New Podcast Episode: "WexCast: Hope Ginsburg, Gina Siepel, and Sara Smith on Meditation Ocean"

Link


"While Meditation Ocean left the Wex in July 2023, a recent Climate Impact Report on the exhibition for the collective Artists Commit brought to light the resources saved and emissions reduced through sustainability strategies between the artists’ and the Wex. These include elements like a longer rotation period for the installation, and the seating within the space. With sustainability and environmental connection in mind, we revisit the Meditation Ocean Constellation, learning more about biological interconnectedness not just through Meditation Ocean, but through Sara Smith’s project Inside the Breath: INT (In Network Time) and Gina Siepel’s work To Understand a Tree. Together, they consider the intersections of their work and the breathing practices that weave them together. They discuss what it means to be present, to sit in awareness of an environment and its ties to human history, and to understand one’s exchanges with the natural world."


Posted: 2/26/2024

Climate Impact Report for Meditation Ocean

Link


A Climate Impact Report for "Mediation Ocean" at Wexner Center for the Arts is now live on the Artists Commit website. The report was co-authored with exhibition curator Jennifer Lange and Artists Commit mentor Jessica Gath. 


Posted 1/20/24

"Meditation Ocean Constellations"

VCUarts Lecture Series

Institute for Contemporary Art

Richmond, VA 

October 3, 2023


Posted 12/9/2023

"Meditation Reels from M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow" at Kimball Art Center

Link


Between Life and Land: Crisis

Kimball Art Center

Park City, Utah

July 21, 2023 – October 29, 2023


"In the face of our global climate crisis and tensions around the exploitation or pollution of our planet’s precious resources, the artists in the third chapter of Between Life and Land are compelled to respond to pressing environmental issues." —Nancy Stoaks, Curator


Artists: Ackroyd & Harvey, Lani Asunción, Tiana Birrell, Lily Brooks, Desert ArtLAB, John Grade, Beth Krensky, Meditation Ocean Constellation, Postcommodity, Gabriela Salazar, and Wendy Wischer.

Meditation Ocean Constellation, Meditation Reels from M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow, 2023, Three-channel video with five guided meditations. Excerpted here is "Meditation for Divers" by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles.


Posted: 8/13/2023

"Swirling Postcard" in The Hoosac Institute Journal 14

Link


Thank you to The Hoosac Institute for including "Swirling Postcard," a collaboration with Matt Flowers and Joshua Quarles in Journal 14. The issue also includes contributions by Basim Magdy, Carolee Schneeman/Rachel Churner, Hong-Kai Wang with Bopha Chhay, Umber Majeed, Louise Bourque, Jill Magid, and L.J. Roberts.


The "Postcard" video and text share an update on the underwater coral restoration efforts presented in our four-channel video installation Swirling (2019).


Posted: 8/2/2023

"M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow Score" Available to Listen/Download

Link


Joshua Quarles, Composer and Sound Recordist for the Meditation Ocean Constellation, has made his score for "M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow" available to listen/download for free. Find the album on his Bandcamp page at the above link. Thanks, JQ!


Posted: 8/2/2023

Meditations on Amphibiousness in Breathe: Critical Research into the Inqualities of Life

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“Inhale, allowing wide-open awareness, nothing to do, chest rising. Exhale, bringing awareness to the breath, grounding more deeply, chest falling.” So begins “Meditations on Amphibiousness,” a new text written for “Breathe: Critical Research into the Inequalities of Life,” edited by Sandra Noeth and Janez Janša, just released by Transcript. The writing traces the key dives of the “Land Dive Team" project, leading to “Meditation Ocean.”


It’s an honor to be included with fellow contributors Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Emily Beausoleil, Miriam Jakob and Jana Unmüßig, Shahram Khosravi, Bojana Kunst, Francesca Raimondi.


From Noeth’s and Janša’s introductory dialogue, “In recent years the attention that was given to breathing as a practice and as a concept across different disciplines has certainly intensified, engaging, for instance, with concerns related to environmental justice, debates on decoloniality, ongoing experiences of police and state violence and, at the same time a renewed attention to practices of care and healing.” —Sandra Noeth


Posted: 7/13/2023

M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow Trailer

Posted 5/29/2023

Meditation Ocean Gallery Guide

Link


Meditation Ocean (gallery guide)

Wexner Center for the Arts, 2023


Contents:

An Introduction by Jennifer Lange 

Groundedness Through Floating by Melody Jue

We Care About It (for Hope Ginsburg) by Anaïs Duplan

M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow Site Statement by Hope Ginsburg

Constellation and Sustainability: New Ways of Working by Jennifer Lange


Designed by Kendall Markley and Nisiqi

Edited by Julian Myers-Szupinska and Ryan Shafer


Printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper derived from rapidly renewable sources, chlorine-free. Electricity used in paper manufacturing is 100% matched with renewable energy credits from wind power projects. Printed with soy-based ink. Self-cover.


Posted: 5/27/2023

Meditation Ocean in Artforum

Link


Annie Dell'Aria

Deep Breathing

May 2023


"Some critics of contemporary art map immersive video and social practice onto opposite ends of a spectrum of viewer activation—one passive and spectacular, the other participatory and de-skilled. M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow challenges such schemata by folding high production values and cinematic enchantment into an expansive educational and participatory project that contemplates urgent crises through the lens of what might be called a pneumatic politics."


Posted: 5/7/2023

The Columbus Dispatch on Meditation Ocean

Link


Thought-provoking Wexner Center exhibits explore human interaction with the environment

Nancy Gilson

April 16, 2023


"This beautiful, interactive exhibit — offering land-locked central Ohioans a special glimpse of ocean life — is part of the larger “Meditation Ocean” exhibit and was conceived and directed by Richmond, Va., artist Hope Ginsburg. It is the culmination of her two-year artist residency and an even longer relationship with the Wexner Center."


Posted: 4/25/2023

Breathe: Director's Dialogue on Art & Social Change
Wexner Center for the Arts
Thursday, April 20th at 6 pm
Live in the Wex Film/Video Theater
And Live-streaming
Watch online or learn more here


"Join artists Hope Ginsburg, Cadine Navarro, and Anaïs Duplan for this year's Director's Dialogue—the culmination of our new meditation series, Breathe. For the monthlong series Breathe, programmed in conjunction with the exhibition Meditation Ocean, our featured artists each led two meditation sessions connecting breath, body, environment, and creativity. The artists will gather in our Film/Video Theater to reflect on the series and the ways meditation and breathing techniques influence their respective artistic practices and connect them to the earth. The conversation is moderated by Dora Kamau, a meditation artist and teacher for the Headspace app."


Posted: 4/20/2023

Artist Talk & Visioning Discussion, OSU Department of Art

Link


March 30, 2023
2:00PM - 4:00PM
358 Hopkins Hall


Artist Talk sponsored by the Humanities Institute Living Art Eco Lab Working Group (2-3 pm) followed by a Visioning Series session (3-4 pm) with interested participants, including the working group.


Posted: 3/19/2023

A Conversation with Jennifer Lange & Alexis McCrimmon

Link


Thursday, March 9th, 5:30 pm

Wexner Center for the Arts


"Currently on view in our galleries, Meditation Ocean features a six-channel video installation that presents an immersive ocean environment in which meditating scuba divers breathe along with aquatic wildlife. For this special evening, experience the work in the galleries and then go behind the scenes with participating artists and the exhibition’s curator to discover how it was developed, produced, and edited in collaboration with the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio. The speakers will illuminate the process, discuss the importance of lifelong learning and inquiry, share in moments of mindfulness, and participate in a Q&A with the audience after the conversation."


Left to right: Hope Ginsburg, photo: Terry Brown; Jennifer Lange; Alexis McCrimmon


Program Schedule:

Gallery experience with Wex educators in Meditation Ocean4:30–5:30 PM

Conversation in Film/Video Theater, 5:30–6:45 PM
Reception in Lower Lobby, 6:45–8 PM


Posted: 3/1/2023

How Can We Gather Now? A Symposium at Washington Project for the Arts

Link


Directed by Asad Raza and Prem Krishnamurthy

Presented by Washington Project For the Arts

March 31–April 2, 2023


"We are living through a moment marked by many forms of fragmentation, political division, and social isolation, exacerbated by the global pandemic. This symposium explores the question of gathering within this context. 'How can we gather now?' is also itself a gathering and will be a shared collective experience. It collects a rich variety of experiential modes, from conversations to cinema to shared food to a “drum circle” of synthetic techno rhythms. Raza and Krishnamurthy have offered this urgent question to artists, theorists, and organizers from all over the world, who in turn have used it as a prompt for artworks, conversations, performances, workshops, and gustatory experiences."


Posted: 2/28/2023

Breathe: An Artist-led Meditation Series

"Explore how meditation connects breath, body, and creativity in this monthlong series at Wexner Center for the Arts programmed in conjunction with Meditation Ocean."


Click here to learn more about the entire series and register for individual sessions.


"Artists and meditation practitioners Hope Ginsburg, Anaïs Duplan, and Cadine Navarro each lead two meditation sessions or “chapters” that explore breathing and their respective artistic practices. Held virtually or in person, the sessions are designed to facilitate thinking, asking how meditation and breathing techniques can shape our approach to work, our relationship with the environment, and our sense of place in the world."


For more information about my sessions on 3/4 and 3/11, please click here


For a full list of programming in conjunction with the Meditation Ocean exhibition, please click here.


Left to right: Anaïs Duplan, photo: Ally Caple; Cadine Navarro, photo: Sophie Ansel; Hope Ginsburg, photo: Terry Brown.


Posted: 2/28/2023

meditationocean.com Now Live!

Excited to share that a dedicated Meditation Ocean website is now live at this link.


The site includes audio tracks of the ten guided meditations commissioned for M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow (2023), the premiere iteration of Meditation Ocean. Please click here to listen to scripts by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles, Lily Cox-Richard and Michael Jevon Demps of Library of Radical Returns, Rachel Hilton, GM Keaton, Tifani Kendrick, Monique McCrystal and Deja Redman, Fiona Middleton, Sara Smith, Riane Tyler, and Naoco Wowsugi.


Thank you, icompendium for your generous assistance in getting the site up and running.


And now for some snapshots of the Meditation Ocean exhibition at Wexner Center for the Arts, open through July 9th, 2023.

Posted: 2/28/2023

"Meditation Ocean" opening at the Wexner Center for the Arts on 2/10/23

Link


Meditation Ocean Constellation

Meditation Ocean

2/10/23–7/9/23

Wexner Center for the Arts

Columbus, Ohio


"Meditation Ocean works for climate justice through underwater meditations and land-based actions, prompting us to consider the interdependence of human and environmental healing.


Conceived and directed by Hope Ginsburg, this exhibition is the culmination of her two-year Artist Residency Award and decades-long relationship with the center, including our Film/Video Studio. A collaborative, iterative project, Meditation Ocean was made by the Meditation Ocean Constellation, which comprises artists, writers, educators, meditators, musicians, curators, divers, and scientists.


The heart of the exhibition is M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow (2023), a large-screen, six-channel video installation that creates an immersive ocean environment, inviting contemplation and engagement. Shot over four days in the Florida Keys’ Biscayne National Park, the work captures eight meditating scuba divers as they “breathe with” ocean wildlife, rising from the seabed to float in meditation. Ten prerecorded, commissioned scripts allow audiences to join the divers in meditative practice within the installation.


Curated by Film/Video Studio Curator Jennifer Lange, this exhibition is accompanied by a series of related programs, workshops, and events. Developed collaboratively with our Department of Learning & Public Practice, they include the meditation series Breathe, which will also stream online. A gallery guide will feature a preface by Jennifer Lange and texts by Melody Jue and Anaïs Duplan."


Posted: 1/15/2023

New Earthworks Roundtable

August 31, 2022

Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

Arizona State University


A virtual roundtable conversation with "New Earthworks" artists Matt Garcia from Desert ArtLAB and Hope Ginsburg, moderated by Amelia Hay.


Posted: 9/18/22

Meditation Ocean in Beautiful Eccentrics

Pablo Helguera considers the role of artistic research in "Reading Assignments," his 8/18/22 Beautiful Eccentrics piece. 


"The first is that artistic research is an omnivorous practice, definitely not limited to art-related subjects. By necessity we of course pay a great deal of attention to art history, art technique and theory, but each individual artist in their research eventually gravitates to subjects that might have nothing to do with art- either because they research a subject of interest, a historical event, or an obscure subject matter.


A primary model of artistic research [is] Hope Ginsburg, an interdisciplinary artist based in Virginia, for whom learning and absorbing information from other fields is central to her practice. ‘I'd go so far as to say that learning experientially with others is my medium.’ She told me recently."


Posted: 9/18/22

Review of New Earthworks in Hyperallergic

Link


"New Generation of Land Artists Embodies a Call for Action: From sites to studios to systems, the nature of earthworks has changed since the 1960s and ’70s"

By Lynn Trimble

New Earthworks at ASU Art Museum is curated by Mark Dion and Heather Sealy Lineberry


Artworks demonstrating strong connections to field research lay the foundation for the exhibition. On three large projection screens hanging in a triangle around three small wooden stools, and a smaller monitor nearby, a diver is shown swimming in the ocean with a white plastic laundry basket filled with coral. Titled “Swirling” (2020), the four-channel video is the work of Virginia-based artist Hope Ginsburg, diver and videographer Matt Flowers, and composer Joshua Quarles. While showing the practice of coral farming and reef restoration, they suggest cooperation between species as an essential element of resiliency for all life forms and ecosystems.


Posted: 7/16/2022

New Earthworks at ASU Art Museum

Link


New Earthworks

April 9-September 25, 2022

ASU Art Museum

Tempe, Arizona


Swirling (2019), a collaboration with Matt Flowers and Joshua Quarles will be on view.


“New Earthworks” presents work by eight contemporary artists who explore our interconnectedness with the earth. Artists David Brooks, Carolina Caycedo, Desert Artlab (April Bojorquez and Matt Garcia), Hope Ginsburg, Scott Hocking, Mary Mattingly, Sam Van Aken and Steven Yazzie take on issues of biodiversity and environmental equity, reassert indigenous knowledge and envision new systems to address climate change. Similar to earthwork artists of the 1960s and '70s, they utilize site and non-site systems of experiential installations or events in the landscape with sculpture, photographs, films, drawings, texts and objects created in the studio. The dialectic of site-specific and gallery locations, inclusive experience and discrete objects, provides an array of chances to rethink our understanding of the earth and propose new modalities at a time when it has never been more pressing to do so.


The exhibition is co-curated by artist Mark Dion and ASU Art Museum Curator Emeritus Heather Sealy Lineberry.


Thanks to the Film / Video Studio Program at the Wexner Center for the Arts and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum for supporting the production and presentation of Swirling.


Posted: 3/29/2022

Visual Natures at MAAT Lisbon

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Visual Natures: The Politics and Culture of Environmentalism in the 20th and 21st

Centuries

March 29-September 5, 2022

Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology

Lisbon, Portugal 


This research project surveys political, social and cultural forms of collective agency that, over the course of the last one hundred years or so, demonstrate how the transforming human understanding of “nature” – philosophical, biological, economic – informs the ways in which we organize, sustain and govern our communities as an expanding planetary construct, both in concept and practice. 


Art Direction: Beatrice Leanza
Research and Curatorial Team: Beatrice Leanza, Nuno Ferreira de Carvalho, Rita Marques, Camila Maissune, Maria Kruglyak, Amir Halabi, Bárbara Borges de Campos


Posted 3/29/2022

Fox Fridays Lecture and Workshop at Washington University in St. Louis

Lecture Link


Fox Fridays Lecture: Hope Ginsburg

Friday, April 1, 2022

12 pm

Kemp Auditorium, Givens Hall

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Washington University in St. Louis


Presented in collaboration with the Sam Fox School’s Fox Fridays workshop series and Laumeier Sculpture Park


Workshop Link

Fox Fridays: Feltmaking

Friday April 1, 2022

1 pm

Textile Studio, Lower Level, Givens Hall

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Washington University in St. Louis


Posted: 3/29/2022

Salutary Sculpture at Laumeier Sculpture Park

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Salutary Sculpture

Co-curated by Lauren Ross and Dana Turkovic

February 12 - May 15, 2022

Gallery talk: Saturday, February 12, 10:30 am

Opening: Saturday, February 12, 11:00 am-1:00 pm

Aronson Fine Arts Center


Salutary (adjective): “Producing a beneficial effect” or “promoting health”

It is well established that art has salutary effects, both for makers and for their viewers, audiences, and participants. The healing of mind, body, and spirit permeates this exhibition, not only as subject matter, but as actual practice. Salutary Sculpture features a selection of eight artists who use sculpture, photography, video, drawings, and performance to explore art’s capacity as a therapeutic tool for adaptation, recovery, and rehabilitation. Many of the artists gathered came to their current work through a process of their own physical and/or psychic recovery.


Artists: Thomas J. Condon, Hope Ginsburg, Basil Kincaid, Marcos Lutyens, Guadalupe Maravilla, Dario Robleto, James Sterling Pitt, Lauryn Youden


Posted: 2/7/2022

Digital Dialogue: Art, Climate and the Social Condition

Link


January 19, 2022

Global Arts + Humanities

The Ohio State University


Speakers: 

Amy L. Fairchild, Dean and Professor, OSU College of Public Health

Hope Ginsburg, Artist in Residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts

Sa'dia Rehman, Artist in Residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts

Smitha Rao, Assistant Professor, OSU College of Social Work


Moderator: 

Dionne Custer Edwards, Director of Learning and Public Practice at the Wexner Center for the Arts


Climate change, social disparities and chronic intersecting injustices impact the capacity of natural and social spaces and produce wild and often-unexpected transitions. These shifts are both produced by and produce new ecological, societal and individual conditions and systems. Panelists will consider the implications of today's rapid evolutions in intersecting social and environmental systems while imagining new realities for natural and social landscapes through action, activism, aesthetics, ethics, science, emotion and civic and systemic change.


Posted: 1/19/2022

"Air Patterns" for InLight

Link


Hope Ginsburg x Senghor Reid + Nitika Achalam

with Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, HH Hiaasen, and Kenzie Smith

"Air Patterns"

Performance: Saturday, November 13, 7:30 pm

Great Shiplock Park

Richmond, Virginia


Air Patterns is a series of guided participatory exercises combining breath awareness, meditation, and movement. Reid and Ginsburg have each explored healing in their practices through the use of water and diving; In Light offers an opportunity for the two artists to collaborate. The artists, joined by Nitka Achalam of Project Yoga Richmond, and a group of illuminated meditating scuba divers will conduct the workshop. Through movement, breathing, sound, and spoken word, the audience will be invited to learn strategies for increased mindfulness and physical awareness.


We're honored to be part of 1708 Gallery's InLight 2021 with artists Adama Delphine Fawundu, Antoine Williams, Ash Arder, Benjamin Kidder Hodges, Eric Millikin, Free Bangura, Isabella Whitfield, Mary Stuart Hall, Rachele Riley + Matt Hedt, and Rashaun Rucker.


Many thanks to curators Tiffany E. Barber, Wesley Taylor, and Park C. Myers.


Posted: 10/28/2021

Meditation Ocean in Fall 2021 "In Practice"

Link


Writing in "Film/Video Studio Journals" captures the start of Meditation Ocean, with an introduction by Film/Video Studio Curator Jennifer Lange. Appearing in the Fall 2021 issue of "In Practice", the Wexner Center for the Arts' magazine.


Posted: 10/9/2021

Visiting Artist Talk and Shoreline Workshop at SCSU

September 28-30, 2021

Department of Art

Southern Connecticut State University

New Haven, Connecticut


A talk in the Photography concentration at SCSU and a meditation, attention, noting, and recording workshop with students and faculty at the Trolley Trail in Branford, CT. Thank you for an inspiring visit, Jeremy Chandler.


Image credit: Jeremy Chandler


Posted: 10/9/2021

Meditation Ocean Site Visit

August 9-13, 2021

Key Largo, Florida


Meditation Ocean traveled to Key Largo, Florida to scout sites and establish partnerships for October's underwater shoot. The MO video installation creates an "indoor ocean" through large-scale projection, making the creatures living there and their environment accessible to viewers. Meditation is a key part of this ecological work, which proposes mindfulness practice in community as a vehicle for attunement and response to intersecting social and environmental crises. In the video, diver-meditators create the sense of joining viewers and offer a model of practice for gallery-goers to follow if they choose. 


MO collaborators on the trip included: Matt Flowers, Director of Photography (image); Sarah Howard, Diver; Jim McNeal, Dive Safety Officer; Joshua Quarles, Composer.


MO is generously supported by a 2020-2022 Artist Residency Award in Film/Video from the Wexner Center for the Arts.


Posted: 9/07/2021

Wexner Center for the Arts 2021–2022 Artist Residency Award in Film/Video

Thank you again to the Wexner Center, the Film/Video Studio and curator Jennifer Lange for supporting "Meditation Ocean" with an Artist Residency Award in Film/Video, extended from 2020–2021 in light of the pandemic to ensure access to time and funding regardless of the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. The Wex writes:


Hope Ginsburg’s Meditation Ocean, designed as a two-year residency project, continues into 2021–22. Building on Swirling, the work is a multi-channel immersive installation that extends Ginsburg’s interest in climate change and marine ecology to include human health and well-being.


Posted: 7/3/2021

"Meditation Ocean" in Forest–Body–Chair at Mildred's Lane
Thinking links between forest, ocean and breath in the first M.O. meditation script workshop. Can't wait to sit with Forest–Body–Chair...


Mildred's Lane

FOREST–BODY–CHAIR

July 5 through 25, 2021

Gina Siepel and Sara Smith


Featuring Francis Cape, Hope Ginsburg, Laura Mays, Bernadine Mellis, Chris Nassise, Karinne Keithley Syers, Gavin Van Horn, Amy Yoes

with Fellows Julia O. Bianco (Abakanowicz Fellow), Leila Gordon (Abakanowicz Fellow), Forrest Hudes, Joe Lerro (RAIC), Rumpelstiltskin Anne Morgan, Lotte Walworth, Rachael Schmoker (RAIC), Ainsley Steeves (CSU), Samiha Tasnim (Abakanowicz Fellow)


When a tree becomes a chair, it enters our lives as an intimate partner. The relational dynamics between the forest, the human body, and the wooden chair provide an entry point for exploring the mutuality and false duality of nature and culture. In the domestic environment, chairs are places of rest for the body, social facilitators, and symbolic cultural forms. Chairs as we know them can also be poorly designed for the human body, causing a variety of physical problems.


We will immerse ourselves in the forests of Mildred’s Lane; conducting somatic, ergonomic, and hands-on research to develop unique, experimental chair forms that actively consider the forest, the body, and the domestic sphere. Multi-modal investigations of the forest, human anatomy, and vernacular American furniture design in relation to concepts of enlivenment and sustainability will form the basis of our explorations in the landscape.


