IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B

Abstract

Skyway 20/21 exhibition, now in its second iteration, was a celebration of artistic practices in the Tampa Bay region, as it was a unique collaboration between Florida, USA’s four institutions: the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; the Tampa Museum of Art; and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa. Working together, curators from each institution offered context for the diversity of art being made in five counties. Many of the artists represented in Skyway 20/21 work in familiar fine art media, such as painting, sculpture, or photography, but their practices incorporate interdisciplinary approaches to artmaking. Through site-specific investigations and community engagements, their work expands the artist’s studio and gallery space into the community at large. Each artist’s work had a significant impact in the Tampa Bay area, but also resonated far beyond the local. Their artistic practices inhabited the intersections of the personal and the political. The artists mined their unique experiences, the experiences of their communities, and the collective consciousness in order to explore the politics of visibility and agency in the 21st century on a global scale. For example, through her collaborative projects, such as NOMAD Art Bus, Justice Studio, and SPACEcraft, artist Carrie Boucher works to highlight and address disparities by facilitating creative engagements and organizing networks of artistic support in places where individuals typically lack access to the means of artistic production. How can museum curators champion social practice in their collaborative approaches to exhibition-making? How can cultural institutions support the work of socially engaged art practices in order to become productive places for cultural exchange and offer community support?