ART CRITICS FORUM | WHAT IS ART CRITICISM’S JOB TODAY

Moderated by Sarah Douglas (ARTnews)

Historically art critics have played a pivotal role in shaping the art world: advancing or impeding artist trajectories, identifying trends and movements, and influencing collectors, galleries, and museums –even affecting their fortunes. Intentional or not, in doing their work critics cannot help but project values and priorities that perpetuate hierarchies or challenge them; there is no such thing as a neutral stance.

While the social, racial, and financial disparities that make the artworld counter-inclusive have been under fire for quite some time, the events of the past two years have provided a tipping point in seeking to redress and reverse them. In turn, we have been witnessing a proliferation of exhibitions of artists who have been historically “overlooked” and devalued.

This panel will explore the role criticism can and should play in fostering an inclusive and equitable artworld. At the same time, it will examine what forms criticism can take today given that its role–by definition–is to judge. The discussion will be set against the ever-expanding universe of social, paid, sponsored, and other media in which the critic is just a single voice and where an Instagram post can seemingly make a greater impact than a review in a respected publication. Presented in partnership with ARTnews.

2:00pm
DIRECTORS SUMMIT | IMAGINING THE FUTURE: PART II

Panelists | Louise Bernard (Obama Presidential Center Museum), Miki Garcia (Arizona State University Art Museum), Halona Norton-Westbrook (Honolulu Museum of Art), Julie Rodrigues Widholm (SAIC MA 1999, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive). Moderated by Jill Snyder (Museum Consultant).

The inaugural Directors Summit, organized by EXPO CHICAGO alongside experienced museum leader Jill Snyder, brings together a diverse group of emerging art museum leaders from across the United States for a three-day program addressing the shifting dynamics of museum leadership today.

In a second public roundtable discussion, four emerging art museum leaders explore the shifting dynamics of museum leadership today. In lively conversation, this cohort of change agents will share insights and examples illustrating how they are leading from an imperfect past to create a more equitable future.

3:15pm
SATURNINE | CONVERSATION AND BOOK SIGNING WITH THEORDORA ALLEN

Straddling criticism and prose, this first monograph of Los Angeles-based artist Theodora Allen interweaves the artist’s emblematic use of symbols with the cultural history of Saturn and Melancholy from ancient myth to the present. Join Allen in conversation with author Stephanie Cristello for a short conversation and book signing on the occasion of Saturnine’s publication and concurrent exhibition at the Driehaus Museum.

Presented in partnership with the Driehaus Museum.

4:00pm
TEXTILE ARTISTS NOW

Panelists | Gio Swaby (Artist), Kimberli Gant (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art | Brooklyn Museum), LJ Roberts (Artist). Moderated by Michelle Millar Fisher (Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

To the casual observer, artists engaging with textiles as their primary medium are “having a moment,” with recent exhibitions at major museums celebrating incisive contemporary artists and seminal collectives including the Gee’s Bend quilters, Jeffrey Gibson, and Bisa Butler. But the field of contemporary art has always had its fair share of artists working with thread and cloth—though has not always embraced and elevated their work as readily as other media. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion with artists and curators who will touch upon topics including the appeal of textile art to audiences and collectors alike, their work’s relationship to craft, how knowledge of processes are shared and the conceptual underpinnings of their practices, as well as how politics are developed through the medium.

5:30pm
GENERATIVE ART AND NFTs

Panelists | Erick Calderon (Art Blocks), Kenny Schachter (Artnet), Lesley Silverman (UTA)

Erick Calderon, creator of the generative art NFT platform Art Blocks, explores functional use cases for NFT technology, specially aimed at the art sector. This panel brings Calderon into conversation with Kenny Schacter, Artnet crypto specialist, and Lesley Silverman, head of digital assets at United Talent Agency, to address the quick ascent of NFTs to a place of prominence within the art world. The panel asks: What creative potential exists for the medium? And how might the market mature?