Patrick Dunning, a multimedia artist who has traveled throughout the United States for the past 20 years highlighting a multifaceted art project, has been added as a keynote speaker to the New Jersey School Boards Association’s annual Workshop, Oct. 24-26 in Atlantic City.
The Signature Project, which Dunning has performed at hundreds of schools, colleges and corporate events, weaves common threads that bind us all together. He’ll perform the show, which has earned rave reviews off Broadway, Monday, Oct. 24, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Room 302 of the Atlantic City Convention Center. The performance is conveniently scheduled in between Workshop’s morning and afternoon sessions. Food concessions will be open on the third floor to purchase lunch, which you can bring into the presentation.
Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Dunning studied engineering before joining the merchant marines and traveling throughout the world. He served as a volunteer mission worker in India for a year before returning to Ireland and establishing himself as a major contributor to Dublin’s visual arts, doing large-scale installations and bold abstract paintings.
In 1990, he moved to the United States, spending three years as the artist in residence at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Oregon, where he now lives. He spends several months each year on the East Coast, performing The Signature Project for all grades of students.
At The Signature Project’s core is a huge 76-foot-by-36-foot mural, which will be comprised of 171 canvases layered with hidden secrets. The project was conceived in 1992, with Dunning seeking to create a new artform: a human tapestry that could be completed only by collaborating with over 1 million people.
The project is a combination of theater, performance art, visual arts, music, mathematics, science and technology and cultural diversity. The finished painting will be a collection of layered images, one of which will be made entirely of individual signatures, while others will be revealed by using X-rays, magnetic fields or ultraviolet lights.
The painting is constantly changing and evolving as people contribute their own signatures to the larger artwork, adding perspectives and ideas that make the world so special and wonderful, beyond imagination.
About Workshop 2022
Workshop is the largest training conference for public school officials in the Garden State. It will take place from Monday, Oct. 24 to Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Atlantic City Convention Center. It is co-sponsored by the NJSBA, the New Jersey Association of School Administrators and the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials. Check out the agenda, featuring over 250 professional learning opportunities.
Get more for your money: Register your entire district team! The group registration covers 25 team members and may include school board members, business administrators, superintendents, facilities managers, curriculum professionals, IT staff and other district professionals. Review page seven of the Workshop registration instructions to learn how to add registrants to your group.
Please review your census before starting. To review your district census, please log into NJSBA’s member portal. Guidance on reviewing your census is available online.
Visit the Workshop website for more information.
