JAN FEB MAR 2018 FROM THE DIRECTOR A collaborative effort between Findley Elementary School students, their teacher Lisa Hesse, and artist Dave Eppley, whose major site-specific installation is included in the In late September, The Links, Drawing in Space exhibition, resulted in Mile-a-Minute Rainbow Incorporated, a not-for-profit corporation Ivy, 2017, being installed on the Richard Meier building during of African-American women leaders, held the month of November. their 60th anniversary celebration at the Art Center. The evening also showcased the many works by African-American artists in our permanent collections. It was an especially rewarding collaboration for everyone involved. The Links is now continuing this special partnership with a gift of $1,000 to support an education- based internship at the Art Center in 2018 for African-American students. The Art Center, like many museums across the country, is striving to introduce young persons of color to employment in the field in an attempt to increase their numbers in the museum career pipeline. This project will help do so. Another exciting partnership occurred in October with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. The group held a board meeting at the Art Center where the members toured our recent exhibition, I, too, am America, with Assistant Curator Jared Ledesma. Later in October, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission organized a public symposium, which featured a break-out session entitled, I, too, am America, inspired by the show. This is a wonderful example of the power of art to inspire, illuminate understanding, and engage broad audiences. In early November, the Art Center celebrated the creation of a temporary, large-scale mural on the exterior of the Richard Meier building with a public reception. One hundred and twenty third- and fifth-grade students at Findley Elementary School created the artwork, which was displayed during most of November and was highly visible from Grand Avenue. These students worked with the artist Dave Eppley, whose major site-specific installation is included in the Drawing in Space exhibition. This collaboration between the community, a contemporary artist, and the Art Center proved to be an extraordinary and unexpected experience for all involved. JEFF FLEMING 2 | JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH 2018 SENIOR CURATOR ALISON FERRIS NAMED FELLOW BY THE CENTER FOR CURATORIAL LEADERSHIP The Art Center is proud to announce that Senior Curator Alison Ferris has been selected by the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) as one of 12 curators to participate in its annual fellowship program for 2018. ounded in 2007 by Agnes Gund A committee of museum directors F and Elizabeth Easton, CCL trains and CCL alumni chose the 11th class of curators to assume leadership positions Fellows from a highly competitive pool of in museums in the rapidly evolving cultural applicants. Accepted Fellows come from climate of the 21st century. Located in 10 institutions including the Harvard Art New York City, CCL runs programs at Museums, The Metropolitan Museum of home and in other cities, drawing upon the Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Andy diverse resources of museums and academic Warhol Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, institutions across the United States. It has Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, transformed the model for developing leaders Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in art museums with a singular program that Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as involves a combination of teaching and doing, well as the Des Moines Art Center. The including mentorships with top museum 2018 cohort exemplifies a commitment to directors and exposure to a wide network of scholarly excellence, collaborative thinking, trustees, philanthropists, business leaders, and inclusive practices within museums and and innovators. the visual arts. Ferris says of her selection, The incoming class of Fellows will join the “I’m honored to be chosen to be a 2018 organization in New York City in January for Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership an initial two weeks of instruction, followed and I look forward to bringing back to the by residencies with leading museum Art Center the knowledge and skills I gain directors, the development of an individual from participating in the program.” Diversity Mentoring Initiative, and a final week of coursework in May. DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG | 3 FEBRUARY 17 – MAY 13, 2018 ANNA K. MEREDITH GALLERY ORGANIZED BY THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO ART GALLERIES, BUFFALO, NEW YORK AND CURATED BY RACHEL ADAMS, UB ART GALLERIES SENIOR CURATOR, AND ART CENTER CURATOR LAURA BURKHALTER Wanderlust ACTIONS, TRACES, JOURNEYS 1967–2017 John Baldessari and Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys working in this particular way—demonstrating George Nicolaidis California Map Project Part I: 1967–2017 questions and explores the that artists who step outside of their studio California, 1969 complex nature of artists