ART21 PRESENTS INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND CREATIVITY
Art21 Access ’07 Presents More than 300 Contemporary Art Events Worldwide in Association with the Premiere of Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4 on PBS this October
New York, NY – September 10 – This October, Art21 presents
Art21 Access '07, an international celebration of contemporary art and creativity. In conjunction with the PBS premiere of Season 4 of
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century, the only primetime national television series to focus exclusively on contemporary art and artists, Art21 Access ’07 features more than 300 sneak previews of the new season in all 50 states, in 23 countries and on all seven continents.
Through this extraordinary series, audiences all over the world have the opportunity to discover the creative processes and experience the work of 17 distinguished contemporary artists working in the United States today. With dozens of Art21 Access ’07 events being hosted outside the United States, and in unexpected venues, Art21 demonstrates the power of contemporary art as a force in cultural diplomacy, and its importance to people from all walks of life.
In addition to museums, schools, libraries, art spaces, community centers, universities, and art education conferences, Art21 Access ’07 events are being hosted by unusual sites such as: Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center, an art center on the small island of Sitka; Turtle Bay Exploration Park, a 300-acre interactive life sciences museum and park in Redding, California; McMurdo Coffee House at the McMurdo Station research base in Antarctica; and WATER Center, a treatment center for a local groundwater contamination project in Wichita, Kansas, which will screen the
Ecology episode.
“We are proud to announce that Art21 Access ’07 events will be hosted in every U.S. state and on all seven continents,” says Susan Sollins, Executive Producer and Curator of Art21. “Events will take place not only in museums and art centers in major metropolitan areas, but at multiple, unique venues, all of which promote the power and relevance of contemporary art.”
Art21 Access ’07 events offer thousands of people access to the creative processes, inspirations, and ideas behind some of today’s most thought-provoking art and artists. Events include artist talks, in-class lectures, panel discussions, interactive artmaking projects, question-and-answer sessions—at times with Art21 staff and featured Art21 artists – and more. In the United States, Art21 Access ’07 is presented in partnership with
Americans for the Arts to celebrate
National Arts and Humanities Month.
“Art21 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,” continues Sollins. “The series also allows the viewer to learn directly from the artist; there is no overlay of opinion or interpretation from an outsider. We hope that audiences will take away from the series and the events 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 work.”
In the U.S., Art21 Access ’07 events are hosted in major cities and smaller communities alike. Nine major New York cultural institutions—The Museum of Modern Art, El Museo del Barrio, SculptureCenter, Studio Museum in Harlem, Bronx Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Queens Museum of Art, and Tribeca Cinemas—will have events, almost all with participation from the artists featured in the series.
In addition, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, DC and most other major US cities are hosting events, many at multiple venues as part of citywide partnerships. For example, screenings in Denver will take place at four diverse venues—a commercial gallery, contemporary art museum, nonprofit artist-run organization, and youth-focused art center. In the smaller city of Macon, Georgia, the local arts advocacy organization Macon Arts is working with four colleges and universities in the area to preview all four new episodes in October. College students will view one episode each week, with a professor from each college leading one post-screening discussion. In Los Angeles, four major cultural institutions—Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Santa Monica Museum of Art, UCLA Hammer Museum, and Otis College of Art and Design—will partner to premiere all four new episodes of Season 4. In addition, Art21 Season 4 featured artist Lari Pittman will speak at LACMA’s screening.
Nationwide, other major museums and art galleries hosting Art21 Access ‘07 screenings include: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, St. Louis Art Museum, Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, SITE Santa Fe, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Wexner Center for the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Rice University Art Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and many others.
Outside of the United States, Art21 Access ’07 events will be presented in more than 20 countries on all seven continents, alerting audiences worldwide to the exceptional art being created in this country and the powerful ideas explored by these artists, which address many pressing issues facing our world. Countries outside the U.S. hosting events include: Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Grenada, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Macedonia, Mexico, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. These events range from screenings at American international schools, to lectures and discussions in graduate art and art history programs, to viewing parties in contemporary art spaces and cinema-style screenings in major international institutions—such as the two taking place at the Serpentine Gallery in London—and more.
View the complete list of partnering institutions worldwide offering Art 21 Access ’07 events at
http://beta.art21.org/doc/3252/art21_access_-07_partners/. For specific information about an event, contact Beth Olsen or Meghan Clinton at (212) 576-2700.
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century
This fall, the award-winning, biennial series
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century returns to PBS for its fourth season, which premieres on Sunday, October 28 at 10:00 p.m. (ET) on PBS with the first episode,
Romance. The three remaining one-hour episodes air over the next three consecutive Sundays: November 4, 11 and 18 (check local listings). Through in-depth profiles and interviews, the four-part series reveals the inspiration, vision and techniques behind the creative work of some of today’s most accomplished contemporary artists.
As in the previous three seasons of
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century, each hour-long episode of Season 4 is loosely structured around a theme that unifies the individual artists – as diverse as their work may be. Season 4 episodes of
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century include the themes of
Ecology, Paradox, Protest, and
Romance.
A companion book,
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century 4, will be published by Harry N. Abrams this fall to accompany the series premiere.
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. A rich companion website,
www.pbs.org/art21, will re-launch in October and compliment the series with additional, in-depth information on the 17 featured artists in Season 4. Art21 has also launched its own website,
beta.art21.org, which serves as a unique, interactive resource for the art and education communities.
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4 was produced for PBS by the non-profit contemporary art institution Art21, Inc. Executive Producer and Curator: Susan Sollins; Series Producer: Eve Moros Ortega; Associate Producer: Migs Wright; Consulting Directors: Charles Atlas (
Paradox and
Protest) and Catherine Tatge (
Ecology and
Romance); Series Co-Creators: Susan Sollins and Susan Dowling.
Major underwriting for Season Four of
Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century has been provided by The National Endowment for the Arts; The Public Broadcasting Service; Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro; The Nathan Cummings Foundation; Bloomberg; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Bagley Wright Fund, and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. Lead sponsorship of Season Four education programs has been provided by JPMorgan Chase.
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