Independent Curators IncorporatedAuthor(s): Michelle SnellSource: Art Journal, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Spring, 1978), p. 255Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/776142 .

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Independent Curators Incorporated MICHELLE SNELL

A new concept-at once "museum without walls," educa- tional institution, and avant-garde artists' representative - ICI places the combined resources of the curatorial and educa- tional departments of a contemporary art museum at the service of other institutions. A non-profit organization with offices in Washington and New York, ICI offers traveling exhibitions designed for smaller museums, university art galleries, and art centers, specialized educational programs, workshops for guides, docents, teachers and students, and short term curatorial assistance.

Now in the midst of its third season, ICI was founded by its current co-Directors, Susan Sollins and Nina Sundell. While the services of ICI are available to any client organiza- tion, both Ms. Sollins and Ms. Sundell agree that they are most interested in solving the interrelated problems faced by small arts institutions. As they see it, these interrelated problems are:

1. How to gain access to information about the availability and competence of artists, performers, and other arts profession- als for events like lectures, workshops, and performances.

2. How to acquire intelligently organized and intellectually stim- ulating exhibitions-especially exhibitions of contemporary art at a reasonable cost.

3. Where to find short-term curatorial assistance or access to innovative programs or training.

The third edition of THE LIST, ICl's answer to the first of these problems, has just been published in time for distri- bution at the most recent CAA meeting in New York. The publication is described as "The Independent Curators' Indispensable Compendium of Traveling Artists, Dancers, Composers, Musicians, Performers, Lecturers, and critics who give lectures, do workshops, perform, show their work, dance, play, sing, teach, paint murals, build sculpture, put on light shows, talk to you, tattoo you, fascinate you, puzzle you, raise your consciousness, (and) keep you in touch with what's happening in the arts today." Artists and others on THE LIST are selected by an Advisory Board of art profession- als such as Ellen Johnson, Martin Friedman, and Jan van der Marck, from all parts of the country who are well known for their involvement in the contemporary arts, and THE LIST itself serves as an invaluable source of information about potential artists-in-residence, lecturers, performers, or critics attuned to new developments in the arts. The staff of ICI is available to help arrange programs involving master classes, workshops, performances, or other situations-or institu- tions can use the publication and contact artists from THE LIST directly. Sometimes artists on THE LIST will ask ICI to arrange a tour of universities or other performing engage- ments, a service-which ICI provides on a percentage basis.

Two current exhibitions, Ralph Eugene Meatyard: A Retro- spective and New Work/New York are excellent examples of ICl's creative ability to answer the requests of university art galleries in answer to specific needs. In 1976, Tom Toperzer, the Director of the Center for the Visual Arts Gallery, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, asked the Directors of ICI if they could help him to organize an exhibition of photo- graphs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard who had been born and raised in Normal. ICI was pleased with the idea and con- tacted Van Deren Coke, Director of the University of New Mexico Art Museum and, as it happened, a life-long friend of Meatyard. Van Deren Coke agreed to curate the exhibition, and ICI next discussed the show with Albert Sperath, newly appointed coordinator of exhibitions of the Kentucky Arts Council, because Meatyard had spent much of his life in that state. As a result of this cooperative and collaborative ap- proach, the exhibition was partially funded by both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kentucky Arts Council, and since its inaugural showing in October, 1976 at the Center for the Visual Arts Gallery, the exhibition has been circulated by ICI as far afield as Paris (where it was welcomed with enthusiasm by the French press and the public), and is now traveling for one year in Kentucky under the auspices of the Arts Council.

The second example, New Work/New York was commis- sioned by the University of North Dakota Art Gallery (Grand Forks), and is traveling within that state for six months. ICl's staff was given only one directive beyond the budgetary requirements: make the show stimulating and include work by young, relatively unknown artists currently living in New York.

Additional exhibitions now being offered by ICI include among others, Numerals: Mathematical Concepts in Con- temporary Art; Artists' Books USA; From Self-Portrait to Au- tobiography; and A Slide Show. From Self Portrait to Auto- biography, planned to open in the fall at the SUNY, Purchase, Neuberger Museum, includes artists' performances. The exhibition, with performance possibilities and other informal artist appearances, is designed so that the museum or gallery may contribute directly to the educational experiences of the students by providing potential contact and involvement with the artists. The Numerals exhibition provides another kind of educational experience: students interested in math- ematics, dance, and music (some scores and dance notations are included in the show) can become as involved with the exhibition experience as their counterparts in the visual arts. C

Michelle Snell has collaborated frequently on articles for publications such as Dance magazine.

SPRING 1978 255

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