The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good

Featuring Author Lewis Hyde

Wednesday, February 3, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

PNCA Main Campus Building, Swigert Commons, 1241 NW Johnson St.

A poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic, Lewis Hyde is most widely known for his book, The Gift, a groundbreaking study of creativity in a market-driven world, re-released in 2007 in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Hyde asks questions central to the lives of artists as well as teachers and others who serve the public good: How do we discover work that satisfies beyond financial compensation? What are our norms for reciprocity and how do gifts create bonds in communities? His current project extends these questions to the realm of the “cultural commons” — “that vast store of un-owned ideas, inventions, and works of art we have inherited from the past, and that we continue to create.” In his lecture, Hyde will discuss personal gifts, the creative spirit, and our shared cultural past and imagined future. A MacArthur Fellow, Hyde teaches during the fall semesters at Kenyon College, where he is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing. The lecture is co-presented by PNCA and Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling Center for Community Engagement.

Ticket info: Free and open to the public.

Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now

February 4 – March 19, 2010

PNCA Main Campus Building, Feldman Gallery + Project Space, 1241 NW Johnson St.

Gallery hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee as part of Exit Art’s Curatorial Incubator Program, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.

Organized thematically, the exhibition presents the creative outpourings of social movements, such as those for Civil Rights and Black Power in the United States; democracy in China; anti-apartheid in Africa; squatting in Europe; environmental activism and women's rights internationally; and the global AIDS crisis, as well as uprisings and protests, such as those for indigenous control of lands; against airport construction in Japan; and student and worker revolution in France. The exhibition also explores the development of powerful counter-cultures that evolve beyond traditional politics and create distinct aesthetics, life-styles, and social organizations.

Although histories of political groups and counter-cultures have been written, and political and activist shows have been held, this exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt to chronicle the artistic and cultural production of these movements. Signs of Change offers a chance to see relatively unknown or rarely seen works, and is intended to not only provide a historical framework for contemporary activism, but also to serve as an inspiration for the present and the future

Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now is an exhibition produced by Exit Art, NY, and was the inaugural project of the Curatorial Incubator Program. The program expands Exit Art's commitment to young and emerging curators and scholars in contemporary art, by giving material, financial, and human resources to developing curatorial talent. Working with Exit Art directors and staff, fellows curate large-scale exhibition projects, learn fundraising, develop outreach and educational programs, and co-publish a catalogue. Signs of Change was presented at Exit Art from September 20 - December 6, 2008 and traveled to the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, and the Arts Center of the Capital Region (co-presented with the Department of the Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY).

Ticket info: Free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Screening: “Stronger Than Before” and “Uku Hamba 'Ze/To Walk Naked

Tuesday, February 16, 7 pm

In Other Words Women’s Books and Resources, Eight NE Killingsworth St.

In conjunction with the exhibition Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, PNCA and In Other Words Women’s Books and Resources present a series of films on women’s activism. “Stronger Than Before” (1983, 27:00 minutes, the Boston Women’s Video Collective, courtesy of the Boston Women’s Video Collective) documents the militant actions and creative activities of the Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice in Seneca, New York in 1983. Although the Boston Women’s Video Collective was formed specifically to document this encampment, they continued producing video projects after it closed.

After an exhausting fight to procure housing, a group of women in Soweto, South Africa built a settlement of makeshift shacks. When police tried to evict them with bulldozers and dogs, the women defiantly stripped naked in a peaceful protest against the destruction of their homes. This unconventional action gained massive media attention and caught the attention of filmmakers who documented the struggle in “Uku Hamba ‘Ze / To Walk Naked” (1995, 12:00 minutes, Jaqueline Maingard, Sheila Meintjes and Heather Thompson, courtesy of Third World Newsreel)

Ticket info: Free and open to the public.