Critical Conversations is led by artists, teachers, and writers housed within the supportive framework of the University of Oregon’s Department of Art and The Ford Family Foundation. Without commercial concern, we turn toward writing that dwells on what is at stake in art and in Oregon’s visual arts ecology. Our approach is polyvocal in nature and aims to produce, well, Critical Conversations. We invite many eyes and minds to join us as we build this new digital space: an evolving record shaped by the places we live and work.

Subscribe to the list to keep in this world, won’t you? And find us on IG as well @criticalconversations.art


We will miss paper too, and from time to time we’ll create special limited-edition projects to thank our community. Make sure you are in the loop!


US

Critical Conversations is a platform for dialogue and inquiry that supports established artists and writers across Oregon. Developed in partnership between The Ford Family Foundation and the University of Oregon’s Center for Art Research, this initiative engages contemporary art spaces, statewide, to host prominent visiting curators and arts writers for studio visits, public lectures and community engagement. Our core commitment is to support the vital relationship between artists and those who interpret, contextualize and present art. Building on this foundation, Critical Conversations also convenes artists, curators and writers through gatherings and commissioned writing, creating space for dialog that reflects on contemporary issues shaping both the art world and society at large.

Executive Editors

Meagan Atiyeh
Senior Advisor to The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program

Tannaz Farsi
Critical Conversations Program Manager; Professor of Art, University of Oregon

Editorial Board

Shawna Lipton
Associate Professor; MA Chair, Critical Studies; Director, Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, PNCA at Willamette University

Ralph Pugay
Oregon Artist

Editorial Coordinator

Laura Butler Hughes
Critical Conversations Program Coordinator

Copy Editor: Laton Carter

Advised by: Carol Dalu, The Ford Family Foundation

Design: Omnivore

Website Development: Lukas Eigler-Harding

All content copyright the authors and artists

The Ford Family Foundation and the University of Oregon are located on the traditional homelands of Indigenous people whose communities have stewarded these lands since time immemorial. Following the arrival of European explorers, the Indigenous communities across Oregon experienced repeated displacement and dispossession through settler colonialism, including the United States government policies that forcibly removed Indigenous populations from their ancestral lands to reservations within and beyond Oregon. Today, the descendants of Oregon’s first people continue to make important contributions to communities, institutions, the state of Oregon, the United States, and the world. We commit to ongoing efforts to center Indigenous presence and knowledge, creativity, resilience, and resistance within the work we do.

Issues

Index

@criticalconversations.art
@uocenterforartresearch

Community