2012-2013 AnnuAl RepoRt

letteR fRom the executive diRectoR

dear friends,

our small, volunteer organization has come a long way over the last decade, as has our approach to

enabling dialogue and deliberation in cultural communities.

through our many conversations with artists, communities, and institutions around the world, we have

advocated for an alternative form of institution: one that builds relationships and social trust through

collaboration and the exchange of ideas. We have spoken about the need for institutions to communicate

and perform their values both internally and within the public realm, as well as for institutions to actively

negotiate divisions within society through programs that encourage inclusiveness, advocacy, and the

sharing of knowledge.

in January, we will be launching our new organizational identity, which we have developed over the past two

years with the generous support of the Andy Warhol foundation and initial funding from the peW center

for Arts and heritage. through an intensive and multi-disciplinary exchange involving Slought communities,

the graphic design firm project projects and communication design firm Saylor + Sirola, both in new York,

and the programming firm Systemantics Gmbh, in viersen, Germany, we have developed a new and exciting

identity system that will radically transform how Slought operates in philadelphia, the world, and the cloud.

At Slought, our projects take form through ongoing negotiation among different conversants, and are

structured by particular concerns and aspirations. this performative approach to cultural production values

openness and responsiveness, but has not always been apparent to our publics in past years. We are excited

to make legible this performative approach through our new website and digital archive, and the many

partnerships and formal and informal economies that enable our work.

throughout this process, we have continued to present a variety of public programs locally and globally.

continuing our long-standing collaboration with the departments of history of Art and english, and the

School of Arts and Sciences at the university of pennsylvania, we recently featured norwegian artist Knut

Åsdam. his edgelands installation at Slought and on the campus of the university investigated social and

economic division in society. his film, installation and public sculpture transformed Slought into a layered and

disjointed cultural space. Åsdam helped us to understand our institutional responsibilities by articulating the

way in which a cultural space is also a divided space. We thank our partners, Kaja Silverman, the Keith l. and

Katherine Sachs professor of contemporary Art at penn, and penndesign, for their vision and leadership, which

received accolades within the art and architectural press.

developing mixplace Studio continues to be a central focus of Slought’s activities. following an intensive first

year, we have refined the curriculum that informs and structures our activities. this curriculum is based on the

understanding that knowledge is embedded within communities and institutions, but is defined differently by

them. our work with the many individuals involved in mixplace and our partners at people’s emergency center

and penndesign seeks to identify these differences and produce possible solutions.

As a small, volunteer organization, we find resilience in the reciprocal exchange of time, knowledge and

community, and we recognize the value of small donations. As a partner to complex organizations, we are

committed to accountability and the transparent distribution of their financial and institutional resources. please

consider making a tax-deductible, year-end gift to support our work and take part in growing our communities.

i hope that you will share in this exciting moment for Slought, and i wish you all the best in the new Year.

Warmly,

Aaron levy

executive director

Publics

Display

Process

Dialogue

Geographies

Urgency

Partnerships

Resistance

ExceptionenGAGe

We are a volunteer organization that builds relationships across divided communities.

4

Publics

Display

Process

Dialogue

Geographies

Urgency

Partnerships

Resistance

Exception

5

John Cage | How to Get Started - Live! (2013-04-02)Performance at Symphony Space

Installation or Film: What Is the Difference? (2013-04-03)Knut Åsdam and Kaja Silverman in conversation

The End of Cinema (2013-04-12)The Future of Cinema Studies: A Symposium

Forum for Other Citizenships (2013-05-02)Kirk James and “Mass Incarceration”

EDGELANDS (2013-10-18)Knut Åsdam

Brecht, Music, Culture: Hanns Eisler in Conversation with Hans Bunge (2013-10-29)Performance by Sabine Berendse and Paul Clements

Conversations on Coexistence (2012-11-05)Anuradha Mathur, Amy Hillier, and Teddy Cruz in conversation

Humanities in Revolt (2012-11-27)A conversation with Alastair Renfrew

On site-specificity (2012-11-29)Hans Haacke, Alexander Alberro in conversation

How to Live Together? (2013-01-26)Camille Henrot

From Forensic Fraud to the Perversion of Science (2013-02-22)Renata Salecl, in conversation with Manya Steinkoler

John Cage | How to Get Started - Live! (2013-02-23)Performance at Bryn Mawr College

How to Work Together (2013-02-26)Collaboration and Intimacy as Performance

Ciné-Cat: Marking the City (2013-03-06)Stop going to see films and make a film of the city!

