Thursday, March 24th to Saturday, April 30th, 2016
Charlotte Street Foundation presents, The One Thing That Can Save America at Paragraph Gallery (23 E 12th Street, Kansas City, MO) opening Thursday, March 24th, with a reception from 6-8PM. A Curatorial Talk, Writer’s Reading Room, and Paris of the Plains Podcast Listening Party will take place on Saturday, April 30th, starting at 12:30PM.
This is the second exhibition of the 2016 Charlotte Street Studio Residency Visiting Curator Series—a program inviting local arts professionals to curate projects featuring the work of current Studio Residents—both visual, written, and performing. The One Thing That Can Save America is curated by Jessica Baran and features visual artists, Max Adrian, Hannah Carr, Molly Garrett, Paige Hinshaw, Lara Shipley; writers, Jason Preu, Danny Volin, Lucas Wetzel; and collectives, Paris of the Plains Podcast and The Archive Collective.
The One Thing That Can Save America explores the creative capacity of hyper-specificity of place—meaning how matters of location(s) or place impact creative ideals and work. The exhibition takes its title from the eponymous 1972 John Ashbery poem, which opens with the question “What is central?” This exhibition similarly attempts to sort notions of centrality and place, suggesting that one must first move through specifics—personal feelings, precise place-names—in order to arrive at any true sense of something larger —such as the regional, national, or cultural.
The exhibition includes new works by visual artists Max Adrian, Hannah Carr, Molly Garrett, Paige Hinshaw and Lara Shipley. The Archive Collective and Paris of the Plains Podcast will occupy Project Space with new media installations made specifically for this exhibition. Writers Jason Preu, Danny Volin, and Lucas Wetzel have poetic and fictional work written during their residency periods collected in the publication “The One Thing That Can Save America,” which was also compiled and designed specifically for this exhibition.
For photos of the event, check out our flickr.
Exhibition: Opening Reception: Thursday, March 24th, 6-8PM
Curator Talk: Saturday, April 30th – 12:30PM; 1:30PM Writer’s Reading Room; 2:30PM Paris of the Plains Podcast Listening Party
Exhibition Runs: March 24 – April 30
Where: Paragraph Gallery, 23 E 12th Street, Kansas City, MO
Gallery Hours: By Appointment; Fridays and Saturdays, 12—5PM
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Jessica Baran is a poet, art writer, and curator based in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the author of three poetry collections (including one forthcoming this summer), as well as numerous articles published in Artforum.com, Art in America, BOMB, the Village Voice, and other art journals. She has organized exhibitions at the Front Room of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, White Flag Projects, COCA, and fort gondo compound for the arts, which she’s directed since 2013. She currently teaches in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art and St. Louis University’s Prison Arts & Education program.
