Ted Talks: Art

The College of Fine Art’s Museum of Fine Arts will be hosting two Ted Talks featuring artists Janet Echelman and Béatrice Coron. Following the talks, there will be a League discussion. The facilitators will be Sara Chang and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. There will also be a member spotlight for Allison Finn, Juror’s Mention at the Summer Annual; medium: digital.

Janet Echelman (born February 19, 1966) is an American sculptor and artist. She builds living,
breathing sculpture environments that respond to the forces of nature — wind, water and light —
and become inviting focal points for civic life. Exploring the potential of unlikely materials, from
fishing net to atomized water particles, Echelman combines ancient craft with cutting-edge
technology to create her permanent sculpture at the scale of buildings. Experiential in nature, the
result is sculpture that shifts from being an object you look at, to something you can get lost in.

Béatrice Coron: Stories Cut from Paper (18 minutes, 15 seconds)

Béatrice Coron tells stories informed by life. Her own life colors her work: after briefly studying art
at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Lyon, and Mandarin Chinese at the Université of Lyon III, Coron
experienced life with a series of odd jobs. She has been, among others, a shepherdess, truck
driver, factory worker, cleaning lady and New York City tour guide. She has lived in France (her
native country) , Egypt and Mexico for one year each, and China for two years. She moved to New
York in 1985, where she reinvented herself as an artist. Coron’s oeuvre includes illustration, book
arts, fine art and public art. She cuts her characteristic silhouette designs in paper and Tyvek.