The Artnauts are well named. They take off for outer spaces (a.k.a the margins) where angels are in short supply, filling gaps that shouldn't be there, speaking out where few can or will. What an incredible record..."  Art critic, Lucy Lippard


The Artnauts is an artist collective that uses the visual arts as a tool for addressing global issues while connecting with artists from around the world. In 1996, Dr. George Rivera, professor in the Art and Art History Department at the University of Colorado Boulder founded the Artnauts with Dennis Dalton, (University of Colorado Pueblo), Dr. Beth Krensky, (University of Utah), Garrison Roots, and Luis Valdovino, (University of Colorado Boulder). Dr. Rivera has been the lead curator since the inception of the collective.

The name derives from combining the words “art” and “astronaut” as a way to describe the process of exploring uncharted territory in the world at large. The name also denotes the practice that is “not” art as usual, going beyond the confines of the traditional or conventional art world and blurring the boundaries between art, activism, and social practice. The Artnauts have worked at the intersection of critical consciousness and contemporary artistic practice to impact change for almost 25 years. More than 350 artists have been in the collective, participating in over 270 exhibitions on 5 continents.

 Listen to an interview with founder and lead curator Dr. George Rivera:

 

THE ARTNAUTS – NOT ART AS USUAL   

I created the ARTNAUTS to survive as a sociologist in an art world.  I joined the Art & Art History Department after having taught in the Department of Sociology for 24 years.  Though my doctorate degree is in Sociology, I had studied the Sociology of Art.  Thus, I entered the artworld with a sociological consciousness.  My paradigm informed me that art should not exist as just “art for art’s sake,” but could serve “art for society’s sake.”    

I was socialized as a Mexican American to value the group over the individual.  Consequently,  I founded a collective and chose to participate only in group shows.  After not knowing how to place myself as an artist in a Department of Art & Art History and not getting any acceptance in the Denver-Boulder area, I decided to seek international venues.   My first venture was into Mexico where I knew artists at the Academia de San Carlos (the first school of Fine Arts in the Americas established before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock).  It is an understatement to say that they accepted me with open arms and immediately recognized that I was providing an art perspective heretofore unknown at the Academy.   

In Sociology I was taught to conduct research in an area where no one else was making a contribution.  In other words, as a social scientist I should look for gaps in sociological knowledge.  After my first venture into the international artworld, I decided that this is where I could provide a unique contribution in an area that the artworld had neglected.  Since I am of Mexican descent and Mexico was experiencing border problems with the United States (and Mexican Americans, including me, were experiencing discrimination and prejudice), I chose it as a country wherein to exhibit work as our first place of contention.   

I conceived of the ARTNAUTS as exhibiting “not art as usual,” and I wanted us to extend our work beyond the “white cube” – to the wider community where non-art patrons exist.   Joseph Beuys provided that theoretical link by introducing me to the concept of “social sculpture.”  We not only address social issues in an art venue, but we also seek to generate social transformation through dialogue with others on the human condition that erodes our common humanity.     

In brief, the ARTNAUTS Collective is an idea greater than a mere exhibition or an art collective. Together, we are a social sculpture using art to connect us beyond the usual places where art confines itself.  I formed the ARTNAUTS to be bigger than what the artworld presently provides in our troubled times and days.”

George Rivera, Ph.D.   
Founder/Chief Curator 
ARTNAUTS