Issue # 14 | ART + SERVICE pt. 1 with Valeska Maria Populoh
Dear NoCommercialValue family,
After a very long (and unplanned!) break, we are back with a brand new show ! This week we are very happy to welcome Valeska Maria Populoh as a guest curator with the “Art + Service” issue. Valeska lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She is on the faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art and works in collaboration with a variety of community arts organizations. Her costume and performance work, often created in collaboration with other artists, is informed by street theater, festival and parade traditions, variety entertainment and puppetry.
Curator’s statement:
What is the social responsibility of the artist? This question is at the forefront of my thinking as a politically engaged performing artist and as a teacher at an art school. The manner in which this issue has been taken up by artists, philosophers, critics and politicians throughout history intrigues me, as does the way the dialogue manifests in contemporary art practice.
In particular, the concept of artists ‘performing’ services has been receiving attention. The field includes a broad array of work, from the painting of murals to the facilitation of community arts workshops, from the remediation of toxic soils to designers using their skills to respond to human need. It also includes the popular entertainments of street theater and the performative ‘service work’ of artists that acts as a kind of social critique.
‘Art + Service” thus seemed like a worthy issue to take to No Commercial Value. This first installment looks at how artists meet a community’s need for festival, laughter, ritual and play, while addressing issues of equity, access and civic participation in public life. In subsequent installments, other artists will bring their perspectives to bear on the same theme as a kind of extended dialogue. We welcome your responses.
Regards,
Amir Husak
Prem Sooriyakumar
