The Fairmount Park Art Association will host the New•Land•Marks Symposium to be held on Friday May 7 and Saturday May 8, 1999 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The New•Land•Marks Symposium will feature the presentation of proposals for new works of public art by artists and community representatives. The two-day event will also be held in conjunction with the Art Association’s 127th Annual Meeting, which will feature Guest Speaker Ellen Dissanayake on the evening of May 7, 1999.
“Participants have been working hard to come up with great proposals for Philadelphia’s communities,” says Penny Balkin Bach, the Executive Director of the Art Association. “We are extremely excited about bringing together so many people, from throughout Philadelphia and the world, to showcase the results of their efforts.”
In order to plan and create new works of public art, twenty-three artists from around the world have been working with eighteen communities throughout Philadelphia in the New•Land•Marks program. New•Land•Marks artists represent a distinguished group of local, national, and international sculptors, painters, photographers, writers, poets, landscape architects, and architects.
Participating communities reflect the geographic variety, social richness, and cultural diversity of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods. New•Land•Marks projects will celebrate community identity, commemorate “untold” histories, respond to the local environment, and invigorate public spaces. These projects will incorporate public art into ongoing community development, urban greening, public amenity, civic history, and other revitalization initiatives. New•Land•Marks asks all participants, “What do we want to leave for future generations?”
Ellen Dissanayake, Annual Meeting Guest Speaker, is an independent scholar, lecturer, and author of three provocative books: What is art for? (1988), Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why (1992), and Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (forthcoming in 1999). In her work, she traces the biological necessity of art and its social importance in daily life.
New•Land•Marks is made possible by a generous grant from the William Penn Foundation with additional support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Leeway Foundation.
Chartered in 1872, the Fairmount Park Art Association is the nation’s first private, non-profit organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. The Art Association works to promote the appreciation of public art through advocacy efforts and programs which commission, interpret, and preserve public art in Philadelphia.
A program schedule and information on participating artists and communities is enclosed as supplementary information. For additional information contact the Art Association at (215) 546-7550.