Social Saturday: Mark Dion
with guest chefs Caroline Woolard and Emcee CM
4:30 pm If you want to tour around Mildred's Lane
6:00 pm Dinner
(Seating and Chef presentations at 5:30 sharp.)
Please make reservations at [email protected] as seating is limited. BYOB

Mark Dion was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1961. He received a BFA (1986) and an honorary doctorate (2003) from the University of Hartford School of Art, Connecticut. Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between ‘objective’ (‘rational’) scientific methods and ‘subjective’ (‘irrational’) influences. The artist’s spectacular and often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkabinetts of the 16th Century, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens. By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Mark Dion questions the authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society. He has received numerous awards, including the ninth annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2001). He has had major exhibitions at the Miami Art Museum (2006); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004); Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2003); and Tate Gallery, London (1999). “Neukom Vivarium” (2006), a permanent outdoor installation and learning lab for the Olympic Sculpture Park, was commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum. Dion lives and works in Pennsylvania and New York, and is a Co-Director of Mildred's Lane. He is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York and In SITU Gallery in Paris.

More Thanks
Mildred's Lane is an Artist-driven Project in the form of a new contemporary art complex(ity) and is not yet funded by any organization. Our Colleagues, Artists and Institutions are recommending student involvements. Their scholarships and tuitions fund the ongoing lectures, events and dinners. Currently the Institutions who are co-evolving with this unusual pedagogical strategy are: Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg NY; Columbia University, New York; Parsons The New School for Design, New York; The School of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Tufts University Art Gallery @ The Aidekman Arts Center; and University of Minnesota Department of Art. We would like to thank those Institutions and the swarm of Cultural Practitioners, who make up this remarkable program of projects and extraordinary events, for their devoted support. We are appreciative of the local farmers at Skydog and Ant Hill Farm who provide much of the food for our visitors. Thank you.
Donations Welcome.