Dear CCA Community,
It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that Ted Purves, chair of the MA in Social Practice and Public Forms Program, passed away July 4 after a courageous battle with cancer. Ted began teaching at CCA in 1999 and held leadership positions at the college, including serving as chair of the MFA in Fine Arts Program from 2008 to 2016. He founded the first social practice curriculum in the country at CCA in 2005, and was much sought after for his expertise on the subject. His own practice involved producing socially-based projects in collaboration with his wife Susanne Cockrell, chair of CCA's Community Arts Program. He was also a curator, writer, musician, and collector of conceptual art and ephemera.
Ted was the author of a seminal book about socially-based art practice: What We Want is Free: Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art (SUNY Press, 2005). An expanded and revised edition, What We Want Is Free: Critical Exchanges in Recent Art, was released in 2014.
Ted was an inspiring and generous teacher, mentor, and colleague who had a profound impact on so many people's lives in the arts community. He was a good friend and trusted advisor who will be dearly missed.
On
behalf of the college I'd like to extend my sympathies to his wife
Susanne and son Oliver and to family members and friends far and wide.
We
are planning an event to celebrate Ted's life and his influence as
an artist and educator. This will happen sometime in the fall; we will
keep you apprised of details.
Sincerely,
Stephen Beal--
