Canal to Cuyahoga: Everlasting Plastics in Context

Free; ticket required

Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Art History and Art, in collaboration with SPACES and the Cleveland Museum of Art, is proud to host a two-day public symposium in celebration of the internationally recognized exhibition Everlasting Plastics. Cocurated by Tizziana Baldenebro, curator of special projects at SPACES, and Lauren Leving, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Everlasting Plastics is currently on view at the US Pavilion of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale (May 20–November 26, 2023). The symposium serves as a forum to consider our cultural relationship to the ubiquity of plastic, its impact on material cultures, and the consequences and possibilities it entangles for our collective futures. The second day of the symposium is being held at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  

The day begins with a panel discussion featuring the five contributing artists to Everlasting Plastics: Xavi Laida Aguirre, assistant professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Detroit-based designer Simon Anton, cofounder of the design collective Thing Thing; Ang Li, assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Northeastern University; Norman Teague, assistant professor of industrial design in the School of Design at the University of Illinois Chicago ; and Cleveland-based sculptor and conceptual artist Lauren Yeager. The panel is moderated by Magdalena Moskalewicz, chief curator of FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. In the afternoon, attendees have the opportunity to participate in small group breakout sessions. The symposium concludes with a keynote presentation co-sponsored by the Department of English at CWRU featuring interdisciplinary writer, artist, and theorist Dr. Katie Schaag, assistant professor of theater and performance at Spelman College. Forging a space for connection and dialogue among artists, architects, curators, scholars, students, and members of the Cleveland community, the symposium traces the complex networks of plastic production, consumption, and waste from the Venetian Lagoon to the Lake Erie watershed, opening new possibilities for innovation, collaboration, and revitalization.

10:00 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks

10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Artist Panel: Xavi Laida Aguirre, Simon Anton, Ang Li, Norman Teague, Lauren Yeager; Moderated by Magdalena Moskalewicz  

1:30–2:30 p.m.  Breakout Sessions

3:00–4:00 p.m. Keynote Lecture: Dr. Katie Schaag

This event is sponsored by the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University, the Department of English at Case Western Reserve University, SPACES, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, with support from the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University and FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.