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CHRIS JORDAN TO BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER
FOR KICKOFF EVENT FOR ACCORD INITIATIVE
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (September 11, 2009) – Seattle-based photographic artist Chris Jordan will be the keynote speaker for the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts kick-off event for the ACCORD initiative’s 2009/2010 programs. Jordan will speak on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Thrust Theatre in Performance Place on the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) campus in Winston-Salem. After the lecture, Jordan will be signing his book Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait in the Performance Place lobby. The lecture is free and open to the public but tickets should be reserved in advance through the UNCSA Box Office (336) 721-1945.
The ACCORD initiative, which stands for Artists Contributing to Civic-Oriented and Responsive Democracy, seeks to find compelling, contemporary answers to how the arts are essential to a thriving democracy. Through this initiative, the Institute will partner nonprofits, community organizations, charitable groups and governmental agencies with area arts students to create arts-based projects that address community needs or social issues.
Jordan first became known for his large-scale color photographs of the detritus of American consumer culture, in a series entitled Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption. His more recent project, Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, has established Jordan as an internationally acclaimed artist and spokesperson for social change.
“We are delighted to be bringing Chris Jordan to Winston-Salem,” Kenan Institute for the Arts executive director Margaret Mertz said. “Chris is an engaging and eloquent speaker who speaks directly to his beliefs – how the arts are essential to a thriving democracy and an effective way to respond to the social and civic issues that impact us daily. This approach fits perfectly with the objectives of the ACCORD project.”
When Jordan first released Running the Numbers in early 2007, it quickly went viral on the internet. Since then Jordan’s website has averaged 75,000-100,000 visitors per month, and Jordan is inundated daily by emails and phone calls from all over the world from individuals and organizations responding to his work. His images have been featured in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, television features, documentary films, books, school curriculums and blogs around the globe, and he has been invited to exhibit his work in art museums, festivals and public venues in the U.S., Asia, Europe and South America.
Jordan was chosen by National Geographic Channels International to serve as their Eco-ambassador for Earth Day 2008. In April 2008, they sponsored a month-long tour in Asia and Europe, where Jordan exhibited his prints and gave public talks, workshops, and interviews. In May 2008, Jordan traveled to Caracas, Venezuela, by invitation of the mayor, to exhibit his work and spend a week making school visits and giving public talks and workshops. The exhibition traveled around Venezuela in 2008. In November 2008, Jordan was invited to Dubai, United Arab Emirates to participate in the World Economic Forum summit. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the New American Dream Foundation. His work recently won the prestigious the Green Leaf Award from the United Nations Environmental Programme, presented at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway. In 2008, the Running the Numbers series was one of three finalists for the international Darmstadt Photographic Prize in Germany, and a finalist for the new Green Prix Award in the U.S.
The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts (www.kenanarts.org) is a privately funded program of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts that incubates projects that sustain artists at every point in their creative development through strategic partnerships that capitalize on visionary thinking in the arts.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (www.uncsa.edu) is the University of North Carolina’s conservatory for the arts, dedicated entirely to the professional training of students possessing exceptional talents in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA offers students focused, intense, professional training at the high school, baccalaureate, and masters levels in its schools of Dance, Design and Production, Drama, Filmmaking and Music.
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