Out West
The Great American Landscape
Meridian International Center, headquartered in Washington,
D.C., is organizing an exhibition on the American West for circulation
in China beginning in early 2007. The exhibition, Out West:
The Great American Landscape, is a cultural exchange project
and has been heartily endorsed by the Ministry of Culture of China.
Out West is the second part of an exchange begun by Ancient
Threads, Newly Woven, an exhibition organized jointly by Meridian
and the China International Exhibition Agency in Beijing on contemporary
art from the Silk Road of Western China, now on tour in the United
States. Out West, which will tour China, is to bear the
Olympic logo and will be part of the cultural dimension of the
2008 Olympics and one of the cultural presentations leading up
to the games themselves.
The purpose of this exchange is not only to present an exhibition
of good paintings, but, seen in a larger context, carries an educational,
cultural and social message. Its underlying goal is to help create
an atmosphere of increased good relations and mutual understanding
as a background for business development and other bi-lateral
relations. The targeted audience is "ordinary people," whose real
knowledge of America may be limited. With an eye to the unfolding
future, an important segment it the exhibition’s message will
reach is China’s younger generation.
Out West will include art works by a range of contemporary
artists of the American West. In a variety of mediums, subjects
will include cowboy culture, Native American culture, the introduction
of other ethnic groups to Western traditions and way of life and
more. Also emphasized will be western landscapes, from New Mexico
to Wyoming, the people and the animals that inhabit them, the
effects of the Western culture on films, and influential historic
events. Meridian is working with museums, universities, collections,
and individual artists to put together the best representation
possible of contemporary Western art. A catalogue will be published
in English and Chinese.
Meridian is working with the National Art Museum of China in
Beijing, which will be the initial venue for the exhibition. The
Museum will assist in organizing a tour within China that will
include venues in Western China. The Vice Minister of Culture,
Madame Meng Xiosia, on recent visits to Washington, has pledged
the enthusiastic support of the Ministry for the project. The
Chinese Embassy in Washington is also working with Meridian.
The exhibition will preview at Meridian’s prestigious Cafritz
galleries in Washington in mid-february 2007, an event which will
involve the Chinese Ambassador, Congressional representatives
from participating Western states and all exhibition sponsors.
Out West will begin its China tour in early 2007. The
popularity of such an exhibition is assured as there has not been
an exhibition of this type in China and it is eagerly anticipated.
Out West, like all of Meridian’s exhibitions, fulfills
the organization’s mission of promoting international understanding
through the exchange of people, ideas and the arts. Art is used
as a tool for opening windows onto other cultures and increasing
insight and appreciation of similarities and differences between
nations and peoples. It can also serve as a tool for a corporate
sponsor to spread its message. This exhibition will be the fourth
exhibit of American contemporary art which Meridian has organized
and toured abroad. It is the first devoted totally to art of the
American West.
Out West: The Great American Landscape, organized and
presented in China by Meridian International Center, with the
assistance of the China Museum of Fine Art in Beijing, and with
the support of a consortium of sponsors, will be an excellent
opportunity to portray this important part of American life and
heritage to the Chinese people. As part of the cultural dimension
of the 2008 Olympics, this exhibit can further enhance the growing
relationship between two of the world’s great nations.
Sponsorship has been provided by American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch
Foundation, Fed Ex Corporation and Tyco International. Additional
opportunities are available to corporations, foundations and individuals.
Sponsors will be recognized in all publicity throughout the tour
and, in the exhibition catalogue and, when possible, in the identification
of venues.
For more information: Nancy Matthews, Vice President for the
Arts, Meridian International Center, 1630 Crescent Place, NW,
Washington, D.C. 20009. Tel: (202) 939-5518. Email: nmatthew@meridian.org.
Boundaries and Frontiers
Artistic Dialogue from the U.S.-Mexican Border
A new exhibition of art from both sides of the U.S. – Mexican
border is under organization by Meridian International Center,
a cultural and educational exchange institution headquartered
in Washington, DC, in collaboration with Mexico North Research
Network; The Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California;
the Mexican Cultural Institute of San Antonio; and the Mexican
Cultural Institute of Washington, D.C. The exhibition project
has the support of CONACULTA, the Foreign Secretariat of Mexico,
The Mexican Embassy, Washington, D.C. and the American Embassy,
Mexico City. Curators, museum directors and scholars from both
sides of the border are participating in the organization.
Meridian uses its exhibitions of art from around the globe,
and attendant educational programs, as tools to promote clearer
understanding of issues and provide a focal point for dialogue.
The purpose of the current exhibition is to bring to light, through
the eyes of artists from both sides of the Rio Grande, the culture
of the border area, and the opportunities and challenges it presents
for both countries. Organized as a traveling exhibition, Boundaries
and Frontiers will preview in San Antonio in March 2006 and open
in Washington D.C. in April 2006. It will be presented in the
United States in cooperation with the Embassy of Mexico. Following
the Washington venue, the exhibition will take its message to
both countries with a tour organized by Meridian’s Traveling Exhibition
Service.
Meridian is seeking support from corporations and foundations.
The budget of $200,000 includes organization, catalogue and tour
preparation, artist exchange, education guide, and development
of an inter-active website which will take the exhibition to areas
it cannot physically reach. Meridian regularly works with sponsors
to make a mutually beneficial partnership.
For more information: Nancy Matthews, Vice President for the
Arts, Meridian International Center, 1630 Crescent Place, NW,
Washington, D.C. 20009. Tel: (202) 939-5518. Email: nmatthew@merician.org.
Painting
a Window to the Divine
Icons, Sacral Painting and Popular Religion in Western Ukraine
Developed by Meridian International Center in collaboration
with the National Museum, the Picture Gallery, and the Ethnography
Museum in L’viv, Painting a Window to the Divine offers
a chronological, thematic, and cultural perspective on Western
Ukrainian icon painting and religious observance. It marks the
first time that precious religious objects from major public collections
in this region will tour the United States. Rare illuminated manuscripts
and small bronze crucifixes represent the religious experience
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a period characterized
by invasions, political instability, and the destruction of many
icons. The exhibit focuses primarily on icons created by masters
working in ecclesiastical centers between the fifteenth and eighteenth
centuries, along with folk icons painted by popular artists of
the time. It contains examples of devotional oil paintings characteristic
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hand-carved icons
from village homes and elaborate painted eggs (pysanki)
offer further insight into popular religion.
