Berkeley, CA, May 21, 2009-(Download a PDF version of this press release.) In conjunction with the exhibition Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) presents Localize! Environmental Activism at the Grassroots, Sunday, June 7, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This event, in support of urban neighborhood-based ecology efforts, takes place in the BAM/PFA Sculpture Garden, terraces, and galleries. Admission is free, including the BAM galleries, and free valet bicycle parking is also available.

Engaging the need and desire for community-based responses to ecological and economic realities, Localize! will feature hands-on activities, demonstrations, performance, and information-sharing with representatives from urban neighborhood-based art and ecology projects. Together, these projects exemplify a network of local resources that foster environmentally sustainable practices while addressing community needs, creating alternative modes of exchange, and mapping new urban geographies.

Visitors to BAM/PFA's Localize! Community Day will discover a foraged-fruit marmalade exchange; try out some greywater models; meet some red wigglers and the urban farmers who use them; make recycled art; practice simple bike repair at the on-site taller de bicicletas; learn about community food systems; enjoy locally made refreshments and the offerings of Cafe Muse; and take a guided tour of the Human/Nature exhibition led by a UC Berkeley graduate student.

Participants include: Forage Oakland, Urban Youth Harvest, Bay Worms, Temescal Seed Swap, Centro Comunitario de Bicicletas, Green Bike Share, Society for Agriculture & Food Ecology, The Local, Greywater Guerrillas, Mandela Foods Co-op, East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, and a special performance by Ariel Luckey (Freeland and Shellmound).

For the most current list of participants and for additional information, please visit: bampfa.berkeley.edu/community_day.

Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet is an exhibition that opens the door to a community of ideas about the social and cultural dimensions of our natural world. The human element of sadly familiar issues-global warming, overpopulation, de-forestation, among other human-generated problems-is profoundly evident in each of the works of art. Human/Nature began six years ago in the form of two questions: Can art inspire conservation? Can conservation inspire art? The result triggered an unusual collaboration and an extraordinary and circuitous journey. BAM/PFA, in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) and the international conservation organization Rare, commissioned eight of the world's most thoughtful and innovative artists to travel to eight UNESCO-designated World Heritage sites and to create new works of art in response to their travels and experiences there. The show is on view through September 23, 2009. For more information, visit artistsrespond.org.

BAM/PFA wishes to thank the following organizations for their contributions to Localize!: Mateo Nube, Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project; Mat Rogers, Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology; and Asiya Wadud, Forage Oakland.

Support

Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet is co-organized by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. The Berkeley presentation is supported by The Christensen Fund; the Columbia Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the East Bay Community Foundation; the Baum Foundation; the Rotasa Foundation; and generous individual donors. The project's Web site is made possible through the efforts of the Studio for Social Sculpture and the Annenberg Foundation. Bank of America is the corporate sponsor of the Berkeley presentation of the exhibition.

About BAM/PFA

The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) aims to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through contemporary and historical art and film, engaging audiences from the campus, Bay Area community, and beyond. BAM/PFA is one of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, presenting fifteen art exhibitions and five hundred film programs each year. The museum's collection of more than 15,000 works includes exceptional examples of mid-twentieth-century painting, including important works by Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse, and Mark Rothko, as well as historical and contemporary Asian art, early American painting, Conceptual and contemporary international art, and California and Bay Area art. The PFA film and video collection now includes the largest group of Japanese films outside of Japan, as well as impressive holdings of Soviet silents, West Coast avant-garde cinema, seminal video art, rare animation, Central Asian productions, Eastern European cinema, and international classics.

Museum Information

Location:
2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue near the UC Berkeley campus.

Gallery and Museum Store Hours:
Wednesday to Sunday, 11 to 5.
Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Admission:
Admission to the museum is free on June 7, 2009. Otherwise, museum general admission is $8; admission for seniors, disabled persons, non–UC Berkeley students, and young adults (13 – 17) is $5; admission for BAM/PFA members, UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty, and children under 12 is free; admission for group tours is $3 per person (to arrange a group tour, call (510) 642-5188). Admission is free on the first Thursday of each month.

Information:
24-hour recorded message (510) 642-0808; fax (510) 642-4889; TDD (510) 642-8734.

Website: bampfa.berkeley.edu

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