Art, Politics, Cities in Transition" symposium organized by Purchase College, SUNY and CLUSTER

Organized by Purchase College, State University of New York and CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research)

With participants: Davarian Baldwin, Jamie Bennett, Center for Artistic Activism (Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert), Cynthia Clabough, CLUSTER (Omar Nagati/Beth Stryker), Teddy Cruz, Arlene Davila, Andrea Frank, Jerold Kayden, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Lisa Jean Moore, MTL+ (Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Husain), Sara Reisman, Christopher Robbins (Ghana Think Tank), Meredith TenHoor, Nato Thompson, Hakan Topal, Adaku Utah, Margy Waller, Caroline Woolard, Woodbine NYC (Stephanie Wakefield, Glenn Dyer, and Clark Fitzgerald)

"Art, politics and cities in transition" is a two day symposium that explores the role of art and creative industries in urban regeneration. Organized by Purchase College, State University of New York and CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research), the symposia looks to several international and local case studies in an effort to examine the politics of urban revitalization and its relationship to gentrification, securitization, real estate development, while exploring how artists, designers, activists imagine oppositional alternatives to culture-driven economic development.

Featuring speakers from a range of fields (art, architecture, urban planning, ecology, economics, political science, education), the program at the Center for Architecture will report on earlier exchanges organized by CLUSTER in Cairo, while opening new avenues of debate regarding the impact of art and creative industries on their surrounding neighborhoods and local communities; urgent challenges to public space in times of conflict and climate chaos; and the potential of creative place making.

Schedule

Friday, October 21
Day 1: "Art, Politics, Cities in Transition: Culture Beyond Profit"

1pm
Welcome and introductions

1:15pm
Provocation: "UniverCities: Higher Education and the New Management of Urban Space and Capital," Davarian Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Trinity College

1:30pm
Discussion: "Collective knowledge," Center for Artistic Activism (Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert), Cynthia Clabough, SUNY Oswego, MTL+ (Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Husain), moderated by Sara Reisman, Artistic Director, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation

2:30pm
Provocation: "Weaving Interdependence for the Sake of Liberation," Adaku Utah, artist, healer, founder and director of Harriet's Apothecary.

2:45pm
Dialog: "Creative Commonwealth – Linking Land trusts to Cultural Production," a conversation between Caroline Woolard, artist and educator, and Christopher Robbins, Ghana Think Tank and Associate Professor, School of Art+Design, Purchase College, SUNY and Ghana Think Tank, moderated by Margy Waller, Senior Fellow at Topos Partnership  

3:45pm
Provocation: "The Ruins of Deep Time," Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU

4:00pm
Discussion: "Ruined Cities – reconsidering economic development through the Anthropocene," Woodbine NYC, Andrea Frank, Assistant Professor, SUNY New Paltz, Meredith TenHoor, Associate Professor, Pratt Institute, moderated by Lisa Jean Moore, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Purchase College, SUNY

Saturday, October 22
Day 2: "Art, Politics, Cities in Transition: Public Space and Creative Placemaking"

1pm
Welcome and introduction, Carol Loewenson, President AIANY, Thomas J. Schwarz, President, Purchase College, SUNY, Don Chen, Equitable Development, Ford Foundation 

1:30pm
Panel: "Whose Public Space? International case studies," CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research) Omar Nagati & Beth Stryker, Jerold Kayden, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Teddy Cruz, UCSD; Director, UCSD Center for Urban Ecologies; Co-Director, Civic Innovation Lab, City of San Diego, moderated by Hakan Topal, Assistant Professor of New Media and Art+Design, Purchase College, SUNY

3:30pm 
Panel: "Creative Placemaking: Art as a catalyst for urban development,"  Jamie Bennett, Executive Director ArtPlace America, Nato Thompson, Artistic Director, Creative Time,  Arlene Davila, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, NYU, moderated by Margy Waller, Senior Fellow at Topos Partnership

Location and contact
The symposium on Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22, 2016 will begin at 1pm and will be held at the Edgar A. Tafel Hall, The Center for Architecture, 536 La Guardia Place, NYC, NY 10012. The event is free and open to the public, but seats are limited. Click here to RSVP for the event. For more information on the symposium contact [email protected]. 


The Art, Politics, Cities in Transition symposium builds on a dialogue begun in Cairo by CLUSTER through the Creative Cities: Reframing Downtown conference, held in association with the American University in Cairo in partnership with the Research Foundation of the State University of New York. The program hosted by the Center for Architecture is funded by Ford Foundation and the Network of Excellence in the Arts and Humanities by the State University of New York.