The Open Engagement conference is an initiative of Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice MFA concentration. Directed by Jen Delos Reyes and planned in conjunction with Harrell Fletcher and the Art and Social Practice students, this year’s conference features internationally renowned artists Julie Ault, Fritz Haeg, and Pablo Helguera. The work by these artists’ touch on subjects including democracy, group work, the boundary (or lack there of) between art and life, education, and transdisciplinarity. In addition, Open Engagement will play host to the Bureau for Open Culture, the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, and a summit on art and education. The summit features students and faculty from MFA programs focusing on public and social art, including OTIS College of Art and Design, the University of California Santa Cruz, and the California College of the Arts.
This year’s Open Engagement sets out to discuss various perspectives on art and social practice. Through conversations, interviews, open reflection on experiences, and related projects created for or presented at the conference we will be looking at five themes that encompass ideas connected to social practice:
Peoples and Publics, Social Economies, In Between Places, Tracking and Tracing, and Sentiment and Strategies
Open Engagement is a free conference that will take place May 13-15, 2011, in Portland, Oregon. Contributors are not asked to pay a registration fee and the public will not be charged to attend. Contributors to the event will be supported in the following ways: participants from out of town will be housed in Portland homes. Several meals during the conference will be provided emphasizing slow food and community cooking. A variety of transportation will be provided drawing on Portland’s bike culture and public transportation. Conference activities will be integrated with local businesses, using pubs and cafes as conference hubs.
All primary conference venues are ADA accessible.
