'People's Biennial' brings outsider art to Haverford

THE WHITNEY Biennial in New York claims to take the pulse of the country's art scene every two years, but the mother of all American art exhibits rarely digs deeper than New York or Los Angeles.

For the radical "People's Biennial" now at Haverford College, curators looked elsewhere. The exhibit eschews work from major art centers in favor of five regional outposts (including Philadelphia) chosen through a jury process open to all.

Organized by artist Harrell Fletcher of Portland, Ore., and curator Jens Hoffmann of San Francisco, People's Biennial originated when the two brought their idea for a nontraditional biennial to Independent Curators International (ICI), a group that supports new types of curatorial practice. ICI embraced the idea, and Fletcher and Hoffmann were off and running.

The two scoured the country in search of interesting, provocative art by people - not necessarily artists - who are overlooked and marginalized. (Coincidentally, the Portland-based Fletcher, known for his collaborations with nonartists and for art that is not an actual object but more like a social happening, was himself in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.)

Haverford was one of the first venues to apply for the Biennial. ICI selected the college because it was eager to participate in the yearlong process of putting the show together. Haverford also provides student and suburban audiences, which reinforces the show's outsider identity.

The 36 artists in the show include eight from this region and 28 from the other regions, including Portland; Rapid City, S.D.; Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Scottsdale, Ariz. People's Biennial has traveled to each city over the last two years; Haverford is its last stop.

The Haverford opening on Jan. 29 was nontraditional. Portland artist Rudy Speerschneider gave out homemade cheesesteak-flavored ice cream. Local artist Maiza Hixson videotaped viewers, asking them what they thought about the show's red, white and blue branding on its website, in the show catalog and in the wall text, which looks like the styling of Howard Zinn's polemical 1980 book, A People's History of the United States.