“Viral Images: Exploring the historic and conservation challenges of objects created for social protest and solidarity”

Historic events of the past years have highlighted art as a creative means of social expression as well as a powerful tool used during social protests. A few images and words scribbled on a collection of post-it-notes or a graphically designed phrase captured in a Tweet heard around the world have had an unexpectedly lasting influence. But what happens to the art works when the protesters leave? Were they ever intended to be collected or preserved? Is there precedence for archiving these ephemeral materials? Who is collecting them? How do we preserve the intent and impact of these creative works for posterity? Archiving this form of cultural heritage presents many challenges.

The IIC will bring together six exceptional individuals to explore these issues at the latest roundtable discussion in IIC’s dialogues initiative http://www.iiconservation.org/dialogues. A curator, a sociologist, a conservator, an activist and academic, a librarian/archivist and a historian will explore with you these complex and relevant issues.

Panel members include:

Aaron Bryant, ‎Mellon Curator of Photography at Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture - ‎Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Michael Gould-Wartofsky, sociologist and author of “The Occupiers. The Making of the 99% Movement”

Christian Scheidemann, conservator and founder of Contemporary Conservation Ltd.

Gregory Sholette, founding member of Political Art Documentation/Distribution and Associate Professor, Sculpture and co-founder of Social Practice Queens(Queens College, City University of New York)

Lidia Uziel, Head of the Western Languages Division (WLD) and Bibliographer for Western Europe, Harvard Library

Ralph Young, Professor of History, Temple University and author of “Dissent: The History of an American Idea” and “ Make Art Not War: Political Protest Posters from the Twentieth Century”

For those in attendance: the program will begin promptly at 2:30PM with protest art performances, including a film preview of STREETWRITE written and directed by Blanche Baker, followed by a 20 minute performance work by NYC artists Rebecca Goyette, Kenya Robinson, and Brian Andrew Whiteley. For more details on these peformances and the artists bios, please visit the IIC website.

Space is limited. Pre-registration (with nominal administrative fee) is strongly suggested. Free open seating will be available on the day of the event on a first come, first serve basis.

For those unable to attend in person, the program will be livestreamed on the IIC website.

Help us with our fundraising campaign to webcast this event by donating at: IIC Webcast Campaign

All Donations and preregistration fees collected will go to support this event and future IIC Point of the Matter Dialogue series.

Photo Credit: Detail of decorations on the Christmas Tree “Yolka”. Photo by Tania Poshyvailo, December 2013, Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square, Kyiv.