tangoutside_web

Tang Teaching Museum announces fall exhibitions and events in celebration of its 15th anniversary  

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (Aug. 25, 2015) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College is pleased to announce its fall 2015 exhibitions and schedule of public events, especially the 15th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, October 17.

The Museum opened in October 2000, and in recognition a special celebration is planned beginning at 4:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 17, with a panel discussion featuring Dayton Director Ian Berry and the Museum's two former directors, Charlie Stainback and John Weber. The conversation will explore the Tang, its history, and the idea of a teaching museum. The discussion is followed by the release of Everything is Connected, a book about the Tang's history, special performances by poet Joshua Beckman and artist Kamau Amu Patton, and a reception. All events are free and open to the public.

The Tang will also be presenting two exhibitions this fall that touch upon important aspects of the Museum's mission. Opening September 5 will be Affinity Atlas, which underscores the Museum's history of experimentation by combining objects from its growing collection with contemporary art. Opening September 19 is Machine Project — The Platinum Collection (Live by Special Request), which brings Los Angeles-based artist Mark Allen back to campus (he's a 1993 Skidmore College graduate), where he and a group of artist collaborators will create new works responding to the campus and local community.

What follows is the Tang's fall 2015 season. In six sections:

  • Upcoming Exhibitions
  • Continuing Exhibitions
  • Public Events
  • Public Tours
  • Family Saturdays
  • Machine Project Programs

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS Affinity Atlas September 5, 2015 - January 3, 2016 Affinity Atlas charts an exploratory path across disciplines built on idiosyncratic treasures from the Tang Teaching Museum collection and punctuated with recent works by a roster of contemporary artists. Artworks, images, and objects spanning centuries and continents collide and coalesce, forging fresh connections between seemingly disparate works. An international roster of artists includes Ilit Azoulay, Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam, Camille Henrot, Vik Muiz, Michael Oatman, Sara VanDerBeek, and Hew Locke. The exhibition seeks to find affinities in unexpected juxtapositions. In so doing, it underscores the museum’s laboratory-like mission of experimentation and builds on the strengths and surprises of the Tang’s collection.

Machine Project — The Platinum Collection (Live by Special Request) September 19, 2015 - January 3, 2016 For Machine Project — The Platinum Collection, Mark Allen (Skidmore College Class of 1993) and a series of artist collaborators will generate new work responding to the campus and local community. Both a reflection and a continuation of Machine Project’s ongoing exploration of collaborative ways of working, while in residence Allen inhabits the Tang in multiple ways: the gallery is augmented with a theater and Machine Project offices, and the elevator becomes a listening station for the Field Guide to Poets of the Machine Project Region. (See list of Machine Project events below.)

No Place to Hide October 31, 2015 – February 21, 2016 This curatorial collaboration between Visiting Assistant Professor Scott Mulligan of the Skidmore College International Affairs Program, Department of Management & Business, and Rachel Seligman, the Tang Museum's Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs explores issues of information privacy and surveillance. Mulligan’s fall 2015 class No Place to Hide: Privacy, Technology, Surveillance and Liberty in the 21st Century will study and write about the exhibition, and will produce a digital map of surveillance cameras in Saratoga Springs, which will be included in the exhibition.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS Elevator Music 29: Tim Davis — Unphotographable May 2 - September 13, 2015 The exhibition features samples from recordings of “My Funny Valentine” and various stolen “No Photography” signs.

Salmagundi: Fifty Years and Afflict the Comfortable June 27 - October 4, 2015 This two-part exhibition celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Salmagundi Magazine, an international quarterly of literature, politics, culture, and the arts, and the pairing of words of images in recognition of Salmagundi's fiftieth and the Tang's fifteenth anniversaries.

Dismantling the House August 21 - October 18, 2015 Curated by Imaan Riaz, Skidmore College Class of 2015, this exhibition explores simultaneous and competing feminist narratives through artists' unconventional approaches to medium, genre, and other art historical categories. Riaz holds the Eleanor Linder Winter '43 Endowed Internship for 2014-15.

