The Dia Art Foundation in NEW YORK is dedicated to the commissioning, supporting and preserving of large scale art projects, beyond the boundaries and context of the art gallery. Founded in 1974, this non-profit institution owns large exhibition spaces throughout the New York area, outside the city, as well as in remote areas of the United States such as New Mexico, Texas and Utah, and their artist’s work extends to locations overseas.
The Hudson Valley site is 95 km north of New York on a thirteen hectare piece of land, with an interior space that features 3200 m² of skylights, and gardens co-designed by installation artist Robert Irwin feature an orchard of fruit trees.
The foundation is intriguing in its preservation of large scale earth works like those by Robert Smithson and Walter De Maria, who essentially treat the earth as a medium in their art. There is a strong sense of collaboration within the institution, they promote talks, workshops, foster web projects and an arts education program, in an effort to engage with a broad audience. Music performances and artist lectures are a big part of this on-going process.
In September 2007, Dia Art Foundation began a collaboration with the Hispanic Society of America, with projects by contemporary artists in the Society’s Beaux-Arts buildings in Washington Heights. Admission is free. Other contributing artists include Joesph Beuys, Jenny Holzer, Robert Gober and Louise Bourgeois.
Not just interesting for the scale of its works, the Dia foundation is dedicated to the long term preservation of these monumental works of art, and encouraging the visionary projects of artists who began to expand beyond the realm of the gallery during the sixties and seventies, the video projects of Rebecca Horn come to mind. There is a substantial amount of web content on their site, visit: www.diaart.org/ There is information on the artists, the talks, web projects, events etc. plus their book web site.
Ryan McLean
