The first in a series of four Second Saturdays for Mel Chin: All Over the Place will kick off on April 14, 12-4pm. Each Second Saturday will feature events produced in conversation with the four thematic sections of the exhibition at the Queens Museum. The program on April 14, “As Above, So Below: Scientific Inquiry, Activism, and the Environment” will respond to the theme “Cruel Light of the Sun”, which highlights Chin’s extensive research-based practice on the inner workings of our universe and frequent collaborations with scientists, public health experts, activists, and designers in the fight for environmental justice.

Events on April 14 will feature a conversation between artists Mel Chin and Pope.L on their respective projects in Flint, Michigan; a tour with curator Amy Lipton, who was the first to show Chin’s The Operation of the Sun through the Cult of the Hand in 1987; a hands-on workshop with artist Jan Mun, mapping lead contamination in NYC and creating protective ground covers; Lead Toxicity Summit: A Public Health Crisis; a talk by microbiologist Emelia DeForce on her collaboration with Chin on Sea to See; and a performance by Queens Museum’s Composer-in-Residence Mike Sayre of his piece Music for Icebergs. Read About the Presenters here.

Schedule of Events
12:00-12:30 pm: Tour of the exhibition with Amy Lipton (Meet in the Skylight Gallery)

12:30-2:30 pm: Drop-in hands-on workshop with artist Jan Mun, mapping lead contamination hot spots in NYC and creating protective ground covers using geotextile (Werwaiss Gallery, 2nd Floor)

2:15-3:15 pm: Conversation with Pope.L. and Mel Chin, moderated by Laura Raicovich (Skylight Gallery) Watch the conversation here

3:15-3:45 pm: Explore the Metropolis Composer-in-Residence at the Queens Museum, Mike Sayre, performs “Music for Icebergs” (Skylight Gallery)

3:45-4:15 pm: Skype session with Emelia DeForce, research scientist and key collaborator on Mel Chin’s Sea to See (Adjacent to artwork)

Lead Toxicity Summit: A Public Health Crisis (theatre, 2nd floor)

In response to Mel Chin’s ongoing call to action on the public health crisis of lead poisoning, which he addresses among other projects in his ongoing initiative the Fundred Project and Flint Fit, this Second Saturday is hosting Lead Toxicity Summit: A Public Health Crisis, with a presentation by Dr. David K. Rosner on the sociological history of lead contamination, followed by an environmental justice panel with activists from NYC and Flint, Michigan and a screening of the documentary film “Nor any drop to drink” by Cedric Taylor.

12:30pm: Dr. David K. Rosner presentation on the politics of public health and the sociological history of lead contamination (Theater, 2nd Floor)

1-2pm: Panel on lead poisoning with activists from NYC and Flint, Michigan, featuring Claire McClinton (Flint Democracy Defense League), Charlene Nimmons (Public Housing Communities), and Stephan Roundtree, Jr. (WeACT), moderated by Raquel de Anda (No Longer Empty) (Theater, 2nd Floor)

2-4pm: Screening of documentary film on the Flint water crisis – “Nor any drop to drink” to be followed by Q+A with Director Cedric Taylor (Theater, 2nd Floor)

More about Lead Toxicity Summit.

All events are free and open to the public.

Upcoming Second Saturday Schedule 
June 9: On “The Artifice of Facts and Belief”
July 14: On “Destroying Angels of Our Creation”
August 11: On “Levity’s Wounds and Gravity’s Well”

NOTE: Second Saturdays will take a break for May 12, as Queens Museum is hosting Open Engagement, an artist-led conference dedicated to expanding the dialogue around and creating a site of care for the field of socially engaged art. This year’s conference focuses on the theme of SUSTAINABILITY and features keynote presentations by Mel Chin and Lucy Lippard.

Image: Mel Chin, Sea to See, 2014, wood, glass, steel, projection coating, paint, two projectors, speakers and CPUs

Mel Chin: All Over the Place is made possible in part by lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation and Ford Foundation. Major support is provided by Sarah Arison, Suzanne Deal Booth, Agnes Gund, The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, Ann and James Harithas, Ellen and Bill Taubman, The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, Annette Blum, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo and the Dorothea Leonhardt Fund at the Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc., Matthew Cushing, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Thomas Pascal Will Robinson, and two anonymous donors. Additional support is provided by Fairfax Dorn and Marc Glimcher, and Ursula von Rydingsvard.

Public programs at the Queens Museum are made possible by Surdna Foundation and The New York Community Trust.