Time to Catch up 2

Kate Bonansinga, the Director and Curator form the Rubin Center at the University of Texas, El Paso was our first visiting critic for the semester. Her visit was part of the Academy's Critical Studies Program which worked collaboratively with the Ceramics, Fiber, Metals, and Photo Departments. She was here for a week and worked with us in various ways. The first component was a public lecture titled "Making it Relevant: The University Art Museum in the 21st Century". Each morning that Kate was here she also led a seminar about the theatricality of art museum exhibitions for selected students from the sponsoring departments. The last day of the seminar they visited the Detroit Institute of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit to see how these institutions demonstrated the topics of the seminar. Each afternoon she spent with one of the sponsoring departments meeting with students and critiquing work.

The next week brought Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo, the collaborative installation and architecture team called Lead Pencil Studio. Fiber collaborated with Architecture to host LPS and after they presented their lecture they met individually with students from each department to critique work. Architecture and Fiber have had student collaborations in each of the past two years and this was a great opportunity to make that connection on another level.

Most recently we have been fortunate to have Jane Lackey and Anne Wilson presenting solo shows in the area. On Saturday November 7 Jane Lackey presented a gallery talk at Lemberg Gallery and on Sunday the 8th Anne Wilson spoke about her work at Paul Kotula Projects. On the following Monday and Tuesday we were glad to host Jane Lackey for individual meetings with each Fiber student and a follow- up discussion before she left.

The next few weeks bring a more focused studio work schedule with weekly critiques and individual meetings between each student and me as we work towards Third Semester Reviews and final critiques.

Time to catch up 1

As the last post suggests we were about to enter into a very busy time for the Fiber Department.
We had just finished the Academy's annual fundraiser, this year called Studio (formerly called Fanfare). Studio opens the usually closed departmental studio doors to people from the community who are interested in what we do and generally support Cranbrook. The students and the Artists in Residence welcome our guests and talk about the work we do as artists and teachers. The money raised from this event is used for scholarships for Academy students.

The photos are of some of the Fiber students getting ready for Studio. Above includes from left: Front: Tiana Roebuck, Emily Nachison, Celia Butler, Casey Droege, Caroline Byrne, Ema Ishii. Back: Rosemary Dardick and Ashley Allen Short.

Below left to right: Caroline, Celia, Derya Hanife Altan, Emily and Casey.

Fiber Arts Student Showcase

Follow this link to see the work of Rosemary Dardick (Fiber) and the collaborative structure by Tricia Stackle (Fiber) and Andrew Kline (Architecture), all second year students at Cranbrook, as well as work by students from other great fiber programs.

http://www.fiberarts.com/back_issues/November-December-2009/2009-student-showcase.asp

EXTRA curricular activities

In the Fiber Department we have been moving through our first round of critiques, meeting weekly to critique the work of each student. These discussions last for approximately one hour per student and we are routinely joined by students from other departments. Next week we will host our first guest - Kate Bonansinga, the curator for this years Renwick Invitational and the Director of the Rubin Center at University of Texas, El Paso. She will be joining our department for critiques on Wednesday and she will also be leading a seminar of Fiber, Photo, Ceramics, and Metals students to discuss the relationship of theater and the museum.

The early part of the semester also brings activities that help connect the community of students. Two such traditions are Second Year Student Presentations and the Raft Regatta. At the S.Y. Presentations each of the second year students presents a 5 minute talk about their work and background. For the Raft Regatta, each department builds a raft that they will navigate around one of the lakes on campus. The department that won the regatta in the previous year sets the rules for the race.

Here are some photos from this years regatta.


Tiana working on the raft.

The raft.

The competition!

Back in action

The fall semester is two weeks old and I am finally getting back to the blog, which is a reflection of a busy semester.
We started with the usual introductions, meetings and studio selection process for the first year students. And to complete the first week we had a bbq on the terrace, which is what the photos are from.
The general plan for the semester is regular critiques for all of the students, complimented by individual meetings with me and a seminar. In the seminar we started with a discussion of Rebecca Solnit's Elements of a New Landscape from her book, As Eve Said to the Serpent. We also had a hearty discussion about critique formats and goals to set the stage for upcoming critiques. Future seminar sessions will alternate between readings provided by second year students and discussion of the book The Artificial Kingdom by Celeste Olalquiaga.
Most weeks we will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday so if you are interested in the program and want to visit the department these are great days to see us in action.

The degree show

The second year students are all busily and intensely installing and completing their degree show work this week. Installation started last week. The show is in the Cranbrook Art Museum and all of the approximately 75 second year students have space in the museum for a piece. It is an incredibly exciting time, watching the pieces grow and the museum fill. This year it seems that many of the students have taken the degree show as a challenge to make a statement through scale and other means.
The work of the six Fiber students in the show includes conceptual needlework, large scale sculptural knit forms,installations that ooze and spew substances from two by fours, video performance work, text based work that references the production of culture, and an installation that frames how we perceive the world around us.
I am looking forward to seeing all of the completed work when the show opens on Saturday at 6PM.

