"Vanishing Fences" Discussion to Address Intersections in Fine Art, Craft, Industrial Design

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

In conjunction with Oklahoma & Beyond: Selections from the George R. Kravis II Collection, a panel discussion is set for March 30 to explore crossovers and boundaries within the worlds of contemporary fine art, craft, and design.

Vanishing Fences will present a discussion between Scott Klinker, head of 3D design at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Jennifer Scanlan, curatorial and exhibitions director, at Oklahoma Contemporary in Oklahoma City. Arlette Klaric, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art associate chief curator and curator of Oklahoma & Beyond, will serve as moderator.

In addition to addressing the breakdown in boundaries and crossovers within current work being created in the fields of fine art, craft, and design, Vanishing Fences will also examine how these hybrid art forms are presented in commercial and museum settings and how they are related to visual arts studies in colleges and universities. The discussion will also explore the development of fine design and its interaction with industrial design. 

Hosted by the OSU Museum of Art, Vanishing Fences will take place at 5 pm on Thursday, March 30, in the Jack and Carol Corgan Auditorium (room 170) of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Architecture Building at OSU.  The event is free and open to the public.

Vanishing Fences is offered in conjunction with Oklahoma & Beyond: Selections from the George R. Kravis II Collection, on view at the OSU Museum of Art from Feb. 28 through June 21.

About the Presenters:
Scott D. Klinker has been at Cranbrook since 2001. Founder of Scott Klinker Product Design, he works as a design consultant and educator with Herman Miller, Alessi, Steel Case, Burton Snowboards and others. In 2004, his Spaceframe Builder’s Kit was selected by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 25 products of the year. In 2006, he was featured in Newsweek’s annual ‘Design Dozen’ selection of best new designers. He has led his students to receive the ‘Best School’ award at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in both 2002 and in 2012. Previously senior staff at Ideo, Klinker earned a B.S. in Industrial Design from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and later an M.F.A. in Design from Cranbrook.

Jennifer Scanlan has more than 16 years of curatorial experience with an interdisciplinary practice in contemporary art and design. Prior to joining Oklahoma Contemporary, she was an independent curator. From 2001 to 2013 Scanlan served as Associate Curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Her exhibitions include Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today at the Museum of Arts and Design and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, and Playing with Fire: 50 Years of Contemporary Glass and Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design also for the Museum of Art and Design. She has a B.A. in Art History and Italian from Vassar College and an M.A. in the History of Decorative Arts, Design and Culture from the Bard Graduate Center.