BUREAU OF CHANGE | MAINSTREET
We are what we see.
New Orleans, public art, institutional critique, education, civil rights, social justice, human rights, higher education, social practice, research based art, digital media, BUREAU of CHANGE, Margot Herster, documentary, New Orleans, collaborative media, social media, art, activism, photography, interactive, social media, Margot Herster, Margot Hester, Margaret, Herster, Hester, education not guaranteed, Louisiana
4
archive,category,category-mainstreet,category-4,wp-theme-_minimum,ajax_updown,page_not_loaded

MAINSTREET

Curator Bill Arning talks to critic John D’Addario about BUREAU’s “Amazing Grace” and his other top picks in Louisiana Contemporary

Posted by BUREAU of CHANGE in Exhibitions, LIVELIHOODS, MAINSTREET, SECURITY

Image credit: Installation view, BUREAU of CHANGE, Amazing Grace (ft. Barack Obama), in Louisiana Contemporary at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 2016 (left); Old Glory Holes and Pussy Riot by Dan Tague (right)

John D’Addario talks to curator Bill Arning, Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston about top picks, including BUREAU’s Amazing Grace, for Louisiana Contemporary, which A’ddario defines as “the Southern-inflected version of New York City’s Whitney Biennial: an opportunity to examine the currents of the regional art scene through the lens of a particular curatorial eye.”

 
Arning says what he calls the “unlikely relevance of abstraction” and “obsessiveness and the power of accumulation” are two more common themes which links several of the works on display.

 
With dozens of works by nearly 50 artists, there’s a lot to take in. But Arning has some advice for visitors wanting to make the most of their visit to the show.

 
“Take the time to watch the two longish videos,” said Arning. “Both Xavier Juarez and Adrione Domino are gifted filmmakers and use their performers for great emotional effect.” 

“BUREAU of CHANGE’s short video comments on the hope and frustrations of the Obama years, in which the president’s inspiring voice is countered by the horror of so many young black men either killed or incarcerated. On a more positive note, Paul Rizzo, Max Sizeler, Peter Horjus, Brian Barbieri, Chris Berntsen and Arthur Severio depict the joy of queer lives today and exploring so many new possibilities.”

 

Download Article: CONTEMPORARY VISION: Social issues at the forefront of annual Ogden show by John D’Addario, The Advocate, August 24, 2016

 

26 Aug 2016 no comments / READ MORE

Aug 6–Sept 18 | BUREAU’s hip hop gospel Amazing Grace ft. Barack Obama at the Ogden Museum

Posted by BUREAU of CHANGE in COLORSOFLOVE, Exhibitions, MAINSTREET, SECURITY

August 6–September 18, 2016
Ogden Museum of Southern Art

925 Camp St, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Opening White Linen Night, Julia Street Block Party, August 6, 6-9PM
Hours: 10AM-5PM every day but Tuesday
Free to Louisiana residents on Thursdays from 10AM-5PM

 

BUREAU of CHANGE invites you to the New Orleans debut of our latest work, Amazing Grace featuring Barack Obama, at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in the exhibition Louisiana Contemporary.

 

Amazing Grace featuring Barack Obama is a rap gospel media installation that memorializes Black lives lost to racially influenced violence and voices reactions among the living.

 

Soundtrack | Drawing from White House archives, the beat and chorus samples the President’s voice as he sings “Amazing Grace” for the eulogy of Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of nine Black women and men murdered in 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina.  Rap lyrics and jazzy gospel vocals by a New Orleans musician and his mother bring home emotions from Cleveland to Charleston to Baton Rouge, as well as the impact of viral witness video of police shootings in Black Lives Matter activism.

 

Visuals |  A Black man costumed as the Statue of Liberty walks New Orleans’ streets, passing Confederate monuments, several of which City Council deemed a “public nuisance” after the Charleston Church shooting and slated for removal to a museum. Images sourced from news and social media online recall the lives and deaths of Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Pastor Clementa Pickney, Reverend Sharonda Singleton, Myra Thompson, Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Tywanza Sanders and Reverend Daniel Simmons, Sr.

ABOUT BUREAU of CHANGE

Based in New Orleans, BUREAU of CHANGE is a collaborative digital media studio that creates, curates and exhibits socially and politically engaged projects. We bring together artists and non-artists to collaborate while expanding skills in technology, creative communication and civic entrepreneurship.

 

ABOUT LOUISIANA CONTEMPORARY

Louisiana Contemporary is an annual event that promotes contemporary art practices in the state of Louisiana, provides exhibition space for the exposition of living artists’ work, and engages a contemporary audience that recognizes the vibrant visual culture of Louisiana and the role of New Orleans as a rising, international art center. Bill Arning, Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, selected works for the 2016 exhibition.

