Aesthetics Out of Bounds

Tom Smart Director of Museum Programs at the Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh "An Archive of Silent Conversations: Visiting Artists at the Frick" Monday, February 27, 2006 5:30 p.m. On the Carnegie Mellon campus - Baker Hall 136A (Adamson Wing)

The focus of Tom Smart's lecture will be based on the unique circumstances of his work at the Frick. As director of collections and exhibitions he pushes the boundaries of curatorial practice by creating new methods of understanding historical collections by juxtaposing them with contemporary artists' work. His approach is collaborative--he's worked with contemporary artists, among them Vik Muniz, Christian Milovanoff, Robin Becker and Linn Meyers, and with work by such artists as Dan Flavin and Kiki Smith in order to rethink the Frick collection through contemporary performance, installation, and object placement. Often artists have produced new works of art, taking specific works of historical art in the permanent collection of the Frick or that were on view at the Frick in traveling exhibitions.

Smart has recently been appointed Director of the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinburg, a community on the edge of Toronto. The McMichael is one of Canada's finest collections of work by the early twentieth-century painters known as "The Group of Seven," and by Canadian Inuit artists. In his new position he will be responsible for developing the collections and programs, including those involving contemporary artists, broadening its audience, and directing the operation.

Aesthetics Out of Bounds is a series of free public lectures being offered at Carnegie Mellon University during the fall 2005 and spring of 2006. Sponsored by the Center for the Arts in Society with a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the series features a distinguished group of internationally recognized scholars who will discuss the plastic, visual, performing, and literary arts in multiple historical contexts. Drawing scholars from the United States and Europe, the series will chart out new directions in the fields of aesthetics, arts historiography, critical theory and visual culture for a broad and intellectually engaged audience.

For more information about the series please visit; http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mwitmore/aesthetics/index.html