SOUTH
HADLEY, MA – Renowned artist and environmental designer
Michael Singer will present a talk titled “Creative Process:
Environment, Infrastructure and Aesthetics,” on Thursday,
March 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Gamble Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
Michael Singer’s work has been instrumental in transforming
public art, architecture, landscape and planning projects into
successful models for urban and ecological re-vision and renewal.
By “putting the land back into landscape” (NY Times),
he has redefined the practice of art and broadened its applicability
to the development of public places, buildings, and infrastructure.
His works integrate community needs, sustainable building principles,
land-use planning, environmental responsibility, and aesthetic
design.
In 1993, The New York Times chose Singer's design of a massive
waste recycling and transfer center in Phoenix as one of the top
eight design and architectural events of the year. By revealing
the process of recycling, the center invites involvement in a facility
normally closed to the public. Renewal and transformation are integral
to all elements of the design: buildings, roads, landscape, water,
and wildlife habitat. The project won several awards, and is credited
with promoting aesthetic design excellence in the U.S.
Singer’s design of indoor and outdoor gardens for the Institute
for Forestry and Nature (Alterra, IBN), Netherlands, has also been
featured as a leading example of outstanding green sustainable
design. The gardens work as the "lungs and kidneys" of
the institute’s headquarters, cleaning air and gray water
as well as providing climate control without air-conditioning.
Among Singer’s many other works are a sculptural floodwall
and walkway that model river reclamation in Michigan, a large interior
sculpture garden for the Denver International Airport, and co-generation
power facilities. His plans define an “Urban Eco-Sustainable
Network,” with habitat creation, education, recreation, water
preservation, and urban agriculture as part of the electric generation
facility and site.
A graduate of Cornell University, Michael Singer has received fellowships
and awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National
Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts,
and the Vermont State Governor’s Award for the Arts.
The event is presented by the Center for the Environment with support
from the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
For more information, please contact: Mount Holyoke College Center
for the Environment, (413) 538-3091 www.mtholyoke.edu/go/ce.
For more information on Michael Singer and to view his work visit
www.michaelsinger.com.
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