Target Studio: Collaboration Incubator Artist

The Section of Disapproved Books is a temporary section of the University of Minnesota library housing publications that are banned in incarceration facilities across the country. Artist Daniel McCarthy Clifford created the section in collaboration with Betsy Friesen, the director of data management at the library, and Ray Barney, the assistant to the curator for creative collaboration at WAM.

Since the opening, McCarthy Clifford has collaborated with Emily Baxter of We Are All Criminals to develop a network of connections at the U of M, leading to dozens of conversations about prison labor, censorship, and criminal justice with scholars of sociology, law, pediatrics, architecture, psychiatry, and more. At the same time, Friesen and Barney have been communicating with Departments of Correction across the country to acquire additional lists of disapproved publications to expand the section’s catalog. WeCoLab, a School of Architecture studio class led by Matt Olson, is also using the section as a space of open practice, experimenting with spatial and conceptual aspects of its organization.

You’re invited to join this collaborative group in a conversation.

Hear about the expertise and experiences gathered thus far in conversations with scholars, staff, students, and partners, and initiate a conversation about the process, the exhibition, and the potential of this collaborative to affect a tangible change on campus and beyond.

Register to attend here >>>

The conversation environment will be designed by the School of Architecture's BDA students, participants of WeCoLab: an experimental workshop that explores collaborative design through open practice. The workshop is led by Matt Olson (OOIEE) and co-led by Boris Oicherman, WAM Curator.