Glen Helfand is with the California College of Arts in San Francisco. He says, "There used to be a network of grants that artists could get to fund projects. I mean way back in the ancient history, galleries might have given artists stipends. Now it's a much tougher game."

Visit source »

Last month my institution, California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, selected scientist Amory Lovins to deliver the commencement speech and to receive an honorary doctorate. I'm sure many people in the audience were wondering why CCA, a school of the arts, chose a scientist for this honor. What could a world-renowned physicist say that would resonate with a group of artists, architects, designers, curators, and writers? Plenty, as we all found out.

Visit source »

Now a tenured professor and Chair of the Sculpture department at the California College of the Arts, Smith was once an emerging artist living in New York City. In 2004, she began a series of large-scale public art events hinged on the aesthetic vernacular of the American Civil War. The project, called The Muster, took its name from a military term meaning a gathering of troops to critique, exercise, and display. The project culminated with an encampment on Governors Island in 2005.

Social practice is a relatively new term for art that puts less emphasis on objects made for individual contemplation and more energy into projects involving participation, activism or community organizing. Of course, plenty of artists were making art like this before critics and scholars christened it “social practice.” One such artist is Allison Smith, whose exhibition “Allison Smith: Rudiments of Fife and Drum” combines elements of craft, performance and participation and is currently on view at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn.