LINDA POLLACK

Linda Pollack studied finance and economics at Penn State University, art at the Vrije Akademie in The Hague and the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht in the Netherlands, and at the University of California in Los Angeles and in San Diego. She spent a decade in Netherlands, combining her art practice with cultural policy development while working for the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam. While at the Foundation she set up a groundbreaking arts mobility fund that addressed post-cold war Europe’s East-West cultural and economic divide. She also developed rock concerts and theatre projects addressing war-torn Yugoslavia with partners Haris Pasovic and his Sarajevo Festival Ensemble, and Macedonian rock stars “Leb i Sol”, among others.

It was in the Netherlands, while working in her formal capacity as cultural policy and program-maker at the European Cultural Foundation, that her interest in formal spaces and underpinnings of democratic processes took root. With a residency at Schoss Solitude in Stuttgart Germany, Linda created “German Parliaments”, a reflection of the visual signifiers of democratic processes through a visual study of the plenary halls of the regional and national parliaments of Germany.

In 1996, Linda returned to the United States to pursue her MFA in New Genres at UCLA, working with Paul McCarthy and James Welling.

In 2002, in response to the dearth of dialogue around anti-terror laws in the US, Linda created “My Daily Constitution,” an on going project for which she inserts constitutional discussions in cafes, libraries, parks, dance halls and other accessible spaces, inviting lawyers and constitutional scholars to share their knowledge of constitutional democracy and its relation to the pressing issues of the day. Distributing thousands of her self-editioned copies of the U.S. Constitution, Linda invites the public to meet and exchange their thoughts in order to create new, fluid spaces where communities come together around the challenges and possibilities of shared civic life. She has held MDC in Los Angeles, NYC, Seattle, Claremont CA, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis.

Linda created HABEAS LOUNGE in 2007 at the 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica, as a way to address built environment and democratic processes. Seven editions later, including a first overseas series in Poland, Linda is working towards making HABEAS LOUNGE an informal network of activated spaces of civic dialogue in the U.S. and abroad.