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ABOUT THE COVER The cover of this issue of In Practice features a still from Now Return Us to Normal (2022) by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Leslie Koren. Koren is one of hundreds of artists who have received support from the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio since our opening in 1989. As Koren recently noted, “the studio provided confidence and an injection of resources both interpersonal, creative, and technical as a team of artists weighing in and pulling me out of the abyss of solo work…I felt ‘seen’ not for having a topical, ‘social-issue’ film, but for the substance of my art.” Read more accounts from fellow filmmakers inside. Cover image and photo above of Koren on set courtesy of the artist.
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in practice 1
Spring 2021 Issue | Passages VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Creating a Climate for Change: Lucy I. Zimmerman on Climate Changing
MARY ABOWD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
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Margaret Price: Transforming Access
MARY ABOWD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
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Abraham Cruzvillegas: Campus Collaborations
MARY ABOWD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
6 Pages: 15 Years of Art and Writing DIONNE CUSTER EDWARDS, DIRECTOR OF LEARNING & PUBLIC PRACTICE
8 Film/Video Studio Journals JENNIFER LANGE, FILM/VIDEO STUDIO CURATOR
11 Meet Helyn Marshall, Accessibility Manager ERIK PEPPLE, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
March marked my second anniversary at the Wex, and with it came a moment to consider why supporting extraordinary artists alongside this institution’s passionate (and compassionate) staff is so meaningful. It was a time to think about what we can do to double down on our ongoing efforts of being responsive, accessible, and open. Our inaugural issue of In Practice dove into the connections we forge each and every day at the Wex. Connecting with audiences and artists, connecting with the community, connecting with the world writ large. This edition looks at the various ways we offer points of entry and safe passage, if you will, into and through the center itself. In the following pages, you’ll hear directly from artists about how our Film/Video Studio offered continuing support during the pandemic, holding open a nurturing, creative space where filmmakers could utilize resources even under the constraints of physical distancing. We look at 15 years of our Pages program—an innovative multidisciplinary initiative developing literacy and writing skills through the exploration of contemporary art—and its sustained impact in high schools across the region. There’s also a conversation with Lucy I. Zimmerman, curator of Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, on how our current exhibition questions what a museum is and how it can better serve those who enter by engaging deeply with issues of access and equity—two key focal points of our work at the center. This issue will also introduce you to our Accessibility Manager, Helyn Marshall. Helyn’s a familiar face to our regular guests, having worked at the Wex in various capacities since 2005. You’ll learn a bit from her about how this newly created targeted role will amplify and enhance the ways we can welcome and listen to our audiences. It’s a full issue in every sense of the word, one that I hope you find as meaningful as I do. With gratitude and warmth, Johanna Burton EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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Creating a Climate for Change: Lucy I. Zimmerman on Climate Changing MARY ABOWD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
“The business-as-usual of museums is being upended during the pandemic… there’s an agitation and a desire for change that’s being pushed like never before.” —LUCY ZIMMERMAN
What is the role of museums and whom do they serve? What roles do artists play within museums, communities, and cultures? Such questions are at the heart of Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, now on view through August 15 at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Originally scheduled to open last spring, the show features a diverse group of some 20 artists whose work engages systemic injustice—from mass incarceration and global warming to racism and colonization—all during a catastrophic year of global pandemic. Infused throughout Climate Changing are questions about access, disability, and what it means to create shared space. Below, Associate Curator of Exhibitions Lucy Zimmerman talks about how she organized the show—and why the questions that originally inspired it are all the more pressing now. ABOVE Chris Burden, Exposing the Foundation of the Museum, 1986. Marker on black-and-white photograph, 11 x 14 in. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; gift of Leonard Nimoy and Susan Bay-Nimoy, 2004.77. © Chris Burden/Licensed by The Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Take me back to the origins of Climate Changing and where the idea came from. The seed of it started in thinking about the slot the exhibition was to occupy. It was supposed to open May 29 of 2020 and was to be the final exhibition in the Wexner Center’s 30th anniversary year. I wanted to use that position to think about the past as much as the present and future of the institution and to introduce some self-reflexivity by asking, “What are museums for? Whom are museums for?” How did you arrive at the title Climate Changing? We wanted a name that was active, a call to arms that would speak to not only the urgent issue of climate change but also to the need to create a climate for change. The title is an acknowledgment that the world is changing fast, and we have a role to play in that. One of the major components of the exhibition is the restaging of Chris Burden’s Wexner Castle (1990). Why resurrect that work now? The piece was originally created for the final exhibition of the Wexner Center’s inaugural year. Burden transformed the south facade of the museum into a castle by crenellating the smoothed-over brick sections of Peter Eisenman’s deconstructivist architectural design. The decision to mount the work 30 years later was very measured. My intent was to use it as a launchpad to ask a series of questions, like whether the museum is a fortress or castle to protect cultural objects or a platform for producing new ones. Was Burden asking those questions 30 years ago? He was really framing that work more as a beef with Eisenman and his architectural design for the Wex, which was pretty daring because it was a formidable building. A New York Times critic called it “the museum that theory built.” Burden said in an interview at the time, “I can’t believe they’re letting me do this.” Burden was taking issue with Eisenman, but do you think he was also making a statement about the “museum as fortress”? I can’t help but think that by calling it “Wexner Castle,” he was leveling a critique. If you look back at his previous works, you’ll see a trajectory that deals with institutional critique. With Exposing the Foundation of the Museum (1986–88) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’ Temporary Contemporary, he dug into the ground around the building to expose its foundation and what’s holding the museum up. With Samson (1985), installed at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, he employed a 100-ton jack attached to a turnstile that pushed on the walls of the museum. Every time someone entered the museum, it threatened to bring the building down. I imagine the Wexner Center itself is not exempt from this critique. Are we boldly taking on our own institution here as well? I did want to take on the Wex itself and institutions more broadly in the way that a lot of museums have been doing in the past five
Margaret Price on Accessibility MELISSA STARKER CREATIVE CONTENT AND PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER Ask Margaret Price the question, What is accessibility? and you’ll get an answer that goes beyond neat definitions. “Access is not something you achieve and then say, ‘Look! I made an accessible space; there’s the interpreter, there’s the ramp, we’re good to go,’” she says. “Access is unfolding, it’s situational, it’s not something you finish—it’s very much a practice.”
Margaret Price, photo © Sandra Costello.
Margaret Price: Transforming Access
MARY Professor ABOWD,ofASSOCIATE EDITOR An Associate English and the Director of Disability Studies at Ohio State, Price served on Climate Changing’s faculty advisory Askcommittee, Ohio State’saMargaret group ofPrice five professors the question, (including “What isDan accessibility?” DiPiero, andErica you’llLevin, get an Maurice answerStevens, that goesand beyond Lucille neat Toth) definitions. from a “Access rangeisacademic not something disciplines youwhose achieve creative and then thinking say, ‘Look! on themes I made an of accessibility, accessible shared space; there’s space, and the interpreter, the future of there’s institutions the ramp, likewe’re museums goodinformed to go,’” she the says. exhibition “Accessand is unfolding, its related it’s programming relational, it’sinnot profound something ways. you finish—it’s very much a practice.” Since An coming to Ohio State inin2014, Price has worked with and the associate professor the Department of English colleagues on of the Access Project, initiative that director itsTransformative Disability Studies Program, Pricean served on Climate reimagines access as a advisory collective process centered ethnicity, Changing’s faculty committee, a group in of race, five professors gender, sexuality, anddisciplines class. “Transformative access is from a rangedisability, of academic whose creative thinking more on than who can get in the door safelyspace, and comfortably,” she themes of accessibility, shared and the future of says. “To quote [leading disability theorist] Titchkosky, it’s ‘an institutions like museums informed theTanya exhibition and its related interpretive relationin between bodies.’” programming profound ways. Price’sSince forthcoming Crip Spacetime, grew out of awith coming book, to Ohio State in 2016,which Price has worked studycolleagues of disabledon university faculty, incorporates principles of the Transformative Access Project, an initiative that transformative on quantum physicson to race, forgeethnicity, a reimaginesaccess accessand as adraws collective process focusing new theory accessibility in higher education. gender,about sexuality, disability, and class. “Transformative access is Though more her than findings whotarget can get university in the door campuses, safely and they comfortably,” also apply she to museums. says. Quoting So what, leading to Price, disability makes theorist a museum Tanyaaccessible? Titchkosky, she adds, “The absolute it’s “an interpretive number one, relation nonnegotiable betweenthing bodies.” is to have an engaged group of users/designers who are constantly practicing Price’s forthcoming book Crip Spacetime, which grew out of a transformative access for and around that space,” Price says. “The study of disabled university faculty, incorporates principles of museum could have 20 steps up to the front door, and I would transformative access and draws on rhetorical theory, critical still think that the users/designers who are engaged in a constant geography, and architecture to forge a new theory about practice of access would be more important.” accessibility in higher education. Read more by and about Margaret Price on our blog at wexarts.org.
Though her findings target university campuses, they also apply to museums. So what, to Price, makes a museum accessible? “The absolute number one, nonnegotiable thing is to have an engaged group of users/designers who are constantly practicing transformative access for and around that space,” Price says. “The museum could have 20 steps up to the front door, and I would still think that the users/designers who are engaged in a constant practice of access would be more important.” Read more by and about Margaret Price at wexarts.org/blog.
years, but in an accelerated and much more intense way in 2020 and 2021. The business-as-usual of museums is being upended during the pandemic with the mass uprisings that have occurred over social and racial injustice. There’s an agitation and a desire for change that’s being pushed like never before. 4
The time seems perfect to be asking these questions because so much is being questioned—from defunding the police to the need for universal health care. This year has shown just how inadequate so many of our institutions are, and how little work they’re doing to represent and serve people, especially the people who need it the most and who are the most vulnerable. These questions have always been important and urgent and present, but this year is demonstrating the fragility of the social environment that we share and also the need to think about care and how we show up for one another. The museum is a space we can use to reflect and think about that; it’s a place that produces knowledge. There’s a lot of responsibility with that. Can you talk about this idea of access? There are so many dimensions to that term. I was thinking a lot about the social space of the museum and what access means in that space. I really got into a book by Tanya Titchkosky, The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning (2011). She talks about access as a form of perception, and one that can organize social and political relations between people in a shared space. So for me that was very exciting, the idea of not thinking about access just as an end goal—you build a ramp and then there’s access—but as a perceptual phenomenon that’s always being negotiated by different people and different spaces together based on needs. Access plays an important role in thinking about participation—who is the museum for, who gets to be here? I kind of shy away from the idea of inclusion because that entails bringing people in and saying “Oh, we’re opening the door to you, to the same old structure, and now you’re welcome in.” I think the whole structure needs to be undone and rethought. It needs to be liberated. What are the biggest challenges in achieving that more liberated space? Museums are built on problematic foundations of colonialism and exclusion, theft and looting, social hierarchies and privilege. It’s a challenge to come to terms with that. To look at that in the face and see it, and then ask, “How do we become an anti-racist institution?” It’s a lot of work. It requires a lot of rethinking. Plenty of institutions have remained mum about it. What kind of work is involved in becoming an anti-racist museum? What are some of the first steps that need to be taken? I think asking a lot of questions—and maybe questions that don’t have answers. I think it involves more than just dictating what those
