Opening Reception for We Are Nature: Selected Earthlings from the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection
October 29, 2024
5:00pm
Annenberg Center
Sky or Blue Grid, Lithograph, Herb Jackson (American, born 1945). Courtesy The Penn Art Collection, University of Pennsylvania.
Please join The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation on Tuesday, October 29, for a reception celebrating the opening of We Are Nature: Selected Earthlings from the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection, an exhibition and event series curated by Daniel Tucker, organized in collaboration with the Eco-Social Salon, Site-Seeing, and Screening Series, and produced in partnership with Penn Live Arts and the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection.
This program will also feature a presentation by art historian Rebecca Zorach, commemorating the author’s recently published Temporary Monuments: Art, Land, and America’s Racial Enterprise (University of Chicago Press, 2024).
- Tuesday, October 29, 5:00 PM
- The Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut Street (enter from the South Plaza)
University of Pennsylvania
Registration is requested but not required.
Remarks will begin at 5:15 PM, with a reception to follow.
About the exhibition
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is pleased to present We Are Nature, an exhibition and event series curated by Daniel Tucker and organized in collaboration with the Eco-Social Salon, Site-Seeing, and Screening Series, an event series and learning community that has convened irregularly in Philadelphia since 2023, presenting ecologically-themed artwork and sponsoring related excursions.
We Are Nature presents a wide selection of artworks from the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection, drawing connections between varied representations of nature and depicting living beings alongside sites as diverse as urban streets, recreational sites, extractive industries, farms, universities, and parks. The title of the exhibition is inspired by campaigns to change the definition of nature in English dictionaries and from We Are ‘Nature’ Defending Itself, a 2008 book by Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan that chronicles the story of ZAD, a resistant land occupation emerging out of a decades-long struggle in France.
We Are Nature takes place in conjunction with the Penn Live Arts 2024–25 season Beyond Boundaries and contributes to the rich conversation offered by the season’s programs with an exhibit that considers the inclusion of artworks by international and local artists, all donated to the university art collection.
We Are Nature: Selected Earthlings from the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection is produced in partnership with Penn Live Arts and the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection, and will be on view in The Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center, October 1, 2024–February 28, 2025.
Temporary Monuments by Rebecca Zorach
The opening reception for We Are Nature will feature a presentation by guest speaker and art historian Rebecca Zorach, celebrating the recent publication of Temporary Monuments: Art, Land, and America’s Racial Enterprise (University of Chicago Press, 2024).
Confronting closely held assumptions of art history with Temporary Monuments, Zorach looks to the intersections of art, nature, race, and place, working through a series of symbolic spaces—the museum, the wild, islands, gardens, home, walls, and borders—to open and extend conversations on the political implications of art and design.
Rebecca Zorach is Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art and Art History in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University, with affiliations in programs in American Studies and Environmental Policy and Culture. Her books include Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold: Abundance and Excess in the French Renaissance; The Passionate Triangle; and Art for People’s Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago 1965–1975.
For more information or to purchase a copy of Temporary Monuments, please visit The University of Chicago Press website.
The Arts Lounge
The Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center is located on the University of Pennsylvania campus at 3680 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. Visitors can view exhibitions at The Arts Lounge during Penn Live Arts box office hours, Monday–Friday, 11 AM–4 PM, and anytime the Annenberg Center is open for performances and programs.
Acknowledgments
Essential partners in the work of organizing and presenting We Are Nature include Christopher A. Gruits at Penn Live Arts; Lynn Smith Dolby, the Director of the Penn Art Collection and the collections interns Jordi Jackson and Mikayla Ervin; Atelier Fine Art Services; and Matt Neff and Sharon Hayes of Stuart Weitzman School of Design. This exhibit would not have been possible without the staff of The Sachs Program, including John McInerney, Chloe Reison, Tamara Suber, and Elizabeth Shaw.
Exhibition Installation: Emily Elliott and Scott Currie
Exhibition Design and Curation: Daniel Tucker