Together with UCLA, the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), founded by Judy Baca in Los Angeles 28 years back, runs the only lab that creates community-based digitally-generated public art for murals, the Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural Lab. SPARC also works with folks to create banners, websites, performances, video and public monuments. “The Great Wall […]
Mali Intersection, Urbana Crossroads
Isn’t this cool? What a way to mark an intersection! Here’s what artist Janet Goldner writes about it: The Association Segou-Laben, a group of artists in Segou [Mali] including bogolan artist Boubacar Doumbia and sculptor Amahiguere Dolo, invited me to collaborate with them to create a steel sculpture for a traffic circle on the major […]
The Elusive Urbana Public Arts Commission, Part Two
This morning I wrote another letter to the members of the Urbana City Council. They are to discuss the proposal to create a Public Arts Commission on Monday night, after tabling it two weeks ago. Money is the sticking point. I am always concerned that I sound like an academic (which, of course, I am) […]
Wireless Cities: Paths Away from Bad Times
An article in The New York Times yesterday (3/22/08), “Hopes for Wireless Cities Fade as Internet Providers Pull Out” focuses on Philadelphia’s efforts to set up a municipal Wi-Fi grid in order to provide free or cheap wireless access to all residents. EarthLink has decided that “municipal Wi-Fi assets were no longer consistent with the […]
The Elusive Urbana Public Arts Commission
On Monday March 10 the Urbana (IL) City Council tabled consideration of creating a public arts commission. This was somewhat discouraging for the public arts task force. At least the Council didn’t vote it down. For what it is worth, here’s what I wrote to the Council about the importance of supporting the arts in […]
NYC scenes, 2008
On a brick wall by the New Museum on the Bowery. It says “Bring Me Back,” in case you can’t read it. The Silence=Death Project was able to display their activist graphics in the window of the (old) New Museum courtesy of curator Bill Olander. Associated with ACT Up, the graphic has appeared on T-shirts, […]
Martin Puryear at MOMA
In mid-January, we made it to New York City just in time to see the Martin Puryear retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. The curators really used the new museum spaces well I thought, with this ladder for Booker T. practically disappearing up into the atrium. Then one could look down on it and […]
From Site to Vision
Not too long ago the women who have been working long and hard on a history of the Los Angeles Woman’s Building put it on the Web. What a gift to all of us to have this e-book! Lucy Lippard wrote the Foreward, Terry Wolverton, one of the editors, wrote the Introduction. Then there are […]
Peace X Peace
Through the Communication Initiative I learned of Peace X Peace, “pronounced peace by peace.” They are DC-based and provide a “global network [to] connect individuals and circles of women everywhere in the world, through the Internet, for spirited conversation and mutual support.” It looks like they primarily use video, radio and email to develop women’s […]
ECHO Exploring and Collecting History Online
2008 is off to a good start: The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University has just (re)launched its ECHO project–Exploring and Collecting History Online. Here’s what they say about it: “a directory to 5,000+ websites concerning the history of science, technology, and industry.” It is searchable or browsable by category, and […]
