Artist Michael Singer Challenges Fundamental Assumptions About Society

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The Alterra Institute for Environmental Research and the Dutch Government invited Michael Singer to collaborate on the design of the exterior and interior gardens for its new headquarters in Wageningen, Netherlands, in 1999.

Michael Singer has earned international acclaim over a three-decade career, which has seen him play a central role in

the development of the public art movement and its use in promoting urban and ecological renewal.

Singer will present his unique perspective on the social and political uses of art and design at 8 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Carlson Auditorium at Rochester Institute of Technology. “Regenerative Design in the Public Realm” will include a presentation of some of Singer’s best-known works and a discussion of his efforts to promote social ideals through his art. The event is part of the Visionaries in Motion series sponsored by RIT’s Caroline Werner Gannett Project.

Singer’s work has opened new possibilities for outdoor and indoor sculpture and contributed to the definition of site-specific art and the development of the public art movement. He has also been instrumental in transforming public art, architecture and landscape projects into successful models for urban and ecological development.

His art pieces, sculptures and designs have been featured in numerous museums throughout the world including the Australian National Gallery, the Zurich Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1993, Singer’s design of a waste-recycling and transfer station in Phoenix was chosen by The New York Times as one of the top design events of the year.

The Caroline Werner Gannett Project was created in 2006 by Mary Lynn Broe, the Gannett Professor of Humanities at RIT. Along with the interdisciplinary Gannett Working Group, Broe brings to campus international scholars, authors and artists in lectures, colloquia and workshops that explore new connections across the sciences, technologies, social sciences and humanities. All Gannett events are free and open to the public.

WHO: Michael Singer, artist and designer

WHAT: “Regenerative Design in the Public Realm”

WHEN: 8 p.m. Jan. 19

WHERE: Carlson Auditorium, Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, RIT campus