Boise Art Museum is awarded $40,000 grant from Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

BOISE – Boise Art Museum (BAM) is pleased to announce a $40,000 grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in Seattle, WA, to support a site specific installation at the Boise Art Museum in June, 2013 entitled Mars: Revisited by New York artists Kahn/Selesnick. Richard Selesnick and Nicholas Kahn have been collaborating as Kahn/Selesnick since 1988 on a series of complex narrative photo-novellas and sculptural installations that portray alternate, fictionalized versions of real historical events. For the exhibition at BAM, the artists will use photographs of Idaho’s iconic Craters of the Moon National Monument as the basis for a project depicting a human visit to Mars. “The exhibition will introduce audiences to artists who are taking risks by using art forms and media in a non-traditional way, and will invite viewers to experience a familiar local landscape in a new context,” stated Melanie Fales, BAM’s Executive Director. “This is an opportunity for the Museum to engage two innovative, contemporary artists in a project involving one of Idaho’s most unusual and celebrated landscapes.” Craters of the Moon National Monument is a vast area of lava flows and formations, cinder cones and caves spread across 618 square miles in southern Idaho.
In April, the artists will travel to Idaho and visit the Craters of the Moon National Monument, where they will temporarily modify and photograph the landscape using a variety of sculptural props. Back in their New York studio, they then will use these photographs, as well as selected photographic frames from their 2010 Mars project, to create the final panoramic artworks, digitally adding costumed actors to the new images. The painstakingly constructed, large-scale, panoramic photographs will be featured in the exhibition at BAM, along with sculptural props and written text. BAM and the artists will collaborate to produce a publication in conjunction with the exhibition, documenting the project.
Launched by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Jo Lynn Allen in 1988, the Allen family’s philanthropy is dedicated to transforming lives and strengthening communities by fostering innovation, creating knowledge and promoting social progress. Since inception, the Foundation has awarded over $454 million to more than 1,400 nonprofit groups to support and advance their critical charitable endeavors in the pacific Northwest and beyond. The Foundation’s funding programs nurture the arts, engage children in learning, address the needs of vulnerable populations, advance scientific and technological discoveries, and provide financial relief amid the economic downturn. For more information, go to www.pgafamilyfoundation.org.
Boise Art Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, educational, and charitable organization. The Museum is nationally accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Support is provided by BAM members, contributions and grants from individuals, corporations and foundations, as well as grant funding from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Boise Art Museum (BAM) is located downtown in Julia Davis Park. HOURS Tuesday – Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM and Sunday, Noon – 5 PM. Open 10 AM – 9 PM the first Thursday of each month, featuring admission by donation all day. ADMISSION $5 General, $3 Seniors (62+) and full-time college students, $1 students grades 1-12. Children under 6 and Museum members are always free. Boise State University students gain free admission with their valid student ID card, through 8/23/12.
670 JULIA DAVIS DRIVE BOISE, ID 83702 208-345-8330 FAX 208-345-2247 WWW.BOISEARTMUSEUM.ORG