Lectures
Upcoming Lectures
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Art in the public realm has the potential to significantly impact the social and civic life of the communities in which it is based. How can public art center the voices of these communities as well as the vision of its makers? At the Office of Public Art in Pittsburgh, we believe that art can build community and increase social connection. We envision a region in which the creative practices of artists are fully engaged to collaboratively shape the public realm and catalyze community-led change. Our Civically Engaged Public Art program is grounded in equity and social justice and centers collaborations with communities that have been historically marginalized and underrepresented in civic processes. The artists with whom we work, who engage in civic practice, go far beyond studio and social practice to co-create with communities. Their work stretches across media and disciplines but shares a common focus on putting people and place first. They trouble the distinction between history and memory, amplifying marginalized stories and entering them into the public record through their work. In this roundtable, you will learn about OPA’s recent civically engaged public art projects, as well as the collaborations between the artists and communities integral to their creation.
Divya Rao Heffley (PhD’10) is an arts professional with over fifteen years of experience in museums, public art, and art and architectural history. As Associate Director for the Office of Public Art, Divya works with artists and communities on residencies and commissions that address a range of contemporary issues, seeking to foster social justice and cultural equity in public spaces. Prior to joining OPA, Divya managed the Hillman Photography Initiative at Carnegie Museum of Art from 2013-18. She has served as guest critic for the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art as well as on national juries and panels for artist selections, grants, and portfolio reviews. Divya holds a PhD in the History of Art and Architecture from Brown University and a BA in the History of Art from Yale University. As an Indian-American immigrant and member of a multicultural family, Divya is a committed advocate of equity in arts and culture and beyond. She grew up in Pittsburgh and has three energetic children as well as a dedicated practice in martial arts.
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Mar16Nina Zannieri is the Executive Director, Paul Revere Association.
History museum and historic sites, already complex organizations that are dynamic public history venues, tourist attractions, versatile businesses, and trusted community resources, are facing numerous challenges as they navigate a health crisis and a national reckoning on matters of race, equity, climate and more. Learn how the Paul Revere House on Boston’s Freedom Trail is managing these issues in a conversation with its long-time Executive Director and Brown graduate, Nina Zannieri.
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Mar18The rhetoric of sustainable design often takes the position of mitigating the impact of construction, at best, limiting the embodied energy and the carbon footprint of buildings. Can we go further than this, to look at a whole-systems co-design of ecologies and buildings, to discover how buildings may be used to improve local ecologies?
Lara Davis is an architect and masonry specialist who has served as co-director of the Auroville Earth Institute and representative for the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Construction. Her core commitment is to the sustainable co-evolution of natural ecologies and human habitats, with passive design methods, low-carbon materials and circular ecologies of natural resources.
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Mar2312:00pm - 1:00pm“The Endowed Authority of Indigenous Curation” Talk by Jim Enote
After many years working within museology, we continue to see items in collections disguised with mistaken and unsuitable interpretations. The inclusion of expert peoples representing the source of collection materials is the keystone of a museum collaboration movement. We are aware that knowledges are transitory and fluid, and the old systems supporting only one way of knowing are artifacts of humanity’s misstep. I see collaboration as co-laboring and co-elaborating from a fixed center, and we can apply the collaborative practice in a variety of critical social situations.” From the Museum Collaboration Manifesto ~ Jim Enote
Jim Enote is a Zuni tribal member, CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation, former director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum, and the Ames Prize’s first recipient for innovative museum anthropology. Enote serves on the boards of the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Grand Canyon Trust. Jim’s service the past forty years includes assignments for organizations including UNESCO, UNDP, International Secretariat for Water, Nordic Council of Ministers, Tibet Child Nutrition Project, the Mountain Institute, National Geographic Society, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, US National Park Service, and the Zuni Tribe. In 2013 he received the Guardian of Culture and Lifeways Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and in 2016 received the Hewett Award for leadership and service to the New Mexico museum community and achievements in the museum field.