Agnès Varda (2013-03-13)In conversation with Molly Nesbit

Total Installation, Public Project (2013-03-14)In conversation with Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

Things That Quicken the Heart— (2013-03-15)Chris Marker: A Symposium

The Days of the Commune (2013-03-30)Zoe Beloff

2012-2013 pRoJectS

The program with Knut Asdam - Mellon Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania - featured recent works,

including two new site-specific installations such as this one outside the School of Design on Penn’s campus.

Knut Asdam’s practice explores architecture and cinema at the conjunction of the personal, the paranoiac, and the public (October-November 2013).

Lauren Kuhn, Director of the John Cage Trust, and Peter Price, Sound Engineer in John Cage | How to Get Started - Live! at Symphony Space.

Together with the Cinema Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Film and Media Arts at Temple University, Slought hosted a public conversation with the filmmaker Agnès Varda and Molly Nesbit, Chair and Professor in the Department of Art at Vassar College (March 2013).

Youth researchers at Mixplace Studio led a walking party along 40th Street in Philadelphia to enable dialogue about

recent transformations along this “linear mile” (August 2013).

Support & Revenue

expenses

November 2012 - October 2013PROFIT & LOSS

* Includes in-kind contributions

$24,267change in net Assets

foundationscorporations & individualsGovernmentin-Kind donationscollaborative Revenuefee for Serviceinterest Assets Released from Restrictiontotal total (without in-Kind)

--6,9514,782

123,0006,5375,475

23316,952

$146,978$23,978

Advertising Bank fees Banquets & meetings depreciationhonoraria & fees insurancelegal & professional fees office expenses postage & Shipping printing Rent* Repair & maintenance Salaries*Services Rendered Supplies telephone & internet travel utilitiesWebsite totaltotal (without in-Kind)

1,243282453

12,8712,3601,202

780967226

3,02719,3101,236

50,00068,2291,0011,565

8245,000

669 $171,245

$48,245

Contents from one of the many Tulse Luper Suitcases installed at Slought, as part of a city-wide collaboration celebrating Peter Greenaway’s visit to Philadelphia.

A performance and installation by the artist Zoe Beloff revisited Bertolt Brecht’s play the days of the commune (1871), written in response to the 1871 Paris Commune.

upcominG pRoGRAmS

in philadelphia

Clorindo Testa, Painter and Architect

February 13, 2014

Pataphysics Festival

March 22, 2014

Russia, in Theory: Boris Groys

March 7, 2014

in the World

Judith Barry: Cairo Stories

September 2014

in the cloud

A People War: An interactive visual archive of the Nepal Conflict (1996-2006)

April 2014

2011-2012 Board of Directors

Aaron Levy, President Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania

Tom Lussenhop, Treasurer Developer and former Managing Director of Real Estate, University of Pennsylvania

Judith Stein, Secretary Independent critic, formerly curator of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Jeffrey KallbergAssociate Dean, School of Arts and Sciences,University of Pennsylvania

Abe Levy Medical Director, Mount-Kisco Medical Group

Kira Strong Vice-President, People’s Emergency Center Community Development Corporation

Advisory Committee

Yona Backer Partner, Third Streaming, LCC

Eduardo Cadava Professor, Princeton University William Menking Editor-in-Chief, The Architect’s Newspaper

Srdjan Jovanovic WeissPrincipal, Normal Architecture Office

BoARd And StAff liStinG

Staff

Aaron Levy Executive Director

Jean-Michel Rabaté Senior Curator for Discursive Projects

Osvaldo Romberg Senior Curator for Artist Projects

Megan Schmidgal Communications Strategist

Ken SaylorExhibition Strategy and Design

Rachel HeidenryCuratorial and Research Fellow

Alethea Rockwell Curatorial and Research Fellow

Andrea Herrera Intern

Emma Horst-MartzIntern

Loren KoleIntern

Alanna RebbeckIntern

Slought