PUBLIC ART IN RUSSIA

CEC ArtsLink sees public art as a uniquely powerful means of engaging new audiences while activating and encouraging young creative talent. For this on-going activity, our program staff, together with visionary US artists such as Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Kendal Henry, Charlie Todd, Marina Zurkow and many others, has developed discussions and hands-on projects which have lead to the successful production of exciting new work in the public sphere throughout Russia. CEC ArtsLink has also helped position talented Russian artists within cutting edge public projects here in the US.

In the spring of 2009, Luisa Caldwell and Kendal Henry conducted workshops with young artists in Krasnoyarsk, and Clarina Bezzolla collaborated with young people to create public art projects in the streets of Nizhny Novgorod. In June, St. Petersburg artist and curator Pavel Shugurov attended the Americans for the Art’s Public Art Network’s Annual Meeting in Seattle where he met and conferred with dozens of artists and arts specialists. In 2008, the Public Art initiative brought New York artist Jason Eppink to Yekaterinburg. There, he held a riveting, week-long workshop on the properties of light and optics. The workshop resulted in the creation of new, highly visible, public art works in Ekaterinburg.

Work in the public realm takes many forms; in 2007, Izhevsk-based ice sculptor and artist Anfim Khanikov traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to join US artists Marina Zurkow and Katie Salan for a public art project. Ekaterina Basalaeva and Ilya Belenkov, dancers from the Wampeter group in Novosibirsk continued their collaboration with New York-based dance ensemble Tryst. They performed a site-specific piece together at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Sitelines Festival.

For more project details, visit Past Projects in Russia.