September 20, 2011 — The University of Virginia is a remote screening partner for the Creative Time Summit, an annual conference that brings together artists, curators, writers and thinkers to discuss how their work engages pressing issues affecting our world. The more than 30 summit participants are socially engaged artists from around the world whose work blurs the lines between art and everyday life, emphasizing participation, dialogue and community engagement.

As part of the new Arts in Action on Grounds initiative, U.Va. is one of nine universities and art spaces around the world to host a remote screening of  the Creative Time Summit on Sept. 23 in three sessions throughout the day. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to drop in on any session in full or part.

•    Opening Remarks, 10 a.m. in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
Nato Thompson, chief curator of Creative Time

•    Performance, 10:15-10:30 a.m. in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
My Barbarians is an interdisciplinary performance collective that draws from pop culture, history and mythology for their works, which range from video installations to site-specific plays, to musical events.

•    Keynote Presentation, 10:30-10:50 a.m. in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
Laura Flanders, host of Public Television's "The Laura Flanders Show," author of numerous books, writer for The Huffington Post and The Nation and a regular contributor on MSNBC, will give a keynote presentation.

•    Session 1 Panel Presentation, 10:50 a.m.-noon in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
Participants are:
Artist and writer Ted Purves, who investigates socially engaged art practice through projects that focus on localism, democracy and participation; 
Ultra-red, a sound collective founded by AIDS activists and sound artists Dont Rhine and Marco Larsen, which has since expanded to include artists, researchers and organizers with diverse political and artistic orientations; WochenKlausur, a group who addresses education, substance abuse, community development, labor market policy, voter rights, immigration, community medical issues and homelessness through small-scale interventions;
Common Room, an architect collaborative that approaches each commission as a way to re-evaluate what it means to inhabit a common or shared space, seeking architectural solutions that encourage teamwork, social interaction and reciprocity;
Decolonizing Architecture, a research office that explores the problems and potentiality associated with re-use, re-inhabitation and subversion of colonial structures in Palestine;
Neue Slowenische Kunst (German for "New Slovenian Art"), an artist collaborative whose projects comment on globalization, totalitarianism and society's misconception of democracy in Eastern Europe; and
Voina, a street art collective whose radical projects highlight political and authoritative injustices in Russia.

•    Session 2 Panel Presentation, 12:10-1:20 p.m. in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
Participants are:
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the artist-in-residence at New York City's Department of Sanitation since 1977, who orchestrates public projects that raise awareness about urban maintenance systems and the workers who sustain the urban environment;
Women on Waves, a nonprofit that blends social activism, contemporary art, political propaganda and media manipulation to empower women internationally;
Alan W. Moore, an art historian and activist whose work addresses cultural economies and groups and the politics of collectivity;
United Indian Health Services, founded as a place of healing that acknowledges the profound historical trauma American Indian communities have experienced. The organization seeks to empower its clients to be active participants in their own healthcare by forming long-term, trusting relationships among community members and emphasizes the importance of native beliefs and ceremonies in the healing process.
Dan S. Wang, an artist, writer and organizer who frequently works with others to create events, exhibitions and publications. He is a cofounder of Mess Hall, an experimental cultural center in Chicago that functions as an open space for art making, idea generation, exhibitions, workshops and lectures;
Andreas Siekmann, an artist, writer and curator who explores the process of privatization of public urban space through drawings, curated exhibitions, videos, models and public projects.

•    Presentation of the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, 1:20-2:20 p.m. in Campbell Hall, room 160
The prize honors an artist who has committed his or her life's work to promoting social justice in surprising and profound ways.

This year's award-winner Jeanne van Heeswijk creates confrontational community projects that transcend the traditional boundaries of art in duration, space, media and stratification, while rejecting art's autonomy by combining meetings, discussions, seminars, lectures and other forms of communication to convey her message. She will give a presentation from 2:40-3:10 p.m.

•    Session 3 Panel Presentation, 3:15-6:30 p.m. in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
Participants are:
Shannon Jackson, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, whose most recent book, "Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics" explores the sociopolitical use of experimental art-making, highlighting contemporary aesthetic discourse – primarily in visual and performance art – and its centrality to political activism and social practice;
Urban Bush Women, a group that unites dance and community, promoting the power of art to address issues of social justice;
Katerina Seda, who lives and works in Prague and Brno-Lisen, Czech Republic, creates public performances inspired by social environments within her native town;
Alternate ROOTS, a regional artist group dedicated to community-based arts initiatives and social and economic justice;
Appalshop, a nonprofit, multi-disciplinary organization that urges communities to solve problems through music, theater, spoken word, video, radio, photography and other media;
Darren O'Donnell, artist, writer, actor and city planner, who is the director and founder of Mammalian Diving Reflex, and the author of "Social Acupuncture," a manifesto that calls for a more socially and politically profound art and theater;
Theaster Gates, a sculptor, performance artist, urban planner and musician whose work bridges contemporary art, real estate, community development and spirituality.

•    Session 4 Presentations. 5-6:10 p.m. in Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library
Participants are:
Hou Hanru, a curator of Asian contemporary art who addresses contemporary practice, cultural phenomena and the conditions of artists living in the Asian diaspora from the perspective of hybridity and what he calls "in-betweenness;"
Long March Project, an ongoing initiative that organizes international exhibitions and projects, community-based educational programs and artist residencies;
Cybermohalla Ensemble, a group of young urban cultural practitioners based in media labs in informal settlements throughout Delhi, India, that focuses on the urban, producing books, broadsheets, installations, radio programs and blogs about the city;
Chemi Rosado Seijo, an artist who lives and works in Puerto Rico, weaves social commentary and humor juxtaposing architecture and the urban landscape, work and social action and art and its history;
Navin Rawanchaikul, who examines the relationship between specific local conditions and the ongoing process of globalization. His projects often incorporate social commentary, community interventions and recurring fictional narratives and characters;
Tahrir Documents, an ongoing effort to archive and translate activist papers from the 2011 Egyptian uprising and its aftermath. Materials for the project are collected from demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square and published in complete English translation alongside scans of the original documents;
Jeremy Deller, a London artist who works on events, films and publications that deal with history and explore the social dynamics of specific communities. He is perhaps best known for "The Battle of Orgreave," a 2001 historical re-enactment of the miner and police clash of 1984-85.

Closing remarks, 6:10-6:20 p.m.
Anne Pasternak, Creative Time president and artistic director and Nato Thompson, Creative Time chief curator.

For information about the event, contact Lindsey Turner at 434-243-8446 or ljt4b@virginia.edu. For details about participating artists, visit the Creative Time Summit website.