Exchange Economy
March 4 – June 14, 2013
Artist website
Artist blog

This Spring, the BCA will welcome local Somerville artist Edie Bresler, whose practice is based on collaborative, social practices. At the BCA, Bresler seeks to create an alternative financial model for our economy, one that is built on systems of trust and trade-exchange. Throughout Bresler’s residency, she will set up informal, participatory “street studios” in the BCA’s neighborhood where she will engage with passersby to create interactive visual and written portraits. For their participation, “currency” will be exchanged, which can be traded for a portrait at an informal BCA community day. Dates for Bresler’s community days will be posted in the Spring.

IMAGE CREDIT: Edie Bresler, Exchange Economy Edie Bresler, Exchange Economy Harry Patel and family, Jay's Food, Beer and Wine, 2012, Lowell, MA.

Artist Talk with Edie Bresler
Wednesday, March 20 | 7-8 PM | Mills Gallery at the BCA
Current Artist Resident Edie Bresler discusses her current project Exchange Economy.
 
 

Exchange Economy Community Photo Day with current Artist Resident Edie Bresler
Saturday, April 6 | 2-5 PM | Artist Studio Building Lobby at the BCA
Free and open to the public
During her 15-week residency, Bresler will be developing her interactive project Exchange Economy. Using photography, she will examine ideas of value by creating an alternative economic model built on systems of recycling, trust and trade-exchange.

Exchange Economy Community Photo Day with current Artist Resident Edie Bresler
Wednesday, May 15 | 6:30-9:30 PM | Artist Studio Building Lobby at the BCA
Free and open to the public
During her 15-week residency, Bresler will be developing her interactive project Exchange Economy. Using photography, she will examine ideas of value by creating an alternative economic model built on systems of recycling, trust and trade-exchange.

Exchange Economy Community Photo Day with current Artist Resident Edie Bresler
Saturday, June 15 | 2-5 PM | Artist Studio Building Lobby at the BCA
Free and open to the public
During her 15-week residency, Bresler will be developing her interactive project Exchange Economy. Using photography, she will examine ideas of value by creating an alternative economic model built on systems of recycling, trust and trade-exchange.

After Now
September 4, 2012 – December 23, 2012
Artist website

Washington, DC-based artist Rigg explores ways in which current socio-political issues affect a community’s immediate environment and quality of life. Given the economic uncertainties that define the ongoing late-2000s recession and a broader sense of unease about social and environmental futures, Rigg's project, After Now incorporates methods utilized in science fiction writing to ask participants to describe their own sense of possible futures. Rigg adapts these techniques to everyday life, transforming ideals into concrete activities for individuals to narrate their own world order. Portions of the resulting audio recordings of interviews and public conversations will ultimately be translated into concrete, three-dimensional models of the objects and places in the participants’ stories.

Artist Talk: Wednesday, September 19 | 6 PM | Mills Gallery

The Future Looks Like This: An evening of rational and irrational charette and conversation
Thursday, November 15 | 7 PM | Mills Gallery at the BCA

Free and open to the public

To register of for more information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 617.426.1119

How is the economic crisis changing what is possible?
Draw the landscape of the future as you imagine it using the science fiction strategy of world building (no artistic virtuosity is expected!).

End Times vs. The Five-Year Plan
Take inspiration and perhaps solace in highlights from the history of planning and foretelling the future.

Contribute to the After Now Library
Be a part of a larger collection of conversations and interviews about modeling the future. Portions of the workshop will be audio recorded.

In Exchange?
In thanks for your participation, you will receive a hand-made compendium of the After Now materials made in Boston this Fall.

What’s a charette?
A collaborative session of designers, citizens, planners or other interested parties often used to generate design solutions for real world problems. Formats vary, but they are usually set to a deadline to generate ideas quickly – the goal is ideas rather than finished product.

IMAGE CREDIT: Siobhan Rigg, After Now: Open Invitation for Open Meetings, 2012

Made With Love
March 5, 2012 – June 17, 2012
Artist website

Stacy Scibelli will take “playing dress-up” to a whole new level. Her interactive, sculptural fashion design blends traditional craft with contemporary art. Consisting of unique, ambiguous, hand-made garments, her project involves the audience creatively by allowing them to try on her garments any way they please, encouraging direct interactions and dialogue among strangers. While in residency, Scibelli will further her exploration into public engagement and expression with free workshops ranging from wearable art to pickling.

Scibelli has just recently relocated to Boston to pursue teaching at Mount Ida College and Lasell College. She is a recipient of an Assets for Artists Grant through the Midas Collaborative with a community partner in Mass MOCA, a Franklin Furnace Grant, a project grant from Possible Futures in Atlanta GA, and a residency in Portland ME.

Wearable Art Workshop | Thursday, May 17 6-8pm | Mills Gallery
Reimagine recycled objects and clothing to create a unique, collaborative, wearable sculpture.

Drop-In Shoe-making/shining Workshop and Open Studio | Saturday, June 9 1-4pm | Artist Studios Building
Stacy will open her studio and share her work! Also, drop-in to create a simple slipper shoe out of paper and leather or learn some simple shoe-shining techniques.

The Infinity Burial Project
October 11, 2011 – January 22, 2012
Artist website
Project website

With her mushroom death suit and infinity mushroom, Jae Rhim Lee asks us to think about alternative burial practices and engage with the process of decomposition on a personal level. The Infinity Burial Project blurs the lines between contemporary art and science in its consideration of practical and psychological issues of death. At the BCA Lee will develop the Decompiculture Society, a membership society to promote death acceptance and the practice of decompiculture (the cultivation of decomposing organisms). Decompinauts will have the opportunity to learn about mushroom cultivation and attend field trips to funeral-related places of interest.

What happens to my body after I die? Join us for a workshop that examines the many personal and cultural choices we make about death and decomposition, and explores the environmental impact of many customs we take for granted.

The afternoon will include an overview of mainstream and alternative postmortem options, a series of guest speakers with a question and answer session and a group discussion. Questions that will be examined include:

What are some guidelines to help me decide what I want to do with my body after I die?
How do I talk to my family about what I want?
What are the legal considerations of choosing how to dispose of my body?
What kind of language and/or legal tools do I need to declare my wishes?

Zhangping (Spring 2011)
Christy Georg (Winter 2010-2011)
William Cravis (Fall 2010)
Jesse Kaminsky (Spring 2010)