Amy Franceschini (born 1970, in

Patterson Patterson may refer to: People * Patterson (surname) Places ;Canada * Pattersons Corners, Ontario *Patterson Township, Ontario *Patterson, Calgary a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta. ;United States of America * Patterson, Arkansas *Patterson, C ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) is a contemporary American artist and

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

. Her practice spans a broad range of media including

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

net art upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance of the phys ...

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

and

gardening Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits ...

. She was a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow. Franceschini in 2009 was also a recipient of the

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

Award in the discipline of Emerging Fields.

Life and work

Franceschini founded

Futurefarmers Amy Franceschini (born 1970, in Patterson, California) is a contemporary American artist and designer. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, sculpture, design, net art, public art and gardening. She was a 2010 Guggenheim ...

in 1995 as a way to bring together multidisciplinary artists. Through

she has collaborated with a number of artists, including Sascha Merg, Josh On. In 2002 she began graduate studies at Stanford University, and in 2004 she co-founded ''Free Soil'', an international collective working between reflection, research and design. She was the lead artist of "Soil Kitchen", which is a temporary, windmill-powered architectural intervention and multi-use space where citizens enjoy free soup in exchange for soil samples; "Soil Kitchen" also offered free pH and heavy metal testing and produced a Philadelphia Brownfields Map and Soil Archive. She has taught at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

, where she lectured on media theory and taught practical courses. Her aim is to sensitize students to the interaction between design and processes that appear to be unrelated. Frequent themes in Franceschini's work are

public space A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads (including the pavement), public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to ...

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

, and

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or sociocult ...

. Franceschini's work often takes a visual approach to articulating perceived conflicts between humans and nature, and the individual to a community. She works both as an artist as well as a designer. In 2010 she co-authored (with Daniel Tucker) the book "Farm Together Now: A Portrait of People, Places and Ideas for a New Food Movement", which features interviews and photos essays (by Anne Hamersky) with politically engaged farmers across the United States.

Exhibitions

Radio Forest by Franceschini and Stijn Schiffeleers

Radio Forest {{Infobox radio station , name = Radio Forest , owner = Radio Forest , logo = RADIOFORESTLOGO2023.jpg , area = Essex, UK , airdate = 1976 , website www.radioforest.co.uk Radio Forest is a registered charity in the UK and has been ...

is a sound installation created by Franceschini and Stijn Schiffeleers near

Neerpelt Neerpelt (, literally ''Lower Pelt'') is a town in Pelt and a former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. In 2018, the municipality had a total population of 17,174. The total area is 42.78 km². Effective 1 January 2019, ...

which was restyled by Koen Deprez. The installation plays the music of the forest including work by the Flemish composer

Moniek Darge Moniek Darge or Monica Darge (born 1952) is a Belgian composer, musician, audio artist and educator. She was named a Cultural Ambassador of Flanders. Life Darge was born in Bruges and studied violin and music theory at the Music Conservatory of ...

.Radio Forest
KlankAtlas, Retrieved 24 March 2016 In 2005 she was part of the "SAFE: Design takes on risk" exhibition at

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, showing the work ''Homeland Security Blanket'' (made with Michael Swaine). In 2006 she participated in the

SECA Art Award The SECA Art Award is a contemporary art award program that has been organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) and supported by its auxiliary SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) since 1967 to honor San Franc ...

exhibition at the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

. She has also exhibited at the

Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center The contemporary art institution Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center opened in 2001 and was located on the pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey. Platform Garanti organized exhibitions; conferences and events; hosted an internationa ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Turkey, ZKM (Center for Art and Media) in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

Germany,

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...

in New York,

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, natio ...

in San Francisco, California and

Gallery 16 Gallery 16 is a contemporary art gallery located in the SoMa district of San Francisco, California. It is owned by the San Francisco-based painter Griff Williams, and opened in 1993. Artists who have exhibited there include Graham Gillmore, Tuck ...

in San Francisco, California. Futurefarmers was featured in the 2002

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

.Sean Dodson, ''The Guardian'', Thursday March 21, 2002.
/ref>

References

External links

Official Website

Victory Gardens project

On KQED's Spark program

SFMOMA SECA award site

Farm Together Now official website and blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franceschini, Amy 1970 births Living people American contemporary artists Artists from California Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Stanford University alumni San Francisco State University alumni

Life and work

Exhibitions

References

Further reading

External links