SEMINAR PROFILE

A05 -
Making Art in Hard Times

Art is designed to help us through hard times. It allows us a distance, a time out, and a way to process what is happening in a safe context. It allows us to understand and to think differently. It does this for our students as well. Visual images are the most efficient storehouses of information. A picture is worth a thousand words. It is not solely visual art that has mandated its own creation. A Czech actress imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia said that she never truly understood the power of art until she witnessed prisoners trading food tickets for theater tickets. Underground writing and theatre flourished in the Soviet Union, and after its fall, some wondered if the intense theatrical creativity would in fact diminish. We see the same needs emerging in street and performance art in our own country's downtrodden areas. Participants will be asked to choose non-art themes to research as subjects for art work. The seminar will go back and forth between research, thinking and art-making. Such a practice has been shown to be useful in assisting students, as well as professional artists, integrate complex and challenging subject matter. The only preparation for this seminar is for each participant to write his or her signature at least 250 times, with an awareness that writing may be conceived as drawing with a specific goal. The assignment may be split into five sessions, but more would interfere with the process. Think of your signature as your first marks made for the seminar, and as one of the most personal things you put out into the world. Participants will choose and purchase their own materials, with costs to be reimbursed by TAS up to a pre-specified amount. Although it is not a requirement, participants are asked to consider using found and simple materials to create art, as one aspect of hard times is often limited financial resources. Doing so can help us see beauty in the mundane and everyday.

Scholar:

Susan Erony

Location:

Off Campus

Dates:

5/9/2017, 5/16/2017, 5/23/2017

A05 -	Making Art in Hard Times

	Art is designed to help us through hard times. It allows us a distance, a time out, and a way to process what is happening in a safe context. It allows us to understand and to think differently. It does this for our students as well. Visual images are the most efficient storehouses of information. A picture is worth a thousand words. It is not solely visual art that has mandated its own creation. A Czech actress imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia said that she never truly understood the power of art until she witnessed prisoners trading food tickets for theater tickets. Underground writing and theatre flourished in the Soviet Union, and after its fall, some wondered if the intense theatrical creativity would in fact diminish. We see the same needs emerging in street and performance art in our own country's downtrodden areas. Participants will be asked to choose non-art themes to research as subjects for art work. The seminar will go back and forth between research, thinking and art-making. Such a practice has been shown to be useful in assisting students, as well as professional artists, integrate complex and challenging subject matter. The only preparation for this seminar is for each participant to write his or her signature at least 250 times, with an awareness that writing may be conceived as drawing with a specific goal. The assignment may be split into five sessions, but more would interfere with the process. Think of your signature as your first marks made for the seminar, and as one of the most personal things you put out into the world. Participants will choose and purchase their own materials, with costs to be reimbursed by TAS up to a pre-specified amount. Although it is not a requirement, participants are asked to consider using found and simple materials to create art, as one aspect of hard times is often limited financial resources. Doing so can help us see beauty in the mundane and everyday.

		Scholar:	Susan Erony
		Location:	Off Campus
		Dates:	5/9/2017, 5/16/2017, 5/23/2017