We enjoyed a virtual Cronin Lecture with Paul Farber, Director of Monument Lab. Monument Lab is a Philadelphia based public art and history studio founded by Farber and artist Ken Lum in 2012. Their visionary work aims to rethink the ways art and history exist in public spaces. In collaboration with many artists and communities, Farber has developed groundbreaking critical ways of thinking about and building new monuments for our times. Through both his research and curatorial projects, he explores urban history, cultural memory, and creative approaches to civic engagement.
Farber’s talk provides context for deCordova’s newest exhibitions concerning contemporary art and monuments this year, Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, the Flag We Should Know opening April 9 and the outdoor installation of Jeffrey Gibson: Because You Once You Enter My Home It Becomes Our Home opening early June. For these projects, the artists have created monuments that commemorate underrepresented narratives in American history and contemporary life.
https://monumentlab.com/
About Paul Farber
Paul M. Farber is Director of Monument Lab. Farber is author of A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall and co-editor of Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia. He also currently serves as Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Public Art & Space at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design.
About the Paul J. Cronin Lecture
The Paul J. Cronin Memorial Lecture series was established in 1981 to consider topics broadly focused on changing attitudes towards twentieth and twenty-first century art. The Cronin Lecture series is made possible by a generous grant to deCordova from the Grover J. Cronin