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Exploratorium Opens With Arts Program and New Center for Art & Inquiry

The Exploratorium re-opened its doors at Pier 15 on San Francisco’s downtown waterfront on April 17, 2013, with expanded work in the arts and the new Center for Art & Inquiry directed by curator Marina McDougall. This new programmatic focus on the arts is made possible by a generous grant from Sakurako and William Fisher.

The Center for Art & Inquiry will lead the Exploratorium’s arts strategy and direction. Working with program directors from across the museum as well as a council of national advisors, the Center oversees the museum’s long running Artist-in-Residence Program, hosts research fellows, and initiates special projects to advance work at the intersection of art and interdisciplinary learning.

At Pier 15, the Exploratorium will debut new programs, projects and exhibition spaces. With expansive outdoor space, state-of-the-art facilities, and wide-ranging themes of investigation, the Exploratorium’s new home will allow for great possibilities for artistic exploration. The Center for Art & Inquiry, will oversee a communications program to capture the innovations, approaches, and results of the Exploratorium’s work in the arts:

Over the Water, an annual program of rotating, large-scale temporary works for the public realm
Artist-in-Residence Program, the Exploratorium’s hallmark, groundbreaking, process-oriented, cross-pollinating program for both emerging and mid-career artists to develop new projects
Cinema Arts Program, soon celebrating its 30th anniversary this adventurous program presents an incredible mixed genre program in the Exploratorium’s new Forum equipped with a state of the art Constellation acoustic system by Meyer Sound
Black Box, an 800 square foot gallery space with controlled light and sound for media installations and special exhibitions
Ways of Knowing conversation series, a dialogue on the creative process featuring leading thinkers and doers from across many disciplines including the arts
Artist Collaborators, artists contribute to our ongoing research and development in key initiatives. Current themes include: human social behavior, physics and perception, ecologies of place, living systems, making as thinking
Commissioned Works, as well as loaned artworks, from a vast array of artists animate the public offerings of the Exploratorium

NEW ARTS PROJECTS
More than 40 new art projects will be on view at opening. These projects take many forms from large-scale immersive installations to site-specific interventions to soon-to-be classic exhibits. Works include a large-scale fog environment, a fold-out guide to the atmosphere, a sidewalk grate that sonically comes alive at night, a giant Douglas Fir tree tipped on its side, and a library on Bay history. These projects have largely been developed by artists working closely with Exploratorium staff as collaborators and Artists-in-Residence.

For more information, visit www.exploratorium.edu/visit