Charlottesville, VA (March 5, 2018):

Charlottesville Community, UVA Students, and Artists Work Together to Create Public Art Festival,  Art in Odd Places: MATTER

The University of Virginia (UVA) Studio Arts Board is thrilled to announce Art in Odd Places (AiOP) 2018: MATTER Charlottesville. Featuring the works of 28 artists, this visual and performance public art festival will take place on April 5 on UVA Grounds and April 6 on the Downtown Mall.

The theme matter encompasses a vast range of interpretations such as substance, complication, material, content, or happening. Manifesting in both simple and complex ways – from asking, “What’s the matter?” to Black Lives Matter to examining the fundamental significance of the events of August 11 & 12 in Charlottesville. Ultimately, MATTER creates a space for reflection and response through public engagement.

Art in Odd Places 2018: MATTER Charlottesville highlights 27 art projects in a variety of disciplines and includes 15 artists from Charlottesville, 4 from Virginia, and 8 from across the United States and abroad. Featuring Leslie Scott-Jones’ Historical Matters, large-scale historical reenactments (including fife & drum parades) of Charlottesville’s namesake Queen Charlotte, wife of the English King George III (1738-1820), a direct descendant from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black branch of the Portuguese Royal House; Linda Mary Montano’s, WE ARE ALL HUNGRY, performances focused on nourishment and the future possibility of being fed by a nurse in a nursing home; Federico Cuatlacuatl’s, Tikis < Papalotes, reconstructed tiki torches used to create kites in collaboration with Charlottesville undocumented immigrant workers; Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell’s, Move Along, Nothing to See Here, animatronic-style human tableaus of two controversial statues in Charlottesville: Robert E. Lee and George Rogers Clark addressing the historical invisibility of Native and African descended members of the Charlottesville community; and Pedro Lasch’s, Fire & Ice, a preceding performance and installation on Sunday, April 1, 8pm at Main Street Arena ice rink that engages the solid, liquid, and gas spectrum states of matter and invites the audience to reimagine fire as a positive force opposed to the hatred of August 2017. Playful and solemn at the same time, the work is a celebration of the life of activist Heather Heyer.

AiOP 2018: MATTER Charlottesville is hosted by the Arts Board of the University of Virginia and co-curated by the Arts Board Committee and Art in Odd Places founder and director Ed Woodham.

ART IN ODD PLACES (AiOP)
AiOP seeks to challenge the traditional understanding of public space by stretching the boundaries of communication and interrupting daily routine. Led by Ed Woodham, it began as a cooperative effort with other artists to encourage local participation in the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. After moving back to New York City in 2005, Woodham re-imagined AiOP as a response to the dwindling of public space and personal civil liberties, first in the Lower East Side and East Village. Since 2008, the project has taken place annually along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC.

Pedro Lasch, Fire & Ice (photo courtesy of artist)

PARTICIPANTS

Now/Now – Bolanle Adeboye & Wes Swing (Charlottesville, VA): Performance and sound
Remember – Ézé Amos (Charlottesville, VA): Mosaic installation
FIRST MATTER / an alchemical remediation of contaminated space – Nina Frances Burke and Brielle DuFlon (Charlottesville, VA): Visual installation
StoryStream – The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative (Charlottesville, VA): Storytelling
Tikis < Papalotes – Federico Cuatlacuatl (Charlottesville, VA): Visual and performance art
Free Hot Coffee Bike – John Freyer (Richmond, VA): Dialogue and performance
The Rule is Love #4 – Alicia Grullón (Bronx, NY): Interactive performance
Meaning and Matter: Race and Space – Bernard Hankins (Charlottesville, VA): Spoken word poetry
The Charlottesville Memorial Mandala – Terry S. Hardy (Atlanta, GA): Visual installation
Collected Voices: Taking the temperature of Charlottesville in 2018– Mercedes Herrero and Miriam Halpern (Charlottesville, VA): Interactive installation
Dirt & Desire: Matters of Difference: Matters in Common – Sally Labern, the drawing shed (London, England): Live Art and Instagram performance
Fire & Ice – Pedro Lasch (Durham, NC): Visual installation
Team Photo – Avery Lawrence (Charlottesville, VA): Photo and picnic
Blessings and Compassion From Mother Cabrini, Saint of the Immigrants – LuLu LoLo (New York, NY): Interactive Performance
Tell Me What Matters – Chicho Lorenzo (Charlottesville, VA): Interactive visual improvisation
Poe Streaks the Lawn – The Big Head Brigade, Megan Marlatt and Ed Miller (Charlottesville, VA): Performance art
PINKmentation – Carolina Mayorga (Washington, D.C.): Performance Art
The People’s Portrait– Ed Miller (Charlottesville, VA): Sculpture workshop
WE ARE ALL HUNGRY – Linda Mary Montano (Saugerties, NY): Performance art
The Theater of Healing – Lydia Moyer (Coveville, VA): Sound installation
Actuation III – Will Mullany (Richmond, VA): Sound installation
Historical Matters – Leslie Scott-Jones (Charlottesville, VA): Fife and drum parade
Re/Visions – Tanja Softić (Charlottesville, VA): Visual installation
Does Matter Matter? – Patty Swygert (Earlysville, VA): Interactive art installation
Beast Project – Annie Temmink (Charlottesville, VA): Performance art
Move Along, Nothing to See Here – Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell (Charlottesville, VA): Performance installation with collaborating artists Deandra McDonald, Edwina Herring, and Hoshin Hunt
Pyre – Marisa Williamson (New York, NY): Visual installation

