Jeanne van Heeswijk: Public Art and Social Practice workshop series

Thursday, February 23, 2017, at 6 p.m. Free public artist talk

ACAD’s Illingworth Kerr Gallery welcomes artist Jeanne van Heeswijk as the final speaker and mentor for the Public Art and Social Practice workshop series.

The artist who facilitated a Land Community Trust to take ownership and collectively manage abandoned suburban spaces and converted an iconic blue villa into a research centre exploring ideas of urban renewal and community building comes to Calgary to share her experiences with artists and the general public

Calgary, AB – The Alberta College of Art + Design’s (ACAD) Illingworth Kerr Gallery (IKG) invites you to attend a public talk by internationally acclaimed artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk. The talk will take place at the Stanford Perrott Lecture Theatre on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 6 p.m. This is a free event with limited capacity, so guests should arrive early to secure a seat.

The talk is part of the Public Art and Social Practice workshop series jointly offered by The City of Calgary and the Illingworth Kerr Gallery. The series provides professional development for five local artists interested in pursuing public art projects with a social practice focus. Participating artists will exhibit work at the IKG and have their proposals considered for a public art commission.

Jeanne van Heeswijk is an artist who facilitates the creation of dynamic and diversified public spaces in order to “radicalize the local”. Her long-scale community-embedded projects question art’s autonomy by combining performative actions, discussions, and other forms of organizing and pedagogy in order to enable communities to take control of their own futures.

Noted projects include Hotel New York P.S. 1 in New York (September 1998 to August 1999); De Strip (The Strip) in Westwijk, Vlaardingen (May 2002 - May 2004); Het Blauwe Huis (The Blue House) in Amsterdam (May 2005 - December 2009); and Homebaked in Liverpool (November 2011 - present); Freehouse, Radicalizing the Local in Rotterdam (September 2008- present).

Her work has been featured in numerous books and publications worldwide, as well as internationally renowned biennials such as those of Liverpool, Shanghai, and Venice. She was the 2014-2015 Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism at Bard College and she has received the 2012 Curry Stone Prize for Social Design Pioneers, and in 2011, the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change. She lives and works in Rotterdam and Philadelphia.

Stanford Perrott Lecture Theatre, Alberta College of Art + Design, 1407 14 Ave NW, Calgary, AB