The Arts Company to Receive NEA Funds for Prospectus Monographs

The National Endowment for the Arts recently announced a $15,000 grant to The Arts Company to publish the first two of a planned series of monographs based on the Artists’ Prospectus for the Nation.  The Prospectus was curated by The Arts Company’s director, Marie Cieri, and editor of the monograph series will be Artists in Context co-director Louisa McCall.

“The idea for the monograph series arose from the belief that the philosophical ideas embedded in the artists’ projects created for Artists in Context’s Artists’ Prospectus for the Nation were of tremendous societal value and needed greater exposure,” according to McCall. Six color monographs are planned, each with a specific philosophical theme; the first two will be published in this year.

Letting Go of Normal (working title) will feature the work of Prospectus artists Wendy Jacob and Nancy Andrews. These artists question the concept of normality and suggest what we gain if we abandon this construct. Sara Hendren will author an essay on Wendy Jacob’s work and Walter M. Robinson, M.D., will write about Nancy Andrews’ work.

The second monograph, Bridging the Disconnect (working title), features the work of Prospectus artist Natalie Jeremijenko. Peter Galison will interview Natalie about her unique hybrid method of inquiry that melds art, science and technology to produce the urgent knowledge that human and natural systems are inextricably connected and that collaboration, rather than control, is the necessary approach for collective life in the 21st century. Their conversation will be the basis of the monograph text.

According to McCall, “The Monograph Series takes the Prospectus in a new direction: instead of examining artists’ work according to social theme and through the lens of social practice, the monographs examine the philosophical ideas inherent in the work, position artists as researchers and knowledge producers and artistic inquiry as vital to our system of knowledge production and our future.”

The monographs are intended for a general audience as well as specialized readers including cultural and public policy leaders; foundation, academic and art specialists; and large non-art organizations that seek to incorporate artistic inquiry into their system of knowledge production.