 Hello, welcome to CTN Member Highlights. I'm Leslie McVane and today we're at the Institute for Contemporary Art at MECA with Aaron Hutton. Hi, Aaron. Hi, how are you Leslie? Aaron, you are the Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects or something like that. Yes, correct. And the Institute for Contemporary Art, the ICA, is doing some amazing things right now. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Yes, thank you. I'm very proud of the ICA. I've only been in this position here for about 18 months, been with MECA for about 15 years or so. And I'm really proud of the depth and breadth of the exhibitions that we've had in the last few years and also previously with other predecessors. I'm most excited about the collaboration, such as this exhibition that we have here, which is Collective Actions 2. And the reason I'm so excited about this is it's a collaboration with our students, our faculty, our community, and our broader community, including artists from the Brooklyn and Queens area. So it's really exciting. And that's something new, bringing artists from other areas into the ICA, isn't it? So the ICA has always had a long standing history of nationally and internationally acclaimed artists. So we bring artists from all over the world here. And what's unique and special, I think, that the community is responding to is the interaction with the project. So this participatory aspect of some of our exhibitions. This example is very participatory where you can come in, you can make work and engage with the art itself. Future exhibitions may be less participatory, but definitely have a theme or is being seen through a lens that's relevant for the time. Well, certainly this exhibition and the one that's coming up are relevant to what's happening right now. And I think the idea of collaboration, especially in this world right now where people are sort of, you know, on opposite sides and not working together as much as they should, is beautiful to see with the artists. Right. If you may have caught the last exhibition, Anguish, which I think you probably did, it was the timing of that exhibition was pretty perfect. It came out during the time of the transition of the election and transition of president. And I think it was a really important show to talk about loss and grief and anguish. This show is the storytelling where it's telling a story and sharing stories. And I think also people are craving more of that. Well, I'm now with Elizabeth Chabar on the faculty here, a dean at Mecca. Hi, Elizabeth. Hi. Nice to see you. This show is a collaboration between Peregrine Press and ZMAs. Both of those print organizations are friends of the college. ZMAs is located in Florence, Mass. They are national leaders in non-toxic printmaking. So they also play a big role in educating printmakers across the country around contemporary printmaking practice. So we've been fortunate to bring them to the college, even outside of this exhibition, to work with our students. And a lot of the printmakers in Peregrine Press are also friends with ZMAs. So there's been ongoing collaboration with all entities. So when this show was brought to my attention by folks in both presses, I thought it was a great fit for the college and really extended our relationship and our collaborative relationship that we have with those organizations. This exhibit is sort of in three parts. Do you want to talk a little bit about the three parts? And we'll start with this room and what we're seeing here. Sure. So when I was working with Erin on putting all these different pieces together, I wanted a couple of the things that the printmaking program and the public engagement program really highlight is sort of the power of collective action and collaboration. And I think the three different galleries in this show highlight is different ways that contemporary printmakers go about being collaborative. So this exhibition in the back, The Unity of Opposites, is based on a traditional kind of format in the sense that often printmakers from different print shops come up with a thematic idea to generate a portfolio project of work. So this one is based on that really classic children's game called telephone. So there's a call and response, a very playful process at work in this. So these two pieces here were the start of the two images. And you didn't get anything as the artist except for the image that was sent to you. So these two images started it. What would happen is one of these images was sent to another small group of artists. They didn't get any other information except email with a digital scan of the artwork. And you were open to respond to it and then pass along your response to another set of artists and they would then respond. So this exhibition is this amazing culmination of the call and response and play in collaboration of the portfolio. And when you say respond, you mean an artistic response and then that whatever that artist did would take their own and pass it on, not the original. Right, not the original. So the only thing for instance that I saw in this project was the person that, their response in the last round of the game of telephone. So I had no idea, no one really had any idea after these two that these were the two original pieces. And you're right, it was a really open kind of visual response to what you saw in that image and what you wanted to bring out that you noticed in that image or to sort of exaggerate or amplify in that last piece. And then the other rooms, there are two other rooms. And could you tell us the names of the other two extensions? Sure, the front gallery is an installation by Art Collective out of Queens, New York and they're called Mobile Print Power. And they are really a grassroots community organizing entity that uses art to sort of message and amplify and support some work of local nonprofits that work on issues that are specific to Queens. And if you notice in the front, there's all the texts in English and in Spanish. A core part of their artists in that group in the community that they work with are Spanish speakers. And a lot of the issues that