[artinfo] Art in the Public Sphere: Master of Public Art Studies Program at USC

[Art&Education]

   Master of Public Art Studies Program
   Priority deadline for the 2009-2010
   academic year: March 2, 2009
   Applications may be submitted after this date on a space available
   basis.
   For more information on the Public Art Studies program at USC,
   please contact us at pasprog at usc.edu or visit our website at[1]
   http://roski.usc.edu/pas
   University of Southern California
   Roski School of Fine Arts
   Watt Hall 104 University Park Campus
   Los Angeles, CA 90089-0292
   Telephone: 213 743 8540 | Fax: 213 743 4563

   Ruth Weisberg, Dean



   Under the new leadership of curator, critic, and art historian Joshua
   Decter, in conjunction with a faculty of curators, scholars, and
   organizers, the Public Art Studies graduate program at the University
   of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts functions as a hub
   for critically rethinking the role of art in the public sphere and
   analyzing art's complex engagements with social space. Students in the
   program focus upon many theoretical and practical problems facing
   artists, curators, critics, theorists, architects, and other cultural
   producers, in order to:
   * re-imagine the public sphere in terms of the challenges of
   city-space and the urban condition;
   * evaluate processes of social collaboration, networks of
   participation, and relational aesthetics;
   * identify strategies of location-driven, site-specific, and
   situational engagement;
   * debate concepts and realities of community-based practice;
   * interrogate the role of the curator-and curatorial practice-in
   city-based exhibition projects; and
   * situate public art vis-à-vis broader art histories.
   The two-year Master of Public Art Studies (MPAS) program welcomes
   students from a range of academic backgrounds and professional
   interests, and offers a unique context for the study of key historical
   notions of public space and the public sphere, and the influence of
   these ideas upon the work of contemporary artists, theorists, and
   architects who seek to reconsider the public realm as a space of
   possibility.
   Immersed in a cross-disciplinary curriculum comprised of seminars,
   directed research, practicum opportunities, and guest lectures,
   students have the opportunity to participate in the development of a
   hybrid cultural discourse-and adventurous modes of curatorial
   organizing-that draws from aspects of art history and criticism,
   exhibition history, urban theory, architectural history and theory,
   social science, geography, and urban planning.
   The program examines how public and private space is fundamentally
   interconnected on conceptual and experiential levels, and how the most
   compelling art projects and exhibition initiatives seek to critically
   and dynamically re-script lived environments within city-spaces,
   challenging our assumptions about control, openness, access, and
   social interaction. As an example of a new curatorial practicum
   framework, students recently collaborated with the Tijuana/Los
   Angeles-based art collective, Bulbo, to reactivate a 1970 Allan Kaprow
   Happening in various public spaces around Los Angeles, in conjunction
   with the "Allan Kaprow-Art as Life" exhibition at the Museum of
   Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
   The program prepares students for careers in curatorial practice, the
   administration/organization of art projects in the public sphere, art
   writing, as well as opportunities within academia; and encourages them
   to imagine-as agents of change-new forms of cultural-political
   citizenship in relation to the renewed democratic potential of the
   public sphere. Fellowships and scholarships are available on a
   competitive basis.

   Joshua Decter, Director of the Public Art Studies program and
   Assistant Professor.
   A critic, curator, and art historian, Decter is a contributor to
   Artforum, Afterall, and other periodicals, and has organized
   exhibitions at PS1 in New York, The Center for Curatorial Studies at
   Bard, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Apex Art in New York,
   The Kunsthalle Vienna, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, among other
   institutions.

   Decter was a curatorial interlocutor for the inSite_05 San
   Diego/Tijuana "Interventions" exhibition, and organized the
   conference, "The Situational Drive: Complexities of Public Sphere
   Engagement," in collaboration with inSite San Diego/Tijuana and
   Creative Time, New York, presented at The Cooper Union, NY, in 2007.
   He most recently served on the graduate faculty at the Center for
   Curatorial Studies, Bard College. Decter has contributed to numerous
   exhibition catalogues and books, including publications for the 28th
   Bienal of São Paulo, Brazil (2008), and the 2008 California
   Biennial.
   Full-time Faculty: Rhea Anastas, Visiting Assistant Professor, USC
   Master of Public Art Studies Program. From 2001-2008 she was Visiting
   Assistant Professor, The Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in
   Contemporary Culture, Bard College. Anastas co-edited Dan Graham:
   Works 1965-2000 (2001) and Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by
   Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, Cady Noland, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker,
   Daniela Rossell and Eau de Cologne (2006), and was a co-founder of
   Orchard Gallery, New York.
   Adjunct Faculty: Lauri Firstenberg: Director/Curator, LAXART ; Carol
   Stakenas: Executive Director, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
   (LACE ); Anne Bray: Curator, Executive Director, LA Freewaves; Rita
   Gonzalez: Assistant Curator, LACMA; Karen Moss: Curator, Deputy
   Director for Exhibitions and Programs, Orange County Museum of Art;
   Donna Conwell: Curator-Producer, Writer, Art Historian; Janet Owen
   Driggs: Writer, Artist, Curator; Christina Ulke: Artist,
   Co-Editor/Co-Publisher, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest; Susan Gray:
   Cultural Arts Planner, CRA/LA

   Guest speakers and seminar leaders in the 2007-2008 academic year
   included: Edgar Arceneaux, Bulbo, Sam Durant, Michael Krichman, Rick
   Lowe, Rochelle Steiner, Allan McCollum, Teddy Cruz, Miwon Kwon, Nato
   Thompson, Hou Hanru, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Grant Kester, Tirdad
   Zolghadr

References

   1. file://localhost/tmp/3D"