An Artful Life: A Curious Conversation with Peggy Townsend

Описание: An Artful Life: A Curious Conversation with Peggy Townsend

RESOURCES:
Website: www.townsendatelier.com
Documentary about the creation of the MLK Mural in Chattanooga: https://www.americasblvd.com/

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Our next guest, arts activist Peggy Townsend, brings to An Artful Life a strong background in museum and public arts management.

Her education is in Arts Management, with further studies at the MOMA, and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington DC, have helped her become the strong advocate for public art that she is today.

She ran the Public Art Committee in Chattanooga for many years, worked at the Hunter Museum of American Art, and now co-owns and runs the nationally famous "Townsend Atelier," where working, professional artists come to teach short-duration classes.

In the beginning, Townsend Atelier served Chattanoogans, but very quickly became a national destination for artist-students.

Her extensive experience in managing public art collections and fine art master classes will make for a fascinating conversation.

Guest Bio:
Peggy Wood Townsend has been an arts administrator since 1989. She has a B.A. in Art History from Rhodes College in Memphis and an M.A. in Arts Administration from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

Currently, she is Director and Co-owner of Townsend Atelier art school and materials store in Chattanooga founded in 2007.

From 2002-2006 she managed Chattanooga’s new Public Art efforts.

From 2002-2003 she oversaw the Public Art Planning process for the City of Chattanooga that included organizing a series of community-wide visioning workshops that produced a Public Art Plan that was adopted by the City of Chattanooga.

She was then hired by Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga to administer the plan's implementation. This included managing a 1.2-million-dollar public art budget for the 21st Century Waterfront Plan that produced three major public art installations integrated into the city’s transformative waterfront development that was unveiled in 2005.

As director of PAC, she managed a collection of over 130 works of permanent public artwork, and she has overseen many public art and place making projects including The Main Terrain, Art on Main, a Biennial Sculpture Garden, an Art in the Neighborhoods Program and a large-scale mural commission by artist, Meg Saligman that was completed at the end of 2015.

From 1995-2000 she was the Manager of the Division of Arts & Culture for Chattanooga Parks, Recreation, Arts & Culture. She has worked as Assistant Curator of Education at the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, and was Executive Director for the Association for Visual Artists also in Chattanooga from 1989-1992.

Peggy has interned at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Cincinnati Art Museum, OH; the Contemporary Arts Center, OH; and Metro Nashville Arts Commission.

In 1994 she was awarded an Arts Administration Fellowship in the Museum Program at the National Endowment for the Arts.

She has juried several regional art exhibitions, has been a panelist for the Tennessee Arts Commission, and has served on several non-profit boards in Chattanooga, including the Association for Visual Artists, the Arts & Education Council, the Shaking Ray Levi Society, the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, and served as co-chair of the Mayor Andy Berke’s and Culture Task Force for Chattanooga Forward.

She was a long-time Board member ArtsBuild and a Trustee of the Lyndhurst Foundation.

Follow Peggy here, on LinkedIn, and check out her website: www.townsendatelier.com.

About our Live Show:

Painter Melissa Hefferlin and Photographer and Producer Nina Froriep are curious to understand many things about Art in their Live Show, An Artful Live: Curious Conversations About How Humans Make and Use Art.

What is Art?
Who is an artist, really?
Why do we need Art in our lives?
Where should we start if we want to collect Art?

These questions (and many more) about the relationship between humans and Art in all its forms will be the topic of dynamic, 45-minute conversations in a 6-part series streaming live on LinkedIn and later available as recordings.

Perhaps you'd like to send in a question? Join us for the investigations LIVE with knowledgeable, passionate people who work in different factions of the art world.