The length has shortened, the scale has shrunk and the focus has tightened, but Denver’s kickoff Biennial of the Americas remains on track for tnext summer.
While some elements of the biennial are taking shape, others remain unclear, such as exactly who and what will be featured during the event — a combination art fair and community colloquium.
Among the important details settled: The biennial will center on visual artists, with less involvement than first planned by leaders and innovators in such fields as education and technology.
Also, many of those artists will be showing at the 28,000-square-foot McNichols Building, on the northern edge of Civic Center. A Denver landmark, the former Carnegie library has served until recently as space for city offices.
The remaining decisions will be completed by the end of the year, said Erin Trapp, director of Denver’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
“I recognize that we are well behind where we would like to be in terms of communications both in the media and with the public,” she said. “It’s not what we’d hoped, but the good news is all that masks what I think is a lot of promising developments in the program.”
The biennial, which was announced in March 2008, has been cut from seven to four weeks. It will take place during the month of July.
“Since it’s the first event, we wanted to make sure that whatever we do, we do well,” Trapp said. “And seven weeks is a lot to bite off the first time.”
The current goal for the privately funded project is $3.5 million (down from the original $5 million to $6 million). About $2.3 million has been raised, including an initial grant of $2 million from the Boettcher Foundation.
When the event’s artistic director, Bruce Mau, laid out his vision of the biennial earlier this year, he spoke of an event with international scope, touting utopian ideals of “massive change” and “inventing the future.” He envisioned it involving entrepreneurs, adventurers and “game-changers,” with the word “artist” getting little mention.
Mau retains his title but, as of the end of August, Trapp said, he has no further direct involvement with the festival. Now, the event will be overseen by the non-profit Biennial of the Americas corporation headed by Jim Polsfut.
At the same time, portions of the social agenda that was central to Mau’s vision have been toned down or dropped and the role of visual art amped up.
“What I didn’t want to do is promise people a traditional art biennial,” she said. “And we may have gone too far in the other direction when we set those expectations, but we always intended art to be a central focus.”
At this point, it is unclear what artists will be shown on the top two floors of the McNichols Building. But a production team — including a curator and exhibition designer — will soon to be chosen to make that central display a reality.
Another major component will be “Curate This!,” an international exhibition of emerging art and design organized by the New Orleans-based BECA (Bridge for Emerging Contemporary Art) Foundation.
Artists and designers from any country will be eligible to submit works, and 1,000 works are expected to be chosen for exhibition around the city. A $10,000 prize, voted by the public, will be awarded to one of the participants.
In addition, the Aspen Institute is working with biennial organizers to create the Americas Roundtable, a series of public discussions about the environment and other social issues.
Other organizations taking part include the Denver Art Museum, Museo de las Americas, Su Teatro, Denver Art Dealers Assocation and Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost
