Artist Talk: Jen Delos Reyes
Artist Talks on Public Art and the Environment
Event Details
In partnership with Small School, an art-based, alternative education platform featuring prominent national and international visiting artists, we invite you to join us at the Chapel for a series of stimulating and thought-provoking conversations on public art and the environment at Dix Park.
Featured Artist: Jen Delos Reyes
Talk Title: Class In Progress: L.A.N.D (Land, Art, Nature, Design)
In the spirit of Small School’s belief in alternative art education platforms, De Los Reyes will be sharing a glimpse into her own classroom. Class In Progress: L.A.N.D (Land, Art, Nature, Design) outlines the syllabus, content, motivations, and assignments from her forthcoming class. In this moment of climate collapse the relationship of art to the land has an urgent new meaning. L.A.N.D surveys artist’s engagement with land from a material, historical, spiritual and political perspective.
The talk will consist of twelve 5 minute lectures that are a portrait of the weekly progression of the semester. Attendees will leave with an in progress reading list, and draft assignments and engagements.
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Location: The Chapel at Dix Park, 1030 Richardson Drive, Raleigh, NC 27603
Tickets
Free to attend. Seating is limited. Registration is required.
Registration opens 2 weeks in advance at 12:00 pm.
This program is free to the public thanks to Dix Park Conservancy donors.
Featured Artist Bio
Jen Delos Reyes was born in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and educated first in its local music scene of the mid-90’s infused with the energy of Riot grrrl and DIY, and then in its university. [1] How she works today is rooted in what she learned in her formative years as a show organizer, listener, creator of zines, and band member. Graduate work at the University of Regina made the space possible for her to see her work as an organizer as a key component of her continued creative work.
Jen Delos Reyes is a 'farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts'[2], educator, writer, and radical community arts organizer. She is defiantly optimistic, a friend to all birds, and proponent that our institutions can become tender and vulnerable. Her practice is as much about working with institutions as it is about creating and supporting sustainable artist-led culture.
Delos Reyes worked within Portland State University from 2008-2014 to create the first flexible residency Art and Social Practice MFA program in the United States and devised the curriculum that focused on place, engagement, and dialogue. The flexible residency program allowed for artists embedded in their communities to remain on site throughout their course of study.
She worked with the Portland Art Museum from 2009-14 on a series of programs and integrated systems that allowed artists to rethink what can happen in a museum, and reinvigorate the idea of the museum as a public space.
From 2015-2022 Delos Reyes was the Associate Director of the School of Art & Art History of the University of Illinois, Chicago’s only public research university, where she taught in the departments of Art and Museum and Exhibition Studies.
She was the Director and founder of Open Engagement, an international annual conference on socially engaged art that was active between 2007-2019 and hosted ten conferences in two countries at locations including the Queens Museum in New York. After over a decade of large scale organizing she is now focused on work on the scale of her life.
She is the author of I’m Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song: How Artists Make and Live Lives of Meaning, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Public Engagement But Were Afraid to Ask, and Defiantly Optimistic: Turning Up in a World on Fire.
Delos Reyes divides her time between Chicago, IL where she is the founder of Garbage Hill Farm, and Ithaca, NY where she is an Associate Professor of Art at Cornell University.
Image: Garbage Hill Farm Illustration, Jen Delos Reyes
Directions and Parking
- Via Western Boulevard: Enter at Hunt Drive or S. Boylan Avenue
- Via Lake Wheeler Road: Enter at Umstead Drive
- Follow Signs towards The Chapel
- Parking is located in the lots next to and in front of the Chapel. ADA parking is available.
- Click on the image below for an enlarged parking map.
Accessibility
Dix Park continues to strive to be accessible and welcoming for visitors, including those with disabilities. Currently, portions of Dix Park, including some areas where programs and events occur, have uneven surfaces and are not fully accessible. Accessibility is a primary focus for early park improvements and all future planning and development.
Parking: ADA parking spaces for the Chapel are to the left and out front of the building. ADA parking spaces are available in all lots.
Chapel Entrance: Ramp and ADA push button activated door is located to the left of the front of the building.
Restrooms: Indoor accessible restrooms are available in the Chapel.
Programs and events: Raleigh Parks Inclusion Services works with community members to support participation. To request a program modification based on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), please complete and submit the Accommodation Request Form or contact Inclusion Services staff at 919-996-2147 or ParksInclusion@raleighnc.gov.
Questions?
Contact Dix Park Staff at 919-996-3255 or events@dixpark.org