New Media Artist Nancy Baker Cahill to Deliver Walter Annenberg Lecture at the Whitney

Nancy Baker Cahill is known to thrill and challenge audiences with video installations and conceptual block chain projects that radiate themes of systemic power, consciousness, and the human body. For her next assignment, though, she will rely simply on the power of words.

Baker Cahill will be the featured speaker at the 2024 Walter Annenberg Lecture at the Whitney Museum of American Art on February 1. She's no stranger to Manhattan's acclaimed American contemporary art museum, as her new climate crisis-related project, CENTO, can be experienced on the eighth floor. CENTO is a massive augmented reality (AR) "creature" that looms over the terrace; a companion video takes visitors inside the creature's habitat. Visitors can use their smartphones to download Baker Cahill's free AR app 4th Wall, which permits users to position colorful feathers on the creature and observe its evolution. Each feather represents a critical function pertinent to CENTO's survival, including communication, navigation, and energy conversion.

The award-winning artist — who has been profiled in The New York Times, Frieze Magazine, and The Art Newspaper — also will unveil her immersive visual narrative project SEEK at COSM venues in Los Angeles this year. The Whitney created the Walter Annenberg Annual Lecture — which pays tribute to philanthropist and former ambassador Walter H. Annenberg — to elevate America's understanding and appreciation of the arts. GRoW is honored to support this lecture series and other compelling programming at the Whitney.