To mark the 200th Beautiful Eccentrics dispatch by artist Pablo Helguera, the Kite is teaming up with Pablo to host an evening of conversation, storytelling, play, and song.

In January 2021, Pablo Helguera launched Beautiful Eccentrics, a series of weekly missives or personal essays touching on small, unspoken, forgotten, or overlooked aspects of contemporary artmaking.  Often consisting of storytelling, research, and sociological observations, the columns in Beautiful Eccentrics are often connected  to Pablo’s research interests as a performance artist, educator, and his many decades of experience, always in a conversation that includes both philosophical reflection and levity.

The First Beautiful Eccentrics Conclave celebration comprises a live program exploring the very subject of eccentricity inside and outside the art world, with stories, songs, conversations with special surprise guests and the revival of a 1950s game show.

Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, 1971) is a visual artist living in New York. His work involves performance, drawing, pedagogy, installation, music, theater and other literary strategies. He is often considered a pioneering figure in the field of socially engaged art.

He has been recipient of many awards including the Guggenheim and Creative Capital fellowship as well as the first International Award for Participatory Art in Italy.

He is the author of many books including Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and The Parable Conference (2014) and 41 Illuminations (in three parts) (2023).