PORTLAND, Ore. -- (Oct. 11, 2011) - A series of public lectures featuring nationally renowned art curators and critics will begin in November, thanks to a partnership between The Ford Family Foundation and the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts.
Art historian, critic and curator George Baker will lecture Nov. 3 as part of the UO's "Connective Conversations: Inside Oregon Art" and The Ford Family Foundation Curators and Critics Tour.
The partnership launches the seventh and final element of The Ford Family Foundation's Visual Arts Program. The UO's "Connective Conversations" 2011-2012 series brings professionals from outside Oregon to participate in the Curators and Critics Tour, to join in community conversations open to the public and to visit one-on-one with selected mid-career visual artists.
"We are delighted to work with UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts for the first two years of our ‘Curators and Critics Tour,' another component of our Visual Arts Program," said Norm Smith, president of The Ford Family Foundation. "The foundation is investing in Oregon's visual arts ecology and one goal is to provide our mid-career visual artists with seasoned, professional feedback and perspective in one-on-one critiques. Further, we hope to engage the visiting critics and curators with insight into the special talent in Oregon."
Baker, a UCLA art historian and art critic, will visit Portland, Salem and Eugene in November, and Helen Molesworth, Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museum and current chief curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, will visit in March. A third professional tour will be scheduled for fall 2012.
"We are honored to partner with The Ford Family Foundation in creating an art series of this caliber," said Kate Wagle, director of the UO Architecture and Allied Arts Portland program. "Our faculty, students and community partners are dedicated to exploring Oregon's connections to global contemporary art discourse. These lectures and tours throughout the state focus attention on Oregon art, artists, curators, critics and the art and culture thought-leaders. We want to bring those conversations to the public."
Baker's speaking itinerary will also include a Hogue-Sponenburgh Art lecture sponsored by Willamette University, and a lecture sponsored by the Davis Family Fund and the departments of art and art history at the UO in Eugene.
George Baker Public Lectures
Portland
"Paul Thek: Notes from the Underground"
Thursday, Nov. 3, 5:30 p.m. reception; 6:30 p.m. lecture
University of Oregon in Portland
White Stag Block
70 NW Couch
Salem
"Paul Thek: Notes from the Underground"
Monday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m.
Willamette University
College of Law, Paulus Lecture Hall, E-201
Eugene
"Photography's Expanded Field: the Work of Sharon Lockhart"
Thursday, Nov. 10, 6 p.m.
University of Oregon
Lawrence Hall, room 177
1190 Franklin Blvd., Eugene
About The Ford Family Foundation
The Ford Family Foundation was established in 1957 by Kenneth W. and Hallie E. Ford. Its Mission is "successful citizens and vital rural communities" in Oregon and Siskiyou County, California. The Foundation is located in Roseburg, Oregon, with a Scholarship office in Eugene.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA CONTACT: Heidi Hiaasen, Portland Communications, 503-412-3714, heidih@uoregon.edu
LINKS: UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts "Connective Conversations": www.aaa.uoregon.edu/conversations; The Ford Family Foundation: www.tfff.org.