Cultural Researchers Come to Resident Artist Program in Silver City, Nevada

Silver City, Nevada- The summer 2017 resident artists at the Resident Artist Program in Silver City will be Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas of Marksearch, who describe their work as "cultural researchers, creator of conversations, locators of lost history." Currently in Japan working on a project at Sanki Bunko and the 21st Century Museum of Art to research architectural preservation, they're a wife-husband artist team who create interactive public projects that invite people to reflect upon their communities and increase their awareness of the natural environment.

Their methodology synthesizes their academic backgrounds: Bruce Douglas, a fabricator and professional mechanical engineer, meshes his values of building community and using recycled materials by creating functional, quirky human-powered vehicles; Sue Mark, with a BA in philosophy and linguistics and an MFA from the California College of the Arts, creates national and international projects about local history, culture and community challenges.

Together, they have collaborated with non-profits, community groups, and municipalities worldwide to create projects. Some partners have included:

+ Bulgarian sociologists, historians, and architects

+ Czech anarchists

+ German tour guides & archeologists

+ Oakland Chinatown elders

+ Norwegian fishermen

+ Southern civil rights activists

+ Urban social geographers

For more information about their past projects, see http://www.marksearch.org/marksearch-cv.pdf

What is the Resident Artist Program in Silver City? The visiting artist program began in 2014. It provides a venue for those from other parts of the U.S. and the world to engage with the community and the region through the arts. People creating in the performing, visual, or literary arts are invited to reside for up to 4 months at McCormick House, a geodesic dome designed in the 1970s by Nevada artist Jim McCormick. In exchange, the vistors offer public performances, exhibitions, readings, workshops, etc. in the community. Previous residents have included multidisciplinary Michigan-based artist Brian Schorn; New Zealand artist Sophie Scott; Oakland artist and writer Scott MacLeod; emerging musician Mylo Mccormick; dancer Jessica Sanford of Earlham College; London-based artists Stewart Easton and Claire Scully; photographer Frances Melhop; and poet David Lee. Upcoming residents include cultural researchers Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas and New Zealand arist Sophie Scott. For more information, contact director Quest Lakes at P.O. Box 123, Silver City, Nevada 89428.