Posted: 7/3/2021

Promoted to Professor at VCUarts

Enormous thanks to all who wrote, reported, supported, collaborated, mentored and matriculated! I'll be heading back to VCUarts in Fall 2021 in the role of professor. Feeling grateful and very happy to be on the other side of that process. Ready to buoy others through! 


Posted: 7/3/2021

Nominated for the 2021 Anonymous Was a Woman Award

Link


Anonymous Was A Woman is an unrestricted grant of $25,000 that enables women artists, over 40 years of age and at a significant juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work. The Award is given in recognition of an artist's accomplishments, artistic growth, originality and potential. It is not need-based. The Award is by nomination only.

The name of the grant program, Anonymous Was A Woman, refers to a line in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. As the name implies, nominators and those associated with the program are unnamed. The award was begun in 1996 in response to the decision of the National Endowment of the Arts to cease support of individual artists.

Each year, an outstanding group of distinguished women – art historians, curators, writers and previous winners from across the country – serve as nominators. To date, over 600 have participated.  


Posted: 5/17/2021

"Meditation Ocean" Poster Session, Mind & Life Summer Research Institute

Link


June 8, 2021

Meditation Ocean

Poster session

Mind & Life 2021 Summer Research Institute: "The Mind, the Human-Earth Connection, and the Climate Crisis"


Climate change and its consequences—from deadly forest fires to species loss to sea level rise—are reminders of the urgent need to repair the human-earth ecosystem through holistic, ethically-responsible action. The 2021 Summer Research Institute (SRI), a live online event, will explore how the union of contemplative traditions, indigenous wisdom, and science can lead to greater awareness of the interconnectedness of all life and reignite our collective responsibility as stewards of our planetary future.


Posted: 5/17/2021

"Wish You Were Here" Postcard in Orion Magazine

Link


Sharlene Leurig and Jessica Gath

"Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Future" 

Orion Magazine, Spring 2021


You can see what came out here: intimate and urgent messages written for loved ones and for people we will never know. Physical objects that may, themselves, become all that’s left of the world we know today. Wish You Were Here is a collection of postcards from beloved places to the people who will never know them. It is meant to presage the passing of these places, to mourn them, to celebrate them while they remain. What will you miss? Of what will you sing?


Posted: 5/17/2021

Porous Bodies

Link


March–June, 2021


Porous Bodies is an online research and working group organized by Övül Ö. Durmusoglu and Sandra Noeth of UdK Berlin as part of MDT Stockholm's "Hållning" – a body-based platform for collective learning & action.


Posted: 3/7/2021

Artist in Residence

Link


Artist in Residence is a collection of 50 submissions from artists around the world who were all asked to respond to a simple prompt: what is an artwork or performance we can all do at home while sheltering in place? The project was conceived in March 2020 during one of the first periods of lockdown and social distancing in response to COVID-19. Proceeds raised from the sale of this book will be donated to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts to support artists in need.


The book is part of the collaborative project Commonwealth, organized and curated by Pablo Guardiola, Michael Linares, nibia pastrana santiago and Sofía Gallisá Muriente of Beta-Local; Stephanie Smith and Noah Simblist at ICA at VCU; and Kerry Bickford, Nicole Pollard and Nato Thompson of Philadelphia Contemporary. The Commonwealth digital publication is available at commonwealths.art.


How can this impossible time also be one of conjuring? What percolating visions need hashing out, dialogue, the prodding of outside perspective? Your prompt: 1. Identify an idea you wish to realize. 2. List three people who can help you think it through. 3. Schedule a twenty-minute Zoom with each of them. 4. Tell your comrades, “Help me think it through and I’ll do the same for you." This can be an even trade of counsel or you can pay the visits forward. Possible alternatives: round-robin Zoom of four people with fifteen minutes of brainstorming per person or a “trade counsel” partnership with two meetings of an hour each... Here's an invitation to plant seeds with others, twenty minutes at a time.


Posted: 3/6/2021

Tools for Peace Facilitator Training

September–November, 2020

Facilitator Training in the "Stop, Breathe & Think" mindfulness curriculum led by Tools for Peace Director of Facilitation Mayme Donsker.


The Stop, Breathe & Think curriculum mobilizes teachers and students to promote positive action within their own learning communities. It was developed for educators and organizations to integrate into existing classrooms, in after school programs, or summer programs. Students develop skills to effectively become more productive by increasing their positive sense of self, connection to others, and ability to act compassionately.


Posted: 11/21/2020

Artist Talk "Meditations on Amphibiousness"

Link


December 2, 2020 at 12pm EST

SODA Lecture Series: Breathe

Curated by Sandra Noeth

Berlin University School of the Arts / Inter-University Center for Dance


Posted: 10/30/2020

Wexner Center for the Arts 2020–21 Artist Residency Award in Film/Video

Link


Thank you to the Wexner Center for the Arts for the opportunity to begin Meditation Ocean with the support of a 2020–21 Artist Residency Award in Film/Video. I'm thrilled to be returning to the Film/Video Studio for work with curator Jennifer Lange and editor Alexis McCrimmon and looking forward to this collaboration with the Department of Learning and Public Practice and its director Dionne Custer Edwards.


Building on her collaboratively produced 2019 installation Swirling, which captures the unseen collective labor of underwater coral farming, Ginsburg’s project Meditation Ocean extends her interest in climate change and marine ecology to include human health and well-being. The long-term project involves a residency in the Wex’s Film/Video Studio and work with youth and adults in the community, ultimately yielding an immersive multimedia installation intended to foster mindfulness, learning, and exchange. Ginsburg’s residency extends into 2022, ensuring she receives the full scope of support needed for this ambitious, multifaceted project.


Posted: 8/29/2020

Swirling in "Togetherness stories for healing (with) the oceans"

August 6–September 30, 2020


Commissioned by TBA-21 AcademyOcean-Archive.org presents: "Togetherness Stories", a collection of works that, in the most sensitive and careful ways, reveals the watery entanglements we live in, whether located on land or at sea, and what practices we can adopt if we are to hope for a living multispecies future. Featuring ten artists and collectives curated by Olga Koroleva.


Aennor
Tuuli Malla
Bryony Gillard
Rebecca Leach McDonald
Polyeco Contemporary Art Initiative 
Hope Ginsburg, Matt Flowers & Joshua Quarles
Temitope Ajose-Cutting & Quinn Latimer 
Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll
Marina Rees 
Skye Morét 


Posted: 8/6/2020

"You Are An Artist"

"Conjure a Studio", a 2016 assignment made for Sarah Urist Green's Art Assignment series on PBS Digital Studios is included in her new book, "You Are An Artist", Penguin Books, 2020.


Posted 4/19/2020

Visit to Smith College for Year on Climate Change

Link


Land Dive Workshop

Tuesday March 10th, 12:30-3pm

Smith College Museum of Art Atrium


Artist Talk

Tuesday March 10th, 5pm

Graham Auditorium


Panel Discussion

Impacts of Climate Change, Between the Lived Experience

Hope Ginsburg, Javier Puente, Camille Washington-Ottombre, Moderated by Michele Wick

Wednesday March 11th, 11am-12pm

Seelye 107


Many thanks to hosts Alex Callender and Michele Wick, the Smith College Art Department and Arts Afield for sponsorship, and the Endowed Lecture Committee and the Smith College Museum of Art for support.


Posted: 3/9/2020

Artist Talk + Land Dive Team: Tarpon Springs

Artist Talk

Sunday, February 23rd, 3–4pm

Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

600 E Klosterman Rd E, Tarpon Springs, Florida 34689


Land Dive Team Tarpon Springs

Sunday, February 23rd, 6pm

Tarpon Springs Sponge Exchange

735 Dodecanese Blvd, Tarpon Springs, Florida 34689


The fourteenth event in this series of works proposes the practice of present moment awareness as a strategy for navigating the overwhelming reality of climate change. The piece is sited in the historic Sponge Exchange at the heart of the sponge diving community of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Land Dive Team: Tarpon Springs draws a connection between the movement of breath and sound through the meditating body and the flow of ocean water through the sea sponge's pores. An original wind instrument score by composer Joshua Quarles accompanies the work. The audience is invited to participate in a guided meditation.


Both events organized in conjunction with Sponge Exchange at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum. Curated by Sarah Howard and supported by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.


Posted: 2/15/2020

Rising Above: Art and Climate Resiliency

Link


January 18th

Coffee Reception: 10am, USF Contemporary Art Museum (CAM)

Panel Discussion: 11am, USF SoM Conference Center (MUS172)


Enjoy a special viewing of the Sponge Exchange + FloodZone exhibitions prior to a panel discussion with artists Hope Ginsburg and Anastasia Samoylova, and invited scholars and experts, as they explore new patterns for resiliency in the face of climate crisis. Moderated by USF Curator of Public Art and Social Practice Sarah Howard. ASL interpretation will be provided. 


Image: Anastasia Samoylova, Dome House, 2018, from the FloodZone series.


Posted: 12/26/2019

Opening: Sponge Exchange at USFCAM


Sponge Exchange: Hope Ginsburg

January 17th

6pm Gallery Talk

7pm Opening Reception

USF Contemporary Art Museum, Lee and Victor Leavengood Gallery

Exhibition runs through March 7th


Curated by Sarah Howard; organized by USF Contemporary Art Museum; and supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant, a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Dr. Allen Root, and the USFCAM ACE Fund.


Related Events

1/17/20 Gallery Talk + Opening Reception with artists Hope Ginsburg and Anastasia Samoylova

1/18/20 Panel Discussion – Rising Above: Art and Climate Resiliency

1/23/20 Art Thursday: Curator’s Talk + Reception

2/06/20 CAM Club presents Film on the Lawn

2/21/20 SYCOM Concert: Music for Sponge Exchange + FloodZone

2/23/20 Artist Talk with Hope Ginsburg at Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

2/23/20 Land Dive Team: Tarpon Springs Public Performance


Sponge Exchange expands artist Hope Ginsburg’s work with ecology and knowledge transfer in two new collaboratively-produced video and sculpture installations. Swirling, a four-channel video created in collaboration with diver/videographer Matt Flowers and composer Joshua Quarles, and produced with support of the Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Studio Program, submerges viewers in the underwater coral nurseries and outplant sites of St. Croix, capturing the often-unseen coral farming and reef restoration work that occurs beneath the surface. The exhibition also features a series of dioramas inspired by the idiosyncratic and educational dioramas of Tarpon Springs’ Spongeorama Museum. Created in collaboration with USF School of Art and Art History students during a fall semester class co-taught by Ginsburg and USF Associate professor John Byrd, the three-dimensional dioramas examine issues marine species are facing due to the effects of our climate crisis, in order to raise awareness and understanding of how the health of marine ecologies is deeply tied to the environment and economic life of our region, and to serve as a catalyst for imagining productive solutions for the future. Archival materials and ephemera from Ginsburg’s decade-long exploration of the sea sponge as a pedagogical model for interdisciplinary and participatory learning will also be on view. Sponge Exchange is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. 


Image: Hope Ginsburg, Matt Flowers, Joshua Quarles; Video still from Swirling, 2019.


Posted: 12/26/2019

Making Another World Possible

Link


Edited by Corina L. Apostal and Nato Thompson


Honored to be included in the section "Cosmopolitical Struggles for a Pluriversal Planet" with the Land Dive Team project.


