The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College is presenting special exhibition Tom Marioni: The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, on view July 14-Sept. 9, 2018. In 1970, California-based conceptual artist Tom Marioni invited 16 friends to have a drink with him at the Oakland Museum of California, the museums curator provided the beer, and a tradition was born. By 1973, the artist was hosting weekly salons in his studio and staging the still-ongoing participatory and social piece at designated times, presented in various contexts and by museums across the globe. Though superficially lighthearted, this installation suggests that communion with others, conversation and open dialogue, the exchange of ideas, knowledge, information and philosophies, and shared experiences are the greatest possible
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