as people striving for an understanding of our shared world.
Q: Is the public television series the organization’s only initiative? Are there other components to this project?
Now in its tenth year, Art21 continues to grow as an organization and reaches far beyond the PBS television series and its national, primetime broadcasts. The imprimatur of PBS has assisted Art21 to reach educators far and wide, both in this country and abroad. To date, more than 115,000 educators have requested or downloaded the Art21 Educators’ Guide and are using it from grade school to university level, along with our DVDs. Our website is used constantly to obtain information about contemporary art and artists. The current level of annual visitors to our website – just short of one million per month – is similar to that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a force for cultural diplomacy, Art21 is unparalleled. Currently presented in more than 50 countries, Art21 demonstrates the best of who we are as a nation and a people.
Art21 provides teacher workshops and training sessions nationally and locally, and will begin a new educational initiative for students and teachers at Bronx Prep, a charter school in the Bronx, New York, in Fall 2007. Art21 also creates public programs in collaboration with museums, libraries, universities, and other venues. Art21 teacher training sessions and workshops have taken place in museums, schools, educational conventions and conferences. Our educational materials are used in a wide range of educational institutions, as well as in less traditional learning environments including prisons and juvenile delinquency programs, after school programs, and on a Native American reservation.
The Art21 archive is another unique and constantly growing resource, now containing over 640 hours of unedited video and film footage and over 11,000 pages of transcribed interviews. The extensive footage documents in-depth interviews, conversations, works of art in progress, and interactions between artists, their families, friends and colleagues. The archive also contains rare video documentation of art installations, temporary exhibitions, and performances at galleries and museums.
Art21 also produces companion books, published by the distinguished art book publisher Harry N. Abrams, to coincide with the premieres of the PBS programs. These are distributed to major booksellers nationwide. The 232-page Season Four volume,
Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century 4, includes more than 400 illustrations. The books present the profiled artists directly, in their own words, through edited transcripts of their interviews with Art21 and include artist biographies.
Q: What does this series offer to viewers that they cannot learn from museums, textbooks or exhibitions?
The series offers viewers an intimate view of the processes of an artist in the studio, a private arena that is almost never accessible to the public. The series also allows the viewer to learn directly from the artist; there is no overlay of opinion from an outsider, no interpretation from a “talking head.” This is the closest one can get to an understanding of the artist’s thinking, short of being privileged to take part in a private conversation with any one of the featured artists. In addition, in many of the series’ segments, we have been able to show works in progress in the studio, and then completed and installed in an exhibition. This is another special and unique experience for the viewer, not otherwise possible.
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