Beth Weinstein

In her practice and research, Beth M. Weinstein (PhD) moves between the architectural and performative and across scales from drawing to urban interventions. She creates performance-installations inviting publics to make sense of critical issues such as climate catastrophe and species die-off, invisible labour and spaces that invisibl-ize, protest and public space. Her doctoral research employed architectural drawings forensically and leveraged performances of spatial labour to render ‘sensible’ (in)visibilities around architectures of internment. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Performing Spatial Labour (2019, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart), Palimpsest (2019, Un Lieu pour Réspirer, Les Lilas-Paris), States of Exception (2018, Cité Internationale des Arts/Jeu de Paume, 2018) and the 2015 and 2018 Arizona Biennials. She received the NY Architectural League’s Young Architect’s Award and has been awarded artist residencies through the Académie d'Architecture, the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Bundanon Trust (New South Wales), and the Casa de Velazquez (Madrid). Beth has lectured internationally and published extensively on performativity in and of public space, theater architecture, and scenography, including essays in the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), Places, Performance Research (PRJ), Journal of Artistic Research (JAR), the Architect’s Newspaper, Metropolis and Dance Ink. She has contributed chapters to Performing Architectures: Contemporary Projects, Practices and Pedagogies; The Routledge Companion to Scenography; Disappearing Stage: Reflections on the 2011 Prague Quadrennial; and Architecture as a Performing Art. With UA faculty Ellen McMahon and Ander Monson she co-edited Ground|Water: the Art, Design and Science of a Dry River (2012), a collection of art and design projects and curated essays reflecting on water scarcity in the South West. She is currently writing a book titled Architecture + Choreography: Collaborations in Dance, Space and Time (Routledge 2022-3). Beth is a registered architect in NY and founding principle of Architecture Agency. Previously, she practiced in the Paris office of Jean Nouvel (1992-7), and with Asymptote, Richard Meier & Partners, Elias Torres Tur & Martinez Lapeña and TWBTA. Since 1997 she has directed undergraduate and graduate design studios; taught history, theory and techniques of representation; building technologies; and workshops/seminars exploring performance, politics and public space. She has taught at ENSA Paris-Malaquais, the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture (ESA), Confluence Institute and Columbia University in Paris, as well as Columbia’s GSAPP, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pratt Institute, and Parsons/The New School for Design. Beth is an Associate Professor of Architecture at CAPLA as well as faculty affiliate with the UA School of Art and Social Cultural and Critical Theory Graduate Interdisciplinary Program.

Degrees

• PhD, Visual Art, College of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania
• Master of Architecture, GSAPP, Columbia University
• BFA, Syracuse University