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About Me

American artist Janet Echelman reshapes urban airspace with monumental, fluidly moving sculpture that responds to environmental forces including wind, water, and sunlight. She recently premiered major sculpture commissions for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and the 2010 Biennial of the Americas, and in 2009 she completed the largest public art commission in the U.S. of that year, a new civic icon for Phoenix that has been hailed for contributing to the revitalization of its downtown. Echelman’s 160-foot-tall waterfront sculpture in Portugal was called “one of the truly significant public artworks in recent years” by Sculpture Magazine.
Her art has been presented in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Lithuania, India, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, and the US. She graduated from Harvard College and completed graduate degrees in psychology and painting. She is self-taught in sculpture.
A recipient of awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, 
Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Japan Foundation, Rotary International Foundation, Harvard Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellowship, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, the American Academy in Rome, and a Fulbright Senior Lectureship, she currently serves on the national boards of the U.S. Fulbright Association and the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards.

Location:
United States, Brookline, MA
Current organization:
Studio Janet Echelman
Past organizations:
U.S. Fulbright Association, Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network, American Academy in Rome, Harvard University Alumni Association
Current role:
Sculptor, Studio Director
Gender:
Female
Areas of expertise:
Art, Public Art, Collaboration , Urban Design and City Planning, Sculpting, Technology Innovation for Art
I am:
Artist, Change Agent, Connector, Designer, Entrepreneur, Foodie, Idea generator, Life mentor, Parent, World traveler
Languages:
Indonesian, Spanish, English
My website links:
www.echelman.com
Universities:
Harvard College, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Bard College Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts
TED conferences attended:
TED2013, TED2012, TED2011
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More About Me

I'm passionate about

Bringing art and ideas to cities

An idea worth spreading

Taking Imagination Seriously

Talk to me about

New Technologies with potential for art-making in new ways

People don't know that I'm good at

Gamelan playing (I lived in Bali for five years)

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +82.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    2 days ago: “Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
    ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Letter 4

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    2 days ago: Jyl, I will share with you a little book that I turned to (and still do) when I was hitting rough patches along the way. "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke. It is a compilation of the correspondence between Rilke and a young man who is trying to decide whether or not he should pursue the path of the life of an artist. It is a small book, and I would take it with me as I traveled. I hope it might be helpful to you in the way it was for me. -J

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    2 days ago: Dear Jyl, In our culture we have been taught that the way to pursue a dream is through school. The lucky thing about my getting rejected from school is that it meant I had to figure out my own path by DOING. So perhaps what now may feel to you like a painful rejection from art school is actually the opening of a door more original, where will chart a course for yourself that is not yet known. This was not easy for me. But the struggle was part of the value. Ask yourself what questions are at the core of what drives you. And when you hit rough patches, as we all do, please consider me on the sidelines cheering you on. You are part of a community.
    Janet

  • A comment on Conversation: Inspired by Janet Echelman and wind, work with 7th Grade visual art students to create their own wind-activated sculptures.

    May 8 2013: I have not worked with 7th graders (yet). I did a project with my daughters' first grade class awhile back, and took them out to the front of the school with chalk boards and chalk and asked them to sketch things they could imagine wanting to see in the space. I think they enjoyed just the idea that a person could shape the world around them in ways that have not been seen before. Seems like doing this with 7th grade students could yield some interesting ideas for how they might want to re-shape the environment they live in. ??

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    May 8 2013: yeah, i'm glad the paints didn't arrive as well. i must say my whole life is a series of things not arriving as i'd hoped, so this was not the only time, just the only one i shared in the talk.

  • A comment on Conversation: Inspired by Janet Echelman and wind, work with 7th Grade visual art students to create their own wind-activated sculptures.

    Apr 25 2013: I'm inspired by your work engaging kids in a creative collaboration with space and wind, and also by the creative conversation with others that is beginning here!
    If there's anything you or the other members of the community participating would like to ask of me, please let me know. Warmest regards,
    Janet

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    Apr 25 2013: Dear Brigette, I am really delighted to read your comment. I agree that we often isolate ourselves, and that it is so important for my/our well-being to reconnect with each other in public space, and the nature around us that includes the nature inherent in urban space. I am especially glad to hear that the projects we're putting all our efforts into are offering something which connects with you. Many thanks for sharing this. Best, Janet

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    Apr 25 2013: Rumi, Thanks for your question. We have never had a problem with any kind of bird or animal getting caught in our nets. I asked an environmental engineer, Wendi Goldsmith of BioEngineering, and it turns out that the size of our meshes and nature of our material to not cause problems for birds or animals. I'm thankful for that!

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    Apr 25 2013: Thanks for your comment. The practice of yoga and meditation is a testament to continuous challenge in the present moment. I think that's the way I like to approach my art practice. The right quantity of challenge- not too more or too little. Sometimes I supposed we take on a bit much, honestly, but that's growth for you. Thanks for sharing the website. I checked it out. The idea is original. Many thanks,
    J

  • A reply on Talk: Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

    Apr 25 2013: Lawrence, Thanks so much for your comment! The project in Amsterdam was only up for a short time, so it's exciting for me to hear from someone who had a first-person experience with it. Any thoughts you want to share are most appreciated by me and my colleagues! Best, Janet
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