How does a nation or city or neighborhood decide what to collectively remember? Who gets to decide what museums’ collect, display and commemorate and what role can artists have in this conversation? The National Museum critically and creatively engages with the notion of museum as a malleable medium--an institution where an imagined set of social agreements, stories of the past, and visions of the future are constructed in and with the public. Taking the form of a signage on an empty storefront space, the work will consist of the opening phrase “The National Museum of” and will be modified each month by an invited artist selected by the project’s founder Jon Rubin in consultation with an advisory board consisting of Anastasia James, Director of Curatorial, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust; Paola Santoscoy, Director of the El Eco Experimental Museum in Mexico City; Joseph del Pesco, International Director of KADIST; and Sean Beauford, Pittsburgh-based curator, educator, and writer.
Two artists have been identified for the first two iterations: Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, b. 1971) a New York-based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance. From 2007–2010, Helguera was the Director of Adult and Academic Programs at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC and is currently an Assistant Professor at the New School. He is the author of many books including Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and The Parable Conference (2014). And Alisha B. Wormsley an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer whose work explores collective memory and the synchronicity of time, specifically through the stories of women of color. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and was recently awarded the Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University.
The National Museum is founded and organized by Jon Rubin, an interdisciplinary artist whose public projects create platforms for collaboration, participation, and exchange. He has exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Mercosul Biennial, Brazil; the Shanghai Biennial; the Carnegie International, The Lyon Biennale; the Solomon Guggenheim Museum; as well as in backyards, living rooms, and street corners. Rubin recently collaborated with Iranian-based artist Sohrab Kashani on The Other Apartment, a Creative Capital funded project occurring both in Tehran, Iran and Pittsburgh, PA. He has received awards from the Arts Matters Foundation, the Creative Work Fund, Americans for the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Conflict Kitchen, Rubin’s collaborative seven-year work with artist Dawn Weleski, was named as one of the 100 Artworks that “Defined the Decade” by Artnet News. His work has been reported on internationally by outlets including ARTnews, The New York Times, The Associated Press, Public Art Review, Art Papers, The Boston Globe, La Repubblica, Al Jazeera, BBC World News, NPR’s All Things Considered, and Colorado Public Radio.
The National Museum is presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in collaboration with Jon Rubin. Special thanks to project advisory board members Anastasia James, Director of Curatorial, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust; Paola Santoscoy, Director of the El Eco Experimental Museum in Mexico City; Joseph del Pesco, International Director of KADIST; and Sean Beauford, Pittsburgh-based curator, educator, and writer. Graphic design by Brett Yasko.
For more information visit national-museum.org.
