{"id":36215,"date":"2017-01-28T20:36:35","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T02:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=36215"},"modified":"2023-11-21T16:55:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T22:55:00","slug":"between-where-i-was-and-here-clinton-whitings-home-explores-the-emotional-dynamics-of-foster-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/between-where-i-was-and-here-clinton-whitings-home-explores-the-emotional-dynamics-of-foster-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Where I Was and Here: Clinton Whiting\u2019s Home!\/? explores the emotional dynamics of foster care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our attention was riveted first by the election. Then, the transition. And now by the new administration. Political engagement in America seems to be surging, with people from both sides of the political spectrum taking to the streets. One wonders, though, if that energy will be turned into more civic and social engagement as well. If we should learn anything from the upheavals in the world today, it may be that relying on political leaders to solve our problems is never enough.<\/p>\n

Civic engagement is a concern for Clinton Whiting, something he has been wrestling with as an artist. \u201cI have been searching for a way to combine my ideas and humanitarian inclinations with my artistic process,\u201d he says, \u201cand to do so in a meaningful way that reaches beyond the surface.\u201d The Holladay artist, who works as the gallery director at the Visual Arts Institute in Salt Lake City, holds a BFA from the University of Utah and an MFA from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma; but he has had to solve the dilemma of artistic practice and social engagement on his own. With his current exhibit at Art Access Gallery, which explores the emotional dynamics of relationships for people in foster care, Whiting says he\u2019s been able to pull the two together for the first time.<\/p>\n

Every year in Utah, more than 2,500 children experience crisis in the home and are in need of foster care. Children, from infants to teenagers, may spend just a few weeks in someone else\u2019s home, or they may spend years, frequently staying with multiple foster families.<\/p>\n

Whiting became interested in the subject after conversations with his neighbors, who have foster children as well as adopted children who began as foster children. As he spoke with them about their experiences he realized the emotional content of the issue would dovetail well with his artistic practice. \u201cFundamentally all of my artwork deals with relationships,\u201d he says. \u201cThe foster care situation is really an interesting one. To me it\u2019s a very real example of community and charity and a microcosm of relationship possibilities. Taking \u2018strangers\u2019 into your home and on the other side of it going to live in a \u2018stranger\u2019s\u2019 home, with the expectation that life goes forward, is an interesting thing.\u201d<\/p>\n