VACNJ Artist Talk Presents A Conversation with Julia Jacquette, James Trainor and Allison Meier

How does the design of your childhood environment affect you? This question is reflected upon in the feature exhibition "Julia Jacquette: Unrequited and Acts of Play," now on display in the Art Center's main gallery. Included in the exhibition is work from Jacquette's graphic memoir Playground of My Mind, which centers on the adventure playgrounds of New York City during the artist's childhood in the 1960s and 1970s. This era was one of financial crisis and social upheaval-a tumultuous time for the city. Jacquette combines her personal narrative within the historical context around these adventure playgrounds in an exploration of that idea.

On Sunday, October 15, from 2-4pm, Jacquette will be joined by architectural writer James Trainor and Allison Meier, a writer on visual culture, overlooked history, and contemporary creators, for an afternoon discussion of these concepts. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit ArtCenterNJ.org, or contact Sarah Walko, Director of Programs, at swalko@artcenternj.org.

About the participants:

Julia Jacquette is an American artist based in New York City and Amsterdam. Her work has been shown extensively at galleries and museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and The RISD Museum, in Providence, Rhode Island. She has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Princeton University, and is currently on the faculty at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York.

James Trainor writes about art, history, landscape, urbanism and contemporary culture. His work has appeared in Frieze, where he was US Editor from 2004 to 2009, Artforum, Artsy, Art in America, and other periodicals. He has taught numerous experimental field seminars with artist Andrea Zittel and has lectured at Columbia University, Cornell University, and the University of Southern California. He studied fine art and art history at Parsons School of Design/The New School for Social Research, in New York. In January 2015, he was awarded an Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital / The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. In 2015 he was granted a writing fellowship at the MacDowell Colony for the Fall 2015 session, and was subsequently named the Mary Carswell Fellow for 2015-2016.

Allison C. Meier is a Brooklyn-based writer focusing on the arts and overlooked history. Currently, she is staff writer at Hyperallergic, and moonlights as a cemetery tour guide at New York burial grounds. She's has also worked as the senior editor at Atlas Obscura, communications manager at the Cooper Union, and staff writer at ARTINFO. She has written for The New York Times, Art Desk, ARTNews, Mental Floss, and Slate among others.

About the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey

For more than 80 years, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey has been dedicated to viewing, making, and learning about contemporary art. Recognized as a leading non-profit arts organization, the Art Center's renowned studio school, acclaimed exhibitions, and educational outreach initiatives serve thousands of youth, families, seniors, and people with special needs every year.

The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is located at 68 Elm Street in Summit, New Jersey. Adult and children's group tours are available throughout the year. Visit www.artcenternj.org for more information. Gallery Hours: Monday to Wednesday and Friday: 10 AM to 5 PM; Thursday 10 AM to 8 PM; and Saturday & Sunday 11 AM to 4 PM. Please call 908-273-9121 to confirm holiday hours.