Sarasota Museum of Art Kicks Off Thought-Provoking Fall Season

–Architecture Takes Center Stage As the Museum Considers the Impact Shared Environments Have on Our Lives – The Sarasota Museum of Art is excited to announce the fall season lineup of educational programming featuring the art world’s thought leaders and thought provocateurs. This fall, the programs are designed to engage the community in discussion around the most pubic of art forms, architecture.

“Our fantastic line-up of artists, architects, designers and authors for this season is sure to spark dynamic discussions around space and place,” shared Anne-Marie Russell, executive director for the Sarasota Museum of Art. “We’ve been thinking a lot about architecture as we design the Museum; how built environments shape our space, transform to better serve the community, and impact relationships we have with each other and our surroundings.”

Kicking off the season on October 12 with an Open House, a meet-and-greet free to the public, the Sarasota Museum of Art will hold six events at The Works pop-up space located at 891 South Tamiami Trail. The Open House welcomes the community to come and engage in discussion around the progress and process of designing and building the Sarasota Museum of Art from the ground up.

Following the Open House will be a ticketed screening of the documentary film Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back. Trickster artist Maurizio Cattelan transformed Frank Lloyd Wright’s central spiral at the Guggenheim Museum with an irreverent retrospective of his provocative works in 2012, where he recently debuted his masterpiece, America. The film features interviews from curators, collectors, and art-world luminaries to build a compelling picture of the conceptual artist and what makes him tick.

Additionally, the fall series includes the following talks:

Design Lab: Chris Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson
Lasch of design studio Aranda\Lasch and Johnson, artist and co-founder of Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) collaborated to produce a collection of experimental baskets and woven constructions that engage the traditional art of basket weaving while extending that tradition through advanced computation and fabrication methods. Lasch and Johnson share insights on the work and their decade-long collaboration that re-imagines an ancient material practice within the contemporary world.
Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 5:30PM

Design Lab: Florian Idenburg & Jing Liu
The founders of SO-IL, a New York based award-winning architectural design firm, envision spaces for culture, learning and innovation and lead the production of buildings, interiors, furniture and landscapes around the world. As a collective of diverse thinkers and makers, SO-IL engages with the ever-changing social, economic and natural environment through active dialogue that considers context, function and opportunity. Idenburg and Liu will also share content from their new book Solid Objectives: Order, Edge, and Aura. Limited copies will be available for signing.
Thursday, November 2, 2017 at 5:30PM

Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power
Talk & book signing with author Susan E. Cahan. Drawing on numerous interviews with artists and analyses of internal museum documents, Cahan gives a detailed and at times surprising picture of the institutional and social forces that both drove and inhibited social justice in New York’s museums.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 5:30PM

Restoring a Masterpiece: Architect Greg Hall & Umbrella House owner Robert Essner
Hall and Essner will share the intricate process of restoring the Umbrella House, an iconic residential architecture masterpiece designed by Paul Rudolph. Built as a “spec” house in 1953, it is representative of southwest Florida’s post-World War II design movement, colloquially known as the Sarasota School of Architecture.
Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 5:30PM

With the exception of the free Open House, all programs are $10 for the general public and free for Museum donors, Ringling College students, faculty & staff. Space is limited. Tickets and reservations available through the website: https://www.ringling.edu/museum

About the Sarasota Museum of Art
The Sarasota Museum of Art, a division of Ringling College of Art and Design, will serve as a catalyst for appreciation and understanding of globally-renowned contemporary art by artists both established and emerging. A platform for education and exposure, the Museum will be a haven of the avant-garde for audiences of all levels of experience with contemporary art. Having no permanent collection, the Museum will be flexible and timely through a rotation of transformative, relevant, and pioneering new exhibitions and programs. At its core a learning institution, the Sarasota Museum of Art will host community education programs and courses to immerse audiences in the conceptual power of contemporary art.

Please note: While the Ringling College Museum Campus is under construction, the Museum is presenting educational programming at our pop up space, The Works. We anticipate wrapping up construction in fall of 2018, with the Campus opening in early 2019.

photo from Museum of Art Website / Sarasota Museum of Art Aerial Photo by Jimmy Scott Jr.