The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art

An exhibition catalog for "Ecologies: Mark Dion, Peter Fend, Dan Peterman."

"The term "sustainability" can be defined simply as the ability to meet our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy theirs. Balancing environmental, social, economic, and aesthetic concerns, sustainability has spread from the field of contemporary design into the arena of contemporary art. Beyond Green ventures into this fertile new zone, spurred by an international group of visual artists who embrace sustainable design in both theory and practice." "The works and ideas explored in Beyond Green propose cross-disciplinary agendas and renewed activism, combining a fresh visual sensibility with a constructively critical approach to the production, dissemination, and display of art. With essays by curator Stephanie Smith, art historian and theorist Victor Margolin, and texts by over 20 artists, this book and the traveling exhibition it accompanies constitute the first foray into a new area of contemporary art."--Jacket.

Published to coincide with a two-part exhibition presented in 2008 at the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands and at the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art, Heartland offers an idiosyncratic look at innovative forms of cultural production taking place across the vast majority of the United States. This book is part exhibition catalog, part critical reader: contributors explore the region through topics ranging from art and music to urban farming and political history. Through an engaging mix of essays, personal meditations, and images, Heartland challenges understandings of place and community and explores the rule of contemporary art in shaping our changing world. --from book jacket