Subject: [Staff-l] Ted Purves
From: Presidents Office <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 08:19:28 -0700
List-Id: All-Staff mailing list <staff-l.lists.cca.edu>

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

-- 

Stephen Beal President

[email-masked] | o 510.594.3630
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