ABOUT THE PROJECT

Grand Arts, a contemporary art project space in Kansas City, Mo., quietly but radically tested the limits of institutional and artistic support for nearly two decades. In helping more than 120 national and international artists realize projects considered too difficult, provocative, or complex to attract funding and support otherwise, the gallery achieved insider fame and deep-seated respect as a bastion of generosity and risk. Now, as its final endeavor, Grand Arts gamely interrogates its values, methods, outcomes and legacies in Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995–2015 — an indispensable source book on creativity, collaboration and what it takes to realize a major work of contemporary art.

The volume documents 30 key projects from Grand Arts’ previously un-excavated history, by artists such as Alice Aycock, Patricia Cronin, Ellie Ga, Alfredo Jaar, Isaac Julien, Annie Lapin, Laurel Nakadate, Filip Noterdaeme, William Pope L., Tim Rollins & K.O.S., Emily Roysdon, Tavares Strachan and the Propeller Group. Recent annotations and previously untold stories by artists and collaborators complement an archival deep-dive of photographs, artist proposals, sketches, notes, internal documents and items of private correspondence.

Essays by Pablo Helguera, Iain Kerr, Gean Moreno, Emily Roysdon and Rob Walker explore the models, practices ethics, and futures of art institutions. A critical study conducted by the research studio RHEI identifies and describes Grand Arts’ distinctive model of support.

Part retrospective, part how-to guide, Problems and Provocations actively leverages Grand Arts’ past to engage problems of theoretical and practical interest to cultural producers moving forward — and serves as essential reading for today’s artists, students, curators and all those interested in tales of unpredictable ventures in the world of contemporary art.

 
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Clockwise: Featured pages from project dossiers for Sissel Tolaas, Tavares Strachan, and Glenn Kaino. At top of page: The Propeller Group, process detail, The AK-47 vs. the M16, 2015. Fragments of AK-47 and M16 bullets encased in ballistic gelatin.

 

ACTIONS / UPDATES

 
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“POWERFUL TESTIMONY”
"Problems and Provocations provides powerful testimony that when an organization truly possesses the will and the resources to say yes to artists, amazing things can happen.”

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“REVOLUTIONARY”
“Problems and Provocations offers a free-thinking model for artists and arts foundations — one far beyond support money and/or space."

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LARB ON P&P
"How, then, does a group of people who facilitated the purchase of an amusement park ride, wrangled with the State Department and the Federal Reserve, and created their own dictionary launch a book and reinvigorate the tired panel discussion format?”

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P&P LAUNCH HIGHLIGHTS

Thank you to all who attended our Problems and Provocations book launch in both NYC and Kansas City. Check out some of the highlights from the launch!

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EVENT REMINDER
Artnet and Art F City remind you not to miss our New York book launch party tonight!

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FUN PROBLEMS W/SMART PEOPLE
Transcendental tour guide Timothy “Speed” Levitch leads a dynamic cruise through creative practice — as artists (including Mel Chin, pictured), writers, and thinkers from Grand Arts’ constellation take the stage to puzzle out problems of risk, magic, pleasure, ghosts, and what comes after art.

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THE BOOK
Fathomers announces the publication of Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015, chronicling 30 of the most complicated and challenging projects Grand Arts ever produced.

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VICE ON P&P
Vice’s culture platform Creators considers Grand Arts’ legacy, in advance of Problems and Provocations' September publication.