The Lamar Dodd School of Art will present a lecture by museum director John Hatfield April 14 at 5:30 p.m. in Room S151 of the school of art. The lecture, part of the Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series, is open free to the public.
Hatfield is the executive director of Socrates Sculpture Park, a unique outdoor arts organization on the waterfront of Long Island City. Founded in 1986, Socrates Sculpture Park is the only site in the New York metropolitan area specifically dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multimedia installations. The outdoor museum and park encourages strong interaction between artists, artworks and the public. The park’s existence is based on “the belief that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and improvement of our urban environment.”
Hatfield’s lecture, “Art Works-sometimes,” will be about Socrates Sculpture Park as an example of how art acts as an agent for transformative social change with a digression into public art controversies. Hatfield will consider what it means to present art in the public realm and the inherent challenges for artists, organizations and audiences.