things are. It involves a lot of listening and work with colleagues within but also outside the museum. Museums are for publics. They’re about people and for people. What’s inside the museum has to start to look more like what’s outside the museum. Abraham Cruzvillegas is one of the artists who have been commissioned to make new work for Climate Changing. His approach is one of extending access. Can you discuss what he’s doing? Abraham made these simple line drawings that he asked people in [Columbus] to interpret and make into sculptures. These works are grounded in a theme in his work called autoconstrucción, which means self-building. Where he grew up outside of Mexico City, families would build homes based on whatever they had that was around. In the past he’s worked with museum employees or preparators or artists in the community. I was thinking about this idea of self-building and how that’s very much happening for artists who are in Ohio State’s Master of Fine Arts program, and wouldn’t they be excellent candidates to interpret these sketches? Abraham was very interested in undoing authorship of the work. He’s credited them and their interpretation of his sketches. They aren’t unseen fabricators. The work you see in the gallery is very much by them. It’s a wonderful gesture in terms of inclusion or access, and it’s a different way of thinking about how we can work together. That’s what a lot of the artists in Climate Changing are dealing with in different ways—thinking about systems but also about relationships and bodies and the potential of interdependency, as well as of improvisation. Tell me about the faculty advisory committee you established to inform the exhibition. Why did you decide to bring this committee into the process? We’re so fortunate to be on Ohio State’s campus and have such brilliant minds all around us. Because the exhibition deals with such a broad range of social issues and ways in which artists are working, I wanted to bring together faculty from different disciplines to speak about these broad-ranging issues and how they intersect and overlap. I found some thinkers I was excited about—including Dan DiPiero, Erica Levin, Maurice Stevens, Lucille Toth, and Margaret Price. Their perspectives were really influential for me in writing my essay and thinking about the programming and interpretive work for the exhibition. You can find a roundtable discussion with the committee in the exhibition’s gallery guide, which is available in the galleries and on wexarts.org. This conversation has been edited for length. Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment is on view in the Wexner Center’s galleries, now extended through August 15, 2021. Gallery admission is free after 4 pm on Thursdays and all day on Sundays courtesy of American Electric Power Foundation.
Abraham Cruzvillegas: Campus Collaborations MARY ABOWD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR In keeping with Climate Changing’s themes of access and questioning traditional museum hierarchies, exhibiting artist Abraham Cruzvillegas invited four Ohio State graduate students in the Department of Art, as well as a local artisan, to create sculptures from his abstract line drawings. The Paris-based sculptor laid out his simple guidelines: make something at human scale; use only found materials; paint it black and red—oh, and sign your name to it because the work is yours. At the heart of the assignment was Cruzvillegas’s desire to rethink authorship in art-making and undo the hierarchy between artists and the often unnamed fabricators they employ. “It became clear that we were to be collaborators with Abraham,” said glass artist and second-year MFA student Brianna Gluszak. “That allowed me to take more liberties—to have fun and not be worried about doing it right or wrong.” It also points to what Cruzvillegas calls autoconstrucción, or self-building—creating through improvisation, with whatever materials are at hand. The approach was freeing for first-year MFA student Akeylah Wellington, an artist working in collage and sculpture who’s used to a more painstaking process. The sketch Wellington chose reminded her of a Möbius strip—a one-sided, looped surface used in mathematics and engineering among other fields. She quickly constructed one from discarded vacuum tubes using a drill, a hammer, and nails. “It felt quicker, freer, looser,” she said. “In a pandemic year, that just felt nice.” See the sculptures by Tony Ball, Brianna Gluszak, Aaron Peters, Akeylah Wellington, and Bradley Weyandt in Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, on view in the center’s galleries through August 15.
SKETCHES
WORKS IN PROGRESS
INSTALLATION VIEW
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Untitled Sketches for Climate Changing 3 and 5, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, New York and Mexico City.
Akeylah Wellington, Untitled, 2020. Brianna Gluszak, Untitled, 2020. Photos courtesy of the artists.
Gluszak’s and Wellington’s works on view in Climate Changing along with sculptures by Aaron Peters and Bradley Weyandt.
