Stuart Collection for the Small Screen

Public Art at UC San Diego Made Even More Accessible

Oct. 19, 2010

Tim Hawkinson's "Bear." Stuart Collection Director Mary Beebe and Project Manager Mathieu Gregoire discuss the sculpture in a video..

By Inga Kiderra

Coming soon to a computer or portable device near you: A series of high-definition video podcasts about the 17 public sculptures in the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego.

The Stuart Collection is an ongoing program of site-specific works by leading artists of our time. The collection is unusual in that the entire 1,200-acre campus may be considered for the commissions. It is further distinguished from a traditional sculpture garden by integration of some of the projects with university buildings.

Each three-to-four minute podcast is narrated by Stuart Collection director Mary Beebe and project manager Mathieu Gregoire, both of whom have been developing the innovative collection since its inception in 1982. Beebe and Gregoire provide artistic and historic context to each work and also relate rarely heard anecdotes about its making.

Bruce Nauman's “Vices and Virtues.” Click here for video..

The videos are available for download for free. Links to the videos are on the websites of the Stuart Collection and UCSD-TV, as well as on YouTube and iTunes.

Beebe says she wanted to make the Stuart Collection’s public art even more publicly accessible. The hope, she said, is that people will “carry around the videos with them as they walk the campus to see the works.” But for those who can’t make the trip, the series also provides a way to see and hear about the collection from home.

The podcasts were produced and directed by Megan O’Connor, a senior producer/director at UC San Diego’s Academic Computing and Media Services (ACMS).

The series is an in-kind donation from the ACMS to the Stuart Collection in honor of the university’s 50th anniversary year.

Kiki Smith's "Standing." Click here for video..

The Stuart Collection’s 17 completed works are by Terry Allen, Michael Asher, John Baldessari, Jackie Ferrara, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Richard Fleischner, Tim Hawkinson, Jenny Holzer, Robert Irwin, Barbara Kruger, Elizabeth Murray, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Niki de Saint Phalle, Alexis Smith, Kiki Smith and William Wegman.

The 18th piece in the Stuart Collection will be Do Ho Suh’s “Fallen Star,” a small house that has been picked up by some mysterious force (perhaps a tornado) and “landed” seven stories up on EBU1 in the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Beebe says the collection plans to add to the new “audio-visual tour” and continue creating podcasts as the collection grows.

To learn more about the Stuart Collection: http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/

MEDIA CONTACTS:  Inga Kiderra, 858-822-0661 or ikiderra@ucsd.edu