Press Release The Andy Warhol Museum Launches Silver Studio Sessions
Silver Studio Sessions webpage screenshot
For immediate release
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
The Andy Warhol Museum launches Silver Studio Sessions, a new initiative featuring recording artists performing as part of the museum’s Sound Series. Silver Studio Sessions offers viewers a brief, stripped-down version of a Sound Series performance. The sessions take place in a 6th floor gallery space designed to evoke Warhol’s studio, the Silver Factory.
Taking a cue from similar video blog formats such as NPR’s Tiny Desk Series, artists who are performing within the Sound Series record a few songs in a simple and minimal mode (with one camera and stereo pair of microphones) in a mostly acoustic scenario. These private recording sessions (approximately 30 minutes) could take place either directly prior to or following the artists performance in the museum’s theater.
Silver Studio Sessions offers artists an opportunity to create a unique recording in a uniquely Warholian space, resulting in a short performance video that exists as part of a performance archive on the The Warhol’s website. The video content is available both via YouTube and embedded on The Museum’s new Silver Studio Sessions website. Artists currently featured on the site include Dean & Britta, Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, and Valgeir Sigurðsson.
Ben Harrison, curator of performing arts at The Warhol states, “We’re excited about the potential of this new minimalist recording series to both capture the immediacy and subtle nuances of the Sound Series performances in our intimate theater, and also to offer artists this opportunity to record in a uniquely Warholian space within the museum, that can be shared with a vast audience online.”
The Warhol receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and The Heinz Endowments. Further support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.
The Andy Warhol Museum
Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Andy Warhol Museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials and is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Warhol is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Established in 1895 by Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is a collection of four distinctive museums: Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. The museums reach more than 1.4 million people a year through exhibitions, educational programs, outreach activities, and special events.