Cleveland Rocks

March 5-7 the department set forth on our pilgrimage to Cleveland. The mission to see art, learn about various aspects of the Cleveland art scene, and eat. We started the trip with a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art which had a group exhibition Superlight, and a solo exhibition of Christian Wulffen's work on view. We then visited the offices of Cleveland Public Art where we learned a great deal about their programming and some great advice for approaching public art projects. Next on our itinerary was a visit to the Cleveland Institute of Art where Deborah Carlson, co-chair of the Fiber Department and Cranbrook Alum gave us a great tour of their spaces and student work. And we concluded the day with a wonderful dinner with Deborah at a local Thai restaurant.

Friday started with a tour of the textile conservation and storage labs at the Cleveland Museum of Art. In the lab they were working a Native American feather cape from the Midwest, a Great Plains beaded shirt, and some contemporary pieces. It was extremely hard to keep hands off when so close to such amazing objects. The group then went on a tour of the Progressive Insurance Company's art collection, and a visit to Melt for some more good food. After Progressive we had some free time to search for public art, rest, and walk by the lake before we enjoyed the evening.

On Saturday morning we visited SPACES a 30 year old alternative gallery for a tour of the shows and a talk about their various exhibition, residency, and community programs. We followed this with a visit to the Sculpture Center and then had to head back home.
Once back at Cranbrook we resumed seminar and critique activities. The second year students patiently waited to find out what space in the museum they would have for their degree show work, and now we are all on Spring Break.

Reviews and guests

After Jon Haddock's visit we continued our professional practices discussions focusing on contracts, budgets, and financial issues as well as grants, residencies, and jobs. The interesting thing about addressing these topics with graduate students is they already have a level of experience with some of these things so we can really discuss how to approach applying for a grant, or how to understand a contract in depth, and from a variety of personal experiences.

February 16-20 brought Second Semester Reviews. During the week all of the first year students in each of the departments meet with four of the Artists-in-Residence from the Academy. The students meet individually with the Artists-in-Residence for approximately 30 minutes and use the information from those conversations to evaluate their work and what directions they will pursue. Fiber went on the Friday of that week which made for a long and stressful week, but I think all of them would tell you the discussions were very helpful.


We were very fortunate to host St. Louis based artists, Kim Humphries and Sarah Colby on February 23. Kim is the Director of Exhibitions at Laumeier Sculpture Park and Sara works in community arts education. They presented lectures about the development of their individual work, collaborative work, and what they do in their day jobs. One of the exciting things about their lectures was the connections they revealed to ways that people in the department are working. So when they met individually with students there was a great deal of excitement.

Today we will be meeting to critique the work of two Fiber students, Ema Ishii and Mary Smull, as well as the work of two Print Media students, Carrie Ida Edinger and Terry Conrad, who are taking electives in Fiber this semester. It should be a good day.

A busy couple of weeks

For a place with no institutionally determined schedule, we sure can keep ourselves busy. The last week is a case in point. After my last post we started discussions on professional practices topics - starting with goal setting and time management. We also started our group critiques with the work of four students on January 28. And then on January 29 things started to get interesting.
We hosted Sue Taylor, art historian at Portland State University, critic, and author of numerous reviews, articles, and the book, "Hans Bellmer: The Anxiety of Anatomy. Before arriving at Cranbrook Taylor lectured at Wayne State University in Detroit on the work of the art critic. On the 30th she presented a lecture titled, "Feminism and Femmage since 1970" at Cranbrook. That was followed by a very intense afternoon of critiques in the Fiber Department. We finished the day with a dinner in Sue's honor.
Saturday brought the opening of my Artist in Residence show at the Cranbrook Art Museum.
On Sunday the museum hosted a lecture titled "Cartoon Violence" by Phoenix based, mixed media artist Jon Haddock. You can see his work at whitelead.com Jon spent the day on Monday meeting individually with Fiber Students and the evening brought a dinner in Jon's honor with the Fiber and Photo departments.
After a rest day on Tuesday we returned to departmental critiques on Wednesday with the work of four more students. Most of the critiques were of the work of second year students who are all starting to develop their Degree Exhibition projects in various ways.

The second semester has started

Actually it started last week, and while things are relatively quiet next week brings a lot of activity. Before that, today, we have presentations by the second years. They will each make 30 minute presentations about the development of their work.
Next week we have our first day of critiques and our first visiting critic. Sue Taylor from Portland State University, Portland, OR will visit the department on January 30. In the morning she will present a lecture entitled, "Feminism and Femmage since the 1970s". In the afternoon she will lead a group critique with the students. Sue uses psychology to interpret artwork and her insights and comments about the work should be very interesting.
On Sunday February 1 mixed media artist Jon Haddock will present his lecture entitled "Cartoon Violence," at the museum. On the second he will meet individually with students in Fiber.
Never a dull moment around here.