Making Another World Possible offers a broad look at an array of socially engaged cultural practices that have become increasingly visible in the past decade, across diverse fields such as visual art, performance, theater, activism, architecture, urban planning, pedagogy, and ecology.


Posted 12/26/2019

Science Fictional Thinking at A Guide to the Field

Link


2 Post Hill Road
Mountaindale, NY 12763


A Guide to the Field presents Science Fictional Thinking, Cocurated with Alex A. Jones and Cameron Klavsen. It is the year 2020. You are living in the future, and it is nothing like you imagined. This show asks how science fiction can be a tool for artists to anticipate meaningful notions of the future. Imagine a future world...what object sits beside you? If sci-fi is a tool for thought, what does that tool look like?


Cocurated with Alex A. Jones and Cameron Klavsen


Vincent Castro / Jorge Colombo / Mark Dion / Joy Feasley / Hope Ginsburg / Norberto Gomez / Heather Greene / Jeffrey Jenkins / Alex A. Jones / Cameron Klavsen / Abby Lutz / Kristyna Milde / Marek Milde / J Morgan Puett / Rebecca Purcell / Ryan Rennie / Alexander Rosenberg /Alex Schechter / Matthew Solomon / Paul Swenbeck / VIROSA / Allison Ward / Natalie Wilkin / Amy Yoes


Posted 12/26/2019

Full Amphibious James Video Posted


Video Presentation: A Production of VPM

Producer/Director: Mason Mills

Producer/Field Director: Allison Benedict


Posted: 9/26/2019

PBS Airs Documentary about Land Dive Team: Amphibious James

Land Dive Team: Amphibious James airs Sunday, September 22 on Virginia Public Media at 6:30 PM. 


Producer/Director: Mason Mills 

Composer: Joshua Quarles

Image: Abby Miller – from a series of illustrations depicting each animal in the score's field recordings.

Sound, project information, and full credits are here.


Posted: 9/20/2019

Cultivating Resilience: Kennedy Family Artist in Residence Lecture

Link


Thursday, September 5th

7pm–9pm

University of South Florida

School of Art & Art History

FAH 110, 4202 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, Florida 33620


The 2019-2020 Kennedy Family Artist In Residence, Hope Ginsburg, will give a lecture on Cultivating Resilience. Her work addresses critical social and environmental issues. The USF Contemporary Art Museum received a $35,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to support her exhibition "Sponge Exchange," coming to USF in 2020. 


Image: Still from Swirling, Hope Ginsburg, Matt Flowers, Joshua Quarles, 2019


Posted: 8/17/2019

Tools for Peace Summer Teen Camp

Link


July 28-August 3, 2019

Big Bear Retreat Center

Big Bear City, California


Excited to return for a second summer of leading the art workshop at Tools for Peace Summer Teen Camp. Tools for Peace offers teens a weeklong camp experience rooted in mindfulness, meditation, and compassion.


Posted: 7/19/2019

"Pignut Floats" at Mildred's Lane

Link


July 6-10, 2019


A visit to Mildred's Lane with Joshua Quarles to lecture and work with the fellows on "Pignut Floats" a series of underwater videos with sound. We tuned attention to the revealing waters of Pignut Pond through meditations on land, in the water, and careful looking and listening.


Posted: 7/11/2019


Mindful Teacher - Mindful Schools Year-Long Certification Program

Link


Happy to have been accepted to the Year-Long Mindful Teacher Certification Program with Mindful Schools, starting on June 30th with a week-long retreat at The Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY.


Posted: 6/15/2019

The Franklin Outdoor

Solo Land Dive: Dukan Desert
At the Flat Screen
The Franklin Outdoor
June 14 – September 7, 2019
3522 W Franklin Blvd
Chicago, IL

On view during Love All Potatoes with Jim Duignan, Claire Pentecost, and Melissa Potter. Curated by Edra Soto.


Posted: 6/7/2019

"USF Contemporary Art Museum to Receive $35,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to Support the Exhibition 'Sponge Exchange' with Artist Hope Ginsburg"

With funding from the NEA Art Works grant, the USF Contemporary Art Museum will present Sponge Exchange, an exhibition of collaboratively produced work led by visiting artist Hope Ginsburg, who uses sea sponges and hard corals as a metaphor for exchange and the ecology of learning to stimulate social transformation. The exhibition will feature a new video installation, Swirling, and a series of collectively produced three-dimensional dioramas to address how the health of marine invertebrates is deeply tied to the environment and economic life of Florida. The four-channel video installation, Swirling, created in collaboration with diver/videographer Matt Flowers, and composer Joshua Quarles, submerges viewers in the underwater coral nurseries and outplant sites of St. Croix, capturing the often unseen coral farming and reef restoration work that occurs beneath the surface. Inspired by the idiosyncratic and educational dioramas of the Spongeorama Museum, which depict the rich history and culture of sponge-diving in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Ginsburg and USF Associate Professor John Byrd will engage university students in the collective reimagining of a series of dioramas. These will explore the issues surrounding climate change, rising sea levels, and water quality; their impact on the health, sustainability and resiliency of Florida’s environment; and the social and economic life of South Florida and the Gulf Coast. Sponge Exchange, curated by Sarah Howard and organized by USF Contemporary Art Museum, will be on view January 13 through March 7, 2020 and will include free educational programs. 

Posted: 5/29/2019

Accidental Authority: a conversation with Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Hope Ginsburg at the ARI

Wednesday, April 24
2:00-3:30pm
Arts Research Institute
VCUarts Depot Building
814 W. Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia

In conjunction with the two exhibitions running concurrently at ARI, we would like to invite you to Accidental AuthorityA conversation with Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Hope Ginsburg about Arts Research, Moderated by Sarah Cunningham.

Swirling, is a multichannel video with sound by ARI Research Fellow Hope Ginsburg in collaboration with Matt Flowers and Joshua Quarles. Swirling captures the processes of underwater coral farming and reef restoration and brings them to viewers in vignettes highlighting human ingenuity and folly in the face of catastrophic climate change.
 
Beautiful Words are Subversive, is a project by VCUarts Graphic Design Assistant Professor Nontsikelelo Mutiti in collaboration with Tinashe Mushakavanhu, PhD.  This exhibition combines print, text, audio-visual, and objects to demonstrate the malevolence of authoritarian restrictions in Zimbabwe on artistic freedom and the necessity of literature.
 
Both exhibitions will be on view through July 30th.   

Posted: 4/25/2019

"Factory" at A Guide to the Field

A Guide to the Field
2 Post Hill Road and Main Street
Mountaindale, NY 12763

Opening April 20th, 3-7pm

With Barbara Botting, David Brooks, Jorge Colombo, Mark Dion, Hope Ginsburg, Dennis Gordon, Gary Graham, Brooke Grant, Heather Greene, Amanda Heidel, Aaron Hicklin, Jeffrey Jenkins, Alex Jones, Cameron Klavsen, Abby Lutz, Pam Mayer, Kristyna Milde, Marek Milde, Garnett Puett, J. Morgan Puett, Rebecca Purcell, Joshua Quarles, Gina Siepel, Laura Silverman, Allison Smith, Matthew Solomon, Caroline Wallner, Allison Ward, Paul Wards, Natalie Wilkin, Amy Yoes, Mary Lou Zelazny, Jim Zivic, and others swarming the topic. 

Posted: 4/14/2019

A Blade of Grass features "Land Dive Team: Amphibious James" in "5 Artists Bridging Communities Across Difference"

Emma Colón
A Blade of Grasss Magazine
March 28, 2019

Posted: 4/3/2019

"Optimistic and Tragic: A Glimpse of Coral Restoration" in VCU News

By Leila Ugincius
VCU News
March 26, 2019

"Swirling" Opening Reception
March 27, 2019
5:30-7:00 pm
VCUarts Arts Research Institute
814 W Broad St.
Richmond, VA

Posted: 3/27/2019

"Swirling" Project Preview at Arts Research Institute

March 27 – July 30, 2019

Opening Reception
Wednesday March 27th
5:30-7:00pm

VCUarts Depot Building 1st floor
814 West Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia

Posted: 3/17/2019

Kennedy Family Visiting Artist, University of Florida School of Art & Art History

Artist Talk
Thursday March 7, 7-8pm
FAH 110, 4202 E Fowler Ave
Tampa, Florida

Posted: 2/23/2019

Visit to Vermont Studio Center

February 12 – 17, 2019

Artist Talk
Tuesday February 12th
8:00pm – 9:00pm
80 Pearl Street
Johnson, Vermont

Posted: 2/1/2019

Swirling Trailer is Live



Posted: 1/13/2019

"Wex Moments 2018: Film/Video Studio artist Hope Ginsburg"

"There's always art under construction inside the Wexner Center's Film/Video Studio. As part of our year-in-review coverage, enjoy a peek inside our full-time post-production facility with an artist who has some history with it. Richmond, Virginia-based Hope Ginsburg finished her 2016 video work Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy with help from the Wex Film/Video Studio and its staff before showing the work in the Wex's video presentation space, The Box, in October of that year. This fall, she was back in the Studio with her latest Wex-supported project, Swirling, a four-channel video installation that captures the processes of underwater coral farming and reef restoration. In the Q&A below, Ginsburg shares a first look at what inspired Swirling and how it fits into her body of work."

Posted: 12/29/2018

"Infinity"

Skowhegan Alliance Video Screening
Sunday, October 14, 2018
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
136 W 22nd Street, New York, NY

Works by Amanda Alfieri, Nobutaka Aozaki, Rebecca Baldwin, Monica Cook, Andrew Ellis Johnson & Susanne Slavick, Autumn Kinght & Chelsea Kinght, Sioban Landry, Jennifer Levonian, Lilly Mcelroy, Mores Mcwreath, Shala Miller, Ivan Monforte, Hertog Nadler, John Peña, Finn Schult, Pallavi Sen, Pascual Sisto, Rodrigo Valanzuela, Bryan Zanisnik

Posted: 11/22/2018

Visiting Artist Talk

RISD Digital + Media
Thursday, November 8th, 2018
1:00pm
Chace Center
20 North Main Street, Providence, RI

Posted: 11/22/2018

"Encampment"

A Guide to the Field
2 Post Hill Road and Main Street
Mountaindale, NY 12763

October 2018 – February 2019

With David Brooks, Jorge Colombo, Barbara de Vries, Mark Dion, Hope Ginsburg, Gary Graham, Brooke Grant, Jeffrey Jenkins, Alex A. Jones, Cameron Klavsen, Leigh Claire La Berge, Abby Lutz, Kristyna & Marek Milde, J. Morgan Puett, Rebecca Purcell, Gina Siepel, Shelley Spector, Allison Smith, Caroline Wallner, Allison Ward, Natalie Wilkin, Caroline Woolard, Amy Yoes

Posted: 11/22/2018

Film/Video Studio Residency

Wexner Center for the Arts
September 2018 – January 2019

A return to the Film/Video Studio at the Wexner Center to edit Swirling, a new four-channel video installation with sound that captures the processes of underwater coral farming and reef restoration. Made in collaboration with Matt Flowers and Joshua Quarles and edited with Alexis McCrimmon. Big thanks to Jennifer Lange and all at the Wex!

Posted: 11/22/2018

Visiting Artist Talk

Columbus College of Art & Design
September 21, 6:30–7:30 pm
Canzani Center
Columbus, Ohio

Posted: 11/20/2018

"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" Screenings

Hic et Nunc
Curated by Maurizio Marco Tozzi
Works by Angelica Bergamini, Sofia Bersanelli, Rachel Frank, Erika Lynne Hanson, Eleonora Manca, Alberta Pellacani

Wednesday, October 24, 6:30 pm
Field Projects
526 W 26th Street
New York, NY

Thursday, July 19, 9:00 pm
La Bottega Lab
Marina di Pietrasanta, Italy

Posted: 11/20/2018

"Environment RVA"

Wednesday, August 15
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU


Part 1 – Land Dive Team: Environment RVA
1:00 pm and 2:30 pm
Become a certified Land Diver during part one of Hope Ginsburg’s Artist’s Choice event Land Dive Team: Environment RVA at the ICA. Each session is 75 minutes and open to 10 participants. Following a dive brief, develop new awareness of Richmond's environment by practicing attention to the breath, the body, and the site. Land Divers receive guided meditation instruction, an introduction to scuba gear, and undertake two group meditations while breathing from a diving cylinder through a scuba regulator. These dives will take place entirely on land! You will not get the least bit wet. For more details and sign up, visit icavcu.org/calendar.

 
Part 2 – Environment RVA
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Connect with environmental justice organizations and learn how to get involved. Join us at 6pm for an introduction with Rev. Faith Harris, a member of the Governor's Advisory Council on Environmental Justice and artist Hope Ginsburg. Then visit with representatives from different environmental justice organizations and enjoy free snacks and a cash bar at ICA's Ellwood Thompson's Cafe.

James River Association
Porchlight Animal Sanctuary
The Nature Conservancy
Sierra Club 
RVA Letter Writing Family
Virginia Interfaith Power & Light
Virginia River Healers

Posted: 8/11/2018

"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" in Artforum Critic's Pick

Amanda Dalla Villa Adams
Declaration: Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University
Artforum Critic's Pick
Summer 2018

Posted: 7/8/2018

Tools for Peace Summer Teen Camp

July 22 – 28

Excited to be heading to Tools for Peace Summer Teen Camp later this month to teach the daily art workshop. Camp is in Tehachapi, California at Ari Bhöd – The American Foundation for Tibetan Cultural Preservation. Also eager to join the community in learning the Stop, Breathe and Think curriculum.

Posted: 7/8/2018

"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" in Style Weekly

Karen Newton
Deep Dive: Artist Hope Ginsburg Becomes One with the Sea
Style Weekly
June 12, 2018


Image: Scott Elmquist

Posted: 7/8/2018

"Land Dive Team: Amphibious James" in the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Tim Dodson
Performative Diving Piece Featured at Festival Honoring the James River
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 9, 2018


Images: Shelby Lum/Times-Dispatch

Posted: 7/8/2018​

"Land Dive Team: Amphibious James" for Festival of the River

Saturday, June 9th
3-4pm
Haxall Headgate Park
Tredegar St. along the James, adjacent to Brown's Island to the West

Commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and The Richmond Symphony. Curated by Stephanie Smith in conjunction with the inaugural ICA exhibition, “Declaration”.

Composer: Joshua Quarles
Dive Consultant and Producer: Jim McNeal of The Dive Shop Richmond
Diver, River Guide: Matt Flowers
Amphibious Dive Team: David Fisk, Matt Flowers, Hope Ginsburg
Land Dive Team: Jason Adkins, Haziel Andrade-Ayala, Eleazar Carreon, Lily Cox-Richard, Chioke Ianson, Rachel Machacek, Jesse Rabinowitz, Mike Ramey, Peter Skudlarek


“Land Dive Team: Amphibious James” is a meditation with the James River, including a composition for wind instruments, a “Land Dive Team” generating sounds of breath, and an “Amphibious Dive Team” that enters the river and send live sounds from full face masks back to the shore. Field recordings underscore a building toward amphibiousness in each of the three movements. The piece is a symphony of breaths, which the audience is invited to join.
 

Edited: 7/8/2018

"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" in the Wall Street Journal

Kelly Crow
A Provocative New Space For Art Emerges in Virginia:
The Wall Street Journal
March 24, 2018

Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy, 2016, Video still
Camera: Matt Flowers

Posted: 3/28/2018

"Declaration" at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU

Opening April 21, 2018
Declaration
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Richmond, Virginia


Artists featured in “Declaration” include Nidaa Badwan, Martín Bonadeo, Peter Burr and Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Tania Bruguera, Chim Pom, Sonya Clark, Andrea Donnelly, Edie Fake, Hope Ginsburg, GWAR, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kate Just, Titus Kaphar, Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Autumn Knight, Lily Lamberta and All The Saints Theater Company, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Noor Nuyten, Geof Oppenheimer, Cheryl Pope, Paul Rucker, Curtis Talwst Santiago, Marinella Senatore, Jon-Phillip Sheridan, Deb Sokolow, Tavares Strachan, Betty Tompkins, Stephen Vitiello, and Levester Williams, among others.

Declaration is co-curated by Stephanie Smith and Lisa Freiman, with Amber Esseiva, Johanna Plummer, and Lauren Ross.

Posted: 3/11/2018

"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" in the NYTimes

Hilarie Sheets
New Contemporary Art Institute Reverberates in Richmond’s Historic Landscape
The New York Times
March 8, 2018

Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy, 2016, Video still
Camera: Matt Flowers

Posted: 3/11/2018

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visual Arts Fellowship

Thank you to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for a 2018 Professional Fellowship in the categoary of Film/Video. I look forward to all that this support will make possible and extend thanks too to juror Michelle White of the Menil Collection in Houston and congratulations to all of this years recipients.

Posted: 2/17/2018

Lecture and Visit to Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, Smith College

February 1-March 3
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts

A visit to Smith College to speak and participate in "Destroy then Restore: Transforming our Lands and Waters", a project of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute. 

Posted: 1/26/2018

Distinguished Practitioner Course, Nomad/9 Interdisciplinary MFA

February 21-24
Miami, Florida

Happy to be working once again with the Nomad/9 Interdiscliplinary MFA for a Distinguished Practitioner Course during the Miami Residency in February.

Posted: 1/26/2018

Visiting Artist, University of Maine

Tuesday, February 6th
7pm
Stewart Commons
Free and open to the public

Visiting artist lecture for Intermedia MFA Tuesdays and studio visits at the University of Maine Intermedia MFA program as a Skowhegan Exchange Artist.

Posted 1/26/2018

Nominated for 2017 Anonymous Was A Woman Award

I am honored and grateful to have been a nominee for the 2017 Anonymous Was A Woman Award. The award enables women artists, over 40 years of age and at a significant juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work.

Posted: 11/21/2017

"Of Land and Local" at Burlington City Arts

Shelburne Farms (Coach Barn)
October 6 – 29, 2017
On view: "Breathing on Land: Zekreet, Qatar I–IV" (2015), "Solo Land Dive: Dukan Desert" (2015)

BCA Center
October 20 – January 7, 2018
On view: "Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" (2016)

Curated by: Heather Ferrell
Exhibiting artists: Charlie Bluett, Brian Collier, Georgie Friedman, Hope Ginsburg, Rebecca Hutchinson, Elliott Katz, Katie Loesel, Elizabeth Nelson, Don Ross, James Scheuren, Jessica Scriver, Lynn Sullivan, Naoe Suzuki, John Willis, Nancy Winship Milliken, and Mary Zompetti

Posted: 10/7/2017

"Animal Magnetism" at Wave Pool Gallery

October 7 – November 18, 2017
2940 Colerain Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio

On view: "The Pollinators" (2017, pictured), "Bearded Lady" (1998 – 2000)

Curated by: Kim Paice
Exhibiting artists: Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzdilla, André Alves, Laurie Anderson, Margaret Atwood, James Audubon, Rachel Berwick, Gustave Doré, Llewelyn Fletcher, Simon Leung, Future Retrieval, J.J. Grandville, Hope Ginsburg, Francisco Goya, Erin Johnson, Roger S. Payne, Carolee Schneemann’s cat, Mark-the-Shark, Mark Jesus Quemada

Posted: 10/7/2017

Berlin/Kassel/Munster with VCUarts Professional Practices Course

September 9 – September 17, 2017

A trip to Berlin, Kassel and Munster with my VCUarts graduate Professional Practices course in the Painting and Printmaking and Sculpture and Extended Media departments. The trip has been organized with Berlin-based artist Norbert Witzgall; Noah Simblist, our new chair in Painting + Printmaking; and David Wood, also of Painting + Printmaking.

Posted: 8/31/2017

Mildred's Lane during the Mildred Archaeology II Session

July 4–9, 2017

A visit to Mildred's Lane, underwater camera housing in tow, with the goal of finding the lost boulder of Pignut Pond. The boulder, which was the pond's "feature" when it was dug in winter 2015 dramatically pulled away from the shore and slid beneath the surface of the water in winter 2016.

And the opportunity to see terrific Social Saturday presentations by Caroline Woolard and Leigh Claire La Berge with Guest Chef Joshua Quarles in the kitchen for Social Saturday Supper.
 


Posted: 7/16/2017

Research Trip to Coral Nursery, Rauschenberg Alumni Project Residency*

June 12–21, 2017

Travel to St. Croix, USVI to work with photographer, videographer, diver and The Nature Conservancy volunteer Matt Flowers to dive and shoot footage in TNC's coral nurseries in preparation for a new work, which will be my focus at a Rauschenberg Alumni Project Residency in October, 2017.*

*Rauschenberg Alumni Project Residency was cancelled due to damage sustained during Hurricane Irma. 

Posted: 6/25/2017

"Coralgarden: Making a Maker Workshop"

February 6, 2017

As Skidmore College envisions a maker space for its new Center for Integrated Sciences, I was invited to be a consultant to the steering committee, travel to campus for a site visit, and deliver a new workshop at the Tang Museum:

Coralgarden is the pilot version of a hands-on workshop with artist and marine invertebrate enthusiast Hope Ginsburg, who has just begun a new body of work exploring underwater coral restoration nurseries. Participants will begin by learning a bit about Hope’s interdisciplinary projects and the process of coral farming too. Anchoring this two-hour, exploratory workshop is the hands-on production of Staghorn coral fragments, which will be suspended from a fabricated “coral tree”, much like those that stretch for acres in coral farms, which have sprung up along coastlines internationally to support threatened reefs nearby. We will aim for each of the participants to make two Staghorn “frags”, one to kickoff the Coralgarden archive and one to keep for themselves.

Photo by Jean Egger and Annelise Kelly


Posted: 6/25/2017

Nomad/9 MFA

February 18–22, 2017

Oakland, California
Visiting artist and Critique Exchange Instructor
Nomad/9 Interdisciplinary MFA
Hartford Art School
University of Hartford

Posted: 6/25/2017

Queens Museum: Care as Culture

Care as Culture: Artists, Activists and Scientists Build Coalitions to Resist Climate Change: A Convening Around the Peace Table

February 12, 2017

Queens Museum
Flushing Meadows Corona Park

In conjunction with Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art, Ukeles and the Museum have conceived a series of public programs meant to engage and contemporize some of the exhibition's important themes. Care as Culture is the final convening that brings the perspectives of eco-artists, activists, and experts on climate change together to interrogate and enrich culture’s place in the movements for environmental justice. 

Case study speakers include Newton Harrison, The Natural History Museum, Natalie Jeremijenko, and Mary Mattingly. Respondents include Carol Becker, Francesco Fiondella, Allan Frei, Hope Ginsburg, Alicia Grullon, Klaus H. Jacob, Amy Lipton, Lisa Marshall, Jennifer McGregor, Aviva Rahmani, Jason Smerdon and Marina Zurkow.

