Transcultural Collaborations: Collapsing Distance, Transforming Home
November 16, 2011
BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Borough of Manhattan Community College
NYC
moderated by Janet Goldner;
panelists: Hector Canonge, Lydia Matthews, Kandioura Coulibaly & Kletigui Dembele
Transculture refers to the act of uniting people from different backgrounds and cultures in an effort to exchange varied perspectives and contexts. An exchange of this sort can potentially yield global/universal similarities and specific cultural differences. It is a way for people to think together while contributing beliefs and strategies from their individual experiences. Careful attention must be paid to power relations in order to maximize the interaction. As the work continues over a long period of time, the result can be an identity that is not exclusively linked to a geographic location or ethnicity but to new cultural and conceptual realms. Dialogues in the Visual Arts is a theme-based visual arts program focusing on the work of multiple artists sharing one bill and moderated by critics, gallery owners and curators.
Common Threads: Groupe Bogolan Kasobane, Gee’s Bend Quilters in Residence
November 7-14, 2011
Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center
University of Alabama, Birmingham
Common Threads brought together artists of two of the world’s most vibrant contemporary textile traditions: The Quilters of Gee’s Bend and the Groupe Bogolan Kasobane, bogolan masters from Mali. This visual art performance/demonstration featured artists of the two traditions working simultaneously on their respective art pieces during the course of a week-long residency. Panel discussions and lectures explored each art form and the artists that practice it, the similarities between the art forms, and cultural memory patterns included in both groups’ artistic expressions. The program was developed by Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center with ArtPlay Teaching Artist Sharrif Simmons. New York artist Janet Goldner will act as a cultural and language translator for the project.
Farm Project 2011
September 3-October 30, 2011
Goldner’s installation, Wealth in Africa, is on view as part of the Farm Project 2011.
Curated by Collaborative Concepts
Sculptures by over 60 artists
Mid-run Reception: Saturday, October 1, 1-6pm (Rain: October 2, 1-6pm)
Open daily to the public. Free of charge. Dawn to dusk.
Saunders Farm
853 Old Albany Post Road
Garrison NY 10524
From north or south on Route 9 turn east on Travis Corners Road, opposite Garrison Gulf Club, take to end. Turn left on Old Albany Post Road, approx. 1/2 mile to parking. Call 265-taxi from MetroNorth RR, Garrison Station.
INTERSTICE & EMPHASIS: Artists From The Aljira Collection
July 21 - September 24th, 2011
Aljira : A Center for Contemporary Art
591 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102
info@aljira.org / aljira.org
Curator: Carl E. Hazlewood
Artists presenting new work: Kevin Darmanie, Janet Goldner,
Grace Graupe Pillard, C. Duane Lee, Freddy Rodriguez, Fausto Sevila
Artists from the Collection include Alec Soth, Will Barnett, Bob Blackburn,
Carl Ostendarp, Willie Cole, Don Hazlitt, Emma Wilcox, Eikoh Hosoe
“Janet Goldner spends much time in Mali. She makes free-standing steel sculptures and wall-bound installations that reference her artistic lineage going back to the welded sculpture of Julio Gonzalez. But the work also displays her social consciousness and her deep continuing interest in African art.” Carl E. Hazlewood
Institute for Wishful Thinking
Ongoing- online
As self-declared Artists in Residence for the US Government, the Institute for Wishful Thinking (IWT) believes that the community of artists and designers possesses untapped creative and conceptual resources that could be applied to solving social problems. Proposals are posted to the IWT website to generate interest and funding for a pilot version of the project—placing artists in residence with the agency or department of their choice.
Janet’s proposal seeks to address the discrepancy between policy makers and the people addressed by the policy. My idea comes from my many years of working in West Africa and thus is addressed first and foremost to the Department of State and others who work abroad. Experts and consultants are hired to solve local problems without adequate consultation with the local population. My residency would facilitate visits and home-stays in the local areas for the government representatives.
Transcultural Exchange Conference 2011
April 7-10, 2011
International Opportunities in the Arts: The Interconnected World
Boston, MA
Janet will be spoke on the panel on Saturday, April 9th.
The New Renaissance Man (sic). Doing it for Yourself: From Specialization to Multi-Tasking
A look at the how the traditional model of the artist in the studio, supported by gallery shows, is morphing into that of artists who are also curators, residency program directors, designers and/or their own pr agents.
Artistry of African/Diaspora Blacksmiths
March 25, 2011
i ni ce, thank you, merci: Apprenticing at a Forge in Dioro, Mali.
During her Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in 1995, Janet apprenticed with a family of blacksmiths in Dioro. She made small knives with carved wooden handles and hair tressing tools, the beginning objects for all apprentices at the forge. The skills needed to make these simple tools introduce many of the skills used in the fabrication of all tools.
Her work at the forge was transgressive, since working in metal is usually the work of men, in Mali as in the rest of the world. Her teachers quickly became proud of her production, defending her to skeptical onlookers. The apprenticeship served as research for her own sculptural work as well as providing insight into the social context of blacksmiths in Malian culture. Janet has continued to visit forges in other areas on subsequent trips to Mali.
Fifteenth Triennial Symposium on African Art, ACASA
March 23 -26, 2011
University of California, Los Angeles
READER’S ART 11: Urban/Urbane
March 1 - 31, 2011
Crushed Cans, crushed cans found in Mali, copper wire, 2009
will be presented in
READER’S ART 11, an annual survey show of artists books now in its 11th year. Urban/Urbane is this year’s theme.
3441 Cedar Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612 722-2324
Global Africa Project Exhibition
November 17, 2010 - May 15, 2011
2 Columbus Circle, NYC
The Global Africa Project features the work over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean. The exhibition surveys the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world. The exhibition actively challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic or identity, and reflects the integration of African art and design.
Curators Lowery Stokes Sims, Curator, the Museum of Arts and Design and Leslie King Hammond, Graduate Dean Emeritus, Founding Director, the Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art
Exhibition: I’ll cut thrU 2
October 7 - December 7, 2010
Barbara Walters Gallery
Sarah Lawrence College
915 Kimball Avenue
Bronxville, NY 10708
Touring from The Center for Book Arts, the exhibition focuses on how the art of cutting: pochoir (stenciling), relief printing,paper cutting, and other related techniques are used to convey content, form, text, and image.