16.05.2014 – 18.05.2014 /
Queens Museum, New York Hall of Science, the Queens Theater, Immigrant Movement International, and various locations around New York. United States
Organized by Jen de los Reyes and Co-presented by the Queens Museum and a Blass ofGrass
Discussion
The 2014 Open Engagement conference is presented in partnership with the Queens Museum, A Blade of Grass, and the Social Practice Queens program at Queens College CUNY. Media partners include Bad at Sports and Guernica Magazine. Sponsored by the Listings Project.
OPEN ENGAGEMENT
Open Engagement is an international conference that sets out to explore various perspectives on art and social practice, and expand the dialogue around socially engaged art making.
It is directed and founded by Jen Delos Reyes. The 2014 Open Engagement conference is co-presented by the Queens Museum and A Blade of Grass, and takes place at the Queens Museum, New York Hall of Science, the Queens Theater, Immigrant Movement International, and various locations around New York. As in the past, Open Engagement will include a partnership with graduate programs featuring art and social engagement. This year this partnership will include a number of New York-based programs led by Social Practice Queens at Queens College, CUNY. Open Engagement is a free conference that will take place May 16-18, 2014.
Artists have a way of provoking new forms of being, examining and challenging the ways that we live and work, proposing alternative approaches, and suggesting ways of navigating and negotiating existing systems. Open Engagement 2014 features keynote presenters Mierle Laderman Ukeles and J. Morgan Puett, and focuses on the theme of Life/Work. The conference examines how economic and social conditions connect to life values and philosophies and situate the everyday in relation to larger political and social issues including labor, economics, food production, ways of being, and education. What are the impacts of artists living and working in community? What is the work of art today? How has the idea of life’s work changed in the 21st century?
The legacies of these two seminal figures have through their practices defined and redefined how life and work can be the foundation for artistic exploration.