LOCAL ECOLOGIES is an exhibition, newly commissioned artworks, and public programming across three UMass campuses. Spanning Eastern Massachusetts, the campuses of UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, and UMass Lowell belong to landscapes with diverse coastal and river ecosystems, as well as layered indigenous, colonial, and industrial histories. The LOCAL ECOLOGIES initiative presents contemporary, place-based art practices that bring our ecologies and land use histories into new focus.
The centerpiece of LOCAL ECOLOGIES are multidisciplinary artworks commissioned from artists who have lived and worked in Eastern Massachusetts. These will include both site-specific works for individual campuses, and additional works featured in a touring exhibition to be presented in Boston, Lowell, and New Bedford throughout fall 2019 and spring 2020. The initiative includes programming specific to each campus community. (View the schedule of past programming through the Events page.)
A scholarly book, co-edited and authored by Kirsten Swenson and Rebecca Uchill, is in progress with an expected publication date of late 2022. This free digital publication, under advance contract with Amherst College Press, will include original essays and multimedia resources produced by artists and scholars.
Artists:
Dan Borelli, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Duy Hoàng, Sarah Kanouse & Nicholas Brown, Plotform: Jane Marsching + Andi Sutton, Matthew Mazzotta, Evelyn Rydz, and Andrew Yang
Traveling Exhibition Schedule:
UMass Boston
University Hall Gallery
September 3, 2019 – October 26, 2019
Reception: Thursday, September 19th | 5-8pm
UMass Dartmouth (Star Store Campus in Downtown New Bedford)
University Art Gallery
November 7, 2019 – January 10, 2020
Reception: Thursday, November 14th, AHA! Night, 6 – 8:30 pm
UMass Lowell
University Gallery
January 21, 2020 – March 6, 2020
Panel Discussion and Reception: Tuesday, February 25, 2020
4PM Panel (Evelyn Rydz, Caitlin Foley & Misha Rabinovich, John Macone, Lori Weeden) Room TBA
5:30PM Reception and Curators’ Remarks in University Gallery
LOCAL ECOLOGIES is organized by Kirsten Swenson, Art History, UMass Lowell; Sam Toabe, Gallery Director, UMass Boston; and Rebecca Uchill, Art Education, Art History, and Media Studies, UMass Dartmouth.
Banner image: Nicholas Brown and Sarah Kanouse