EVENT SUMMARY
Date: April 5 and April 6
Time: 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Place: UVA Grounds (April 5) and Downtown Mall (April 6)
Tickets: Free.

EVENT ITINERARY
Artist Panel
Thursday, March 29, 2018
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Open Grounds // 1400 University Ave.

Art in Odd Places 2018: MATTER on Grounds
Thursday, April 5, 2018
9:00 am – 9:00 pm
University of Virginia

Art in Odd Places: MATTER in Town
Friday, April 6, 2018
9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Downtown Mall

AiOP LEADERSHIP
Ed Woodham has been active in community art, education, and civic interventions across media and culture for over thirty-five years. Responding to the constriction of civil liberties, Woodham created the project Art in Odd Places, presenting visual and performance art to reclaim public spaces in New York City and beyond. Woodham is on the faculty of Wilson College’s MFA program and teaches workshops in politically based public performances at NYU Hemispheric Institute for EMERGENYC and at the School of Visual Arts in NYC for City as Site: Performance and Social Intervention. He was a 2013 Blade of Grass Fellow in Social Engagement. In 2016, he was commissioned to create a socially engaged work for Jamaica FLUX at The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning in Queens, NY and was awarded a commission by The Gowanus Public Arts Initiative to create The Keepers in his longtime neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn. In 2016-17, he was an artist-in-residence at the Department of Art, Appalachian State University in Boone, NC and a 2017 resident at Hambidge Arts Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia. Currently, he is the UVA Arts Board artist-in-residence at the Department of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

The Arts Board of the University of Virginia is currently composed of twelve female students and four faculty members and advisors who have coordinated this yearlong process to bring AiOP to Charlottesville. More information about current members of the board can be found here.

CREDITS
Art in Odd Places 2018: MATTER Charlottesville is organized and curated by a partnership between AiOP founder and director Ed Woodham, the UVA Arts Board, and Charlottesville community art partners.

The Arts Board is a cooperative effort between the McIntire Department of Music, the McIntire Department of Fine Art, the Department of Drama, the University of Virginia Art Museum, and the Vice Provost for the Arts, Office of the Dean of Students, Student Activities, and the University Programs Council.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA ARTS BOARD
The Arts Board of the University of Virginia (UVA) is a student-run board that presents an outstanding artist, performance, and/or exhibition each year in a three-year rotation that includes drama, music, and visual arts. Its mission is to raise awareness of and appreciation for the arts among the student body.

The Arts Board selects twelve students and two faculty members. Student members include six from the presenting department, two students representing the arts from University Programs Council, and four students at-large. The faculty advisors include a representative from the presenting department and an advisor from the Office of the Dean of Students Student Activities.

CHARLOTTESVILLE COMMUNITY PARTNERS

The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative
Chroma Projects
The Garage
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
Live Arts Theater
McGuffey Art Center
New City Arts Initiative
Second Street Gallery

Photos for download are available HERE

Press Contacts: Doreen Devasia, 757-748-7401 or [email protected]
Ed Woodham, 347-350-4242 or [email protected]