The Back-of-the-Envelope Design Contest

Designed by Robert A.M. Stern, Dean of the Architecture School at Yale University, The George W. Bush Presidential Library will be located in Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. The construction of the building is likely to cost $500 million.

Holding its own design contest on the Presidential Library, The Chronicle of Higher Education invited its readers to submit their works on the backs of envelopes. Here is the link to some beautiful one-liners.

From the Critique of Institutions...

"Representations of the 'art world' as wholly distinct from the 'real world,' like representations of the 'institution' as discrete and separate from 'us,' serve specific functions in art discourse. They maintain an imaginary distance between the social and economic interests we invest in through our activities and the euphemized artistic, intellectual, and even political 'interests' (or disinterests) that provide those activities with content and justify their existence. And with these representations, we also reproduce the mythologies of volunteerist freedom and creative omnipotence that have made art and artists such attractive emblems for neoliberalism's entrepreneurial, 'ownership-society' optimism. That such optimism has found perfect artistic expression in neo-Fluxus practices like relational aesthetics, which are now in perpetual vogue, demonstrates the degree to which what [Peter] Burger called the avant-garde's aim to integrate 'art into life praxis' has evolved into a highly ideological form of escapism. but this is not just about ideology. We are not only symbols of the rewards of the current regime: In this art market, we are its direct beneficiaries."

Andrea Fraser, "From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique," Artforum, vol. 44, no. 1, September 2005

Where We Are Now

"Where We Are Now is a network of cultural, educational, and activist organizations and individuals dedicated to developing coordinated strategies to raise people’s awareness of the multitude of art political activities in New York City. Our goal is to demonstrate how powerful critical voices still exist, ones that cry out for global justice, agency and participation. Using the pivotal moment of the 2008 presidential election, we share a sense that the times have changed and are ours to claim. Through activities as diverse as art exhibitions, days of decentralized action, street performances and pedagogical conferences, we seek to gauge the status of the political in contemporary art, and consider how we may act as resources to one another and to other communities within and beyond New York City.

Where We Are Now hosts monthly network-wide meetings, as well as working group meetings for each of the three working groups--Conference and Pedagogy, Communications, and Arts in Action. The larger network-wide meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month, from 6:30-8:30pm at the assembly hall of Judon Church by Washington Square Park. The first hour is a network-wide meeting with updates about endorsed projects, report-backs from the three working groups, and discussion. In the second hour working groups will break-out for smaller working meetings. In between monthly meetings, working groups hold meetings in various locations in the city, to plan for the Where We Are Now conference, day of arts in action, and other network projects."