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Pages: 15 Years of Art and Writing 6
DIONNE CUSTER EDWARDS, DIRECTOR OF LEARNING & PUBLIC PRACTICE
Creating Pages 15 years ago was an opportunity for me to take what I had learned in the field as a teaching artist in community-based contexts and cultural institutions and develop a framework informed by those experiences. Pages works in service of K–12 education, and in conceptualizing this program, the aim was to create more depth. The intention was to no longer walk in and out of those classrooms and not be accountable for, tethered to, and inspired by what happened there. Pages was designed to create a space that allowed more time to work with artists, educators, and students in schools— an environment where the arts and academics could intersect, blend, and shape new dimensions for teaching and learning. Pages offers high school students the ability to engage with the arts and the practice of creative writing, both at the Wex and inside of their school curricula and settings. The interaction between these realms is a crucial one, as Stacey O’Reilly, Pages educator in residence at Big Walnut High School, observes:
“Required creative writing provides students the time and a place to get to better know themselves, which also allows them to discover what they believe and what is worth fighting for.…Creative writing and essay writing are not mutually exclusive. One can and does support the other. Just as we search for supplemental readings in support of the novels we study in class, the Pages program helped me as a teacher to find supplemental writings in support of student learning.” Committed to supporting the expansion of the arts in education, Pages is a multivisit, multiple-points-of-contact program, an intervention transforming how we think about and practice writing through ongoing, unexpected encounters. In addition to attending an exhibition, film, and performance at the Wex, during each program year students meet writers and artists—people who make things, who think about the world and translate that thinking into art. Pages is curious about whether arts learning in and out of conventional settings might allow for educators and students to teach, think, learn, and write differently—echoing the processes and curiosities of artists. Pages pushes toward a more flexible learning environment that offers educators and students more options. It is a yearlong journey, an ever-changing and layered community of ideas, participants, and activities—a partnership that includes schools, educators, students, artists, and the Wex. That sustained commitment to partnership is the fundamental structure, function, and reason behind the program’s success.
Cassie Coggburn, Pages educator in residence at Westerville South High School, recently spoke about “how literature is a window or a mirror into a subject or matter.” She spoke earlier this year at our Pages artist and educator retreat about making room for students to encounter stories and art “as an opening or as a reflection.” This looking inside builds the kinds of skills students develop during a year of Pages, where the matters and contexts of making collide with the curriculum and allow students to consider how what they are learning about is situated more widely in society, with implications beyond the classroom. Scholar and arts educator Elliot Eisner wrote that “in education, the really important effects of teaching are located outside the school.”¹ And indeed, Pages strives to explore that notion of learning both within and beyond the margins, offering a fluid conceptual space for instruction, discovery, creativity, and connection to the world.² As Enddy Stevens, Pages educator in residence at Walnut Ridge High School, wrote: “As teachers we are constantly searching for ways to challenge and motivate our students. Watching young people grow, learn, and master content are just a few of the small joys, but the most valuable gift we can give our students is the opportunity to explore and make connections to the outside world…When students are taken out of a traditional classroom setting and given the opportunity to experience art, appreciate language, and learn to find their voices, great things will follow. Through Pages, my students have blossomed into independent learners and understand the power of words and how they can shape their worldview.” As Pages navigates 2020–21 with our seven partner high schools— Big Walnut, Briggs, Franklin Heights, Walnut Ridge, West-Liberty
THIS SPREAD Pages students in the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Theater (opposite page) and galleries (above), photos: Katie Gentry.
