PAST PROJECTS IN RUSSIA

Contemporary Arts

November 25 - December 20, 2009
Muralist and painter Katherine Gressel worked with students at a school for the hearing impaired in St. Petersburg to create murals for their school. She also led public art workshops for young artists in Krasnoyarsk.
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November 16-22, 2009
Video and installation artist Eve Sussman and curator Chrissie Iles presented lectures at Pro Arte Foundation in St. Petersburg. Eve Sussman also opened an exhibition of her work at Peter and Paul Fortress and Chrissie Iles screened the video series Moving Pictures - Film and Video in Contemporary Art at the Hermitage Theatre. The screening surveyed works by some of the most influential film and video artists from the early 1990's to the present, including Matthew Barney, Steve McQueen, Eija Liisa Ahtila, Shirin Neshat, and installations by Kara Walker, Doug Aitken, PippiLotti Rist, Jeremy Deller, Fiona Tan, Paul McCarthy, Tacita Dean and many others.

October 1-28, 2009
D.C. street artist Mark Jenkins conducted street art workshops in Yekaterinburg and in Moscow in conjunction with the 3rd Moscow Biennale.
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September 6-13 2009
US artist Fred Wilson lectured at Smolny College and conducted research for a future installation to reformulate the wall texts of KunstKamera Museum (St. Petersburg).

September 5-24, 2009
New York-based artist Jason Irwin lectured at Smolny College and created a public sculpture in a city courtyard in St. Petersburg. He also led a public art workshop for young artists in Petrozavodsk.

June 19-29, 2009
US artist Michael Rakowitz and curator Mark Coetzee conducted workshops on contemporary art with young artists from Russia and Finland as part of a pilot program in collaboration with Smolny Institute (St. Petersburg), Bard College (New York), and KUVA (Finnish Art Academy, Helsinki).

June 16-30, 2009
St. Petersburg public art expert Pavel Shugurov gave a presentation about public art in Russia with US curator Kendal Henry at the Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Network’s annual conference in Seattle and met with public art experts and artists in New York.

June 2-13, 2009
Curator Kendal Henry and artist Luisa Caldwell conducted a public art workshop at the Krasnoyarsk Museum Center resulting in the creation of art works to be presented as part of City Day on June 12.
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May 16-28, 2009
New York artist Clarina Bezzola conducted a performance-based public art workshop for young artists at the State Center for Contemporary Art in Nizhny Novgorod and gave a talk at the Smolny College of Liberal Arts in St. Petersburg.
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March 18-28, 2009
David James, professor at the school of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, conducted seminars and lectures for young artists in St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk on the relationship between contemporary art and moving image culture.

September 20-27, 2008
Photographer Mickey Smith travelled to St. Petersburg in September to exhibit her work at Pushkinsky Dom as part of the annual Contemporary Art in Traditional Museums Festival organized by the Pro Arte Institute.

September 17 – October 2, 2008
New York artist Jason Eppink conducted a week-long workshop on the properties of light and optics in public art for artists in Yekaterinburg in September. The workshop resulted in the creation of new public art works to be exhibited in Ekaterinburg.

September 2-12, 2008
New York public art expert Kendal Henry together with performance artist Charlie Todd conducted a workshop with young artists and performers in the small city of Petrozavodsk. This seminar was to be held at the new Vladikavkaz Performing Arts Center, but the location was changed due to unforeseen circumstances.
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September 1-14, 2008
H2O: International Public Art Installation
CEC’s first international exhibition of site-specific works created by leading artists from Northern European countries opened on September 1st on the grounds of the historic Peter and Paul Fortress on the banks of the Neva in St. Petersburg. Simultaneously, the Fountain exhibition, featuring the work of young St. Petersburg artists, was on display in the garden of the Anna Akhmatova Museum.

June and August 2008
Curator Kendal Henry travelled to St. Petersburg to conduct a two-part workshop for young artists creating public art works for the Fountain exhibition at the Anna Akhmatova Museum.

