U.S. Participants Announced for 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale

Participants are all community-focused organizations.

Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 6/10/2008

Each year, the Biennale Architecture, the architecture section of international art exhibition the Venice Biennale, draws architecture and design enthusiasts from around the world to Venice, Italy. Participation is a sure-fire way to earn coverage around the world. This year, 15 groups were selected for the U.S. Pavilion "Into the Open: Positioning Practice," which will be on view September 14-November 23.

"Into the Open" will present ways architects can positively influence and shape community and the built environment. The American architectural practice and its relationship to civic participation will also be examined. Participants -- all focusing on the community -- were selected by The Architect’s Newspaper, PARC Foundation, and Slought Foundation in association with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Each will addresses social and environmental issues.

The list includes urban renewal art and education non-profit the Heidelberg Project, and the Edible Schoolyard, an organization which works to bring edible greenery to playgrounds. A complete list is below. Items on view will include installations, digital images, video projections, drawings, and artifacts of the American landscape –- from open spaces and parks to civic spaces and urban housing units.

The exhibit was conceived in collaboration with architects Teddy Cruz and Deborah Gans, and organized by U.S. Commissioner William Menking, along with co-curators Aaron Levy, Executive Director and Senior Curator at Slought Foundation, and Andrew Sturm, Director of Architecture for the PARC Foundation.

Participants in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecuture Biennale