Posted: 2/10/2017

MASS MoCA: Talks and Workshops

February 4, 2017

10 Minutes of Breathing on Land
MASS MoCA
North Adams, MA

Drop-in conversation:
12-12:45pm
4-4:45pm

Guided meditation:
12:45-1:05pm
4:45-5:05pm

In conjunction with "Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy"
in the exhbition "Explode Every Day"
for Free Day at the museum.

Posted: 2/2/2017

Explode Every Day: The Book

By Denise Markonish, with contributions by Lawrence Weschler, Sean Foley, Steven Holmes, Kay Redfield Jamison, Maria Popova, Barbara Maria Stafford, Jill Tarter, Robin Ince, Stefan Stagmeister, Mary Ruefle, and Sam Green. 

Featuring works in the exhibition by twenty-three international artists and including the project "Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" and the series "Breath Portrait I-VII", both 2016.

Published by Prestel, October 2016.

Posted: 2/2/2017

Location Matters: Artist-Driven Environments for Learning

October 18th, 7pm
Wexner Center for the Arts

Black Mountain College’s experiments in education and the arts created a legacy that lives on even today. Hear from a panel of artists who have established unique spaces for creative practice and interdisciplinary exploration. Speakers include Hope Ginsburg, multimedia artist and associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts: J. Morgan Puett, founder of the experimental studio complex Mildred’s Lane; and Adam Void and Chelsea Ragan, founders of the recently created Black Mountain School of the Arts.

Posted: 9/24/16

"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" in The Box at the Wexner

Saturday, October 1 – Tuesday, November 1

Wexner Center for the Arts
1871 North High St.
Columbus, Ohio

Posted: 9/3/16

"Conjure a Studio" for The Art Assignment

New assignment! This week we meet with Hope Ginsburg, an artist who often works outside of a traditional studio. Her assignment asks you to conjure your own studio and imagine your ideal space for learning, thinking, and making.

"Conjure a Studio" episode for The Art Assignment is live, here.
Thanks Sarah Urist Green, Mark Olsen and John Green. 

Posted: 5/31/16

Explode Every Day, Open Through March, 2017

Curated by Denise Markonish and Sean Foley
With catalog coming soon

Posted 5/31/16

Anderson Gallery Book

Anderson Gallery: 45 Years of Art on the Edge
Available at Barnes & Noble at VCU

From a two-page spread, commemorating Sponge HQ, designed for a new history of the Anderson Gallery, edited by Ashley Kistler, with Traci Garland and Michael Lease.

Posted 5/14/2016

Opening at MASS MoCA

Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder
Curated by Denise Markonish and Sean Foley
MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA
Opening Reception Saturday, May 28th

Posted: 4/11/2016

Opening at Washington Project for the Arts

Enter State: Sensing the Natural World
Curated by Raquel de Anda
Washington Project for the Arts
2124 8th Street NW
Washington, DC
May 21–July 9, 2016
Opening Reception Friday, May 20th, 7–9 pm

Posted: 4/11/2016

Opening at Temple Contemporary

Breathing on Land: Bay of Fundy
Curated by Sarah Biemiller and Rob Blackson
Temple Contemporary
2001 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia PA
May 4–July 15, 2016
Opening Reception Wednesday, May 4th, 6–8 pm

Posted: 4/11/2016

The Art Assignment

The Sponge HQ was thrilled to host Sarah Urist Green and Mark Olsen of The Art Art Assignment. Episode coming soon!

Posted: 4/11/2016

Marfa, TX for Inquiry Pop-Up

Land Dive Team: Marfa 
March 16
We'll gather for an unprecedented meeting of the “Land Dive Team” in which meditating on land with scuba gear reveals the hidden depths of the Marfa landscape. Awareness of the environment and attention to sound and breath are augmented in this hyper-focused flip of land and sea. And after your mindfulness is honed just so, you’ll become a certified Land Diver forevermore. 

Inquiry Pop-Up
March 15-19
As described by conjurer/producer Jennifer Elsner:
Inquiry Pop-Up is a vacay meets salon meets dinner party, for a carefully curated coterie of women, in a spectacular and remote location. It’s five days of personal and professional inquiry, intoxicating conversations, and bread-breaking with a different luminary from the arts, design, business and culture.

Posted 3/8/2016

Film/Video Studio Program at the Wexner

A residency at the Film/Video Studio Program
Wexner Center for the Arts
Columbus, Ohio
February, 2016

Invited by curator Jennifer Lange and working with editor Mike Olenick on the project Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy for exhibition this spring.

Posted: 2/11/2016

Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum NYC



Physical Education: Land Dive Team
A workshop for the Creative Time Summit: Curriculum NYC
Boys and Girls High School Campus
Brooklyn, New York
November 14, 2015

Images by Christos Katsiaouni, courtesy of Creative Time, 2015

With a talk in the section "The Art of Pedagogy" on November 15, 2015.

Posted on: 2/9/2016

Vermont Studio Center

January 21 – 26, 2016

Artist Talk
Thursday January 21st
8:00pm – 9:00pm
80 Pearl Street
Johnson, Vermont

Posted: 2/9/2016

Land Dive Team for "Going Somewhere" at 1708 Gallery





Land Dive Team: Road World Championships
September 26, 2015
411 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA

During the Women's Elite Road Circuit for "Going Somewhere" at 1708 Gallery. Supported by The Dive Shop and a grant from CultureWorks Richmond.

Opening meditation session conducted by Rachel Machacek
Photography by Monica Escamilla and Shane Butler 
Dive Support by Zachary Stahl

With "Going Somewhere" Artist Talk at 1708 on 10/8/15.

Thank you, Emily Smith and Janelle Proulx of 1708 Gallery.

Posted 2/8/2016

BE(E)ing at Mildred's Lane and The Mildred Complex(ity)



BE (E) ing
October 9–November 4, 2015
Opening reception October 9, 6–9pm
The Mildred Complex(ity) Project Space
37b Main Street
Narrowsburg, NY

For the first annual Narrowsburg Honey Bee Fest, The Mildred Complex(ity) is putting on show a group of curiosities from apiculturalists

Featuring the works of Big Island Bees, Garnett Puett, Barry Puett,
Hal Klavsen, Hope Ginsburg and others.

Image from the Garnett Puett Archives: Beeswax, Wood, Steel, Corning Glass Bell Jar.

Posted: 2/8/2016

Bay of Fundy Video Shoot and talk at Connexion Artist-Run Centre




A video shoot for the project,
Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy
at New River Beach Provinical Park,
New Brunswick, Canada
October 25, 2015

Produced with Connie Bishop of COJO Diving and Jim McNeal of The Dive Shop
with thanks to Joe George and Land Divers: Rachel Barrett, Jessica Bradford and Richelle Martin.

With sound by Joshua Quarles and video by Matt Flowers and Jessica Carey.

And an Artist Talk with Jessica Bradford of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick 
at Connexion Artist-Run Centre in Fredericton, NB on October 24, 2015.

Posted: 2/8/2016

Symphony of Hunger: Digesting Fluxus in Four Movements

AplusA Gallery
Venice, Italy
Curated by The September Collective
School for Curatorial Studies Venice
September 24-October 31, 2015

Including: "Objects from Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera", 2012
by Hope Ginsburg and Sponge HQ with Colleen Billing, Colleen Brennan, Patrick Carter, Lindsay Clements, Riley Duncan, Gavin Foster, JoJo Houff, Julie Hundley, Joshua Quarles and Clare van Loenen

With catalog: Symphony of Hunger: The Fifth Movement

Posted: 1/30/2016

Link to Presentation: The Creative Time Summit

From the section, "The Art of Pedagogy" at The Creative Time Summit, The Curriculum at the Biennale Arte 2015.


To see all of the presentations go here.

Posted: 9/5/2015

Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum

August 11-13, 2015

Venice Biennale
Teatro alle Tese

Presenting on Wednesday, August 12th at 2:30pm in, "The Art of Pedagogy".

On Thursday, August 13th participating in Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy's "Experimental Debate" at 2:45pm.

The full schedule is here. Or, the program as a PDF.

Posted: 7/28/2015

"Land Dive Team" at The Complex(ity) Project Space

Opening Friday, August 7th

The Complex(ity) Project Space
37b Main Street
Narrowsburg, NY
mildredslane.com

Featuring a recent body of work that takes meditation with scuba gear as a starting point to refocus attention on our bodies, their contexts and implicitly the health of our atmosphere. Presenting images and documents from recent “land dives” in the desert of Qatar, a remediated wetland in Virginia, and at Mildred’s Lane.  Including a new batch of "Breathing on Land" certifications, awarded to participants from the Experience Economies, "Landscape Experience" session.

The evening's events include "The Intranscendentalist Symposium" by Pablo Helguera and a (BYOB) meal.  For meal availability the Ministry of Comfort at Mildred's Lane: mildredslane@gmail.com

More information about the public programs of "Landscape Experience" is here.

Posted: 7/28/2015

Hyperallergic Review of "New Dominion" at Mixed Greens

"From Climate Change to Race Relations, Artists Respond to Richmond, Virginia"
Jessica Lynne, July 13, 2015

Posted: 7/15/2015

Duet for Scuba and Saxophone at Fridman Gallery

Tuesday, July 21
Doors open at 7:30pm, performances begin at 8pm sharp. 

Hope Ginsburg's and Joshua Quarles' "Breathing on Land: Duet for Scuba and Saxophone" is a new piece in which a live score comprising “mediated breathing”, wind instruments and field recordings is produced to accompany projected video of recent “Land Dives”, which take place in a series of disjunctive landscapes. 

Fridman Gallery
287 Spring Street
New York, NY 10013
(646) 345-9831 
Between Varick and Hudson 
info@fridmangallery.com

Posted: 7/3/2015

New Dominion at Mixed Greens

New Dominion presents a selection of artists living and working in Richmond, Virginia. With a subtle nod to Richmond's history and its present, the exhibition presents works that touch on tensions between the past and the future, independence and loyalty, individuality and community. Many of the works embrace a sense of reinvention, self-determination, ownership and agency. Many contain a dose of something specific to Richmond.

Posted: 6/4/2015

Open Engagement 2015

What We Learned at Sponge HQ 
Sunday, April 19 
3:40PM-3:55PM | Open Platform

Taking the sea-sponge as muse, Sponge HQ is a porous project space within a university. "The HQ" hosts collaborations, crosses from art into science and allows for fluid knowledge exchange between experts and learners. Sponge HQ has generated knowledge about stealth reassembling of curriculum, equitable collaboration with students, and models for orienting students to project-based strategies. An overview will be given to catalyze dialogue. 

The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, 1st Floor, College of Fine Arts Building, CMU

Posted: 4/11/2015

Distinguished Alumna Lecture, Tyler School of Art

Monday, February 23rd
4pm, Room B004

Tyler School of Art
2001 North 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122

So honored to be returning to my alma mater, Tyler School of Art (BFA Sculpture, 1996), to present this lecture and to begin work on an exhibition at Temple Contemporary for Spring 2016. Thank you, Tyler.

Posted: 2/21/2015

WPA Select Exhibition and Auction

Pleased to be invited by curator Jennifer Farrell to participate in the WPA Select 2015 Exhibition and Auction. 

