Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach examines and highlights key moments from the video program at the Long Beach Museum of Art between 1974 and 1999, and organizations and individuals who collaborated with the Museum. Some thirty international artists whose work was exhibited at LBMA during this time will be on view.
The 1970s and 1980s were an extremely active period for video in Long Beach: by the 1990s the Museum’s profile expanded and its studio production facility flourished. The studio attracted artists from all over the world. On the West Coast, LBMA’s facility was one of the first such media art centers, with a focus on artists’ needs which in turn nurtured the development of the medium. Starting in 1978 it offered on-site performance space, technical assistance, broadcast-quality cameras, post-production equipment, and exhibition opportunities. The LBMA was one of a handful of institutions worldwide that specialized in video as an art form.
This exhibition will recover the dialog from this dynamic era and show how a small but energetic regional museum became a world-known institution, because of its passionate support for video. The Exchange and Evolution advisory committee, made up of artists and curators, brings together decades of artistic, historical, and critical expertise and experience working with the Museum. This committee will support the undertaking of the exhibition and its public program by reaching out nationally and abroad, extending research efforts, helping connect with the international archives and institutions who worked in collaboration with the Museum, and re-establishing the many links in the worldwide network of artists engaged in video.
Through February 12, 2012
http://lbma.org/Exchange%20and%20Evolution.html