Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Cathy Halstead

Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Cathy Halstead

Relevance of Place is an online series of site-specific dialogues that explore the meaning of place at Tippet Rise Art Center. Guided by Shannon Jackson, Chair of the History of Art Department at UC-Berkeley and a scholar of socially-engaged art, Relevance of Place invites artists, architects, designers, and creative thinkers to engage in conversation about the ethics, aesthetics, and relevance of place. These conversations explore “place” as a global, local, and personal concept as well as “place” as it refers specifically to Tippet Rise, a site that brings together “art, music, land, sky, and poetry” creating an “algorithm that is greater than the sum of its parts.” In individual interviews and group dialogues, each guest offers stories and insights from their own practice. Together, they reflect on the historic past and sustainable future of Tippet Rise—as an environmental site, as a wide-ranging art center, and as a creative gathering space.

Here, Shannon Jackson interviews artist, philanthropist, and Tippet Rise Co-Founder Cathy Halstead on the power of artistic metaphor at Tippet Rise and the importance of facing the history and future of the site with a spirit of love. In this episode, Halstead discusses the mission of Tippet Rise as well as the art center’s growing relationships with historic and contemporary communities in the region. Watch to hear her explore the site and its venues and to hear poetry from Peter Halstead on the human relation to nature.

Filmed in October 2022.