 
January 29-March 6, 2015
Artisphere
1101 Wilson Blvd, Arlington VA
 
Breathing on Land: Studio IV 
Archival Pigment Print Edition 1/25
8"x9"
 
Posted: 1/18/2015

Queensize - Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection

QUEENSIZE
Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection
12/07/2014 - 08/30/2015

me Collectors Room/Olbricht Foundation will present its first ever exhibition dedicated entirely to women artists, in a show entitled ‘Queensize – Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection’. As one of the largest bed sizes, ‘queensize’ serves as the springboard for the exhibition, with the bed seen as a key existential site of human experience, a symbol of death and birth, temptation and eroticism, dreams and nightmares. The selected artists present us with their own distinctive view of human existence and of what makes us uniquely ourselves: our innermost being and innermost needs, our desires and passions. The display investigates the disparities between how we see ourselves and how others see us, and asks whether there really is such a thing as the specifically female view.The exhibition is curated by Nicola Graef (documentary film producer and director) and Wolfgang Schoppmann (chief curator of the Olbricht Collection).


Featured artists:
Rita Ackermann, Ellen Altfest, Helene Appel, Monika Baer, Tina Barney, Vanessa Beecroft, Katharina Bosse, Louise Bourgeois, Ulla von Brandenburg, Rineke Dijkstra, Nathalie Djurberg, Marlene Dumas, Nicole Eisenman, Sylvie Fleury, Hope Ginsburg, Jitka Hanzlová, Mona Hatoum, Almut Heise, Laurie Hogin, Klara Kristalova, Makiko Kudo, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Abigail Lane, Sharon Lockhart, Teresa Margolles, Alex McQuilkin, Hellen van Meene, Dawn Mellor, Marilyn Minter, Sükran Moral, Elizabeth Peyton, Patricia Piccinini, Chloe Piene, Bettina Rheims, Daniela Rossell, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Taryn Simon, Carolein Smit, Anj Smith, Kiki Smith, Rebecca Stevenson, Kirsten Stoltmann, Anett Stuth, Paloma Varga Weisz, Katharina Wulff, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Lisa Yuskavage

Posted 11/15/2014

The Summit at Crystal Bridges

The Summit at Crystal Bridges: Insights from a Changing America
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, Arkansas
October 6-7, 2014

Panel: Art and Education in the 21st Century
As education strategy adapts to accommodate the current and future needs of the workforce, a variety of initiatives emphasize the learning of 21st-century skills. Many of these ideas embrace art’s integration into curricula, helping to build critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and other key skills. Is the American education system effectively creating innovative thinkers? How can the arts enhance these aspects of education and what is the role of museums in facilitating the process?

Moderator:
Geoffrey Cowan, President, Annenberg Foundation Trust

Panelists:
John Brown, Executive Director, Windgate Foundation
Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
Hope Ginsburg, Artist, Educator

Posted: 10/15/2014

Presentation at Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art

Thursday, September 4th at 6pm 


Temple Contemporary 
Tyler School of Art, Temple University
2001 N. 13th Street Philadelphia 
215-777-9138 

Hosted by Temple Contemporary and Tyler School of Art’s Fibers and Material Studies Department. 

Posted: 9/3/14

Amphibious Breathing at Mildred's Lane and the Mildred Complex(ity)

Amphibious Breathing from the "An Afternoon of Breathing" workshop at Mildred's Lane and the Mildred Complex(ity). From the session PondHouseSpringHousePond: Phase IV Big Dig. 4'33", 35 MB.

 
 
Posted: 8/24/14

Mildred's Lane and the Mildred Complex(ity)

The Mildred Complex(ity) Studio
Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY

Friday, August 15th
3-6PM

An Afternoon of Breathing
Join artist Hope Ginsburg at The Mildred Complex(ity) as she speaks about her work and presents recent projects. Then, participate in a group meditation in the space, followed by a trip to the river for breathing in and out of water. Using snorkels, masks and an underwater photography setup, electively contribute to the production of still and moving images, capturing the afternoon’s contemplations.

Posted: 8/9/14

"Professor Relishes Rauschenberg Residency Experience"

VCU News Article

by Leila Ugincius
August 5, 2014

Posted: 8/9/2014

Dive Trip and Video Shoot in the Florida Keys

Trip to the Keys from the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva, FL.

Two diving days shooting underwater video on Looe Key and from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
Pictures taken on land are here.
May 29-May 31, 2014

Posted: 7/31/14

Pilgrimage to Tarpon Springs

Day-trip from the Rauschenberg Residency, a pilgrimage to Tarpon Springs, FL, Sponge Diving Capital of the World.


All pictures, including the Spongeorama Museum, are here.


Posted: 5/26/14


Rauschenberg Residency

Captiva Island, FL


May 18-June 14, 2014


Pictures of the place are here.


Posted: 5/22/2014




Documentation: Objects in Transition

Objects in Transition, a one-day "Artist-Led Studio Immersion" at MoMA on March 15, 2014.


Documentation of the workshop is here


The class was described as follows:


How can a simple change in materials take something from “everyday” to “uncanny”? In this hands-on workshop, you will transform the identity of an object of your choosing using the traditional techniques of wet and dry felting. Working with natural wool and the partial or whole concealment of a “thing,” discover how meaning shifts when form is manipulated. Begin with a gallery tour looking at "assisted" Readymades, Surrealist objects, and select icons of modern design. Return to the studio for discussion with the artist and instruction in two related textile processes. Once your piece is complete, it will be photographed for an archive of such objects. Then, it is up to you to imagine a place for your re/invention and find space for further intervention.


Pictured project by Susannah Brown.Hope Ginsburg: Objects in Transition, 3.15.2014 Photographic © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo by Erica Gannett. 


Posted: 5/22/14


Hydrogen Bonding for THIRST at Proteus Gowanus

Hydrogen Bonding

THIRST

Proteus Gowanus

Saturday, March 22nd, 3-6pm

A booklet about the workshop is here.

See images here.

Join artist and felt-maker, Hope Ginsburg, along with Laura Sansone and her Mobile Textile Lab, for a hands-on workshop about the basics of local materials sourcing, natural dyeing and wool feltmaking. Learn how to make dyes with regionally grown plants and vegetables from the local farmers markets. Discover how to massage fleece into felt, and in keeping with our thirsty theme, craft your own felt water molecule. Hope and Laura will illuminate how these workshop activities relate to their broader project work as artists and designers, followed by a brief hydro-focused group dialogue moderated by curator Lydia Matthews.


Posted: 5/22/14


THIRST Opening at Proteus Gowanus

THIRST


Proteus Gowanus


Brooklyn, NY


March 22-April 19, 2014


Opening, Saturday March 22nd, 6-9pm


View images of the Exhibition space here.


Hope Ginsburg + Sponge HQ collaboratively produced work for THIRST at Proteus Gowanus, an interdisciplinary gallery and reading room in Brooklyn, NY. 


THIRST, the third exhibition in a yearlong investigation of WATER at Proteus Gowanus, explored thirsty materials, plants, animals and people. Project curated by Lydia Matthews and Current Collective.


More information about our project is here.


Posted: 5/22/14


"Friend of a Friend" at Lovey Town

Yoga Diver, 2014


Wool


6"x3"x4"


"Friend of a Friend"


Lovey Town


A group show about artist friendships. 


January 30 - April 30, 2014


Posted: 2/22/14


Objects in Transition at MoMA

Saturday March 15


10am-4pm


Registration begins on January 2nd


Early Bird pricing until January 22nd


How can a simple change in materials take something from “everyday” to “uncanny”? In this hands-on workshop, you will transform the identity of an object of your choosing using the traditional techniques of wet and dry felting. Working with natural wool and the partial or whole concealment of a “thing,” discover how meaning shifts when form is manipulated. Begin with a gallery tour looking at "assisted" Readymades, Surrealist objects, and select icons of modern design. Return to the studio for discussion with the artist and instruction in two related textile processes. Once your piece is complete, it will be photographed for an archive of such objects. Then, it is up to you to imagine a place for your re/invention and find space for further intervention.


Posted: 12/29/13 


Nomadic Feltmaking at Designtex

On Thursday, December 12, it's back to Designtex, the textile company I've known and loved since my years in New York…


…a celebratory felt making workshop with artist Hope Ginsburg, exploring the history, technology and mythology of wool felt. You will produce a piece of felt with an inlaid design of your choosing, and with the new skills that you'll acquire, you could go on to make bowls, socks, or a weatherproof house for life on the steppes.  You will get very clean making felt, so be sure to wear clothes that can withstand soap and hot water. Materials will be provided. Nomadic futures will be conjured.


Posted: 12/9/13


CUE 10th Anniversary Benefit & Auction

New work commissioned for the CUE Art Foundation 10th Anniversary Benefit & Auction, Tuesday November 19th, 2013.


"Scary Shark" (seen here) and "Oarfish Love" photo backdrops made from cut felt, 6'x6'. And props: two sets of scuba masks and snorkels made with hand felted wool, and a pair of felted flippers. With striped dive beanies in the mix. 


Posted: 11/20/13


Utah

This week, I'm heading to Utah for a lecture at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art on Thursday, October 17th at 4pm, followed by studio visits on Friday morning. 


Posted 10/12/13


Trip to see Oncosclera jewelli, 9/14/2013

In Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil during the opening of the 9th Mercosul Biennial, an expedition with marine biologists Dr. Cecilia Volkmer-Ribeiro, Dr. Rodrigo Cambara Printes, Dr. Daniel Slomp and biology students Julio Stelmach, Liriane Petry and Aline Scheid to Lajeado das Margaridas and Passo do S at the Parque Estadual do Tainhas to see the Oncosclera jewelli sponges in their spectacular river habitat. Hiking through the river, driving into the river at dusk, surrounded by Araucaria trees, gazing at the glowing green sponges and celebrating it all with a shared Italian dinner and homemade wine in Sao Francisco de Paula.


To see the full set of pictures, go here.


Posted: 10/5/13


Lecture & Conversation for "Cloud Formations" the Pedagogical Program of the 9th Mercosul Biennial

August 8, 2013. Organized for the "Cloud Formations" pedagogical program of the 9th Mercosul Biennial, a night of lectures and conversation on the topic of effluents and musing on the nature of relating science to art.  With joint lectures by myself and marine biologist (and sponge expert), Dr. Cecilia Volkmer Ribeiro and a conversation between the two of us moderated by Potira Preiss, the organizer of the evening. In the audience, the Mediators of the biennial, a group of people who will imaginatively translate the exhibition for the public, which includes the thousands of school children from Rio Grande do Sul who will be bussed to Porto Alegre to see the show.


Posted 10/5/13


September in Porto Alegre, the Opening of the 9th Mercosul Biennial

Returning to Porto Alegre in September with three Xestospongia muta (marine barrel sponges) produced in the Sponge HQ.  A long day at the studio to finish the Tetilla radiata species for the installation, "Gene for an Eye." A full team of cooperating artists is convened for the work: Luciane Bucksdricker, Francesco Settineri, Arthur Lang, Marcia Braga, Ney Caminha. Marcia's husband's churrasco barbecue keeps us fed and focused. Then, back at the Usina do Gasometro, working in the "freshwater tank," to make the river sponge, Drulia browni. Finalizing the installation, seeing the exhibition, visiting and joining in the opening festivities.


For the full set of pictures, go here.


Posted 10/5/13


August in Porto Alegre, Making "On Resisting the Separation of the Continents"


Traveling to Porto Alegre in August to spend two weeks "on the ground" making several large, yellow-green, Oncosclera jewelli sponges from felted, hand-dyed wool. Working cooperatively with VCUarts undergraduates and "Sponge HQ Monitors" Gavin Foster and Lindsay Clements (who traveled with me), Producer Luciane Bucksdricker, Assistant Producer Francesco Settineri and Biennial Mediators, Arthur Lang, Juliana Scheid and Sarah Szekir-Papasavva in the donated studio of Marcia Braga. Under the watchful, expert eye of Dr. Cecilia Volkmer Ribeiro who named this genus of freshwater sponge in the 1960's and informally called it, "felt of the sea." By the end of the trip four freshwater sponges, rendered in wool, installed in the Usina do Gasometro for the 9th Mercosul Biennial, part of the installation "On Resisting the Separation of the Continents."