as voyagers—those have a shared sensibility, yet approach art Courtesy of John Baldessari Studio who depart their studio to create work outside making in a spectrum of ways. of the confines of four walls. This exhibition Artists featured in Wanderlust include is a comprehensive survey of the artist’s Vito Acconci, Janine Antoni, John Baldessari, need to roam and the work that emerges David Hammons, Mona Hatoum, Richard from this need. No longer separately Long, Marie Lorenz, Ana Mendieta, Wangechi relegated to “walking” art or “land” art, but Mutu, Gabriel Orozco, and Carmen Papalia, including an array of action-based processes, among many others. Wanderlust allows viewers to experience The exhibition will also feature a variety 50 years of artistic practices that are of public programming, allowing visitors intertwined, while highlighting diverse to depart the gallery and explore the approaches to contemporary art. Des Moines landscape. Artist Todd Shalom Each work recognizes the walk and the will lead a newly-commissioned walk journey as much more than just a basic through the skywalks in March and artist human act. Author Rebecca Solnit observes Mary Mattingly will lead public participants that walking replicates thinking, adding in a workshop and pilgrimage walk in April “the motions of the mind cannot be traced, (dates opposite page). The Art Center’s but those of the feet can.” The exhibition website and next Art Center NEWS will encompasses a broad spectrum of artists provide additional information. 4 | JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH 2018 EXHIBITION OPENING THE PARTICIPATORY WALK: Friday, February 16 Performance Art Workshop 5 –7 pm with Todd Shalom RSVP encouraged* Four classes: March 19 – 22 / Noon – 4 pm GALLERY DIALOGUE (daily attendance is required) with Curator Available in English and Spanish Laura Burkhalter Thursday, March 8 Culminating performance: 6:30 pm March 24 / Noon – 4 pm Anna K. Meredith Gallery Limited to 12 participants Send paragraph stating interest TONI AND TIM URBAN to Laura Burkhalter at INTERNATIONAL [email protected] ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE: by February 19, 2018 Todd Shalom Todd Shalom is the third ARTIST LECTURE: Toni and Tim Urban International Mary Mattingly Artist-in-Residence. Funding for “The Supply Chain this residency was established and the Sublime” in 2015 with the aim of bringing Thursday, April 12 / 6:30 pm artists from foreign countries, Levitt Auditorium particularly of Jewish heritage, Reservations required* to the Des Moines Art Center and the communities we serve. COMMUNITY COLLABORATION WITH MARY MATTINGLY: PUBLIC PERFORMANCE The Bundle and the Pilgrimage ART TOUR: Todd Shalom, Part One: Sky Highlighting Help us create the Bundle Thursday, March 22 Friday, April 13 / 11 am – 4 pm 6:30 – 8:45 pm Saturday, April 14 / 10 am – noon Friday, March 23 Lobby 6:30 – 8:45 pm Part Two: Ages: 16+ / Open to all abilities Join us for the Pilgrimage Meeting Location: Saturday, April 14 / 1– 4 pm Lobby and Greenwood Park 400 Locust Street, Des Moines (inside Capital Square in front More information at of the Post Office) desmoinesartcenter.org Reservations required* Limited to 12 participants Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, and Journeys 1967–2017 is organized by the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, New York and curated by Rachel Adams, UB Art Galleries Senior Curator. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Generous support for the exhibition and catalogue has also been provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support comes from Charles Balbach and the Techne Institute for Arts and Emerging Technologies at the University at Buffalo with in-kind support provided by Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center and Eleven Twenty Projects, Buffalo, New York. Mary Mattingly (American, born 1979) Pull, 2013 C-print 30 x 30 inches Courtesy of the artist DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG | 5 THROUGH MARCH 25, 2018 JOHN BRADY PRINT GALLERY ORGANIZED BY SENIOR CURATOR ALISON FERRIS FINK / WINOGRAND GALLERY DIALOGUE Larry Fink and Garry Winogrand were both manipulated in the darkroom when making with Alison Ferris actively taking photographs in New York straight photography; the goal was to make Sunday, January 28 City in the 1970s. Winogrand primarily made sharp photographs that depicted the subject 1:30 pm John Brady Print Gallery photographs during the day of people on the city “as the camera sees it.” streets exemplified here in a selection of work Fink and Winogrand were committed to from his “Women are Beautiful” series that was making work “as the camera sees it,” but they made into a book. Larry Fink’s series “Social were just as interested in Henri Cartier-Bresson’s LEFT Graces,” also resulting in a book, consists of concept of the “decisive moment,” which he Larry Fink (American, born 1941) photographs depicting wealthy Manhattanites explains is “… a creative fraction of a second Tavern on the Green, New York in the evenings at museum openings, balls, and when you are taking a picture. Your eye must City, October 1976, 1976, galas.