PUBLIC EVENTS Welcome Back Celebration Thursday, September 10, 6:00 – 9:00 pm Celebrate the start of autumn and a new academic year with food, music, art-making activities, and student-led tours.

Gallery Talk and Dunkerley Dialogue With Mark Allen, Rachel Seligman and Beck Krefting Thursday, September 24, 5:30 pm Join us for a discussion exploring ideas of art and social engagement in the exhibition Machine Project: The Platinum Collection—Live by Special Request. Gallery talk will be with Mark Allen, artist, Machine Project director, and a 1993 Skidmore graduate; and Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Tang. The Dunkerley Dialogue will follow the gallery talk and include Allen, Seligman, and Beck Krefting, assistant professor of American Studies at Skidmore College. Dunkerley Dialogues are made possible by a generous gift from Michele Dunkerley, Skidmore College Class of 1980.

Star Party Thursday, October 8, 7:30 pm Join us on the Tang rooftop for an evening exploring the cosmos. Organized with the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers.

15th Anniversary Celebration Saturday, October 17, 4:30 - 8:30 pm Join us for a series of events in celebration of the museum’s 15th anniversary. The evening kicks off with a conversation exploring the Tang, its history, and the idea of a teaching museum with Dayton Director Ian Berry, the Tang's founding director Charlie Stainback, and former director John Weber. The discussion is followed by the release of Everything is Connected, a book about the Tang's history, special performances by poet Joshua Beckman and artist Kamau Amu Patton, and a reception for the exhibitions Affinity Atlas, Machine Project — The Platinum Collection (Live by Special Request), and Dismantling the House.

ArtsFestFridays at the Tang Friday, November 6, 5:00 - 7:30 pm ArtsFestFridays are free, entertainment-filled events in Saratoga Springs that occur on the first Friday of September through December 2015. The Tang event features a very special and delightfully unusual performance by The Suitcase Junket, a nationally touring, slide-guitar-playing, throat-singing one-man band. With circus performers, tap dancers, and more.

PUBLIC TOURS Tuesday, September 29, noon Curator’s Tour of Affinity Atlas with Ian Berry, Dayton Director

Saturday, October 17, 1:00 pm Tang Guide Tour Tuesday, October 20, noon Friday, October 23, noon Curator’s Tour of Machine Project — The Platinum Collection (Live by Special Request) with Mark Allen, artist, director of Machine Project, and 1993 Skidmore alum, and Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs

Wednesday, November 4, noon Curator’s Tour of Affinity Atlas with Ian Berry, Dayton Director

FAMILY SATURDAYS October 17 - December 19 The Tang Teaching Museum’s Family Saturday programs run from October 17 through December 19. Most of the programs go from 2:00 to 3:30 pm and include a tour of a specific exhibition followed by an art-making project. All programs are free and open to the public, and suitable for children ages 5 and older, accompanied by their adult companions.

  • On October 17, the Family Saturday will be a drop-in art-making activity (meaning no reservation is required) and run from Noon to 1:30 pm.
  • November 21 will be the annual Make-a-Turkey-Out-of-a-Potato Extravaganza. (Reservations required.)
  • No program will be on November 28 (Thanksgiving weekend).

Reservations can be made one week before each week's program. For additional information and reservations, call the Tang’s Visitor Service Desk at 518-580-8080.

MACHINE PROJECT PROGRAMS Krystal Krunch Presents Seeing Beyond Speech – Mind Reading Workshop Saturday, September 19, 1:00 pm Space limited; reservations required. Call 518-580-8080. “Reading” Affinity Atlas with Krystal Krunch Saturday, September 19, 3:30 pm Krystal Krunch (a.k.a. Asher Hartman and Haruko Tanaka) is a duo of artist intuitives who see and respond to energy in the body, the psyche, architectural spaces, and artworks. They are dedicated to using intuitive reading to help people come in contact with their highest and best potential. At 1:00 pm they lead Seeing Beyond Speech, a workshop to teach participants how to give and receive an intuitive reading.  At 3:30 pm Krystal Krunch will move into the Affinity Atlas exhibition at the Tang, and along with workshop volunteers, they will “read" individual artworks as well as the exhibition as a whole.

