6th Annual Symposium announced!

What's Happening? Contemporary Art

In the sixth annual Art Alumni Symposium we present "What's Happening?" an exchange by now-oriented artists and educators, exploring the processes of contemporary artists, the dynamic post modern political and social force in today's art world.

Tina Takemoto as Bjork-Geisha

Speakers include Rene de Guzman, curator at the Oakland Museum; Tina Takemoto, performance artist and professor at CCA; Berkeley Art Museum Matrix Curator Elizabeth Thomas; and Petra Royale Bibeau, Founder/Curator of Maniac Gallery, an alternative space for contemporary artists.
Spontaneous audience participation via a non-commercial guerrilla broadcast of Neighborhood Public Radio.

UC Berkeley Art Alumni Symposium VI
"What's Happening?" Contemporary Art
Saturday, October 18th, 9:30 AM - 4 PM
160 Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley

more details will be posted here soon!

Symposium V - October 27, 2007

The More Things Change- The More They Stay the Same
any truth in this?

Please join us for our fifth all-day symposium, in which we will examine contemporary art-making, including interactive media and social practice.

Saturday, October 27, 2007
9:30 am - 4:30 PM
160 Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley

Schedule and description of the event:

9:30 AM - 12:30PM - The morning session will address how the teaching of art has changed as reflected by new curricula, mediums, and philosophies at both Cal and CCA. It will open with clips from the two interviews that the Regional Oral History Office has done with Sonya Rapoport and Fred Martin about the education of visual artists in the 1950s. We'll then hear from Tina Takemoto, Mark Thompson, and Guillermo Galindo who are teaching at CCA, and Katherine Sherwood who is Professor of Art Practice at Cal.

12:30 - 2:00 PM- Lunch! We'll have sandwiches and drinks available for $7.

2:00 - 3:30 PM - Deborah Oropallo, Enrique Chagoya, Don Aaron, Brody Reiman, and Richard Shaw will talk and show images about the terrains they crossed to get to what they're doing now.

3:30 - 4:30 PM - Reception in Worth Ryder Gallery 116 Kroeber Hall

$20 suggested donation - please help cover the costs of documenting this event
Admission is free to Art Alumni Group members and students of UC Berkeley
(Membership in AAG is $25 per year)

Here is a map and driving directions to Kroeber Hall.

Our thanks to Marion Gray who chaired this year's committee.

Symosium IV: Art-making in Times of Change

ART MAKING IN TIMES OF CHANGE
the late 1960s and early 1970s



October 14, 2006




This distinctive period was framed in the tumult of the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and a broad counter-cultural revolution felt strongly in the Bay Area. Many students at Berkeley sought ways of making art that would resonate with the times and forces of change. They broke the mold of traditional materials and categories of expression. In the 4th Symposium, alumni will discuss how this period affected their sense of purpose and how discoveries they made during their years at Cal led to the work they are doing today.


Mary Heilmann, now living in New York, was among the many speakers. Historian and art writer Terri Cohn commented on Cal alumni Paul Cotton, Jim Pomeroy, and Sam’s Café. Polly Frizzell (aka Marty Carstens) joined in conversation with colleagues about the social and esthetic phenomenon of the Colby Street House and the circle of alumnus Michael Haimowitz.

timeline graphic by Lisa Krieshok ---click on image to view larger.

Symposium III: Painting in the 1980s

October 29, 2005 Painting in the 1980's
Discussion and presentations by alumni of the early 80's, featuring Jack Hanley MA'82; Randy Hussong BA'78, MA'79; Luz Ruiz BA'83, MA'85; Enrique Chagoya MA'86, MFA'87; Deborah Oropallo MA'82, MFA'83.
part of our day included a heartfelt alumni tribute to the teaching of Robert Hartman.

Symposium II: Sculpture 1959-1964

Symposium II - "The First Five Years of Sculpture in the Department of Art and Art History, 1959-1964"
October 23, 2004 160 Kroeber Hall - The second in our series of symposia on Art at UC Berkeley, in which we discussed the work of Sid Gordin; Dick O'Hanlon; Julius Schmidt; Pete Voulkos; and others. Among the speakers and participants: Bill Underhill; Bruce Beasley; Stephen deStaebler; Nancy Genn; Erik Gronberg; Jim Melchert; and Connie Wirtz.

Symposium I: "The Berkeley School of Painting"

Barbara Rogers with Sonya Rapoport

October 25, 2003 Presentation and discussion of "The Berkeley School, 1939-1950" featuring alumni artists Pat Adams, Nancy Genn, Bob Beetem, Sonya Rapoport, Fred Martin, Barbara Rogers.


The day closed with a reception in Worth Ryder opening a show of works on paper from the BAM of alumni of this era.

Bob Beetem talks with Judd Williams and Jim Melchert at the reception in Worth Ryder Gallery

Pat Adams and Merle Ross

Materials from this Symposium are available here: click on the links to download a PDF of these lectures.

Introduction: "The Bauhaus Was Not Our House" by Gardiner McCauley
Lecture #1 by Sonya Rapaport
Lecture #2 by Pat Adams
"Hans Hofmann, Berkeley, and New York" by Karl Kasten BA '38, MA 39, - Professor Emeritus