is anybody listening?

ArtPace Conversations 03
1.29.03

For Immediate Release
January 27, 2003

Media Contact:
Anne Edgar
646.336.7230
aedgar@earthlink.net

ARTPACE PRESENTS A BI-ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ADDRESSING THE STATE OF CURRENT CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE

San Antonio, Texas—ArtPace, a not-for-profit artists' residency and exhibition program for contemporary art, will convene an international array of curators, critics, cultural theorists, and artists for a two-day symposium Friday, April 4 through Saturday, April 5, 2003. ArtPace Conversations 03: Is Anybody Listening? will explore the implications of growing evidence that the popular audience for contemporary art is shrinking, displaced by professional and insular constituencies. ArtPace Conversations 03 will be presented in one of the country's most spectacular and historic movie houses, the Charline McCombs Empire Theater, 226 North St. Mary's, in downtown San Antonio.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and contributing writer for The New Yorker, will open the dialogue with a keynote address on Friday, April 4, at 6:30 PM. In The Tipping Point and other writings, Gladwell has explored how ideas and trends travel, identifying the conditions—such as the size of a group or the personality of those communicating information—that can either inhibit or speed dissemination.

On Saturday, April 5, a 10:00 AM panel will examine the divide between today's most ambitious visual art practices and their acceptance by general audiences. Robert Storr, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at New York University, and former curator of contemporary art at The Museum of Modern Art, New York will moderate the discussion. Panelists will include Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Curator at the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; Thelma Golden, Chief Curator at The Studio Museum in New York City; and artist Pae White who is known for reworking "high art" ideas into works that utilize disposable materials.

Eleanor Heartney, professor, author, and contributing editor of Art in America and Artpress, will lead the afternoon panel at 2:00 PM, which will consider how value is assigned in the art world and how trends in taste can build, or sink, in momentum. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, an influential artist who works with many different kinds of media, from DNA samples to low-rider car clubs, will participate in this panel along with Thomas Blackman, President of TBA Exhibition Space and producer of Art Chicago, The San Francisco International Art Exhibition, and The Stray Show, Chicago; and Tom Eccles, Director of New York's prestigious Public Art Fund.

ArtPace Conversations 03: Is Anybody Listening? is an admission-free event, open to the public.

Benefit Dinner
ArtPace will host a celebratory dinner honoring Malcolm Gladwell and ArtPace Conversations 03 panelists and sponsors on Friday, April 4, following the keynote address. This ticketed dinner will be held in the home of a San Antonio collector beginning at 6:30 PM. All proceeds from the evening event will benefit ArtPace's educational programs, all of which are admission-free and open to the public, year-round. For information about ticket prices, please call Tara Elgin Holley at ArtPace, 210.212.4900.

The Location
The site of the keynote address and panel discussions, Charline McCombs Empire Theatre (1913), is cited on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the country's finest surviving historic movie palaces. The Empire was designed in the style of a grand European palazzo by the St. Louis architects, Mauran, Russell & Crow. Its decorative plaster moldings, ornamental medallions, free form leaves, maidens, masks, and floral detail—intricately painted with metallic powders or 23-carat gold leafing—are capped by a giant copper eagle, which still keeps watch today.

About ArtPace
ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art | San Antonio serves as an advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for the creation of significant art projects. We seek to nurture emerging and established artists and to provide opportunities for inspiration, experimentation and education. Through our International Artist-in-Residence Program, we invite 9 artists annually to participate in a 2-month residency, followed by a 2-month exhibition, which supports the evolution of new ideas in art. Our broad range of panels, lectures, artist talks, exhibitions, and studio visits cultivate diverse audiences for contemporary art and provides a forum for ongoing dialogue.

ArtPace is located downtown at 445 N. Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, TX. Free parking is available on the corner of Savings and Flores streets. ArtPace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5 PM, Thursday, 12-8 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org