For the full set of trip pictures, go here.


Posted on 10/5/13


Weather Permitting

Weather Permitting


9th Mercosul Biennial


Porto Alegre, Brazil


September 13-November 10, 2013


Natural dyeing is underway for a new work for Weather Permitting, the 9th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil.


Working in the VCUarts Fibers area dye lab with natural dye whiz and former student Jessica Dodd, along with Sponge HQ monitors Colleen Billing and Gavin Foster. With Clare van Loenen at the writer's desk.


Mordanting 45 lbs of wool and using cochineal, indigo, cutch and weld to achieve a palette of four colors, which will describe as many species of Brazilian sponges, both freshwater and marine.


A cooperative work, produced between the Sponge HQ in Richmond, VA and a network of artists, designers and students in Porto Alegre, will appear in the exhibition, Portals, Forecasts and Monotypes. The piece, situated in two recessed spaces in a former thermoelectric plant, dovetails with the pedagogical program of the biennial, Cloud Formations.


In August, 2013, two VCUarts Painting & Printmaking undergraduate students, Lindsay Clements (BFA, 2014) and Gavin Foster (BFA, 2015) will travel with me to Porto Alegre for on-the-ground workshops and production.


Images


Project Cooperators to date:


Sponge HQ:


Colleen Billing


Lindsay Clements


Jessica Dodd, Linya Threads


Dan Fawley, The Fiber Warehouse


Gavin Foster


Clare van Loenen


Porto Alegre


Cecilia Volkmer-Ribeiro, Marine Scientist


and more to come...


Posted 7/4/13


Blogging Spring Cleaning

With braided rug by Clare van Loenen and sponges felted by JoJo Houff, Patrick Carter and the monitors of the Sponge HQ. Thanks Clare for capturing Open Late: Spring Cleaning on the HQ blog

The Sponge HQ has its first graduates. To mark the moment the space was thoroughly spring-cleaned, cake was baked and lemonade brewed with honey from the 2012 bees. A new hive, built by Eric Stepp, has been installed and awaits its next generation of occupants. In the stillness of transition we opened our doors as part of an Anderson Gallery Open Late and Richmond’s First Friday[...]

Posted 6/10/13


A Sponge in the Harbor, at Beta-Local

Beta Local, The Harbor


Talk
5/16-6pm
"Sponge in the Harbor"

Site Visit
5/10-5/24
"Recently minted scuba diver and long time sea-sponge enthusiast travels to San Juan to initiate a project for Beta-Local. During the Harbor Residency, researching undersea life along the coast of Puerto Rico, diving and collecting images, video and sound, with thoughts toward realizing an underwater performance. Trading visits with residents from La Practica, offering a lecture and a workshop. Meeting as many people as possible with knowledge of local marine ecology. Group snorkeling and copious exploring."



Sketches and designs produced with documentation from the Harbor are here.

Photographs made while diving PR can be seen here.

Trip photos are here.

Posted: 5/16/2013


Updated: 6/9/2013


The Oldest Textile Process, The First Multicellular Animal & A Thing About Collectivity: What We Learn by Making

Taking the material processes of both wet and dry felting and the subject matter of the sea-sponge, this workshop explores learning by doing, or specifically the pedagogic power of craft. How do collective making and the very process of constructing by hand empower participants to engage new fields of study?  And in this case, with a focus on the sea sponge (as form and biological metaphor) the use of craft for both fostering collaboration and extending an understanding of ecology is explored.


Foam replicas of Spongia officinalis and Spongia officinalis lemella were produced in advance by Sponge HQ monitor Julia Hundley in Richmond, VA.


"Power to the People: Practices of Empowerment through Craft," convened by Otto von Busch, Pascale Gatzen and Lydia Matthews for the 10th European Academy of Design Conference. Gothenburg, Sweden, April 17-19, 2013.


Posted: 4/22/2013


Open Late: Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning
Sponge HQ
Anderson Gallery
Friday, May 3rd
5pm-7pm

Open Late 5.03.13 – Spring Cleaning in the Sponge HQ with an eyeful of loose ends tied up, loose ends braided, a brand new beehive, live silk-screening, and glasses of honey-sweetened lemonade raised to our graduating Monitors.

With Colleen Billing, Colleen Brennan, Patrick Carter, Lindsay Clements, S. Riley Duncan, Gavin Foster, Hope Ginsburg, JoJo Houff, Julia Hundley, Warren Jones and Clare van Loenen.

Posted: 4/8/13


Felt Case Study #1: The Material is the Metaphor is the Material

Home from Doha, where Felt Case Study #1 unfolded over five days of "Hybrid Making," the theme for this year's Tasmeem Middle-East Art & Design Conference.


Workshop collaborators Carol Derby, Deidre Hoguet, Richard Lombard, Corby Elford and I had the privilege of working toward a final exhibition with eleven die-hard participants.


Together we made the raw material for wall-mounted product prototypes, a custom pocketed wall piece and modular forms that were used to write "love" in Arabic.


Hope's Flick'r Set


Photography by Dominika Bozic


Posted: 3/21/13


Porto Alegre Site Visit

March 1-6, 2013 


A project about Brazilian freshwater and marine sponges got its start this week in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. 


Working with the amazing folks from the Mercosul Biennial along with experts, artists and architects, I learned about the city, the sites of the show, and a host of Brazilian sponges. 


One such species predates the separation of the continents and lives now in only Brazil and Japan, the majestic, encrusting Oncosclera Jewelli, discovered in 1963 by project contributor, Cecilia Volkmer-Ribeiro. 


More to come this summer (that's winter in POA). Meantime, more pictures from the trip are here.


Posted: 3/8/2013


A General Theory of Last Night

A general Theory of Last Night: A Constructed Panel Discussion” was a scripted panel discussion written collaboratively in the context of the College Art Association Conference in New York on Februrary 15, 2013. A group of 10 participants gathered the evening before the panel to collectively script a discussion that tried to address some of the issues currently being discussed at the conference, identify topics of debate and articulate those positions in a clear and concise manner. 

Collaborating writers included: Michelle Levy, Adeola Enigbokan, Barbara Adams, Caroline Woolard, Hope Ginsburg, Tatiana Flores, Olga Kopenkina, Michael Mandiberg, Martha Rosler, and Pablo Helguera. The introduction and final edited version of the text were made by Pablo Helguera.

The panel was performed by actors Kevin Scullin, Melissa Chambers and Richard Saudek.

The complete script is here.
Text from Pablo Helguera Archive, 2/15/13

Posted: 2/22/13

Crafting the Future

10th European Academy of Design Conference
Gothenburg, Sweden
April 17-19, 2013

Presenting: The Oldest Textile Process, The First Multicellular Animal & A Thing about Collectivity: What we Learn by Making, a workshop in Power to the People: Practices of Empowerment through Craft, convened by Lydia Matthews, Pascale Gatzen and Otto von Busch.


Posted: 2/4/2013


One Minute Film Festival: 10 Years

One Minute Film Festival: 10 Years, opening at Mass MoCA on March 23rd. Celebrating a decade of one minute movies made for Jason Simon and Moyra Davey's annual festival in Narrowsburg, NY. With hundreds of films, the screening of an hour-long "exquisite corpse" project, a book... and posters designed by the artists.


Here's the poster I made for my 2011 offering, La Jetee. In a Minute. Sorted.


Posted: 1/28/13


Hybrid Making: Tasmeem Doha 2013

Tasmeem Doha Middle East Art & Design Conference
Doha, Qatar
March 10-17, 2013

Collaborating with Carol Derby and Deidre Hoguet of Designtex and Richard Lombard and Corby Elford of VCU Qatar to produce a five day workshop: Felt Case Study #1: The Material is the Metaphor is the Material.

More information is here.


Posted: 1/13/13


CAA Panel Presentation: Hybrid Practices

Thursday February 14
12:30-2:00pm
College Art Association Conference
Hilton New York
1335 Avenue of the Americas

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

ARTspace
CAA Services to Artists Committee 
Meta-Mentors: Hybrid Practices 
Murray Hill Suite, 2nd Floor 

Chairs: Vesna Pavlovic, Vanderbilt University;
Niku Kashef, California State University, Northridge

Yvette Brackman, independent artist
Samantha Fields, California State University, Northridge
Hope Ginsburg, Virginia Commonwealth University
Max Schumann, Printed Matter, Inc
Jenna Spevack, New York City College of Technology, City University of New York


Posted: 1/13/13


N2NM: Exchange

December 14


5-8pm


Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion


1607 Paseo de Peralta


Santa Fe, NM


Protoype 1 from Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera goes to Santa Fe for the inaugural N2NM: Exchange. 


Posted: 12/9/12


Blogging "Open Late"

"Relics and Tales from Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera" goes live on the HQ blog with scribe Clare van Loenan's capture of the inaugural Open Late. 


Posted: 12/9/12


Open Late

Open Late
Sponge HQ
Anderson Gallery
Friday, November 30th
5pm-8pm

Open Late 11.30.12 – Relics and tales from Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera in the Sponge HQ alongside a potluck organized by the artists of Portrait as Community, which opens concurrently in the gallery next door.

Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera, a hands-on project in honor of the sea-sponge, was produced by Hope Ginsburg and the student researchers of the Sponge HQ earlier this month at MoMA. The event was a "Swarming" for Mildred's Lane and the Mildred Complex(ity) and the MoMA Studio: Common Senses exhibition. Now we’re bringing it all back home.


On view in the HQ this Friday night is a video specially produced for the project in New York, sea-sponges: felted and cast in beeswax and bronze, and a portfolio of archival material. The evening plays out amid hand-felted bee-box seats with honey to taste from the HQ hive.

With Colleen Billing, Colleen Brennan, Patrick Carter, Lindsay Clements, S. Riley Duncan, Gavin Foster, Hope Ginsburg, JoJo Houff, Julia Hundley, Joshua Quarles and Clare van Loenan.


Posted: 11/26/12


Blogging "Prototype for the Phylum Porifera"

Thanks Clare van Loenan for capturing "Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera" on the Sponge HQ blog.
Posted: 11/18/12

Commonwealth Times reports on Sponge HQ Project

Posted: 11/18/12

Site in Progress Goes Live

Welcome. This site is going live as it is being built. Information is entered daily. Please let me know if something you're looking for is missing.


Posted: 10/31/12


Sponge HQ at MoMA

Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera - a hands-on project in honor of the sea sponge, the oldest extant animal on the planet. Hope Ginsburg and the student researchers of the Sponge HQ travel to MoMA to deliver items for the Mildred's Lane archive. The group presents a video specially produced for the occasion and shares other material artifacts from the pedagogical Sponge and Colablablab projects at Virginia Commonwealth University. 
The event takes place amid hand-felted beehive-box seats with honey to taste from the Sponge HQ in  Richmond, VA. The public is invited to participate in this collective project by Colleen Billing, Colleen Brennan, Patrick Carter, Lindsay Clements, Riley Duncan, Gavin Foster, Hope Ginsburg, JoJo Houff, Julie Hundley, Joshua Quarles and Clare van Loenen.
A Swarming for Mildreds Lane and the Mildred Complex(ity) in MoMA Studio: Common Senses, Sunday, November 11th, 12pm-4pm. Mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building. 

Posted: 10/31/12