Actors run the GhostFood mobile trailer, created by
Miriam Simun and Miriam Songster, part of “Marfa Dialogues/New York.”
COURTESY GHOSTFOOD
Rauschenberg Foundation: Bridging the Gap Between Art & Life
By George Stolz Posted 03/26/14
On a brisk evening last fall, a food truck stood parked outside the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Project Space in Chelsea. This particular food truck, however, was not just a food truck. It was a participatory artwork entitled GhostFood
that served up simulated taste experiences of foods—such as chocolate,
peanut butter, and codfish—that are under threat from the effects of
global warming on the food chain.
GhostFood, created by Miriam Simun and Miriam Songster, formed part of a group show opening that evening at the foundation. Curated by Fairfax Dorn
and titled “Quiet Earth,” it focused on the issue of climate change in
the works of artists such as Agnes Denes, Maya Lin, Trevor Paglen,
Donald Judd, and Rauschenberg himself. The exhibition in turn was the
centerpiece of a two-month-long series of climate change–related events
called “Marfa Dialogues/New York,”
organized under the auspices of the foundation, which included
exhibitions, film screenings, performances, lectures, and panel
discussions in more than 30 venues across New York City.
“Marfa Dialogues/New York” is just one of an array of initiatives
funded and supported by the Rauschenberg Foundation since it embarked on
full-scale operations in 2012. Others include a visual literacy
campaign in Tanzania, art workshops in inner-city laundromats,
small-scale artist-run institutions across the United States, and an
artist-residency program in Rauschenberg’s studio in the barrier islands
of Florida. In the process, the foundation has established itself as a
dynamic presence in the world of cultural philanthropy, maintaining
Rauschenberg’s own impassioned commitment to charitable causes while
extending his signature artistic ethos of bridging “the gap between art
and life.”
“These aren’t just grants that we’re going to give to art
institutions that do Rauschenberg exhibitions—that’s just not what we
do,” said Christy MacLear,
the foundation’s executive director. “We look at our grant making
through the lens of the values that defined Bob. So you don’t only say,
‘What would Bob do?’ Instead, you set up a framework so that a hundred
years from now you can ask: Is it collaborative? Is it
boundary-breaking? Is it risk-taking? Is there a concept of creative
problem-solving? Is it international and looking at art as a method of
peacekeeping?”
“They’ve hit the ground running,” said Jack Flam, president and CEO of the Dedalus Foundation,
which was founded by Robert Motherwell to foster public understanding
of modern art while preserving the painter’s own artistic legacy. “In
classic philanthropy, you give money away. Then there’s another kind,
where you start programs that give money away. But then again there are
artist foundations that are actually involved in programs as they
develop, which in fact is something all artist foundations are thinking
about now. They’re doing that from the start at the Rauschenberg
Foundation.”
Rauschenberg died
in 2008 at age 82 at his home on Captiva Island, Florida. Throughout
his life, he had been active—indeed, an activist—in numerous charitable
and philanthropic activities, including initiatives of his own devising
such as Change, Inc., which gave emergency relief grants to artists in
distress, and ROCI (the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange),
which established a network of artists around the world with the
intention of promoting world peace through cultural exchange.
The Fish House on Captiva Island is part of Rauschenberg’s 20-acre estate, where he lived and worked for 40 years.
LAURIE LAMBRECHT/COURTESY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION, NEW YORK
At the same time, Rauschenberg was a staunch supporter with donations of
cash and artwork to a range of political causes and charitable
organizations, including the Coalition for the Homeless, the Lab School
of Washington, D.C., for students with special needs (such as dyslexia,
from which Rauschenberg himself suffered severely), animal refuge
centers, and abused women’s shelters. He was committed to ecological
issues; in fact, the poster for the very first Earth Day was a collage he designed and donated to the burgeoning environmental cause in 1970.
“My father is generally described as very generous, but that’s not really accurate—he was a team player,” said Christopher Rauschenberg,
the artist’s son, who is the president and chair of the foundation’s
board of directors (as well as an artist in his own right). “Think of a
basketball team. If the point guard passes down the lane to the center
and the center dunks the ball, you wouldn’t say the point guard was
generous. You would say he’s a good team player. My father was like
that—but his team was everyone, the whole world.”
Although Rauschenberg established his foundation in 1990 as a means
to channel his personal charitable activities, it was only after his
death that it adopted its current structure. Rauschenberg himself
drafted the articles of incorporation. They state that the foundation
will pursue philanthropic efforts in art, international peacekeeping,
the environment, health and human services, and education: “Basically,
anything but religion and politics,” MacLear said. “It’s hilarious, it’s
so broad!”
Read the whole article here
We are proud in Florida that Robert Rauschenberg made our State his home. The artist is a member of the Florida Artist Hall of Fame.
There is a timelessness to great artists and great artwork. The Rauschenberg foundation will continue to advance the causes that the artist found important and his artwork will continue to inspire. GL
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