Category Archives: Social Practice

Reaction to Gentrification from the Artist Community

Posted on Friday, February 7th, 2014

Gentrification is a dirty word that is central to the discourse of New York City’s rapidly changing environment. It’s a major concern for longstanding neighborhoods of working class people. There are different perspectives as to whether gentrification hurts or helps the neighborhood’s vitality, but what should be evident to all are the drastic changes in many a neighborhood’s zoning. Old historic buildings are coming down at a swift pace, and new luxurious glass condominiums are popping up in their wake.

A Tribute to Gramsci by Thomas Hirschhorn

Posted on Monday, September 16th, 2013

Thomas Hirschhorn’s Monument to Antonio Gramsci closed on Sunday, September 15, 2013, ending a ten-week stay in the Forest Houses Housing Project in the Bronx. The project, produced by DIA Art Foundation, featured a hand-made wooden complex that housed a museum, resource and arts center, radio station and lecture theater, all celebrating the words and mind of the great Italian 20th Century philosopher, who stood up against Fascism and wrote most of his opus from jail (Prison Notebooks).

The Parameters of Public Art

Posted on Monday, April 15th, 2013

Randy Kennedy’s recent article in the New York Times “Outside the Citadel, Social Practice Art Is Intended to Nurture” (March 20/13) raised some interesting questions regarding Public Art and Social Practice Art. Surely, as Mr. Kennedy states, in the art form “known primarily as social practice, its practitioners freely blur the lines among object making,

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An Evening of Protest and Social Engagement with Pablo Helguera

Posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2011

This past Tuesday night we held an event in the famed Orozco Room at the New School to share our recent project, produced in collaboration with Pablo Helguera: “El Club de Protesta (The Protest Club)” and introduce Pablo’s new book “Education for Socially Engaged Art“. The evening started off with an introduction to José Clemente

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Project Round Up

Posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2011

When You’re Looking At Me, You’re Looking At Country Xaviera Simmons Four fantastic days of getting to know new people and taking intimate portraits in public have just come to end and it was altogether a touching experience. There was near picture perfect photography weather each day: slight overcast. On Saturday and Sunday this weekend

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Thoughts on the final concerts — El Club de Protesta

Posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2011

—————————————————————————————————————————– El Club de Protesta reached its conclusion with two final concerts at the Hudson Guild Theatre this past Friday and Saturday, August 19th & 20th. This inspiring project, conceived by artist Pablo Helguera, provided a channel for the community to voice concerns, both personal and systemic, about our contemporary world. It then gave them

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