Ted Purves (1964 – July 4, 2017) was an American artist, educator, and independent

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

living in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

, California. He was the chair of the first

Social Practice Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often appl ...

graduate program in the US, at the

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 ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Central to Purves' interests were the

gift economy A gift economy or gift culture is a system of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. Social norms and customs govern giving a gift in a gift culture; although there ...

, and the distribution of free goods and services by artists.

Publications

Purves edited ''What We Want Is Free: Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art'', published by

SUNY Press The State University of New York Press (more commonly referred to as the SUNY Press) is a university press affiliated with the State University of New York system. The press, which was founded in 1966, is located in Albany, New York and publishe ...

in 2005. It includes essays by curators Bill Arning, Kate Fowle and Lars Bang Larsen,

Mary Jane Jacob Mary Jane Jacob is an American curator, writer, and educator from Chicago, Illinois. She is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is the former Executive Director of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies. She has held posts as ...

and artists Ben Kinmont,

Jörgen Svensson Jörgen is a village in the municipality of Tieschen in the ''Bezirk'' of Südoststeiermark in the Federal State of Styria in Austria. Its population was 159 in 2016. Jörgen is known for its fine white wines. Next to the more common white wi ...

, Guy Overfelt,

Jeanne van Heeswijk Jeanne van Heeswijk (born 1965) is a Dutch visual artist and curator. Her work often focuses on social practice art, or the relationship between space, geography and urban renewal. She lives and works in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. From 1983-19 ...

, and an interview with Cesare Pietroiusi by Shane Aslan Selzer. It also includes a Projects Histories section with short descriptions of dozens of related projects.

The Momentary Academy

''The Momentary Academy'' was a temporary school realized at the

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

, during the Bay Area Now 4 exhibition. It offered free classes to the public led by artists in the exhibition. Classes involved practical as well as experimental subjects, and ranged from single workshop sessions to weekly meetings. Classes offered included ''Marco Polo's Favorite Potstickers: A Cross Cultural Cooking Lesson'' by Edie Tsong; ''The Lost & Found Society'' by Joseph del Pesco and Alex Burke; ''The Power of Breath'' by Helena Keeffe; ''Changing Patterns: Contemporary Clothing Construction and Design Innovation'' by Scatha G Allison; ''Paper Parlour'' by Christine Shields; ''Paper, 8.5" x 11", White.'' by Tommy Becker; ''The Medium is the Message'' by Josh Greene; ''Mindscapes'' by Fred Loomis; ''Spoken Word Spoken'' by Chris Kubick; ''Sacred Geometry'' by Ezra Li Eismont; and finally ''Perfect Models: Inventing Schools as Works of Art'' by Ted Purves with special guest

Jon Rubin Jon Rubin is a contemporary artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Projects Fruit and Other Things ''Fruit and Other Things'' (2018-2019) is a project created in collaboration with artist Lenk ...

Temescal Amity Works

''Temescal Amity Works'' is a public project in

, California involving the free distribution of locally grown fruit, and the exchange of information and services in a neighborhood diverse in race and class that is in the process of redefining itself amidst the pressures of

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

and development.

References

External links

AmityWorks Project information

Social Practice at CCA.edu

Ted Purves at CCA.edu

What We Want is Free

Creative Capital - Amity Works Page

* ttp://badatsports.com/2010/episode-249-ted-purves/ Ted Purves' Interview with Bad At Sports {{DEFAULTSORT:Purves, Ted 1964 births American art curators American contemporary artists Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area 2017 deaths