Director's Welcome
Dear Friends of the ASU Art Museum:
The ASU Art Museum, as part of the Herberger College of Fine Arts and the New American University, is enjoying a very special moment in its evolution. Under the leadership of President Michael Crow, ASU has become a national model for the university of the future. Under the leadership of Dean Kwang-Wu Kim, the University priorities defined by President Crow are being interpreted for the College, and Dean Kim is forging what will surely be the model for the art school of the future.
The role of the Museum in this forward-looking vision is to serve as a laboratory for thinking about and enjoying art in innovative ways. We are doing this through three new program initiatives. InterLab is a new program that invites faculty, graduate students and others with special interest and expertise to work with the Museum to present projects that fuse the arts with other disciplines in dynamic dialogue.
Social Studies will turn a gallery into a workshop-studio for a visiting artist. The floors will be protected by cardboard, tools, equipment, art supplies and a few works will be in the space when the residency begins. The space will be open not only to allow audience to view the artist at work but to invite artists, art students and faculty, children, and all our visitors to collaborate to whatever degree they wish, to query the artist. Community engagement, one of the most important University commitments, will take the work and the artist beyond the Museum to whatever location and context the process leads. It is also a manifestation of the priority of Dean Kim to focus on the creative process and to nurture creativity as mastery of technique evolves. The first Social Studies project will open in the fall of 2007 with Jarbas Lopes from Brazil.
The role of new media in the arts is an area in which the Museum has a long history. It presented the first media project at the US pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 1995 with the work of Bill Viola. It has also supported emerging artists and a panoply of critically-acclaimed practitioners of new genres including Pipilotti Rist, William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Jim Campbell, Francesc Torres. This initiative will expand into new territory, not only through presentation of works in new media but in new systems for delivery of information to our audiences.
The Museum will continue to address issues important to all of us: its overarching mission to explore the interaction between art and society. It will continue to build its commitment to community engagement through Global Arizona, bringing an international scope to Phoenix and carrying Phoenix to the global level. Its partnerships in Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina are a priority, one that recognizes that we are more connected each day and can learn from getting perspectives from other viewpoints.
We welcome your participation as we define the museum of the future, serving the field at the highest level of quality and presenting art that makes a difference in all our lives.
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