Open Engagement
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Open Engagement is an international conference and artist project focusing on art and social practice. Directed and founded by Jen Delos Reyes in 2007, the conference incorporates workshops, exhibitions, residencies, pedagogy, curatorial practice and collaborative projects. The conference is free of charge and has hosted over 700 presenters, taking place in two countries over the past seven years. Since the first Open Engagement conference in 2007, the event has become a locus for people interested in socially engaged art. The conference offers a primary site where practitioners convene annually to take stock of the field, playing host to artists and activists.


History


2007

The initial conference, born out of Delos Reyes' graduate studies at the
University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a j ...
, was hosted by the university, the Dunlop Art Gallery, The Mackenzie Art Gallery and local Regina residents from October 11–13, 2007. Each of the three days focused on a unique theme of exploration; October 11, You are all that I see: Art and everyday experience; October 12, It takes two: Collaborations, collectives, other team relationships; October 13. I'll call you: Long-term relationships, communities, and connectivity. Over 40 national and international contributors were present during this first conference. The contributors were selected through an open call for submissions, participating alongside three keynote presenters.


2010

In 2010 Open Engagement moved to
Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...
, planned in conjunction with the Art and Social Practice students, continuing under the leadership of Delos Reyes. The artists involved in Open Engagement: Making Things, Making Things Better, Making Things Worse, challenged traditional ideas of what art is and does. The artists' projects mediated the contemporary frameworks of art as service, as social space, as activism, as interactions, and as relationships. Over 150 presenters were accepted through an open call for submissionS. Featured keynote presenters were
Mark Dion Mark Dion (born August 28, 1961) is an American conceptual artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. His work examines the manner in which prevalent ideologies and institutions influence our understanding ...
,
Nils Norman Life and career Early life Norman was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, England in 1966 and lived there until 1979. In 1979 his parents moved to Bexhill, East Sussex. He attended Bexhill High School, Bexhill Sixth Form College and he did his Art Foun ...
, and
Amy Franceschini 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 ...
.


2011

Open Engagement 2011 explored broadly art and social practice. Through conversations, interviews, open reflection on experiences, and related projects created for or presented at the conference, five themes were examined: Peoples and Publics, Social Economies, In Between Places, Tracking and Tracing, and Sentiment and Strategies. 2011's keynote presenters were
Julie Ault Julie Ault (born 1957) is an American artist, curator, and editing, editor who was a cofounder of Group Material, a New York-based artists' collaborative that has produced over fifty exhibitions and public projects exploring relationships betwee ...
, Fritz Haeg, and Pablo Helguera. In 2011 Open Engagement also played host to the Bureau for Open Culture, Bad at Sports, an exhibition by the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, and concurrent summits on art and education and social practice/participatory programs and practices arising at museums. The summits featured representatives from
Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aero ...
, the
University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...
,
MICA Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...
,
California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...
, The Walker,
Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2), with more than 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2) of gallery space. The museum’s permanent c ...
, The Hammer and others.


2012

The 2012 Open Engagement featured presentations from keynote speakers
Tania Bruguera Tania Bruguera (born 1968 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban artist and activist who focuses on installation and performance art. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she works as head of media and performance at Harvard University. Bruguera has ...
, Shannon Jackson and
Paul Ramirez Jonas Paul Ramírez Jonas (born 1965, Pomona, California) is an American artist and arts educator, who is known for his social practice artworks exploring the potential between artist, audience, artwork and public. Many of Ramirez Jonas's projects use ...
. The work by these artists and scholars informed the conference themes: Politics, Economies, Education, and Representation.


2013

Open Engagement 2013 featured keynote presenters Claire Doherty, Tom Finkelpearl, and
Michael Rakowitz Michael Rakowitz (; born 22 October 1973 in Long Island, New York) is an Iraqi-American artist living and working in Chicago. He is best known for his conceptual art shown in non-gallery contexts. Rakowitz is Professor of Art Theory and Practice ...
. They were brought together to reflect on the themes of publics, contexts, and institutions in relation to the current state of socially engaged art, education, and institutional practice. The conference included dozens of panels, workshops, and lectures, as well as a continuation of the socially engaged art in art institutions summit as well as a public conversation with
Creative Time Creative Time is a nonprofit arts organization based in New York City. Founded in 1974, it supports the commissioning, production, and presentation of site-specific and socially engaged public art projects. History Creative Time was founded i ...
on the roles of the Creative Time Summit and Open Engagement.


2014

Open Engagement 2014 featured keynote presenters J. Morgan Puett and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. These and other artists, scholars and conference participants reflected on the theme of Life/Work. In 2014 the conference became mobile and was hosted by Queens Museum in the borough of Queens, New York City.


2015

In 2015, Open Engagement moved to Pittsburgh to explore the themes of place and revolution. A Blade of Grass was the year's organizational partner and the conference featured keynote presentations by
Emily Jacir Emily Jacir () is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker based in the Bethlehem, Palestine. Early life and education Emily Jacir grew up in Saudi Arabia and attended high school in Italy. She graduated with a degree in art from the University o ...
and Rick Lowe.


2016

The 2016 iteration of Open Engagement took place at the Oakland Museum of California. The 2016 conference theme, POWER, was guided by the curatorial vision of René de Guzman and featured keynote speakers
Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of ...
and
Suzanne Lacy Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, educator, writer, and professor at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She has worked in a variety of media, including installation art, installation, video art, video, performance art, perform ...
.


2017

Open Engagement 2017 took place at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a constellation of sites across the city. The conference theme JUSTICE was guided by the curatorial vision of Romi Crawford and Lisa Yun Lee. Featured presenters included
Theaster Gates Theaster Gates (born August 28, 1973) is an American social practice installation artist and a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he still lives and works. Gates' work ...
, Maria Gaspar, Maria Varela,
Ai-jen Poo Ai-jen Poo (, ; born 1974) is an American labor activist. She is the president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She is also the director of Caring Across Generations, a national coalition of 200 advocacy organizations working to tran ...
, Marisa Jahn and Laurie Jo Reynolds.


References


External links

*{{Official website, http://openengagement.info Visual arts conferences