INDEX: The Meeting

Think of the last meeting you were in. What did it feel like? 

Caroline Woolard (b. 1984) employs sculpture, installation, and online networks to investigate systems of collaboration and cooperation. Woolard, the 2019–20 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence, draws upon the formal and spatial languages of conflict mediation to transform the Lee Gallery into a platform for self-initiated and facilitated group discussions. 

Central to Woolard’s presentation is her evolving work The Meeting Game (2019– ), which undoes the meeting’s conventional structure and invites participants to use sculptural objects as tools to provoke more open, aware, and intentional dialogues. The artist asks: can a blue-foam head, ninety-nine balls, and a ceiling tile net be actively employed by the cooperative movement? Developed in collaboration with practiced facilitators—including Esteban Kelly, Co-Executive Director of the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and members of the Brandeis University community—The Meeting Game will continue to be refined in workshops and public programs with over the course of Woolard’s residency at the Rose. Woolard is based in New York City and Hartford, Connecticut.

The Meeting launches the first iteration of INDEX, a new initiative at the museum. Housed in the Lee Gallery, bi-annual projects by INDEX artists will produce site-responsive and participatory platforms and programs. Like a book’s index, the project serves not only to list but also to reorganize, cross-reference, and establish new relationships to content. INDEX at the Lee Gallery is a place where people and ideas merge in a collective manner.  

Caroline Woolard invites you to use The Meeting Game for your next group conversation. To reserve the space during the museum's open hours, please submit a request using the form below.

Interested in hosting a public conversation at The Meeting Game? Reach out to Elizabeth Moy, Programs Coordinator, to discuss your idea.

Organized by Caitlin Julia Rubin, Assistant Curator.

INDEX: The Meeting is made possible and supported by the Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award Fund.