Sarah Cooper is a curator, writer, and art historian based in Los Angeles.
She is the Public Programs Specialist for performance at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where she directs the experimental performance series Ever Present, among other programs.
She has organized programs featuring artists and musicians including Kim Gordon, Simone Forti, Brendan Fernandes, Patti Smith, Lonnie Holley, Martin Creed, Midori Takada, Helado Negro, Moor Mother, David Wojnarowicz, Derek Jarman, and Solange Knowles.
In addition, Sarah has held positions at The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Royal Academy in London, and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
She holds a Master's Degree in Art History from Hunter College, New York. Her thesis, Expanding Experimentalism: Popular Music and Art at the Kitchen in New York City, 1971-1985, explores the creative output of artists' bands and the relationship between popular music and avant-garde performance practices.
sarahannecooper [at] gmail.com
She is the Public Programs Specialist for performance at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where she directs the experimental performance series Ever Present, among other programs.
She has organized programs featuring artists and musicians including Kim Gordon, Simone Forti, Brendan Fernandes, Patti Smith, Lonnie Holley, Martin Creed, Midori Takada, Helado Negro, Moor Mother, David Wojnarowicz, Derek Jarman, and Solange Knowles.
In addition, Sarah has held positions at The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Royal Academy in London, and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
She holds a Master's Degree in Art History from Hunter College, New York. Her thesis, Expanding Experimentalism: Popular Music and Art at the Kitchen in New York City, 1971-1985, explores the creative output of artists' bands and the relationship between popular music and avant-garde performance practices.
sarahannecooper [at] gmail.com
Ever Present: Cosmos
July 13, 2019
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Inspired by the exhibition The Wondrous Cosmos in Medieval Manuscripts, Ever Present brings together a group of artists who integrate the intergalactic into their varied work.
Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs is an artist who creates experimental, immersive public ritual with sound, sculpture, video, costume, and collective performance.
Riggs’ ensemble performs and interprets a score she wrote based on a transcription of the major constellations shining overhead at the moment of her performance, adding them as notes onto a spiral staff.
This site- and time-specific performance builds upon Riggs' greater practice of reworking ancient archetypes, canonized heroic narratives, and mythological tropes to challenge structures of power and entrenched hierarchies.
Riggs has presented work at SF MoMA, the Broad Museum, the Hammer Museum, the Portland Art Museum, REDCAT, and many others. Riggs also leads an active resistance-themed community chorus in Los Angeles.
Flutists: Rachel Beetz, Jiha Lee Soprano: Stephanie Aston Mezzo-Soprano: Mindy Ella Chu Fates: Janai Amey, Jess Basta, Arlene Deradoorian Watcher: Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs Costumes: Jillian Maddocks / 323 featuring cup-bells made with Jackie Laurita and Jiha Lee
"Sky Score" by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, a spiral staff superimposed with the constellations charted overhead at the time of the performance, interpreted by singers and flautists.
“Performances and Interventions Inspired by Medieval European Astronomy and Astrology,” HYPERALLERGIC, July 10, 2019.