Skip to main content
Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University
The Ruby is a catalyst for creativity and a home for making art at Duke.
Artist Talk

In Conversation: Radical Repair Workshop

Open To The Public

Julia Gartrell introduces "The Radical Repair Workshop," a traveling studio, gallery, and educational space housed in a vintage camper that challenges the way we typically think about repair.

Join us for this special lunchtime conversation series that takes the spirit of our Arts & Context and Ruby Friday programs onto Zoom!

Date & Time
February 26, 2021 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
+ Add to Google Calendar+ Export to Calendar (Outlook)
Admission
Free; no RSVP required. Everyone welcome. Join Event on Vimeo!
Venue
Online
Description

The Radical Repair Workshop (RRW), launched in January 2020, is a traveling studio, gallery, and educational space housed in a vintage camper. Using repair as a platform for creative expression and material exploration, the RRW asks the question: Does repair have to be practical?

The items taken into the workshop are assessed based on their historical and interpersonal value. Using repair techniques both traditional and unusual, the RRW explores the connections we have with objects through storytelling, material creativity, and contemporary sculpture. As a public art project, the RRW has faced some dramatic changes in programming this year since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. This talk will also explore the avenues that artists have taken to adapt to the current limitations of our quarantined world, and how some interesting new projects can arise from uncertainty and isolation. (The RRW was supported by a Rubenstein Arts Center residency!) Katy Clune, Duke Arts communications director, will moderate a conversation with the artist during the second half of the program.

Join program on Vimeo, no advance registration required.

RSVP on Facebook

About Julia Gartrell

Gartrell in the Ruby in 2019. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.

Julia Gartrell is an artist and educator based in Durham, NC. She received an MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from Kalamazoo College. Her work explores notions of “making do”, material plasticity, and radical approaches to repair. She often uses scavenged and repurposed materials and works in a range of textiles, ceramics, wood, and beyond. Julia has exhibited nationally and internationally, and currently teaches as adjunct faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University and as part of the DukeCreate program. She is currently working on a traveling public art project called the Radical Repair Workshop which has been funded by the Center for Craft, the Archie Green Fellowship through the Library of Congress, Duke University, and Downtown Durham, Inc.

Follow the RRW on Instagram
The RRW visited the Rubenstein Arts Center in early 2020.

About In Coversation

This free online public conversation series is presented by Duke Arts and Duke Performances (Fridays at Noon, Jan 29 through April 16). Join faculty-invited visiting artists and artists from Duke Performances virtual Spring 2021 season for behind-the-scenes insights into their work.

Before life moved onto virtual platforms like Zoom, Duke Arts and Duke Performances hosted casual artist talks in Duke’s Rubenstein Arts Center and in a variety of Durham community venues like the Pinhook and Cocoa Cinnamon. We miss these opportunities to connect with our audiences and artists, and we hope you’ll join us for this new venture.

Supporters

Related Happenings

Visiting Artist

Julia Gartrell

Durham visual artist Julia Gartrell will develop the Radical Repair Workshop while in residence in the Ruby. The Radical Repair Workshop is a pop-up art experience that will encourage you to reconsider your relationship to mending, sentimental objects, single-use items, and radical (potentially non-functional) modes of repair.

Tags

Tune into events & opportunities!

Sign up for our newsletter