Culture in Action: A Public Art Program of Sculpture Chicago - Softcover

Organized by Jacob (director of Sculpture Chicago), Culture in Action was a community-based art project that took place in Chicago in 1992-1993. Aimed at bringing art to urban communities not considered part of the museum- and gallery-going public, each of the eight component projects involved the collaboration of an artist and a particular community with whom the artist chose to work. A former New York Times critic, Brenson delves into each project, highlighting its importance as a teaching tool, as a creative solution to urban problems and as a means of engendering communication between communities. "Encountering the artistic collaborations in neighborhoods, members of the gallery and museum worlds were the outsiders," says Brenson. Unfortunately, the question of museum-exhibitions programming is never raised. While Olson is versed in artspeak, her writing is impressively straightforward on the value of public art; she cites previous examples of art in the public sphere and answers her own question: "How can the arts become a meaningful part of everyday existence?" The answer: "Public art accepts and claims an unbounded infinite audience simply by being in public view." Together, these essays and subsequent chapters describing each project are thoughtful, smart reflections on the concepts and the power of art beyond the walls of our institutions. Illustrations.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Since the early 1980s, Sculpture Chicago has fostered plenty of good public art, but, more recently, an offshoot called Culture in Action has ventured directly into the neighborhoods. Appropriately named, this program encourages work that not only addresses social issues but simply cannot exist without human interaction. This volume describes eight separate projects that are both site- and audience-specific. On the surface, a video block party, a parade, and a hydroponic garden may not seem much like art, but in the spirit of Joseph Beuys, the elements making up these events resonate with multilayered significance. Each project proves to be overwhelmingly positive and constructive for the participants, exemplifying the maxim "out of the museum and into the streets." While some of the text here reads like a grant proposal, ultimately, this book resurrects the power of shamanism in a modern context. For general art collections in all libraries.?Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.