The Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery’s newest exhibition isn’t your average art show. With five skee-ball lanes and rows of bleachers for spectators, And the Winner is… is more like an arena squeezed into an art gallery. The “social practice” exhibit, which was organized by the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, opened last Friday and explores “competition, cooperation and community.”
And the Winner Is… centers on a school-wide skee-ball tournament that includes all students, faculty and staff on campus. The curators, John Muse and Matthew Seamus Callinan, emphasize, however, that the tournament itself is not supposed to represent the art. Instead, the artwork will be found in the relationships that the competition and events foster in hopes of showing how art can transcend the standard mediums of paint, stone, wood, etc.
In addition, And the Winner Is… also encompasses a series of ambitious artist residencies and curricular interventions. Artists have been commissioned to create and/or perform new artworks that use the tournament as their launching points. A full schedule of events is below.
Friday’s opening found students, faculty and staff rolling a few practice games or, for the particularly brave, playing their first official games of the tournament. Sporting arena foods were abundant (fries, soft pretzels, aromatic popcorn, mini pizzas), the music was loud and everyone’s spirits were high, which bodes well for the almost-month-long event. Why not swing by the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and roll a few balls of your own today?
All photos by Lisa Boughter.
And the Winner Is… Full Schedule of Events:
March 16-April 20
Monday, March 19, 4:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Artist talk by Hank Willis Thomas
Wednesday, March, 21, 2:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Julie Wyman, director of STRONG!, visits Professor Vicky Funari’s Documentary Video Production class. All are welcome.
Wednesday, March, 21, 7:30 p.m., Sharpless Auditorium, KINSC: Sneak-preview of the documentary film STRONG! with three-time Olympian Cheryl Haworth, director Julie Wyman and editor Vicky Funari (Haverford College Independent College Programs) in attendance.
Thursday, March, 22, 8:00 a.m., Arn and Nancy Tellem Fitness Center, GIAC: Weightlifting workshop featuring three-time Olympian Cheryl Haworth, facilitated by Cory Walts, Haverford’s Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Thursday, March 22, 12:00 p.m., Stokes 102: Olympian Cheryl Haworth and director Julie Wyman lead a discussion about the film STRONG!
Monday, March, 26. 4:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Keynote lecture by Ted Purves, chair of the California College of the Arts MFA Program in Fine Art and founder of the MFA Area for Social Practice. Title for the lecture: “Melees and Other Social Forms: The Implosion of Art, Life and Gaming.”
Monday, April 2, 4:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Artist talk by Sal Randolph
Thursday, April 5, 7:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Versus: an interdisciplinary conversation about competition featuring Tom Donnelly (Haverford College Cross Country Coach), Indradeep Ghosh (Haverford College Economics Department), Tim Harte (Bryn Mawr College Russian Department), Rachel Hoang (Haverford College Biology Department), Jesse Shipley (Haverford College Anthropology Department) and Wendy Sternberg (Haverford College Psychology Department).
Monday, April 9, 7:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Artist talk by Shaun El C. Leonardo
Monday, April 16, 4:30 p.m., Stokes 102: Artist talk by Lee Walton
Friday, April 20, 12:30 p.m., Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery: The Skee-Ball Tournament Sweet 16! The final matches will be played and a winner will be named.
And The Winner Is… (And Its Skee-Ball Tournament) Opens in the Gallery
Friday, March 16, And the Winner Is… opened at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. The social practice exhibit will grapple with the intersections between competition, cooperation and community through a massive skee-ball tournament in the Gallery and a series of ambitious artist residencies and curricular interventions.
