[DOC] Audience Engagement and the Role of Arts Talk in the Digital Era by L. Conner at Arts-Photography

Description

Located less than a mile from Juaacute;rez; the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for Visual Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso is a non-collecting institution that serves the Paso del Norte region. In Curating at the Edge; Kate Bonansinga brings to life her experiences as the Rubinrsquo;s founding director; giving voice to a curatorial approach that reaches far beyond the limited scope of ldquo;border artrdquo; or Chicano art. Instead; Bonansinga captures the creative climate of 2004ndash;2011; when contemporary art addressed broad notions of destruction and transformation; irony and subversion; gender and identity; and the impact of location on politics.The Rubinrsquo;s location in the Chihuahuan desert on the U.S./Mexican border is meaningful and intriguing to many artists; and; consequently; Curating at the Edge describes the multiple artistic perspectives conveyed in the place-based exhibitions Bonansinga oversaw. Exciting mid-career artists featured in this collection of case studies include Margarita Cabrera; Liz Cohen; Marcos Ramiacute;rez ERRE; and many others. Recalling her experiences in vivid; first-person scenes; Bonansinga reveals the processes a contemporary art curator undertakes and the challenges she faces by describing a few of the more than sixty exhibitions that she organized during her tenure at the Rubin. She also explores the artistsrsquo; working methods and the relationship between their work and their personal and professional histories (some are Mexican citizens; some are U.S. citizens of Mexican descent; and some have ancestral ties to Europe). Timely and illuminating; Curating at the Edge sheds light on the work of the interlocutors who connect artists and their audiences.