Kendall Colloquium on Art and Design

Kendall College of Art and Design
Thursday, Friday and Saturday
23, 24 and 25 October 2008

Art and design stand today in a world without borders - an international marketplace - and the new Visual Culture has responded to this borderless environment by breaking out of the frames that once confined it by way of definitions and terminologies, and the artificial hierarchies invented by art historians and critics of the past. The purpose of the first Kendall Colloquium of the 21st century is to (re)consider the creative arts and design; the traditions upon which they are based, their contemporary significance, and their prospects for relevance in the future. The colloquium is open to artists and designers, educators and students, collectors and patrons, curators and other arts-related professionals.

The colloquium will begin on Thursday evening with a pre-conference reception and keynote address. For the two Friday sessions, from 9:00 to noon, and from 2:00 to 5:00, We plan to invite notables in the field to serve as moderators. The two moderators will help in selecting the papers for their sessions, will introduce the speakers, and will follow up with their own brief commentaries. The college will provide an honorarium and funds for travel and the stay in Grand Rapids for the moderators.

The first Friday session will concentrate on Icons of Modernism: The Arts and Design of the United States as they have come down to us from the past; painting and drawing, sculpture and design, photography and printmaking. How have they influenced the visual culture of today? Are they relevant in today's world? Why and/or why not? We will be seeking critical papers on individual artist/designers and objects of art and design and their relevance in today's cultural environment.

The second session will examine The New Visual Culture: Multimedia, Collaborative Design, Functional Art, Digital Animation and Body Arts. This session will be cross disciplinary in nature and the session moderator will be seeking papers on a wide variety of topics related to the session's theme. Both sessions will run for three hours - with a half hour break - and offer four papers plus the moderator's comments; each up to 25 minutes in length.