Guggenheim to host live online discussion of Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum launches the Guggenheim Forum, a new series of moderated online discussions among experts from a variety of fields that will occur in conjunction with major museum exhibitions.

The inaugural Guggenheim Forum, titled Between the Over- and Under-designed, coincides with Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, an exhibition co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on view through August 23.  The forum runs June 22 through July 2 with live chat sessions scheduled with Aric Chen and panelists Arjo Klamer and Ellen Lupton on Thursday, June 25, 11 a.m. EDT and with exhibition co-curator David van der Leer on Tuesday, June 30, 2 p.m. EDT. 

New York– and Beijing-based Aric Chen, is an independent journalist, critic, and curator. Chen is currently a contributing editor for I.D., Surface, Interior Design, Fast Company, and Metropolitan Home magazines and frequently writes for the New York Times, Metropolis, Art + Auction, among other publications. Sarah Herda is Executive Director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and former Director/Curator of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, a nonprofit exhibition space in New York. Arjo Klamer is Professor of the Economics of Art and Culture at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the world’s only university faculty chairperson in the field of cultural economics. Ellen Lupton is Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and author of numerous books on design, including Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things (with Julia Lupton, St. Martin’s Press, 2009).  David van der Leer is Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design at the Guggenheim Museum and co-curator of Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. Van der Leer frequently lectures and writes for publications including Domus, Mark, The Architect’s Newspaper, Azure, and PIN-UP.

Each Guggenheim Forum will span two weeks, with one or more live chat sessions between its participants and site visitors offered during that period. To continue public dialogue on the exhibition-inspired topic, visitors are welcomed to submit their comments at any time, and select comments will be posted.

“As a critical extension of our work at the museum, the online Guggenheim Forum will bring to bear multiple perspectives on specific topics, prompting the emergence of new themes and fascinating digressions related to our exhibition and public programming,” said Nancy Spector, Chief Curator at the museum.

The Forum addresses the subject of how design can enhance or detract from everyday life. How might contemporary architects, designers, urban planners, and the rest of us attempt to build as Wright did, in harmonious integration with the environment, particularly in the planet’s burgeoning cities? Over the course of a gradually unfolding, two-week conversation, the participants will focus upon a variety of questions: What is a well-designed space? How do we measure its value—economically, sociologically, emotionally, or in other ways? To what extent should the person who uses a space be involved in helping design it, or in creating his or her own space? What can we learn from different design solutions throughout history and across cultures?

Future topics on Guggenheim Forum are to include discussion related to Kandinsky, a full-scale retrospective of the artist’s work that will be on view at the Guggenheim from September 18, 2009, through January 13, 2010. Guggenheim Forum may be found online beginning June 22 at www.guggenheim.org/forum.

About Guggenheim.org
Guggenheim.org, completely redesigned and re-launched in November 2008, received the 2009 Webby Award for Best Cultural Institution Web Site. Along with the launch of the Guggenheim Forum, new features include videos of exhibitions, a photo gallery of select events, and a current initiative entitled Design It: Shelter Competition, offered in collaboration with Google. Guggenheim Forum is part of a yearlong celebration of art, architecture, and innovation that marks the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim’s landmark building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and it aims to continue to develop the museum’s award-winning web presence in innovative ways, to open the museum to new audiences, and to catalyze discussion on subjects related to the arts, architecture, and design.

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation owns and operates the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, and also provides programming and management for two other museums in Europe that bear its name: the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. In early 2013 the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a 452,000-square-foot museum of modern and contemporary art designed by architect Frank Gehry, is scheduled to open.

VISITOR INFORMATION
Admission: Adults $18.00, students/seniors (65+) $15.00, members and children under 12 free. Admission includes audio-guide tour.
Museum Hours: Sunday to Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. On Saturdays beginning at 5:45 p.m., the museum hosts Pay What You Wish. Closed Thursday.

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June 18, 2009
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Lauren Van Natten, Senior Publicist
Claire Laporte, Media Relations Associate

212 423 3840 or e-mail: pressoffice@guggenheim.org

For publicity images, visit www.guggenheim.org/pressoffice

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