Artist, Innovator Theaster Gates to Present Mumford Lecture May 1

Theaster Gates, an artist and innovator in the field of social practice, will present the 10th Annual Lewis Mumford Lecture at The City College of New York, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 1, in the Great Hall, Shepard Hall on the CCNY campus. Mr. Gates’ topic will be “Place Over Time: New Symbols for Durational Encounters with the City.” The event is free and open to the public.


Mr. Gates is internationally known for his work on the South Side of Chicago, including Dorchester Projects, Black Cinema House and the upcoming Stony Island Arts Bank and Dorchester Artists Housing Collaborative. Whether in the communities or in museum, his work responds creatively to the challenges of space.

In 2013, Mr. Gates opened the Arts Incubator in Washington Park, a vision he developed as Director of Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago. The renovated building is now home to artist residencies, a design apprenticeship program, exhibitions, performances and talks.

The Arts Incubator received the Urban Land Institute Chicago Vision Award for Programming, the South East Chicago Commission Connecting Communities through the Arts Award and the Robert E. Gard Wisconsin Idea Foundation Award for Excellence.

Mr. Gates also has exhibited and performed museums in the United States and Europe include the Studio Museum in Harlem; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Punta della Dogana, Venice; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany.

About the Lewis Mumford Lecture
Named for writer, architecture critic and urbanist Lewis Mumford, who attended City College, the series invites the world’s most distinguished urbanists to speak freely and publicly about the future of cities.  The series was initiated and is organized by the Graduate Program in Urban Design in the Spitzer School of Architecture. Jane Jacobs, author of several seminal books on urbanism, including “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” delivered the first lecture in 2004.

For more information about the Lewis Mumford Lecture, contact Distinguished Professor Michael Sorkin at msorkin@ccny.cuny.edu .

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.

MEDIA CONTACT

Ellis Simon
p: 212.650.6460
e: esimon@ccny.cuny.edu