Creative Conversation: Roberto Bedoya

Recorded On: 10/24/2019

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About this Creative Conversation

2019 Public Art Network Awardee: Roberto Bedoya

The Public Art Network (PAN) Award is given out each year to an individual or organization that demonstrates innovative and creative contributions and/or exemplary commitment and leadership in the field of public art. Roberto Bedoya, Manager, Cultural Affairs, City of Oakland was selected as the 2019 Public Art Network Awardee because of his work and insightfulness of how the arts influence public places. Joined by Public Art Network Councilmember Lucas Antony Cowan, the two will discuss how the past shaping the future of art in the public realm. 


About the Series

For 2019 National Arts & Humanities Month we are taking Creative Conversations to a new level. To engage with leaders in the field, this year’s National Arts Awardees will be in conversation with fellow leaders to discuss issues relevant to today’s community-based arts administrators. Responding to this year’s Creative Conversation prompt, “how is the past shaping the future of the arts?.” awardees will give their insight on how their work impacts their community and organization.

Roberto Bedoya

Manager, Cultural Affairs, City of Oakland

Roberto Bedoya is the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland where he most recently shepherded   the City's Cultural Plan. - "Belonging in Oakland: A Cultural Development Plan". Through-out his career he has consistently supported artists-centered cultural practices and advocated for expanded definitions of inclusion and belonging in cultural sector. His essays ““Creative Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-Belonging” ; “ Spatial Justice: Rasquachification, Race and the City” and “ "Poetics and Praxis of a City in Relation"  has reframed the discussion on cultural policy to shed light on exclusionary practices in cultural policy decision making. He is a Creative Placemaking Fellow at Arizona State University.

Website: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/government/o/CityAdministration/d/economic-workforce-development/o/cultural-affairs/index.htm

Lucas Antony Cowan

Public Art Curator, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy

Lucas became the Conservancy’s first Public Art Curator in 2014. Previously he directed the Public Art Program for the Maryland State Arts Council, where he spearheaded the passage of legislation requiring all state-funded capital project to include public art in their construction, and was the Senior Curator of Exhibits for Millennium Park and the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture in Chicago, IL. He has curated and managed dozens of public art commissions and exhibitions of work by artists such as: Mark di Suvero, Jun Kaneko, Thomas Sayre, Shinique Smith, Sui Jianguo and Lawrence Weiner. Cowan has served on juries and panels across the United States, and has consulted on cultural park planning for cities such as San Francisco and Chicago. Cowan previously served on the board of trustees for the International Sculpture Center, publishers of Sculpture magazine, and is a founding member of the Advisory Council for Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in Vermont. Cowan holds degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Website: https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/     

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Creative Conversation: Roberto Bedoya Recorded