WHAT WE DO AND WHY
Creativity is the reigning enterprise of the mind. And, images are a primary system of information in today’s global society. When combined, the creative act through visual works offers a powerful means for expression and understanding the world.
The Waterworks serves the public through five significant, interwoven roles which are: an artistic role; an educational role; a cultural stewardship role; the role of building and enhancing creative capacity; and, the role of research and publications.
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Artistic Role: Promoting Artistic Aims.
Supporting and promoting artists and their various forms of visual expression are paramount to the purpose of art museums. It is through the work of artists that we connect our public and private spheres; explore our personal, cultural, national, and multi-national identities; discover global perspectives and cultural products; challenge or further chart beliefs, viewpoints and conventions; and, take in new experiences and ways of knowing born through unique single- and cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Through contemporary art exhibitions and related public programming the Waterworks addresses complex art making issues. These issues include the dismantling of the hierarchies of artistic mediums and art making practices initiated by the historical avant-gardes, the globalization of culture, the intersection of Western and non-western modernity, the role of technology in art making, and the question of authorship in the practice of contemporary art among others.
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Educational Role: Making Meaningful Connections.
Public education, in its broadest sense, is best served not only by our schools and libraries, but also by museums. The Waterworks Visual Arts Center is dedicated to educating the public through the visual arts to offer people of all ages access to our nation’s—and the world’s—cultural and artistic heritage and current-day cultural productions. The Waterworks represents the newer form of non-collecting museums dedicated not only to caring for and presenting objects of art but also to deep levels of learning, engagement and making meaningful connections.
Museums present works of art as objects for interpretation, instruction and enjoyment as a public asset. Art museums are unique in this respect. Because they are object-based, everything that the visitor or learner experiences stems from the objects presented, not just from words or ideas. The visitor comes to understand that each object is created in a particular time, using specific materials to communicate a range of ideas and issues and that these works offer insights into the understanding of humankind—its past, its present and its future.
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Cultural Stewardship Role: Connecting Past to Present.
Museums present exhibitions and programs created through research and scholarship for people to explore new ideas, exchange stories, and discover art and objects from our cultural heritage. Interestingly, the Waterworks facility resides in a richly historic community that exhibits deep pride in preserving, studying, and sharing the past. As a museum with a contemporary art focus the Waterworks provides an important stewardship role as we learn from our past to create a vibrant future. In this role, the WVAC is compelled to take a critical look at the parallels, intersections, and divergences between historic interpretations of art and the role of the avant-garde. Specifically, the Waterworks will examine the interaction between traditional arts forms and mass culture and assess the role of informing the modernist, postmodern and contemporary aesthetic.
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Building Creative Capacity: Renewing Individuals and Communities.
Objects of art are specimens of human ingenuity and creativity and represent sets of beliefs and skills that are worthy of exploring. As such, museums like the Waterworks which operate as contemporary art centers have lasting consequence. Our very nature is intended to renew the creative capacities of individuals, communities and societies—and as such we have a responsibility to continue to present and re-present art as a means to build the cultural and creative abilities of our citizenry and workforce.
The Waterworks aspires to develop new and returning participants and visitors who favor exploring the complex work and ideas of living artists and understanding the aesthetic, social, historic, political and cultural context of the art of our time. We promote the investigation of a range of critical theories and methods in art history which shape our visual traditions and the examination of interactions between regional, national and international cultural spheres within a global context.
We promote the relationship between critical and creative thinking as inseparable forms of thought that lead to important ideas, insight, and novel—even profound--manifestations of expression and communication. Therefore, experiences that develop the essential skills, characteristics and traits of creative and critical practices are core to our purpose.
We aim to excite, challenge, and provide insight into the fuller creative process and its benefits to individuals and communities. It is through the compelling combination of critical and creative thinking that innovative ideas, products and practices are born and developed.
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Promoting Research and Publications.
Imagination and reason are inseparable forces of the mind that justify cultivation through exhibition, research, education and publication activities. When museums operate at their highest level, they contribute to the wealth of research and publications to provide access to current ideas and questions.
The Waterworks supports artistic research and expression that make use of the elements of reasoning which are core to intellectual and creative development. As such, we promote the use of basic research methods and their outcomes in the areas of publication, exhibitions and related educational opportunities. We understand that basic research methods and products:
have a fundamental purpose and goal;
address a fundamental question, problem or issue;
identify information that is relevant to the stated fundamental question and purpose;
contain inferences and interpretations from which conclusions are drawn by the artist/researcher (and eventually the viewer);
support a point of view or a frame of reference;
are based on a set of assumptions which shape the point of view;
are expressed through, and shaped by, concepts and ideas; and,
lead to a set of implications and consequences in the form of a visual statement.
We strive to demonstrate leadership and cultural stewardship through research and publication endeavors to develop and inform a public audience.
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