May 2008
Choreographer Nancy Zendora and dancer Marie Baker Lee travelled to Krasnoyarsk, Russia to conduct a workshop for local dancers and the general public. Their site-specific piece was performed at the Krasnoyarsk State Museum in conjunction with the Museum Nights Festival on May 17.

February 2008
As the second part of CEC's initiative to support the creation of independent multi-functional alternative art spaces in St. Petersburg, Robert Elmes, Director and Founder of Galapagos Cultural Center in New York, and Archana Horsting, Director of the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA travelled to St. Petersburg to make site visits, consult with colleagues, and participate in an international symposium on alternative art spaces at the Pro Arte Institute.

2007
With the support of CEC ArtsLink and the US State Department, five US artists travel to Moscow to attend the 2nd Moscow Biennale in March. The artists participate in an exhibit of American video art shown at the TsUM Department store.

Five St. Petersburg leaders in the arts, business, and government travel to Minneapolis and New York in May to learn how alternative art spaces are created and operated. The project was organized in collaboration with the Minneapolis-based organization Artspace, which over the past 20 years has become the leading nonprofit real estate developer in the U.S.

Izhevsk-based ice sculptor/artist Anfim Khanikov traveled to Las Vegas to collaborate with US artists Marina Zurkow and Katie Salan on a public art project in conjunction with the Americans for the Arts Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Ekaterina Basalaeva and Ilya Belenkov, dancers from the Wampeter group in Novosibirsk continue their collaboration with the New York-based dance ensemble Tryst. They perform together at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Sitelines Festival, an outdoor public art event.

Public art consultant Kendal Henry and artist Robert Hickman travel to Nizhny Novgorod and Samara to conduct workshops for young artists and students resulting in the creation of public art works in these cities.

Choreographer and dancer Nancy Zendora travels to St. Petersburg to work with young dancers on the creation of a site-specific performance piece at the Kuntskamera Museum as part of the Pro Arte Institute’s annual Contemporary Art in Traditional Museums Festival.

The artist Ji Lee travels to St. Petersburg to conduct a public art workshop for young artists participating in the Pro Arte Institute’s contemporary art educational program resulting in the creation of temporary public art works.
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October 8-14, 2006
Shawn Patrick McLearen and Gregory Handberg of the Minneapolis-based nonprofit real estate development agency, Artspace Projects, travel to St. Petersburg and Moscow to conduct workshops and meet with local arts, business, and government representatives to evaluate the feasibility of creating a new independent alternative art space in St. Petersburg.

September 8-20, 2006
Public art consultant Kendal Henry and artist Robert Hickmantake part in an international conference on public art in Nizhny Novgorod.
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September 6-14, 2006
Ken Rinaldo exhibits his robotic and interactive work in Kaliningrad and gives lectures in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg.

2004
CEC ArtsLink organizes an international symposium on the work of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov in conjunction with the opening of their exhibition The Incident in the Museum and Other Installationsat the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Critics and specialists from the US, Russia and Europe participate in this event, which marks the artists' first exhibition and visit to Russia since leaving in 1988.

Korean-American video artist Sooja Kim travels to St. Petersburg to discuss her work shown at the State Russian Museum as part of the ProSmotr Video Festival, to Moscow to lecture and show her work at the Institute for Contemporary Art, and to Ekaterinburg to speak in conjunction with the public showing of her work on an electronic billboard in the center of the city as part of the OUTVIDEO Festival.

2002-2004
A two-way exchange program for Russian and American video artists is conducted in collaboration with the New York contemporary art center Art in General. US video artists travel to four cities in Russia to lead in-depth workshops and screen new video work. In 2004, the work of 16 Russian video artists is presented in New York and Russia. Four artists travel to New York to screen their work, participate in a discussion about Russian video and visit galleries, museums and artists' studios.

2001, 2003
US photographers Allen Frame and Franc Franca travel to five cities in Russia to show Electric Blanket, which they co-curated with Nan Goldin, and to conduct workshops for young photographers on current trends in American photography. Including the work of over 200 photographers from around the world, Electric Blanket is an open-ended, site-specific photo installation and slide show about AIDS.

Contemporary Music