Breakthrough Art Organization Established to Promote Art as a Means to Overcome Challenges; Inaugural Program to Champion Freedom of Expression in Face of Repression
Funded by a Grant From Federal Republic of Germany, Opening Exhibition Celebrates 20th Anniversary of German Unification; Will Tour U.S. From April-December, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - February 16, 2010) - Inspired by the struggles and triumphs of
artists living under the repressive East German Communist regime prior to
German unification, Jeff Thinnes, an
American specialist in U.S.-German relations, announces the founding of Breakthrough Art Organization
to showcase and study the work of artists worldwide using art as a means to
overcome political, social and personal challenges.
The new Washington D.C.-based nonprofit will launch its inaugural
exhibition and education program, "Breakthrough! --
Twenty Years After German Unification -- Critical Perspectives of Berlin
Artists," with a five-city tour of the United States from April through
December, 2010. The tour will mark the 20th anniversary of German
Unification by exploring the motives and consequences of East German
artists who chose freedom of expression over promotion of a prescribed
political ideology, Thinnes said. Thinnes spent three years in Berlin from
1990 to 1993 as deputy director of the Aspen Institute, an international
policy and leadership organization.
The program will feature works by and discussion forums with 10 East German
visual artists who endured repression, exile and in some cases imprisonment
before the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Breakthrough also is developing an
online curriculum for the program designed to expose students throughout
the country to the importance of free expression. The five-city tour is
tentatively scheduled to open in April in Nashville, Tennessee in
collaboration with the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, and
close in December after touring five cities. The program is substantially
underwritten by a grant from the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as
contributions from participating foundations.
"Our celebration of unification is also a celebration of freedom's ultimate
triumph and of overcoming division and separation, which is why we strongly
endorse and support the mission of Breakthrough," said Germany's Ambassador
to the United States, Klaus Scharioth. "Throughout the decades of Germany's
division, courageous artists in East Germany fought oppression with camera
lenses, paintbrushes and sculptor chisels despite enormous risks.
Breakthrough not only sheds light on their sacrifices, but reminds us that
we should never take freedom of expression for granted."
Beyond the 2010 tour, Breakthrough will be a vehicle for championing and
illuminating the impact art and artists can have on overcoming political,
economic and social obstacles. "We will pursue opportunities for
Breakthrough to support and showcase the perspectives of artists operating
in extremely challenging environments, whether photographers, writers, or
painters persecuted by dictators; or teenagers in Harlem who choose dancing
and music rather than gangs and drugs," Thinnes said.
The specific governmental department funding Breakthrough's inaugural
program is The Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany
with funds of the European Recovery Program of the Federal Ministry for
Economy and Technology. Participating artists are: Gerald Hahn,
photographer; Harald Hauswald, photographer; Peter Herrmann, painter;
Thomas Klingenstein, painter and writer; Wolfgang Petrick, painter; Frank
Roedel, painter; Inge Schmidt, painter; Reinhard Stangl, painter; Robert
Weber, sculptor. The exhibition's curator is Helen Frederick, Professor,
School of Art, George Mason University.
For more information on Breakthrough, please visit www.breakthroughart.org.
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Amy Asper
Seigenthaler Public Relations
(615) 327-7999
aasper@seigenthaler.com