Mary Mattingly: Last Library
Mary Mattingly is the CU Art Museum’s 2020 artist-in-residence. In her artwork, Mattingly combines Earth sciences, ecology and utopian ideas to communicate information about the Earth’s changing climate and human response to our physical environment. Her installation, Last Library: Reading Rooms, Bridges and Tools for Integrating Ecological Ethics into Practice, stems from her belief that art and ecotopian thought can cultivate social change. Architects, artists, ecologists, farmers, indigenous knowledge holders, museum visitors and philosophers contribute their knowledge and stories to the toolkit to enhance our understanding of a shared ecology.
The Last Library includes designs for an Ecotopian Library created by undergraduate students in the Program in Environmental Design and artifacts, specimens and other materials from the College of Engineering; CU Art Museum; departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Geological Sciences; the Museum of Natural History; private lenders; and University Libraries.
As part of the CU Art Museum biennial residency program, artists are invited to mine CU Boulder’s creative and intellectual resources to create new artwork while interacting with faculty and students. The artist-in-residence program and exhibition is curated by Sandra Q. Firmin, director, CU Art Museum. It is generously supported by CU Boulder Student Arts and Cultural Enrichment fees, and CU Art Museum members.
On view February 6–July 18, 2020.
Opening reception, February 6, 5–7 p.m.