The Escalette Permanent Art Collection in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences will receive a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support Code becomes Palette. Code Becomes Palette is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding.

“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as Chapman University’s Escalette Collection reengage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”

Code becomes Palette is a digital artwork that will share an innovative multi-year public research project on American Fear conducted by Chapman University faculty in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. The internationally renowned artist Daniel Canogar, who has completed several high-profile data visualization projects across the world, has been selected as the artist for this new work. Canogar’s entire practice draws on data that is of immediate public significance, relating to energy consumption, public health, climate and weather, seismic activity, newsfeeds, and prices of commodities. He will base this new work at Chapman on the Survey of American Fears. Since 2014, the Earl Babbie Research Center in Wilkinson College has conducted a nationwide poll about the fears of ordinary Americans. Over one thousand respondents annually have provided in-depth data about the growth of fear, and the type and severity of anxieties experienced by average Americans, ranging from fear of government corruption to racial discrimination to environmental pollution, pandemics, vaccines, economic hardship, crime in cyberspace, and extinction of animal and plant species. Inviting Canogar to create an artwork from this data would make this slice of the datasphere visible, literally unmasking deep-held fears.

“Code becomes Palette showcases the Escalette Collection’s commitment to a focused permanent collection of art that builds on the Chapman University’s goals of inclusivity, meets teaching and research needs on campus, reflects the multi-cultural nature of Southern California, promotes new artistic talent in the region, and participates in current global artistic discourse. This new commission by internationally renowned artist Daniel Canogar fosters an understanding of ourselves as individuals and as a society, and ultimately aims to have a transformative effect on its viewers.” Dr. Jennifer D. Keene, Dean, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

 

(Top photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)