Museum Ethics in the Age of Biotechnology- lecture by Ellen Levy

Developments in these areas of scientific research also have profound implications for the museums that exhibit or purport to exhibit living tissue and transgenic art or present art commenting on these topics.  The phrase, “truth-to-materials” takes on a very different cast when the artwork consists of life, itself. Museums increasingly need to consider problems of liability, copyright, the shipping of biological artworks, the management of hazardous or contagious materials, animal protection rights, and censorship issues.  What are the interest groups and negotiations involved in constructing such exhibitions? What responsibility does the museum bear of full disclosure regarding sponsors who may have bias in the topics presented by the museum?  This talk explores the ethical dimensions of display in the age of biotechnology, providing examples of contemporary artworks which have raised provocative concerns.

Ellen K. Levy, a New York-based artist and teacher, is a past president of the College Art Association (2004-2006). She has played a leading role in airing issues of complex systems in her art, exhibitions, publications, and lectures. Levy has exhibited her work widely, both in the US and abroad and is represented by Michael Steinberg Fine Arts (NY). In 1985 Levy received an arts commission from NASA.  She was a recipient of an AICA award (1995-1996) and was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of Arts and Sciences at Skidmore College in 1999, a position funded by the Luce Foundation.  She is currently a Visiting Scholar at NYU while working on her doctorate on the neuroscience of attention and its disorders through the lens of images.