Salem, Westerville South, and Whitehall-Yearling—the public health pandemic and myriad social crises have posed new challenges. Teaching in crisis is a whole other body of work. K–12 schools are already vulnerable, a delicate pool of dynamics. Now, today’s acute conditions add a layer of intricacy to an already complex system. Museum and school education requires persistence, patience, partnership—and our current Pages educators in residence have shown an unspeakable amount of resolve, flexibility, and commitment. They expressed a healthy amount of caution, yet a visible sense of relief, when we all decided as a group that we would proceed with Pages this year despite all of the uncertainty and obstacles due to the pandemic. Proceeding meant increasing our communication and planning ahead, but also keeping our ideas and schedules nimble while experimenting with new modes of program delivery. The work requires strategy, and when that doesn’t work out as planned, revision—mirroring the writing process itself, or any critical or creative process. In Pages, we collaborate, coteach, and cowrite an arts-integrated curriculum where all of our ideas and methodologies are interwoven throughout the year. We are all practitioners: artists, educators, administrators, teachers, and learners. In Pages, arts partnership is an active process and living concept that requires collaboration, curiosity, and experimentation; an ongoing sharing of insight; and the cultivation of deep relationships. In this time of crisis, these relationships are what sustain us and this work. 1. Elliot W. Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 50. 2. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Penguin Group, 1934).
Learn more about the Pages program and read the yearly publication created by participating students at pagesprogram.com.
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For more than 30 years, the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio has given both emerging and established artists the time and space to focus on their work without distraction. With unparalleled support at various stages in the postproduction process, it’s one way the Wex is still investing in creatives who advance the field of moving-image production. This is the first in an ongoing series of journals checking in with these filmmakers, in their own words; watch for future editions in upcoming issues of In Practice and online. The following entries focus on the challenges and rewards of the studio’s work in the pandemic era.
Film / Video s Studio Journal During the last year, the Film/Video Studio has continued to provide filmmakers free access to our postproduction services. Although we were unable to conduct in-person residencies, the studio team (editors Paul Hill and Alexis McCrimmon and myself) did what we do best: we pivoted to new ways of working with artists to move their projects forward. For Michelle Grace Steinberg and Leslie Koren, that meant remote color correction and sound mixing. For Catalina Alvarez and Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz, it involved lengthy, in-depth editorial/creative feedback sessions. For others, such as Mary Jo Bole, it was simply offering regular check-ins and the reassurance that we’ll be together again as soon as it is safe. Our wall of Polaroids in the studio (pictured at left)—something like a hall of fame of artists who have completed work there—awaits our return and the addition of new faces. I’m grateful to share their stories. JENNIFER LANGE, CURATOR, FILM/VIDEO STUDIO
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“At the Wexner Center there is a little heaven for artists working in film. A team of professionals provide filmmakers with the structure, time, and attention their work deserves. They pore over the details of films in progress, extract subtle meanings and make new connections. Furthermore, they are committed to putting in the time it takes to move new work along: the first time I scheduled a remote appointment to discuss my work in progress, I was surprised and delighted that they suggested a four-hour Zoom meeting.” CATALINA ALVAREZ ABOVE: Sound Spring Seq. #6: The School and The Home (2020)
The Film/Video Studio’s “commitment felt like a turning point for our project [A Place to Breathe]; not only due to the importance of their huge material support in offering sound mixing and color correction, but also the moral support of [Jennifer’s] enthusiasm and understanding of the project. Our on-site artist residency was an inspiring experience. The collaboration and patience of Paul (sound mixing) and Alexis (color correction) allowed us to complete the film, in spite of the many obstacles of the COVID-19 context, to a degree of polish we could not have otherwise achieved.” MICHELLE GRACE STEINBERG ABOVE: A Place to Breathe (2020)
“Recently in The D-Word forum (an online community of documentary filmmakers), filmmaker Shawn Convey wrote that ‘over 90% of first-time doc filmmakers never make another film again.’ Arriving at the Wexner Center in March 2017, I was overwhelmed. I was staring at over 300 hours I’d filmed for my first feature doc, which I began filming in 2014 while working with immigrant rights organizer Luis Magaña. The film follows the experiences of Mexican American farm-working families in California whose access to a unique, affordable housing option exposes the structuring of second-class citizenship. My teaching job left me little time to organize this mountain of material; I had been rejected by nearly every funder; and I felt pressure to shimmy a community portrait into a character-driven narrative. The work ahead seemed insurmountable and a little foolish. But we did forge ahead, propelled by my collaboration with Alexis, my editorial consultant, and the Wexner Center team who celebrated the depth, complexity, and potential in the material. What has fueled my progress is not only the studio’s technical apparatus, but being in community with values-aligned artists who are invested in the film, recognize its value, and who trust my approach….[This] filmmaker-centered support nurtures new voices (like my own as an immigrant to the US and the first in my family to pursue a career in the arts); makes the completion of a first film achievable; and cultivates a collaborative infrastructure for supporting subsequent projects. The alternative, unfortunately, is attrition: films never made, perspectives never shared, and analyses never ventured.” AGGIE EBRAHIMI BAZAZ ABOVE: Cómo Vivimos (in progress)
“This is a program that took a chance on me— an older artist but a first-time filmmaker— and four years later they’re still taking that chance. Those initial and subsequent votes of confidence have meant the world to me during the many self-critical times making my project Family White Elephants.” MARY JO BOLE ABOVE: Walks in Green Lawn Cemetery offered a safe way for Bole and curator Jennifer Lange to check in during COVID. Photo: Mary Jo Bole.
