Scheduled to open in 2009, Art + Research, a two-year educational residency program in association with the University of Miami, is dedicated to advanced interdisciplinary research and practice in the field of art. The program's mission is to support the development of the world’s most promising emerging artists and further establish Miami as a vibrant and internationally recognized center for the arts.
Art + Research will bring together prominent artists and experts from around the world to think and produce cultural projects based on thematic issues of singular relevance to both art and society in general. The program will work closely with both local and international institutions, producing new research and works of art that will have impact within the art world while enhancing the Miami's cultural life. The prestige of the program and its distinguished cadre of world-renowned senior artists, visiting artists, and experts will deepen the work of the resident participants and help them on their career paths. For the affiliated university community, the program will be a laboratory for new ideas and will offer the possibility for students and faculty to interact with Art + Research's residents and visitors. The greater Miami community will have the opportunity to see the works, attend special events, and, in the case of local institutions and cultural producers, interact with and collaborate with the program's residents.
Over a two-year period, Anaphiel Foundation sponsored seven symposia as a forum for nearly 80 of the world’s leading artists, educators, architects, and technologists to frame the issues and subsequently inform the creation of the Art + Research program.
The final operating plan for Art + Research was developed during a four-day design charette lead by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of University of Miami’s School of Architecture, and Steven Henry Madoff, a member of the program's Founding Faculty and a Senior Critic at Yale University’s School of Art. Charette facilitators led a team through a series of discussions and problem-solving exercises that resulted in an initial design and operating plan for the program. Charette participants included: Daniel Birnbaum, rector of the Stadelschule Art Academy in Frankfurt and director of its Portikus Gallery; Guadalupe Echevarria, director of the Ecole des Beaux Art in Bordeaux, France; Liam Gillick, artist; and Matthew Higgs, director of White Columns Gallery in New York. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation funded the Institute planning process.
Art + Research is fortunate to have the benefit of six founding faculty members who are internationally recognized artists, curators, and critics with experience in graduate or post-graduate arts education. Daniel Birnbaum, Liam Gillick, Guadalupe Echevarria, Matthew Higgs, Steven Henry Madoff, and Rirkrit Tiravanija constitute the founding faculty and will provide leadership in the development of Art + Research’s programming, facilities, and operations. Upon opening of the Institute in 2009, founding faculty members will work closely with the program's director. Throughout each year, these faculty will spend time with the program's participants, as well as provide ongoing consultation to staff on the program's operations and initiatives. They will also assist in identifying, recruiting, and selecting resident artists, visiting artists, and experts.
Art + Research's educational program will be simple, flexible, and integrated into the Miami community. The program will consist of a two-year program that entails core activities in art research and production. Based upon the theme chosen for each two-year cycle, significant emerging artists from around the world will be selected to reside in Miami for two years, where they will be given studio or other working space at the program's facilities, plus a stipend and housing. These resident artists will work side by side with senior artists whose interests also relate to the theme. Visiting artists and relevant experts will come throughout the cycle to lecture and consult. Selected by Art + Research's staff and advisors, each theme will touch on an important issue to the art world and to society at large, offering rich promise for research and cultural production.
As part of the program, seminars, critiques, conferences, exhibitions, and publications will be core activities. Artists will have the opportunity to work on their own art, work collaboratively with others at Art + Research, and produce works with others in the Miami community. Engaging with community is an important value of the program. Participating artists and experts will have ample opportunities to engage with the community by partnering with local institutions and use the city as “invented space” to create works and enter into public dialogues.
Art + Research is unlque, while drawing on some of the most innovative art programs in recent years, such as De Ateliers in Amsterdam; Charles Esche's now defunct Proto-Academy at the Edinburgh College of Art; Clementine Deliss's Future Academy, now in residence at the Edinburgh College of Art; the outgrowth of Manifesta 6, Unitednationsplaza in Berlin;ademy project, and Rirkrit Tiravanija's art commune, The Land, in Thailand. These programs reflect contemporary art-making's fluidity, intellectual and conceptual foundation, and community orientation.
Every two years a group of eight to twelve working artists in the early stages of their careers will be accepted as resident artists of Art + Research. Submission of a written application and portfolio as well as an interview will be required for consideration and admission.The criteria for selection will be internationally diverse, promising talent, committed to research and art, according to a clearly identified theme. Because the program's aim is to create a community that will address the issues presented by the thematic area of concern, the applicant pool will be examined as a group, and final selection of individual resident artists will be based in part on their anticipated contribution to the program's community as a whole.
In order to ensure that an artist’s financial situation is not a factor in participation, Art + Research will offer the program at no cost. along with a studio or other working space, a stipend, and housing. Each resident artist will commit to fully participate in the program for the two-year period.