Mr. Akita Saturday, September 26, 7:30 pm Sunday, September 27, 1:30 pm Starring artist, comedian, and performer Cliff Hengst, and written and directed by Asher Hartman, Mr. Akita is a one man play in which a Borscht Belt comedian and an op-art painting go “head to façade” in a reminiscence of love, sex, art, failure and the sublime. Organized as part of the Tang exhibition. Limited seating.

A Readers’ Chorus:

  1. An organized group of readers that perform together.

Thursday, October 1, 8:00 pm Haruko Tanaka is a member of the Los Angeles Reader’s Chorus and wrote Japanese George Clooney takes American Ken Watanabe to get sushi, which was performed by the Reader’s Chorus earlier this year. In addition to bringing several L.A. Reader’s Chorus pieces to be practiced and performed (Japanese George Clooney takes American Ken Watanabe to get sushi, Reader’s Radio Calisthenics, and Reading the Dictionaries), Haruko will be leading workshops to facilitate the creation of new material written by students at Skidmore College and the Saratoga Springs community. Interested in joining the Chorus? Call curator Rachel Seligman at 518-580-8324 before Sept. 19.

October Poem 2015 Tuesday, October 13; Wednesday, October 14; Thursday, October 15; 12:30 pm Joshua Beckman will give lunchtime poetry performances that will include readings from poems in progress and poetry walks with improvised poems in response to the landscape and architecture of Skidmore College.

Themed Nomad No Plastic Form Saturday, Oct. 17, 6:00 PM As part of the Tang's 15th Anniversary Celebration, artist Kamau Amu Patton gives a site-specific sound performance for voice and electronics exploring themes of language, machine communication, and sonic augmentation.

EVERYTHING Saturday, October 24, 2:00 pm Artist Dawn Kasper will be working in the Machine Project gallery from October 20 through 24, developing a piece that will culminate with a final public performance on October 24 at 2 pm.

ReVerberancias Thursday, October 22, 7:30 pm Carmina Escobar is an experimental vocal performer and sound artist whose piece ReVerberancias will use the resonance of the space, the performers/ audience voices, different array of microphones and digital/analog feedback to explore the physical experience of resonance and reverberation of sound through the body.

Massagem Sonora Monday, October 26, 11:00 am, Case Campus Center Carmina Escobar, an experimental vocal performer, will give participants a "sonic massage,” an experiment in intimacy and bodily resonance. Escobar improvises with voice applied to participants' bodies to create each individual’s unique resonant geography.

Music for Mineral Springs: A Tasting of Local Spring Waters with Musical Accompaniment Saturday, November 7, 2:00 pm A concert of sensory pairings with water and sound. Students from the Skidmore College class Community Engagement, Education, and the Arts and their professor Adam Tinkle will work with artist Chris Kallmyer to create a multimovement work that examines regional springs through music, light, and water. It will be casual, richly sonic, and a bit wet. Limited seating.

 

deepdeepbodygl!tter Friday, November 13, 7:30 pm Open rehearsal, Thursday, November 12, 7:30 pm deepdeepbodygl!tter is a collaboratively created performance for the Tang Teaching Museum by choreographer and performance artist Hana Van Der Kolk featuring a diverse cast of female-identified student performers. It is a celebration, a party, a mess, and an embodiment of questions of intimacy, borders, difference/otherness, sexuality, and collectivity. The performance will include an auto-ethnographic component, writing, scores, video, that will allow the audience to peek into the intensive process the group underwent for the creation of the work.  Limited seating.

About the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. The Museum is open noon – 5 p.m., Tuesday – Sunday, with extended hours through 9 p.m. on Fridays during Skidmore's academic year, and is closed on Mondays and major holidays.  The Museum celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2015. More information call 518-580-8080 or visit http://skidmore.edu/tang.

Facebook/TangMuseum Twitter/@TangMuseum Instagram/TangTeachingMuseum

For media inquiries, please contact: Michael Janairo Assistant Director for Engagement, Tang Teaching Museum 518-580-5542 mjanairo@skidmore.edu