Open Engagement (OE) has carved a unique niche in the realm of contemporary art by dedicating itself to the nurturing and understanding of socially engaged art. Since its inception in 2007, OE has stood as a beacon for artists, activists, scholars, and community members who intersect around the complex social issues of our time.
In the countdown to Open Engagement 2018 we invited 10 friends to reflect on the past ten years of OE. For the last and final installment of this series we have reserved the last spot for you, as a friend of OE, to share your reflection with us. As Open Engagement embarks on a research […]
The 9th reflection in our blog series comes to us in the form of a video made on vacation post #OE2018 by Open Engagment Associate Director Crystal Baxley. If anyone deserves a vacation following the conference I can’t think of a more worthy person. This pat (that is the word for a group of flamingos […]
The 8th reflection in our series comes to us in the form of a playlist made by Open Engagment Assistant Director Latham Zearfoss. The mix is a soundtrack for the frustrated fantasies of arts administrators. These songs are femme-centric meditations on money, revenge and living a life of purpose. These are songs are our anthems as […]
Ask Me About Sunsetting Sunsets are beautiful. It is unclear whether or not this statement is operating as an affirmation or an incantation. I am telling myself this because I need comfort. I need beauty. I need to come to terms with the fact that I am about to sunset a project I have been […]
Education, Labor and Sustainability Lots of notebooks. I kept lots of physical notebooks during my ‘Sopractical’ graduate program at Portland State University, where Jen Delos Reyes shared her radiant self with us all. As an educator, she went beyond her call of duty, finding artists and books to offer each student after we presented an […]
9 PM, May 1, 2016 An image comes to mind of Jen de los Reyes sitting with Angela Davis in my office. Angela had just finished giving her keynote speech at the Oakland Museum of California’s Open Engagement 2016. I was impressed but not surprised by Angela’s sophistication and charisma. She talked about art’s radical […]
Two Images and Ten Years Between This my favourite picture of Jen Delos Reyes–I love the “you are interrupting me and I am busy, look.” In this context I am assuming that she needs no introduction, she is the reason after all that the Open Engagement (OE) conference came to be. She’s up on a […]
Ten Times Sustainability, Justice, and Power Pedro Lasch / March, 2018 The 10th edition of Open Engagement – also the final one as the conference so many of us have come to know and cherish, will no doubt provide a great opportunity to take stock of its impact, the role of social art practice, and […]
An Aesthetics of Overcoming Deborah Fisher The prompt asked me to reflect on two very basic questions about the state of socially engaged art: where we are, and what we need. I want to start by honoring the vastness of this. I promise in this writing not to write what I always write. I promise […]
In the countdown to Open Engagement 2018 we have invited 10 friends to reflect on the past 10 years of OE. Our first reflection comes to us from Randall Szott. Randall is the director of a small public library in a small Vermont town. He is on his town Planning Commission, Development Review Board, and […]