Catalyst Conversations presented:
Ideators in Conversation: Art and Social Practice
with Mary Sherman founder and director of Transcultural Exchange
and
Deborah Davidson founder and director of Catalyst Conversations
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Catalyst Conversations @ Venture Café CIC
There are so many creatives in Boston! What happens at CIC and Venture Café exemplifies creativity. To develop a startup requires not only a vision, but stamina and the willingness to keep going. This is very much what the two women exemplify. They demonstrate what their projects do, how they each created something beyond their own studio practice, how an idea became an organization. It may seem counterintuitive that artists would endeavor to create something on a large scale. But there seems to be a paradigm shift, a need for all of us to help make changes in an increasingly challenging world.
Mary Sherman is an artist, curator and the director of TransCultural Exchange, which she founded in Chicago in 1989. She also teaches at Boston College and Northeastern University and, recently, served as the interim Associate Director of MIT’s Program in Art, Culture and Technology. Additionally, for two decades, she worked as an art critic for such publications as The Chicago Sun-Times, The Boston Globe and ARTnews. She has received numerous grants and awards, including three Fulbright Specialist Grants (Taipei, Istanbul and Trondheim), and been an artist-in-residence at such institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cité Internationale des Arts and the Taipei Artist Village. Among the shows she’s curated, two received awards from the Northeast Chapter of the International Art Critics Association. Her own works, which push the definition of painting into the realm of space and sound, have been shown at numerous institutions, including Taipei’s Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, Montreal’s International Digital Art Biennial (BIAN) and New York’s Trans Hudson Gallery.
Deborah Davidson is an artist, curator and educator. She received her M.F.A. from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University and B.A. from Binghamton University. She is founder and director of Catalyst Conversations, devoted to the dialogue between art and science. She is currently part of the core faculty in the MFA program at Lesley University, maintains a studio
practice and directs the Suffolk University Gallery. She was the featured artist in Agni 61, the BU iterary magazine. Her work is in many private and public collections, including Yale University, Wellesley College, Boston Public Library, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Houghton Library, Harvard University. She has had solo exhibitions at the Danforth Museum of Art, Kingston Gallery, Oresman Gallery, Smith College and the Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy. Awards include Finalist, Brother Thomas Fellowship, Artist in Residence, Northeastern University, and a Berkshire Taconic A.R.T. grant.
Founded in 2012, Catalyst Conversations creates programs that pair artists and scientists for intimate conversations. These conversations have explored topics at the forefront of science and art-making today such as theoretical mathematics, watershed conservation, public art, STEAM education, neuroscience and more. In a region full of innovation and knowledge, Catalyst Conversations offers a unique opportunity for participants of all ages and educational backgrounds to access new knowledge. Ideas are not only presented to the public, they are held open for extended conversation allowing a unique entry to intellectual inquiry.
Inclusion. Diversity. These are more than just words for us. They are who we are: TransCultural Exchange. As an important part of our DNA, we aim to be supportive and welcoming of all people everywhere. Incorporated in 2002 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, TransCultural Exchange’s mission is to foster a greater understanding of world cultures. We do this through large-scale, global art projects, cultural exchanges and educational programming – most notably, an International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts. And, best of all, our programs work.
Since 2010, Venture Café Cambridge has been providing the connective tissue to uncover and link various parts of an innovation ecosystem, amplifying the work of partners and convening the local community. Conceived with the founding support of Cambridge Innovation Center, Venture Café leverages high-touch programming, spaces, storytelling, and broad innovation engagement to hold over 500 events, 2000 sessions, and welcoming over 160,000 attendees.
Video recording will be available at a later date. Follow us on social media and join our Catalyst Conversations email list to be notified when the video is released!
Image Credits:
LEFT Mary Sherman headshot, and her artwork, Black Box Sound: Mathieu Corajod's, Untitled, For a Box , 7” x 10” x 13”
Magnet, wooden box, minimalist painting (doubling as a speaker membrane and the work’s protective top cover/lid), matte board, motors, LEDs, sound and microprocessor.
RIGHT Deborah Davidson headshot, and her artwork, Cris de Coeur 2, 2021, Colored pencil on paper, 44 x 30 inches
