Public Programs
The Whitney's public programs are designed to address key issues in twentieth-century and contemporary American art for a variety of adult audiences. Through these programs, the Museum offers a unique blend of new perspectives and well-known, established voices. Artists, architects, critics, scholars, and writers are invited to respond to special exhibitions, to illuminate the Whitney's permanent collection, or to examine important cultural and artistic trends.
Fall Programs
My Turn
My Turn expands the definition of a museum program by inviting a guest artist to interpret another artist’s work. This public program series, held in conjunction with the exhibitions Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction and Roni Horn aka Roni Horn, is organized by artist Spencer Finch.
Northern Light/Southern Light
December 11 7 pm
Inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s and Roni Horn’s explorations of natural light, Spencer Finch has organized this evening of demonstration and optical illusion, featuring scientists, artists, and musicians who play and experiment with light.
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Fall Course
American Abstract Art: O’Keeffe to the Present
Thursdays, October 1 – November 19
Daytime session (11 am – 12:30 pm) Sold out
Evening session (7 – 8:30 pm)
This 8-week course investigates key movements and artists with particular focus on the historical origins of abstract art and on significant models of abstraction as they developed in the twentieth century and continue to develop today. We will explore topics ranging from the emergence of nonrepresentational painting to the persistence of abstraction in contemporary art. The course includes two downtown gallery tours.
Instructor: Suzanne Hudson. Hudson is Assistant Professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in residence at the Phillips Collection Center for the Study of Modern Art, Washington, DC. She is co-founder of the Contemporary Art Think Tank and president of the College Art Association-affiliated Society of Contemporary Art Historians. A regular contributor to Artforum, she is the author of Robert Ryman: Used Paint (MIT Press, 2009).
Enrollment: $450
Whitney Members: $375
To purchase a ticket for the course, please call (212) 671-8359.
For general inquiries and information related to the course, please email courses@whitney.org.
Conversations on Art
Walter Annenberg Annual Lecture: Bill Viola
Tuesday, October 27 7 pm
A pioneer in the medium of video art, Bill Viola has been instrumental in establishing video as a vital form of contemporary art. Often drawing on religious iconography and historical narratives, Viola’s work exhibits a simple and elegant beauty that exceeds the complex technology of its presentation. As he states, “It only takes an instant for an impression to become a vision.” In this fifth Annenberg Lecture, Viola will speak about his work in conversation with Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director.
In honor of the late Walter H. Annenberg, philanthropist, patron of the arts, and former ambassador, the WhitneyMuseum of American Art established the Walter Annenberg Annual Lecture to advance this country’s understanding of its art and culture. Support for this lecture and for public programs at the Whitney Museum is provided, in part, by Jack and Susan Rudin in honor of Beth Rudin DeWoody, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the Museum’s Education Committee.
Advance reservations are currently closed. We encourage you to come to the Museum on the evening of the event, as seats may open up.
Woman with a Movie Camera: Alice Guy Blaché Symposium
November 14, 2009
10 am–5 pm
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Film Center, New York University
36 East 8th Street, New York, NY
Trailblazer, inventor, and innovator, Alice Guy Blaché (1873-1968) was cinema’s first female director and first female film studio owner. Her legacy extends to groundbreaking filmmaking techniques, novel approaches to narrative, and original directorial style. This symposium explores her imaginative and pioneering approach to film alongside present-day innovations in the spirit of her work.
Participants include Rick Altman, Virginia Heffernan, Richard Koszarski, Terry Lawler, Alison McMahan, and Kim Tomadjoglou, among others.
Admission
FREE for Whitney Museum members and NYU students, faculty, and staff
$6 for students of other institutions and senior citizens
$8 for general admission
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For Whitney member reservations, please email memberinfo@whitney.org.
For NYU faculty, student, or staff reservations, please email public_programs@whitney.org. Please list your name, ID number, and year of graduation, if applicable.
Whitney members and NYU faculty, students, and staff will be required to show their member identification cards or institutional ID cards at the event in order to pick up complimentary tickets.
The symposium is co-sponsored by the Education Department, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
This symposium is made possible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support provided by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
Roni Horn in Conversation with Donna De Salvo
November 18 7 pm
For more than thirty years, Roni Horn has been developing work of concentrated visual power and intellectual rigor, often exploring issues of gender, identity, and androgyny. This evening, she speaks about her work and her mid-career survey with Donna De Salvo, Whitney chief curator and exhibition co-curator.
Admission is $8 (free for Whitney members); $6 for senior citizens and students.
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For member reservations, please email memberinfo@whitney.org.
Film Evening Honoring the Women’s Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film & Television
December 4 7 pm
Of the more than a thousand films Alice Guy Blaché made, many have been lost or destroyed. Others went undiscovered for nearly a century and suffered decay and neglect. The Whitney’s exhibition offers viewers a rare lens into the alchemical work of film preservation. This special screening of four Guy Blaché films (A Fool and His Money, Mixed Pets, Matrimony's Speed Limit, and A House Divided), which have been preserved with the aid of the Women's Film Preservation Fund, highlights the unique and specialized role of preservation in reconstructing cinema's past. Drake Stutesman (editor, Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media) will introduce the evening, and the screening will be followed by a conversation with Diana Little (preservationist, Cineric) and Mona Jimenez (cinema studies professor and associate director of NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program).
Free with Museum admission.
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