Meredith Gaglio, assistant professor of architecture, collaborated on the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism, which is dedicated to both realized and unrealized projects that address ecological and environmental concerns by architects who practiced in the United States from the 1930s through the 1990s.
On view from September 17, 2023, through January 20, 2024, in the Museum’s Third Floor North Galleries, Emerging Ecologies will feature over 150 works that reconstruct how the rise of the environmental movement in the US informed architectural practice and thought. Models, photographs, diagrams, and sketches will be placed in context with archival materials such as posters, flyers, and articles to showcase innovative, fantastical, dystopian, and daring architectural projects that sought to navigate the fraught relationship between the built and natural environment. The exhibition celebrates the path-breaking environmentally conscious work of architects like Emilio Ambasz, Charles and Ray Eames, and Frank Lloyd Wright, while shining a light on many less familiar, historically significant practices like The New Alchemy Institute, Glen Small, and Mária Telkes.
“By highlighting projects that both foreshadowed and anticipated the ecological effects of overpopulation, the depletion of natural resources, and rampant industrial pollution, the exhibition looks to the past to suggest solutions for the future,” according to MoMa organizers.
Seven newly commissioned audio recordings that draw inspiration from these little-known projects will feature contemporary practitioners—Gaglio, Mae-ling Lokko, Jeanne Gang, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Amy Chester, Carolyn Dry, and Emilio Ambasz—sharing their thoughts on what contemporary architects can do to mitigate against climate change.
Gaglio was a historical consultant for the show and for the exhibition catalog, as well as lending her voice for the audio collage of architects and scholars who contributed to the exhibit. She wrote a piece in the “Counter Ecologies” issue of Art Papers in relation to the exhibition.
“I am one of the voices you’d hear in the exhibit,” she said. “In the audio tour, I discuss the history of the New Alchemy Institute and its relevance to contemporary architecture. I also speak to the importance of understanding the rich history of ecological architecture in an ‘audio collage’ with other experts in the field.”
Gaglio is a historian of modern and contemporary architectural technology, urbanism, and the environment, with previous experience in professional practice. Her research interests include the development and implementation of sustainable community planning and architectural strategies in the United States from the late-1960s through the early-1980s. Read more.
She is also speaking at The Third Ecology conference sponsored by MoMA and the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) in Iceland in October 2023.
Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism is organized by Carson Chan, Director, the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment, and Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, with Matthew Wagstaffe, Ambasz Institute Research Assistant.
Courtney Barr, professor of art/graphic design, has been named associate director of the LSU School of Art. Barr has been a faculty member at LSU for 15 years, and a manager of the Graphic Design Student Office (GDSO), which provides professional design services for university departments and local community organizations.
The LSU College of Art & Design has named Courtney Taylor the Director of Galleries for the college. The newly created role will manage the galleries, which display art & design exhibitions featuring work by LSU students, faculty, alumni, and visiting artists and designers. Galleries include the new Barnes Ogden Art & Design Complex gallery, the Clark and Laura Boyce Gallery in Julian T. White Hall (formerly the Design Building), and the Glassell Gallery in downtown Baton Rouge.
Allison Young, assistant professor of art history, is a 2023 recipient of an Award to Louisiana Artists and Scholars (ATLAS) grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents for her current book project on the South African born artist Gavin Jantjes.
“We look forward to working with Tara! We are sure the under her stewardship the Hilltop Arboretum, a corner of Paradise in the middle of Baton Rouge, will continue to grow and blossom!” said Alkis Tsolakis, Dean of the College of Art & Design and interim director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture.
Dean Alcibiades “Alkis” Tsolakis of the LSU College of Art & Design has received the prestigious honorary membership from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). ASLA has announced its 2023 Honors Recipients highlighting some of the most noteworthy landscape architecture practitioners and firms nationwide. Selected by ASLA’s board of trustees, the honors represent the highest recognition ASLA bestows each year.
