SOFA CHICAGO 2007 LECTURE SERIES:
INTERNATIONAL CURATORS, CRITICS, SCHOLARS, ARTISTS SPEAK

SOFA CHICAGO’s Lecture Series features internationally renowned curators, critics, scholars and artists from Australia, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Germany, Japan, Palestine, the Netherlands, New Zealand, United States and United Kingdom in 29 presentations. The SOFA Lecture Series is widely considered the largest and most distinctive forum at an art fair dedicated to exploring both the works on display and worldwide trends in today’s art scene.  Free with paid admission to the exposition, the two-day series on Friday, Nov. 2 and Saturday, Nov. 3 takes place at SOFA CHICAGO.

Speakers include: Janet Koplos, senior editor, Art in America; Audrey Whitty, curator, National Museum of Ireland; Kazuko Todate chief curator, Tsukuba Museum of Art, Ibaraki, Japan; Jane Milosch, curator, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Julie Muniz, curatorial research associate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Dorit Straus, National Fine Arts Specialist, Chubb Insurance; Heather Becker, CEO, Chicago Conservation Center and artists Lino Tagliapietra, Gerd Rothmann, Cristina Cordova, Tod Pardon, Bernd Munsteiner, Liam Flynn and many others.

Janet Koplos, Senior Editor, Art in America will make a presentation entitled What Makes Them Great? in conjunction with the SOFA special exhibit LEGENDS: Watershed Artists Honor Artists, presented by Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, ME. Featured will be works by legendary ceramic artists Bill Daley, Karen Karnes and John Mason, in honor of their contributions to the field.  Plan now to attend the Inaugural LEGENDS Awards Gala in Chicago the evening of Nov. 2.

Audrey M. Whitty, Curator of Ceramics, Glass & Asian Collections, National Museum of Ireland speaks on the Museum's increased focus on collecting Irish contemporary applied arts by the Museum in recent years.

In Towards Collecting Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, Kazuko Todate, Chief Curator, Tsukuba Museum of Art, Ibaraki, Japan; and Beatrice Chang, co-author, Fired with Passion: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, owner, Dai Ichi Arts, NYC discuss collecting the best in the ceramics market—what to look for, where to look, and why this work remains seductive to artists and collectors world over.

Jane Milosch, Curator, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum discusses expressive and functional qualities of wood, from Marcel Duchamp and Henry Moore to George Nakashima and Edward Moulthrop. Presented by Collectors of Wood Art.

In Conceptual Craft in the Wornick Collection, Julie Muñiz, Curatorial Research Associate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston discusses how the field of studio craft in abandoning functionality, developed into
sculptural art with conceptual content, as evidenced in the Wornick Collection.

Your Art Collection: Lending to Museums and Cultural Institutions and Long-Term Preservation features Dorit Straus, National Fine Arts Specialist, Chubb Personal Insurance; and Heather Becker, CEO, Chicago Conservation Center discussing lending, maintaining and preserving a collection.

In The Power of Art, an accompanying Lecture Series presentation to the Offering Reconciliation special exhibit, the creators discuss art as a vehicle for social change, focusing on the exhibit’s goal of creating a public dialogue on reconciliation. Featured will be Ali Abu Awwad, Palestinian Member of Parents Circle-Families Forum; Orna Tamir Schestowitz, designer, artist, curator; Rivka Saker, Sotheby’s Israel/Europe; Board Member AIDA, Parents Circle-Families Forum;  and Robi Damelin, Israeli Member of Parents Circle-Families Forum; moderated by Polly Ullrich, independent art critic & curator.

In conjunction with the SOFA special exhibit, Contemporary Furniture at Crab Tree Farm, Franz Schulze, Hollender Professor of Art Emeritus, Lake Forest College, IL, discusses contemporary innovative furniture making at Crab Tree Farm in Lake Bluff, IL., owned by Chicago art collector and philanthropist John H. Bryan. The special exhibit and lecture spotlights the work of acclaimed British furniture designer, John Makepeace, and two of his students, Mike Jarvi and Critz Campbell, all of whom will attend the fair.

The Lecture Series is also a highly respected platform for international artists to introduce new bodies of work. This year participating artists are from Canada, Italy, Israel, Germany, Japan, Palestine, the Netherlands, New Zealand, United States and United Kingdom, and include Lino Tagliapietra, Gerd Rothmann, Christina Cordova, Tod Pardon, Bernd Munsteiner, Liam Flynn, and many others.

Click here for a full SOFA CHICAGO 2007 Lecture Series schedule with times and dates.