Douglas Paulson

Douglas Paulson has been developing an expansive, socially engaged and collaborative practice for over 15 years. His work takes many forms, from sprawling social projects in public space, to intimate drawings, books, and sonic experiments.

Collaboration is at the heart of his practice. His work has come to life across NYC and abroad, bringing together people from disparate backgrounds into conversation with each other.

Doug has explored the state of public art in Seoul; partnered kids with artists and urban planners to design and build Kitty City, a city for kittens. He and Heidi Neilson inflated the Menu For Mars Kitchen to prototype food for the Red Planet. He’s collaborated with refugees from the Middle East and Africa who have relocated to Germany, Norway, and Israel.

He’s currently Director of Education at Socrates Sculpture Park, designing moments for neighbors to have encounters with art making, the natural world, mindfulness; and organizing wild performative experiments with young people.

douglaspaulson.com, socratessculpturepark.org

 

[video:https://vimeo.com/710937299]

 

Listen / Glean / Gather / Shape

In the talk Listen / Glean / Gather / Shape, Douglas Paulson talks about his experience working across a broad range of communities in his socially engaged creative and pedagogical practice. Through his work, Paulson considers the expanded role of the artist in socially engaged spaces and contexts designed to make space for others, while exploring the intersection of culture, environmental, and social justice issues.

Paulson’s pedagogical practice reaches from university level, to museums and non-profits in NYC. He works with community members of all ages to build bodies of knowledge that cultivate connectedness to both our pasts and look towards the future.

Paulson will talk about his ongoing work exploring cultural and environmental understanding and mindfulness with artists, farmers, and neighbors, in a world that is rapidly changing.