The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is pleased to present CAC at 35, the 2011 Collectors Club print by Robert Tannen. The 26" x 34" silk-screen print is available in a limited edition of 350 exclusively for members of the CAC. Robert Tannen (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1937) earned a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in 1961 and a Master of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute in 1963. He has had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and has held teaching assignments at Pratt Institute, Tulane School of Architecture, and Franconia College. His work has been presented in galleries and museums nationally and internationally and will be included in the international contemporary visual arts biennial, Prospect 2. New Orleans, opening Fall 2011.

Tannen continues to maintain an active studio practice in New Orleans while simultaneously working as an urban planner, and currently consults for AECOM, a world leader in planning, architecture, and engineering, as well as RAND Gulf States Policy Institute. A visionary by trade, he has been involved in such landmark projects as the New Orleans Centre; Riverwalk Festival Marketplace; New Orleans Arena; Mississippi River Bridge Study (Crescent City Connection); the New Orleans Housing and Neighborhood Preservation and the Historic District Landmarks Commission project; as well as large projects throughout the Gulf South including coastal developments in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. The most notable are the recovery and Master Plan for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Camille and the expansion of the High Speed Rail Corridor to Houston and Atlanta through the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Artist's Statement: "What started out as a New York-style artist loft exhibition and happening became a New Orleans-style cultural center with art, music, theater, and parties. The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) soon became a catalyst for the New Orleans warehouse area's revitalization into a full-fledged arts district and multi-faceted neighborhood of residents, businesses, galleries, museums, hotels, and restaurants. The CAC's 2011 Collectors Club print, CAC at 35, is about the CAC's neighborhood antecedents and the development of the arts district after its opening. The print includes images I took with photographer Billy Wolfe of my lighting installation of spaces in the K & B Warehouse and Garages during their transformation into the arts center.

I first came to the Gulf Coast to prepare a plan to redevelop the coast of Mississippi after Hurricane Camille, representing a Water Resources Planning Firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When I was retained to lead a study to locate a new Mississippi River bridge for Curtis and Davis Architects and Planners, Jeanne Nathan joined me for what would become a lifelong commitment to living and working in New Orleans. In the mid 1970s, we staged an art show with my work and that of James LaLande in a former church in the 9th ward. Art critic Luba Glade called the show a demonstration of the need for a contemporary arts center and recommended readers call me. No one called. Regardless, we brought people together from the New Orleans community to plan and start the Contemporary Arts Center, which opened its doors at 900 Camp Street--a scant four months later in 1976--with the generous support of Sydney and Walda Besthoff."

Robert Tannen joins previous Collectors Club print artists Maxx Sizeler, Skylar Fein, Chris Jahncke, Teresa Cole, Debra Howell, Raine Bedsole, Joyce Harris Mayer, Alan Gerson, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Wayne Amedee, Doyle Gertjejensen, Cheryl Hayes, Gerald Cannon, Jan Gilbert, Jacqueline Bishop, Herbert Singleton, Douglas Bougeois, George Dureau, Emery Clark, Robert Gordy, and Ida Kohlmeyer.

For more information on becoming a member of the CAC, call (504) 528-3805. Feel free to inquire about availability of past editions.

This print was completed with the help of Professor Brian Kelly and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's printmaking program.