 

ABOUT THE OGDEN MUSEUM

Located in the vibrant Warehouse Arts District of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world and is recognized for its original exhibitions, public events, and educational programs which examine the development of visual art alongside Southern traditions of music, literature, and culinary heritage to provide a comprehensive story of the South. Established in 1999 and in Stephen Goldring Hall since 2003, the Museum welcomes over 77,000 visitors annually, and attracts diverse audiences through its broad range of programming including exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, and concerts which are all part of its mission to broaden the knowledge, understanding, interpretation, and appreciation of the visual arts and culture of the American South.

 

JULIA STREET BLOCK PARTY
300–700 blocks of Julia Street and throughout the Arts District New Orleans
Free Admission | 5:30–9:30pm

Exhibition Openings at more than 20 Galleries & Museums

Cocktails; Cuisine from 25 Local Restaurants

Cox Cool Down Lounge

24 Jul 2016 no comments / READ MORE

BUREAU of CHANGE presents FIELD TELEPHONE: The Opening Act in Southern Rep’s BOUDIN

Posted by BUREAU of CHANGE in EDU, HUMANRESOURCES, MAINSTREET

BUREAU of CHANGE presented an original interactive installation in conjuncton with Southern Rep’s BOUDIN: The New Orleans Music Project, which ran from April 18–May 17 at the Ashé Power House Theater. For the commission, BUREAU founder and teaching artist Margot Herster directed FIELD TELEPHONE: THE OPENING ACT with talented young artists: Steven Pedeaux, digital cultures writer, researcher, producer, BFA LSU Digital Art; Kareem Henry, pastor, songwriter, computer science student at ITT; and K.G., rap musician, drafting and design student at ITT

 

 

18 Apr 2015 no comments / READ MORE

The Advocate reviews BUREAU of CHANGE: Social Services as “best street art on P.3+ menu”

Posted by BUREAU of CHANGE in MAINSTREET, SECURITY

The Advocate

The 24/7 Part of Prospect.3
SEEN on the STREET

BY JOHN D’ADDARIO | SPECIAL TO THE ADVOCATE

“But it’s a piece by the New Orleans-based Bureau of Change that likely will find its way into the most Instagram feeds.

Against a selfie-ready expanse of mirrors, the words “We Are What We See” invite viewers to consider a list of provocative statements regarding the role of images in social media — and by extension, our own roles in creating them.

It’s the kind of self-reflective art that depends on the active participation of a viewer for its meaning. And like the best street art on the P.3+ menu this season, it’s definitely worth making the time to seek out.”

Read the full story at The Advocate

03 Jan 2015 no comments / READ MORE

BUREAU of CHANGE exhibits at Contemporary Arts Center

Posted by BUREAU of CHANGE in MAINSTREET

Piñata that belongs to Casa Borrega, a Mexico City heritage community center in New Orleans

HERE/HOME is an installation of objects of material culture borrowed from heritage centers across New Orleans.For the exhibit, the artist group BUREAU of CHANGE invited local heritage associations to participate in an exchange by selecting and loaning artifacts, artworks and objects of significance to their community to the BUREAU. The menagerie of objects gathered from cultural centers is featured at the Contemporary Arts Center. The installation transports objects of material culture from their original context – in semi-private spaces throughout the city – to form a unified public display.


BUREAU of CHANGE’s HERE/HOME project is exhibiting in the collective exhibition, TANK DRAMA: Deliberations from The Wet Grave, curated by Jan Gilbert. Artists working in a multiplicity of art forms—theater, writing, visual art, film, music, dance, and more—are brought together under the umbrella of The VESTIGES Project to present their work in the Lupin Foundation Gallery, along with scheduled events in the Freeport-McMoRan Theater and additional off-site venues.

These greatly varied works have evolved over the course of the past eight years, many winding their way through several iterations in different locales. The artists and works often traveled to cities with a high concentration of New Orleanians in diaspora, such as Houston and Atlanta. Others reached out to people and places with parallel coastal experiences and concerns. Some works passionately address issues such as global warming, public health, racism, and economic inequities, while others gently touch upon modes of peaceful escape, meanderings of memento mori, and metaphors and tools for intimate community healing and rebuilding.

Assembled together, these works are a potent representation of just some of the creative networks documenting, remembering, and re-visioning post-Katrina New Orleans. The ongoing efforts to think through the past while establishing fresh connections propels us toward new collaborative possibilities as we envision the future of New Orleans.

Contemporary Arts Center
900 Camp St. New Orleans, LA

Open July 6 – September 22, 2013. August 3rd is Whitney White Linen Night Art Openings & Outdoor Celebrations (6 – 9pm) up & down Julia Street & the New Orleans Arts District

05 Jul 2013 no comments / READ MORE