The Lang Collection goes public

The Friday Foundation announced today the destination of the Lang Collection. The true value of the gifts to the Seattle Art Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery is that the artworks are now available to the public.

Working as a representative and advisor to the foundation, I understood the brilliance of the Langs’ decisions in assembling a remarkable collection in just twelve years. They acquired artworks to live with them and embraced provocative artworks that require attention, and when given it, become so rewarding to the viewer. 

The Friday Foundation was formed to support arts organizations following the passion and philanthropy of Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang . This announcement is a peak in the thorough process the Directors undertook to realize in the present the long-expressed and lived vision of the Langs .

Seattle Art Museum gets major gift: A prized modern-art collection estimated at $400 million

The Lang Collection

October 2020 news

This month, META ARTE turned 15 years old, a moment to consider and celebrate - while distracted by the challenges of the day, from the pandemic to the elections. This month also brings good news to the arts in Seattle. I have been working with the Friday Foundation for a couple of years now, and today it announced the first round of gifts honoring Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang. See Seattle Times story.

12!

META ARTE is twelve years old!

I am delighted to have the opportunity to accompany people on art adventures, wherever they may take us.

A quote in Bloomberg / Businessweek

Advisers to the Ultra-Rich Try to Treat Art as Just Another Asset

The issue of collecting for investment deserves discussion. I am weary when the conversation veers away from art and what art does and can do, to focus solely on financial return. Of course, a collector should acquire with an understanding of value in the market, like they would with most other significant investments.

In my work, I help build art collections that are significant to the people who own them. I want them to hang the work on their walls (and place it on the floor and see it in action) and to love what they see, and enjoy what the artworks do for them and for others. The META in META ARTE stands for context: people and places (not vaults); which is where art exists.

META ARTE is 10!

On the tenth anniversary of being in business, I am grateful to all who have been part of the journey so far: clients, collaborators, and artists.

I started META ARTE to offer art advisory services to clients with diverse needs. It’s been a great opportunity to help in their collections and programs’ evolution.

Thank you!

Jacob Dahlgren at Barkley Village and Bellingham

Last week Jacob Dahlgren delivered his sculpture, CONSTRUCTING A NEW WORLD, at Barkely Village. As a child growing up in Sweden, Dahlgren imagined and drew the trees from which tropical or exotic fruits would grow. This sculpture combines his early imagination with his ability to create abstract objects. The sculpture is sited at the corner of Barkley Boulevard and Newmarket Street. We are proud to be part of this effort.

Later in the week, Jacob conducted a series of workshops and led a group of adventurous participants in his performance, DEMONSTRATION, departing from the Whatcom Museum Lightcatcher building, going by the Bellingham Farmer's Market, the Port (old Georgia Pacific site, and returning to where we started.

A surprise meeting: artist Christen Mattix

Yesterday I went to pick-up Jacob Dahlgren for his workshops at Allied Arts of Whatcom County. On the way there, I saw a woman sitting on a bench knitting the longest cord, coiled across the street in a hose reel. I told Jacob that I had seen an artist on the street and we needed to stop by and see what she was doing. Christen Mattix was delightful as she told us about her project, which started in 2012; knitting a 1/2 mile link from this bench to the bay - and in the meantime engaging with time, place, and community. I find it very poetic and actually love the art: the process and the object.

Jacob Dahlgren performance DEMONSTRATION in Bellingham

We are delighted that Jacob Dahlgren's performance, DEMONSTRATION, will take place in Bellingham on June 27, 2015 at 11 AM.

See more details at Dahlgren DEMONSTRATION Bellingham.

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Drawing both from abstraction and from a form of protest, the artwork represents the art medium of social practice, which invites collaboration with individuals, communities and institutions. The social interaction completes the work, which afterwards resides in the participants and passersby memories and in documentation.

from the artist:

The event is titled Demonstration and includes making placards and marching together. The placards are reproductions of paintings by the artist Olle Baer­tling (1911-1981). Baertling’s paintings are all abstract. The act of demonstrating takes on a different meaning; it moves in and out of its original context. The idea behind this performance is both formal and spiritual, which also corresponds with Baertling’s work.

The placards become mobile paintings and each participant brings his or her reason for carrying it around the city. This is not a political manifestation. It is (more) about making a public artwork together. It is about rehumanizing the public sphere. The placards carry no explicit message, but can be read as something collective. A collective past in the modernist ideas they represent, and in a collective future that encourages us all to take part in creating our collective landscape.

 

Dawoud Bey's project for UW Tacoma recognized by the Public Art Network of Americans for the Arts

We heard yesterday that Dawoud Bey's project for the University of Washington Tacoma, Strangers-Community: Tacoma was included in this year's Public Art Network Year in Review at the Americans for the Arts Conference in Nashville. Thanks to Dawoud for making such amazing work, to the Washington State Arts Commission for allowing us to push the limits of their process and to the late UWT Chancellor, Deborah Friedman for her vision and tenacity.

Dawoud Bey photo shoot at King's Bookstore in Tacoma, Washington

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Kurt's been working with the Washington State Arts Commission's Art in Public Places program and the University of Washington Tacoma to bring photographer Dawoud Bey to the campus. As a continuation of his ongoing project photographing pairs of strangers, Dawoud is in Tacoma this week, creating something like a collective portrait of the community. He spent yesterday at King's Bookstore doing his magic with five different sets of subjects, aided by a group of four great UW Tacoma students, the staff of King's and a really friendly cat named Miko.

Here's a link to ArtsWA: http://www.arts.wa.gov/public-art​