February 1, 2021

Woolard to launch Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist series


Video: Caroline Woolard, "A Stone Holds Water"

Sculptor Caroline Woolard will present the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Lecture at 3 p.m. Feb. 3 via Zoom.

The lecture, hosted by the School of Art, Art History and Design, is free and open to the public. Access the lecture here.. Following the lecture, she will have an informal conversation with students from the School of Art, Art History and Design.

In making her art, Woolard becomes an economic critic, social justice facilitator, media maker, and sculptor. Since the financial crisis of 2007-08, Woolard has catalyzed barter communities, minted local currencies, founded an arts-policy think tank, and created sculptural interventions in office spaces. Woolard has inspired a generation of artists who wish to create self-organized, collaborative, online platforms alongside sculptural objects and installations.

Her work has been commissioned by and exhibited in major national and international museums including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and Creative Time. Woolard’s work has been featured twice on New York Close Up (2014, 2016), a digital film series produced by Art21 and broadcast on PBS. She was the 2018–20 inaugural Walentas Fellow at Moore College of Art and Design and the inaugural 2019–20 Artist in Residence for INDEX at the Rose Museum, and a 2020-2021 Fellow at the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Woolard is assistant professor at the University of Hartford. Woolard is the co-author of three books: “Making and Being” (Pioneer Works, 2019), a book for educators about interdisciplinary collaboration, co-authored with Susan Jahoda; “Art, Engagement, Economy” (onomatopee, 2020) a book about managing socially-engaged and public art projects; and “Trade School: 2009-2019,” a book about peer learning that Woolard catalyzed in thirty cities internationally over a decade.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln School of Art, Art History and Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students.

The remaining spring schedule includes:

• Feb. 10: Garth Johnson, ceramics, 5:30 p.m. Johnson is assistant professor at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California.

• Feb. 24: Jessie Hemmons, interdisciplinary, 5:30 p.m. Hemmons is a street artist and “craftivist” in Philadelphia known as Ishknits.

• March 3: Tarrah Kajnak, photography, 5:30 p.m. Born in Lima, Peru, Kajnak is currently associate professor of art and director of the Monroe Center for Social Inquiry on Racial Justice at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

• March 11: Art History panel featuring Sampada Aranke, assistant professor of art history, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Alexis Salas, assistant professor of art history, New Mexico State University; Julia Neal, lecturer in African American art history, Georgia State University; and Kieran Jack Wilson, photographer and activist in Lincoln, 5:30 p.m. The panel is titled “Serious Play: Radical Publications and Their Histories.”

• March 24: Deb Schwartzkopf, ceramics, 5:30 p.m. Schwartzkopf is a Seattle-based studio potter making fine porcelain tableware through Rat City Studios. Ceramics Monthly awarded her Ceramic Artist of the Year in 2019.

• March 31: Joel Damon, foundations, 5:30 p.m. Damon is co-founder and co-curator of Project Project, an independent, do-it-yourself contemporary arts space in Omaha.

• April 7: Noel Anderson, printmaking, 5:30 p.m. Anderson is area head of printmaking in New York University’s Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions. Anderson utilizes print-media and arts-based-research to explore philosophical inquiry methodologies.

• April 14: Kristian Bjornard, foundations, 5:30 p.m. Bjornard is a designer, educator with a focus on sustainability. He is the director of the Office of Kristian Bjornard, a graphic design practice focusing on books, identities, websites and digital tools.

For more information on the series, contact the School of Art, Art History and Design at 402-472-5522.