Art and Environment Lucy Lippard

Thursday, May 1, 8:00 p.m. at The Menil Collection Lucy Lippard is an internationally known writer, activist and curator. An early champion of feminist art, she was among the first writers to recognize the de-materialization at work in conceptual art. She is the author of numerous books on art and feminism and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Frank Mather Award for Criticism from the College Art Association, and two National Endowment for the Arts grants in criticism. Her art criticism has been published in Art in America, The Village Voice, In These Times, and Z Magazine. She is a co-founder of Printed Matter—at a time, she says, when she couldn't sit down at a table with people without starting an organization. She also co-founded the Heresies Collective, Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, and other artists’ organizations. After graduating from Smith College, Lippard worked for the American Friends Service Committee in Mexico, an experience that affected her deeply. She later received an M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She has spent part of every summer of her life in Georgetown, Maine, which has contributed to her being profoundly influenced by places. In her work she examines how people create their identities from their environments and the relationship of culture to place. She argues that a powerful image can foster change and that art can become something that acts in the world. The most recent of over 50 exhibitions Ms. Lippard has curated is “Weather Report: Art and Climate Change,” an interdisciplinary show on global warming at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. For the show dozens of artists were asked to join with scientists to create pieces about climate change. Of the show she said, “I love the idea that art can become something that acts in the world.” Taking a break from her earlier performances, comics, guerrilla theater, and curatorial activities, she currently edits the local paper, La Puente de Galisteo, in her home community in Galisteo, New Mexico.