In her essay, “The Warhol: Museum as Artist: Creative, Dialogic and Civic Practice,” The Warhol Museum’s assistant director of education, Jessica Gogan, explores how museums can creatively operate in the cultural sphere as “civic engager.”  She does this through the lens of two projects: The Without Sanctuary Project and Andy Warhol’s Electric Chairs: Reflecting on Capital Punishment in America. The Without Sanctuary Project, conceived following two racially motivated killings in Pittsburgh, used historic photographic documentation of lynching...

In September 2002 MACLA—a San José-based Latino contemporary arts space—premiered Ties that Bind: Exploring the Role of Intermarriage Between Latinos and Asians in Silicon Valley. This exhibition was a photography-based installation of new work by artists Lissa Jones and Jennifer Ahn that reflected on the history of Asian-Latino intermarriage and contemporary perceptions of ethnicity in the San José area. Capitalizing on the groundswell of public interest in ethnic and racial hybridization trends borne out by Census 2000, the Ties that Bind exhibition and...

In April 2002, on the heels of the Human Genome Project’s historic announcement about the completion of a human genome “rough draft,” Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery opened Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics. The exhibition brought together more than 50 recent and new artworks representing artists’ imaginings of the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of genetic and genome research. To spur dialogue about the provocative and potentially polarizing issues, the Henry, together with its community collaborators, devised and implemented a cross...

This reflective essay documents the context, content, and unique circumstances of go_HOME, an international artist residency intended to generate dialogue about issues of exile and displacement. The project was centered in conceptual art, operated globally as well as locally, and experimented with real and virtual dialogue. In her role as Animating Democracy's project liaison to go_HOME, Pearlman observed the project as it unfolded. She engaged with organizers and artists in joint inquiry to draw insights and deepen understanding about the work of arts-based civic dialogue along a...

Water is a critical life-force for the small community of Amery, Wisconsin. The Water Project was a multidisciplinary exploration into the issue of water—its use and abuse. Between November 2000 and December 2001, artists working in different art forms presented creative strategies for discussing perspectives on water, including: a reading and publication of new writings inspired by water; an adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People to present-day Amery; a chamber orchestra concert featuring water-related classical repertoire juxtaposed with newly commissioned work;...

On the island of Hawai’i, residents of the rural region of Kohala deliberated how best to conserve a statue of King Kamehameha I—a hero revered as the indigenous unifier of the Hawai’ian islands and native son to Kohala: should the statue be restored to gilded bronze, the original intent of the mainland artist; or should it be repainted in life-like colors, thereby continuing a longstanding community tradition? Through the respectful collaboration of the Hawai’i Alliance for Arts Education, conservator Glenn Wharton, and the Kohala community's leaders and...