High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
C
AROLYN
P
!
S
PERANZA
P
UBLIC
A
RT
P
ORTFOLIO
In 1993 Carolyn Speranza was commissioned for
Literacy Windows,
the first in a seriesof public art that she would co-author with artist Lisa Link. Subsequent projects by the twoartists,
My Bread Tastes Sweeter
and
End of the Line: Building Bridges with Pittsburgh'sBusways
were published in Lucy Lippard's
Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in aMulticentered Society
and Malcolm Mile's
Uses of Decoration: Essays in the ArchitecturalEveryday.
End of the Line
toured Russia in the "Engaging the Urban Environment," exhibitionat the Centers for Contemporary Art in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Moscow.Speranza and Link were appointed fellows at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at CarnegieMellon, noted for their adoption of new uses of the computer in making art, their multi-strataand democratic approach to engaging non-artists in artistic collaboration, and being amongthe first to give public art an added, accessible dimension by using the World Wide Web.In 1990 Speranza began working with light in the forms of neon, projection andilluminated imagery. She turned to video in 1997 in her desire to make images move whilekeeping them illuminated. She built a block-long, video projection piece inside a traffictunnel for First Night Pittsburgh.
Urban Aquarium
was selected by Americans for the Arts forits 2001 "Year in Public Art," observing her unusual collaboration with a chiropractor, martialartists and a musician playing the theremin. Speranza's video work shifted to the narrativeform while a 2002 Heinz Endowments Creative Heights recipient at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.She continued her endeavor in public collaboration, however and close to a thousand peopleparticipated in making the film,
Sight of Stillness,
a series of meditation workshops atFilmmakers and in a symposium presenting scientific research on meditation, health andmedicine at the Carnegie Science Center.In its theme of health and healing,
Sight of Stillness
was preceded by its progenitor,
The Listening Project,
a sound, projection and video installation Speranza conceived for theSchneider Museum in Oregon.
The Listening Project
examined mind/body disorientation inthe information age, self-transformation and cross-gender communication issues.Speranza began exhibiting art in 1985 with solo and group shows followed byperformance work, screenings, telematic and web-based art exchanges. Lucy Lippard, RobertAtkins, Elizabeth K. Menon and British scholar, Malcolm Miles published her work in theiranthologies. Her collaborators include MIT author/scientist Alan Lightman and herbibliography includes the Los Angeles Times, New Art Examiner and Orion Afield. Speranzahas completed residencies at the Center for the Study of Health, Religion & Spirituality,Indiana State University, New Orleans Glassworks and Sculpture Space, New York. She hasheld the endowed, Stephen L. Barstow Artist in Residence position at Central MichiganUniversity and has received grants from the Heinz Endowments, NEA New Forms program,Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Central Michigan University and The Ohio State University.Speranza's artist books are in both the Carnegie Mellon and the Art Institute of ChicagoJoan Flasch Artist Book Collections. She has authored articles for the ARLIS Journal, ArtcomElectronic Network and has presented at the Metanexus Institute Conference, the InvencaoConference and the Museum Network Conference, among other symposia. She has developedcoursework and taught classes at Central Michigan University, Carnegie Mellon, CarlowUniversity, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, the Andy Warhol Museum and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. She has administered programming for the Wexner Center, the Greater ColumbusArts Council and the City of Pittsburgh's Arts in the Parks. Ms. Speranza lives and works inPittsburgh, Pa, an increasingly green city with a growing public art program.
CAROLYN
@
SPERANZA
.
NET
| 5855 A
LDERSON
S
TREET
| S
UITE
8 | P
ITTSBURGH
, PA 15217 | 412.403.4545
PAGE
2
OF
9
Invisible Clock
wascommissioned by the city of Manhattan Beach, just outsideof Los Angeles. Three pairs of park benches weredeteriorating in Parque Culican.
Invisible Clock
revamped thesebenches with new backs, newseats and a series of digitalartworks printed on vinyl. Eachpair of benches presented ameditation on the nature of time, using text from AlanLightman’s
Einstein’s Dreams
and dreamy, collaged imagery.
CAROLYN
@
SPERANZA
.
NET
| 5855 A
LDERSON
S
TREET
| S
UITE
8 | P
ITTSBURGH
, PA 15217 | 412.403.4545
PAGE
3
OF
9
End of the Line: Building Bridgeswith Pittsburgh’s Busways
is acommunity-based public artworkcreated by Lisa Link and CarolynSperanza while fellows at the STUDIOfor Creative Inquiry at CarnegieMellon. The artists held workshops atneighborhood Carnegie libraries, andfour common themes surfaced fromparticipants’ interviews, photographsand artwork:
The Unsung Hero, UrbanRemoval, Rebuilding Our Neighborhoods and Community Gardening.
Digitally collaged artworkwas created from these themes,printed on vinyl and displayed on afleet of city buses.The project was funded by a regionalNEA grant with additional support fromAllegheny County’s Port Authority andthe Carnegie Libraries.
Add a Comment