Read more from these filmmakers at wexarts.org/blog and more about the studio’s work at wexarts.org/film-video-studio-residencies.
Meet Helyn Marshall, Accessibility Manager ERIK PEPPLE, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER 11
Helyn Marshall, the Wex’s accessibility manager, has been with the center since 2005. She was a familiar and welcoming face as head of our house management team, but in 2019 made the shift to the newly established accessibility manager position. Marshall, in her words below, talks about the importance of this role and what she brings to it as the center moves to offer greater access to all patrons, for all programs—both in person and online. “The field of accessibility, when focused on disability access, aims to reduce or remove barriers in order to ensure every individual has equal opportunity to participate in life, to go and do, and be human in varied environments. It means being interested in adaptations and exploring a lot of gray areas to discover what works for each person who has an accommodation need. Sometimes it’s something as simple as having the ability to sit for part of a performance rather than the need to stand and endure having a pain-body because of an inflexible environment. Sometimes solutions can be more complex, with layers of support
Helyn Marshall, photo: Jessica Pissini. Wexner Center Galleries, photo: Brad Feinknopf.
or adaptations needed for an individual to have the same opportunity to fully engage with the content of an event. It’s not all about physical access, though a lot of accessibility work does tend to orient around the physical in an environment-dependent context. There are other aspects to working in the field of accessibility where identities intersect. Not one single person on Earth only has one identity—we are a multitude within ourselves and that should be acknowledged and respected at least. Really, it should be celebrated and honored. So work in the field of accessibility can hopefully answer questions such as ‘can I get there?’ and ‘will I be able to participate?’ while also being deeply grounded in ‘do I belong here?’, ‘can I contribute?’, and ‘am I valued?’ The thing is, this pandemic, for as awful as it has been, has done massive work to foreground digital accessibility needs and pushed this work forward on a national level as we learn to cope and find new ways to connect more fully while remaining at home.” The Wexner Center strives to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as captioning or ASL interpretation, please contact Helyn at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890.
SPRING EVENTS 12
In the galleries or online, there’s more to discover at the Wex. Head to wexarts.org for a complete lineup of virtual screenings, performances, workshops, talks, and more. Note that many online events remain available after their debut.
