Media Advisory — Press Preview for No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” and No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick”

WHAT:

Press preview for the exhibitions “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” and “No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick

WHEN:

Thursday, March 29

10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sign-in: 10 a.m.

Remarks: 10:30 a.m.

Walking tour of outdoor installation: 11:45 a.m.

WHERE:

Renwick Gallery, Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W.

WHO:

Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Nora Atkinson, The Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Kim Cook, Director of Art & Civic Engagement, Burning Man Project

Leona Agouridis, Executive Director, Golden Triangle Business Improvement District

Each year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a city of more than 70,000 people rises out of the dust for a single week. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected and many are ritually burned to the ground. The thriving temporary metropolis known as Burning Man is a hotbed of artistic ingenuity, driving innovation through its principles of radical self-expression, decommodification, communal participation and reverence for the handmade. Both a cultural movement and an annual event, Burning Man remains one of the most influential phenomenons in contemporary American art and culture.

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man transports the large-scale work from this desert gathering to the nation’s capital for the first time. The exhibition takes over the entire Renwick Gallery building, bringing alive the maker culture and creative spirit of Burning Man through immersive room-sized installations, costumes, jewelry and ephemera. “ No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick” extends the exhibition beyond the museum’s walls, displaying sculptures from Burning Man throughout the surrounding neighborhood in partnership with Washington’s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID).

Nora Atkinson, the museum’s Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, organized the exhibition in collaboration with the Burning Man Project, the nonprofit organization responsible for producing the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City.

Interested media should RSVP to americanartpressoffice@si.edu. Photographers and film crews are welcome; contact the office in advance to make arrangements. Find additional press materials at americanart.si.edu/press.

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About the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the flagship museum in the United States for American art and craft. It is home to one of the most significant and inclusive collections of American art in the world. The museum’s main building, located at Eighth and G streets N.W., is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. The museum’s Renwick Gallery, a branch museum dedicated to contemporary craft, is located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Check online for current hours and admission information. Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Website: americanart.si.edu.

Press Images

This is an image of Shumen Lumen, folded mushroom sculptures out in the Nevada Desert.
Press - No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man

FoldHaus, Shrumen Lumen, 2016. Photo by Rene Smith.