UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Pamela Longobardi, distinguished professor of art at Georgia State University, will present a lecture titled “Art, Environmental Activism, and Moral Repair: A (Not-So-) Modest Proposal for Our Times” at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, in the Palmer Museum of Art’s Lipton Auditorium on the University Park campus. Her work is featured in the multifaceted, cross-disciplinary exhibition “Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials” on view at the museum through June 17.
Longobardi has worked with found plastic as a primary material for nearly three decades, creating conceptual art that invites us to consider human responsibility toward an increasingly stressed environment. Featuring her global community-art practice, which has engaged citizen-artists from Bali to Greece to Hawaii, she argues that the function of art is not only to “make us see” but also to “make us care” in the face of emergent ecological crises worldwide.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute; the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; the Sustainability Institute; the Department of Art History; 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
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 18th century 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 11 galleries, a print-study room, 150-seat auditorium, and outdoor sculpture garden, the Palmer is the leading cultural resource for the region.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 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.