Find more: wexarts.org Sign up: wexarts.org/newsletters
Exhibitions
Performing Arts
Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment At the Wex through Aug 15
Raja Feather Kelly
INTERDISCIPLINARY
HYSTERIA
On wexarts.org starting Wed, June 2
Connect at: @wexarts #theWex Feedback on this publication? Email listweb@wexarts.org
Film/Video DOCUMENTARY
małni—towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka, 2020) On wexarts.org Fri, May 21–Thu, June 17 ZOOM DRIVE-IN
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Installation view of Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment. Pictured: Artist Residency Award recipient Torkwase Dyson’s Dark Black (Bird and Lava), 2021. Raja Feather Kelly, HYSTERIA, photo: Kate Enman. Teju Cole, photo: Maggie Janik. Taryn Simon, image © and courtesy of the artist. małni—towards the ocean, towards the shore, image courtesy of Grasshopper Films.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) At the South Drive-In Theatre, 3050 South High St., on Sun, June 6 ARTIST RESIDENCY AWARD PROJECT
Cinetracts ’20 On wexarts.org through 2021
Learning & Public Practice LAMBERT FAMILY LECTURE
Taryn Simon in Conversation with Teju Cole On wexarts.org through 2021 DIRECTOR’S DIALOGUE ON ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE
How Do We Get Well? On Public Health and Safety featuring Cameron A. Granger, Baseera Khan, Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, and Kyle Strickland moderated by Autumn Glover On wexarts.org Office Hours On wexarts.org Mon, May 31, June 28, and July 26 | 11:30 am
Free gallery admission every Sunday made possible by AEP Foundation! Thanks to a generous contribution from the American Electric Power Foundation, the Wex is thrilled to offer free gallery admission every Sunday in 2021. Already a consistent supporter of the Wex, the foundation has made this special gift to bolster the center’s efforts to expand arts access. Wex Executive Director Johanna Burton notes, “We’re excited to work with the AEP Foundation toward its goal of enriching life through art, and we’re honored to be chosen as a partner in this effort. The foundation’s gift removes a financial barrier to experiencing the innovative work of our exhibition curators and encourages visitors to return often.”
Support the Wex Just as your commitment helps our programming bloom in response to the current national emergency, it also means the Wex can support artists making new works via our residencies and commissions. Your gift or membership also deepens our ability to offer acclaimed programs for youth, family, and the entire community. Go to wexarts.org/give to donate today or wexarts.org/join to become a member.
Our Mission This magazine is published three times a year by the Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. Through exhibitions, screenings, performances, artist residencies, and education programs, the Wexner Center acts as a forum where established and emerging artists can test ideas and where diverse audiences can participate in cultural experiences that enhance the understanding of the art of our time. In its programs, the Wexner Center balances a commitment to experimentation with a commitment to traditions of innovation and affirms the university’s mission of education, research, and community service.
The Wexner Center for the Arts is part of The Ohio State University and receives major institutional support from the university. PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
WEXNER CENTER FOUNDATION Leslie H. Wexner, Chair Kristina M. Johnson, PhD, Vice Chair Bill Lambert, President Trustees David M. Aronowitz Lisa M. Barton Jeni Britton Bauer Johanna Burton Paige Crane Adam R. Flatto Michael Glimcher Brett Kaufman Elizabeth P. Kessler C. Robert Kidder Nancy Kramer Mark D. Kvamme Ronald A. Pizzuti Pete Scantland Joyce Shenk Alex Shumate Abigail S. Wexner Sue Zazon Ex Officio Ann Hamilton Bruce A. McPheron Gretchen Ritter Bruce A. Soll, Treasurer Mark E. Vannatta, Secretary SENIOR PROGRAMMING STAFF Johanna Burton Executive Director Megan Cavanaugh Chief Operating Officer Lane Czaplinski Director of Performing Arts Dionne Custer Edwards Director of Learning & Public Practice David Filipi Director of Film/Video Bill Horrigan Curator at Large Jennifer Lange Curator of Film/Video Studio Program PUBLICATION STAFF Mary Abowd Associate Editor Sylke Krell Production Manager Kendall Markley Senior Graphic Designer Nisiqi Graphic Designer Erik Pepple Chief Communications Officer Ryan Shafer Publications Editor Melissa Starker Creative Content and Public Relations Manager
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14 WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS | THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY | 1871 NORTH HIGH STREET | COLUMBUS, OHIO 43210-1393
Spring 2021 Issue | Passages volume 1, number 2
NON-PROFIT ORG U S POSTAGE P A I D COLUMBUS OHIO PERMIT NO 711
