UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Los Angeles-based visual artist and curator Dianna Cohen, will present a lecture titled “Rethink Plastics” at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Palmer Museum of Art’s Lipton Auditorium, University Park. Her work is represented in the multifaceted, cross-disciplinary exhibition “Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials” on view at the museum, Feb. 13 through June 17, 2018. A party celebrating the exhibition will take place after Cohen's lecture, from 7 to 9 p.m., and will include food, music and opportunities to meet artists.
Cohen is best known for her two- and three-dimensional works using upcycled plastic bags. She is also the CEO and co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, a global alliance of more than 600 organizations, businesses, research institutes, and thought leaders working together to stop plastic pollution. Cohen asks us to rethink our relationship with plastic at a time when sustainability is an international concern — and when artists have become major communicators of science to the general public.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the College of the Liberal Arts; Institutes of Energy and the Environment; Earth System Science Center; Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Rock Ethics Institute; and the Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art.
Also on view at the Palmer Museum of Art this spring are “Pop at the Palmer,” Jan. 9 through May 13; and “Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint,” Jan. 16 though May 20.
For more information on the Palmer Museum and a calendar of upcoming events, visit palmermuseum.psu.edu.
About the Palmer Museum
The Palmer Museum of Art on the Penn State University Park campus is a free-admission arts resource for the University and surrounding communities in central Pennsylvania. With a collection of 8,850 objects representing a variety of cultures and spanning centuries of art, the Palmer is the largest art museum between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Areas of strength include the museum’s collection of American art from the late eighteenth to the present, Old Master paintings, prints and photography, ceramics and studio glass, and a growing collection of modern and contemporary art. The museum presents ten exhibitions each year and, with eleven galleries, a print-study room, 150-seat auditorium, and outdoor sculpture garden, the Palmer Museum of Art is the leading cultural resource for the region.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays and some holidays.
The Palmer Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.