This exhibition was on view from September 1, 2020 to May 31, 2022.
Carpenter Center Conversations
Publications
About the Project
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to close our galleries, we sought new ways of fostering the sense of artist-centered community that lies at the heart of the Carpenter Center’s mission.
Beginning with an online program featuring artist Tony Cokes and philosophy professor and critic Christoph Cox, the Carpenter Center hosted a series of nine conversations between artists, curators, and scholars from April 2020 to April 2021. Many of the participants had existing relationships, coloring the conversations with warmth, camaraderie, and the easy yet rigorous exchange that can occur between familiars.
After transcribing audio recordings of these conversations, we worked closely with the program participants to edit them into a keepsake illustrated booklet that would be mailed—for free—to anyone who wanted one. Zoom events can feel ephemeral, and translating these conversations to print and pairing transcripts with images and bibliographic references offered a tangible and vibrant mode of persevering and disseminating these vital exchanges.
Following the release of the of nine booklets, we compiled the conversations in a book publication, In Conversation, 2020–2021: Dialogues with Artists, Curators, and Scholars. This collection emerges in the aftermath of the pandemic as a time capsule of sorts, charting the insights and practices of artists and their interlocutors as they grappled with profound social rupture.
Each video recording and corresponding booklet PDF can be accessed via the links below.
In Conversation, 2020–2021: Dialogues with Artists, Curators, and Scholars can be purchased in-person or online at the Carpenter Center Bookshop.
In Conversation, 2020–2021: Dialogues with Artists, Curators, and Scholars
$30.00
In Conversation, 2020–2021: Dialogues with Artists, Curators, and Scholars compiles deep-dive conversations originally broadcast live on Zoom during the height of the pandemic. This vital collection emerges now as a time capsule of sorts, charting the practices of artists and their interlocutors as they grappled with profound social rupture.
Archive
Explore more of our rich history through our archive.