Mail Art Exhibited at Phoenix Art Museum, Beginning Today

Mail art has a rich and varied history in Latin America. "Arte correo" in Spanish (or "arte correio" in Portuguese) began in the region in the mid-1960s with the pioneering efforts of key figures like Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Graciela Gutiérrez-Marx and León Ferrari in Argentina; Clemente Padín in Uruguay; Guillermo Deisler in Chile (and later Bulgaria); Dámaso Ogaz in Venezuela; Manuel Marín, Pedro Friedeberg and Felipe Ehrenberg in Mexico; and Leonhard Frank Duch, Unhandeijara Lisboa and Paulo Bruscky in Brazil.

In connection with the Paulo Bruscky: Art Is Our Last Hope exhibition that will be at Phoenix Art Museum until December 28, 2014, Dr. Vanessa Davidson, Phoenix Art Museum's Shawn and Joe Lampe Curator of Latin American Art, and John Held Jr., American mail art participant, historian and curator, co-curated a mail art exhibition called Focus Latin America: Art Is Our Last Hope.

Focused on the theme of "art is our last hope," the curators sought to revive dialogue about the challenges facing artists living in Latin America and the utopian projects they have historically undertaken to fuse artistic practice with social engagement. Created in 1983, Bruscky's artwork "Art Is Our Last Hope" was envisioned as a billboard piece consisting solely of those five words. The curators urged international mail artists to ask themselves:

· How have art and life in Latin America changed since Bruscky issued that proclamation in 1983?

· What meanings does this notion engender in Latin America in the 21st century?

Here are some upcoming public programs at Phoenix Art Museum:

International Mail Art Symposium - 6 p.m., October 8

· This symposium will focus on mail art in Latin America and will take place at Phoenix Art Museum onOctober 8, 2014, from 6 to 8 pm in Singer Hall, and will bring together leading scholars on the subject, including John Held Jr., American mail artist, author and performance artist, Mauricio Marcin Álvarez, a scholar on mail art based in Mexico, and Dr. Vanessa Davidson, Phoenix Art Museum's Shawn and Joe Lampe Curator of Latin American Art, both historical and contemporary. The symposium is free and open to the public. The symposium is sponsored by The Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation.

Artist Talk: Paulo Bruscky - 7 p.m., October 29

· Paulo Bruscky will present a lecture on his work spanning five decades. The lecture is sponsored by The Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation.