Check It Out: "RISK: Race, class, geography and art"

The inspiring folks who organized the discussion on the theme of the commons on Boston Common this summer are organizing a bus and walking tour a week from Saturday that they’re calling "RISK: Race, class, geography and art.”

It is billed as a “mobile discussion” with Marie Cieri and Andi Sutton from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 22 about:

What risks do we take in seeing a place from perspectives other than our own? What risks do we take if we don't? What are the challenges for artists who address issues of race and class, or of personal identity and belonging, who use a dialogue-based public creative process to explore these issues? What are the ethics of an art practice that tackles geography and difference and how do these ethics change when applied to micro or macro-political art?

Cieri is an assistant professor of social geography and critical cartography at Ohio State University and co-author of “Activists Speak Out: Reflections on the Pursuit of Change in America” (2000, Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press). Sutton is a Boston artist and curator whose work “explores the potential of applied performance methodology and dialogue-based practice to create alternative models for community.” She is currently pursuing this stuff on her own and via the Boston-based National Bitter Melon Council.

To receive the meeting location, RSVP here. Bring bus fare and wear comfortable shoes.

The event is part of “Platform2,” a series of events designed to “facilitate dialogue about art and social engagement," which are organized by Sutton, Boston artist Jane D. Marsching and the Boston art collective iKatun.

Pictured: Documentation of crosspollennation, a performance walk series by Andi Sutton, 8/5/07.