they're tackling in that work relate to issues of immigration and undocumented folks in the United States and some of the challenges that they face. So they're artists, they're also local activists and they're community organizers. So they're using their voice as artists in a collective way with their community to help further some of the topics that are important to them. And by doing it through art, it's more approachable. I mean, people are not as turned off maybe by art as they might be by dialogue. So by looking at the art, they will listen. It's true and I also think one thing that they do if you notice in the front gallery there's this cart that looks like an ice cream stand. And it's actually a mobile silkscreen unit. So a big part of what they do is take their work outside and engage people directly, which is very different than in a gallery setting. So being someone that also engages in public collaborative work around topics, I do think you have a way, an opportunity to access people through creativity. And it gets to the roots of certain conversations that might not come about any other way. And those are the kind of creative actions that mobile print power likes to put out in the world that I feel a great affinity to. I think it's wonderful and it takes the art to where the people are not expecting to come where the art is. And along with that, you have your own sort of pop-up take-along art. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? That's in the third room. Sure. And the middle gallery is the print lab. And my collaborative work, I have a colleague here named Colleen Kinsella, another artist and printmaker. And we formed a loose collective that is called Future Mothers. And we got a grant from the Kindling Fund through the Space Gallery last year to launch this project called Future Bridges, which is a mobile tent, which is really a mobile gallery and creative space that we can take out into the greater Portland community and engage with folks in the city of Portland on any number of issues that are important to them. So we had the opportunity from June through October to take it out into Portland on four different occasions. We had some great experiences working. We were at National Night Out. We got to partner with East Bayside Neighborhood Association and Mayo Street Arts and bring people together in that neighborhood to celebrate their community and talk about things that were important to them. And in the fall, we got to work with the League of Women Voters at Main Campus Compact and do a public event that was really aimed at getting people to vote, to participate in the electoral. That's wonderful. And it all, your little tent folds right up in a bag. Yeah, it probably is deceiving if you go and see it now that it collapses into a 10 foot tall by a few feet wide bag. But that was part of our goal is as much as we're, Colleen and I are both artists that do work like this in galleries and museums. We're very interested in taking our work outside of institutions. And I think for us and for our students to share that you have the opportunity to be an artist in all these different contexts and have an impact is really important for us to model as educators with our students. Well, and we all have something inside of us that, you know, that we need to find an outlet for that expression. And this is such a wonderful way. I think it is. I think it is too. And part of it is especially in the print lab is to create an opportunity for anyone to come into the ICA and participate in that process. So having it be open and accessible is really important to us. And people can come in now while the show is here. They can. And another aspect of the print lab is the zine fair, which three of my students put together. And so there's an opportunity to create small publications. We have a color photocopier setup and supplies for people to come in and create prints that are easy to make and easily distributable and contribute to the exhibition but also make and take something and bring it outside to the public. Well, thank you. And I know that it's an ongoing project. The tent will be traveling. When the snow melts, the tent will be back outside, but everyone has the whole up until March 3rd to come into the ICA and experience to work in the tent but also to participate in the zine fair. The next exhibition, which is unloaded and is curated by Susani Slavik. And she is a curator from Carnegie Mellon. And when working with her, she has a vision for this exhibition that actually travels to different locations. We'll get the exhibition next and then it will actually travel to its next stop right outside the NRA convention. There'll be a powerful exhibition around gun violence and it'll tell a story that's pretty timely around gun use and gun violence and the loss with guns. That sounds really fascinating. There's a piece of art in the front room here. This is three sections of the show and it says something like, what is the role of the artist? And artists have a voice and it's a voice that's a visual voice and for you to be encouraging that and supporting that and having artists work with people from all over the world right here in Portland is amazing. Well, I hope that's what... I hope that's the story we're sharing because that's important for the ICA. The new model that started once I accepted this position was to have external curators curate our exhibitions in the Institute of Contemporary Art. I do feel it's been a really great model for Mecca and also the ICA. It allows for us to have new and fresh voices come and be part of our exhibitions. So I think it's been very positive. And I think having those visiting curators really inspires the local artists here and highlights what they're doing and encourages them to be more daring. For sure, absolutely. I've been seeing this all around Portland and beyond and I also work on helping to support the press hotel curating their exhibitions and what we were talking about with them is how do we allow for folks who are coming and staying there to see artwork and see fresh voices and experience what Maine has to offer.