Summer

Graduate Seminar II
The cognate areas of art and relevant issues that have led to a blurring of the boundaries between formerly discrete aspects of the art world are examined in these seminars. As the program supports a view of contemporary practice that combines a conventional approach to visual art-making, criticism and curatorial work, the series considers the shifts in contemporary society that underlie these profound changes. Topics of central concern will include government and commercial censorship, the continuing impact of technological innovation, changing social relations as a function of the politics of identity and ways in which power relationships within the art world have been transformed. Assigned readings form the basis of discussions and will relate to ongoing work in studio production. In this second part of a three-semester course, students will spend one intensive week with each of their seminar leaders/studio practice instructors.

Studio Practice II
The core of the summer sessions is studio practice. Studios are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Students are required to spend six hours a day at minimum working in the studio. The objective is to produce original, advanced work with instruction and support from faculty and under the specific guidance of an individual mentor, who will offer ongoing critical evaluation. While studios are available at all times, reviews will take place Monday through Friday, with weekly group critiques in the evening. In this second part of a three-semester course, students will spend one intensive week with each of their seminar leaders/studio practice instructors. This course also includes orientation and critique periods, in which students complete the required safety demonstrations for the various facilities, attend a series of keynote lectures, and present their work for critique at the beginning and end of the summer session. This Studio Practice is the central element and primary requirement of the program. As such, it is expected that students will make notable progress in their individual practice.

Performance Workshop
As performance has become central to the contemporary definition of sculptural practice, this workshop will help to refine students’ capability to plan and execute performance and performance-based installation works. Students will explore and master the technical aspects of gallery-based (as opposed to theatrical) performance art, and study historic performance works. The history and various theories of performance and theater will be examined. Students will develop and hone performance skills, including planning, production and the performance itself. The workshop will conclude with the presentation of a performance or performance-based installation work.

Participant Symposium
Students will work collaboratively with the Art Practice Office to create the programming for this week. Programming may include guest lectures, panel discussions, student presentations and/or an exhibition. Under the guidance of the Art Practice Office, they will work with each other to determine the programming, secure appropriate venues, create any announcements, and create and follow a detailed budget, including speaker fees, technical fees, documentations fees and promotional fees.

Fall

Art History II: Challenging the Conventional
Looking at the history of modern art from a non-Western perspective requires the complete suspension of several commonly held assumptions about art history. That would not make any more sense than a blind acceptance of the prevailing historical paradigm. This course will contrast the canonical history of modernism with the emerging histories that rely upon a very different reading of the social and political context in which art history is conventionally taught. In response to a wide range of primary source readings, audiotapes, video and film, students will write a series of critical responses to the readings, and participate in online group sessions and discussions.

Artist’s Writing
The significant interventions that visual artists have made through their own writing into the art criticism of their time will be the focus of this course. We will also explore a range of artists’ writing forms, such as journalism, manifestos, poetry, theoretical writing, letters, artists’ books and artist-run publications. The course will also examine some key artists’ writings from Russian constructivism to the Bauhaus, surrealism, abstract expressionism, minimalism, conceptual art and feminism. Assigned readings, writings and online group discussions are included. The role of social engagement in the production of individual (or collective) practice will be emphasized, and students will acquire an understanding of the influence of artists’ writings on various forms of art criticism. A deeper understanding of one’s own writing in relation to the development of one’s practice will be underscored throughout the semester.

Studio Practice Review III
The core of the summer sessions is studio practice. Studios are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Students are required to spend six hours a day at minimum working in the studio. The objective is to produce original, advanced work with instruction and support from faculty and under the specific guidance of an individual mentor, who will offer ongoing critical evaluation. While studios are available at all times, reviews will take place Monday through Friday, with semi-weekly group critiques in the evening. This course also includes orientation week, in which students complete the required safety demonstrations for the various facilities, attend a series of keynote lectures, and introduce their work and current studio practice. This Studio Practice is the central element and primary requirement of the program. As such, it is expected that students will make notable progress in their individual practice.

Spring

Foundations of Criticism II
(This is the second part of a two-semester course.) Understanding prominent theoretical positions within art criticism—past and present—is the focus of these two online courses. Part I explores theories of the image from cave paintings to advertising, film theory to the comic strip, video to the digital image and current debates in animation studies. Students will read classical writings from philosophy (e.g., Plato), art history (Panofsky, Greenberg, W.J.T. Mitchell) and film theory (Eisenstein, Bazin), as well as writers such as Apollinaire and Delillo. We will also cover semiotics, feminist theory and institutional critique, reading key theorists such as Barthes, Benjamin, Baudrillard and Debord among others. In the second part of this course, the focus will be upon interdisciplinary concerns, particularly the intersection of art and music history, art and the history of science, and the relationship of critical theory to changes in technology and evolving concepts of authorship, originality and ownership. Assigned readings and writings, as well as weekly web-based group discussions are required.

The Journal: A Writing Workshop
Using the skills developed in the first year of study, this workshop explores the production of the individual artist’s journal. Students will produce a daily journal employing a conventional written form or using new media, including blog writing, video journals and hybrid forms. The intent of the course is to reach a full understanding of the ways in which maintaining a journal allows for the ongoing self-examination of each student’s creative practice supporting the continual refinement and integration of one’s work and life.

Studio Practice Review IV: Thesis Preparation
During the second spring semester, online study sessions will take place, and students will continue their studio work from their home location. Students and mentors will remain in contact online. Students will begin work on their thesis projects under the supervision of their mentor.