Visual Arts Briefs

We asked SVA students and faculty to send in work they were creating over the summer. This is one in an occasional series of Summer Session posts.

MAT Art Education faculty member Michael Filan is busy over the summer teaching his Advanced Studio course at the College and creating new paintings like the one below. His work is on view in “Excavations Non Objective,” an exhibition at the Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive, through Tuesday, August 31.

Image: Michael Filan, Eternity, 2010.

We asked SVA students and faculty to send in work they were creating over the summer. This is one in an occasional series of Summer Session posts.

MAT Art Education Department faculty member and recent graduate Jaime Permuth (MPS 2009 Digital Photography) sent in this update about his busy summer:

“Over the summer I will be working on completing my series The Completely Visible World, which I began in 2009.

Most recently in New York, images from this body of work have been featured in Daniel Cooney Fine Art’s contemporary photography auction; En Foco’s ‘LATENT’ exhibition at Umbrella Arts; and ‘The Naked Truth,’ curated by Ruben Natal-San Miguel and currently at Hous Projects [through Saturday, July 17]. The series was also featured in the 2010 ‘Bienal de Arte Paiz‘ in Guatemala, curated by Jose Roca.

I will be collaborating on the third and final installment in a trilogy of family projects which I began with my father Mario and younger brother Igal in 2004. To date we have presented the first two installments of the trilogy (in exhibition and book format): Re-trato de familia (2004) and Tarzan Lopez (2007).”

Image: Jaime Permuth, from The Completely Visible World, 2009 – 2010.

The MAT Art Education Department is presenting “Keep Your Eye on the Ball,” a new exhibition of work created in the program’s summer Advanced Studio Art course. Faculty member Michael Filan, who teaches the course and is curator of the exhibition, presented a deceptively simple assignment: use a plastic toy ball as the starting point for a work of art.

The resulting works—with themes ranging from commentary on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to depictions of pregnancy and motherhood—are collected in “Keep Your Eye on the Ball,” on view at the Westside Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street, June 26 – July 24; there will be a reception for the artists on Friday, July 9, 4 – 6pm.

Image:Jennifer Pastecchi, Protection, 2010.

On Friday, May 14, the School of Visual Arts held its 35th formal commencement exercises at Manhattan’s landmark Radio City Music Hall. Family, friends and faculty joined the College’s graduating students as they received BFA, MAT, MFA and MPS degrees in a ceremony marked by lighthearted videos (created by 3D Design Chair Kevin O’Callaghan) and thoughtful speeches.

The undergraduate address was delivered by Kathryn Humphries (BFA 2010 Photography), who talked about how her father’s work as a landscape photographer had led to her interest in the field and told her fellow graduates, “Our work should begin with our own questions and lead others to ask more questions.” She was followed by Gary Osborne (MAT 2010 Art Education), whose graduate address talked about society’s great need for creative thinkers.

SVA President David Rhodes then took to the podium to deliver a probing speech that used examples of recent record-breaking art sales to question the efficacy and fairness of the United States’ system for paying artist royalties on resale of work. After putting recent headlines and policy initiatives in context, he pointed to France’s progressive system of resale royalties as a possible model for the future. The graduates and guests then heard a fast-paced and passionate address from award-winning playwright Tony Kushner. In his talk (which can be viewed in its entirety here), Kushner riffed on the difficulty of writing a speech for visual artists, spotlighted the political and social challenges of the moment (“Be citizens,” he told the graduates, “and work to fight despair.”), and weighed in on the contributions of image-makers to the society at large. “Art is the possibility of the impossible,” Kushner said, before accepting an honorary degree from SVA Board Member Walter Rivera. By the end of the ceremony, more than 1,000 graduate and undergraduate degrees were awarded to the class of 2010 by the College’s department chairs and President Rhodes.

Images: (top) SVA graduates at Radio City Music Hall; (bottom) commencement speaker Tony Kushner. Photos by Joe Sinnott.

Every year, the MAT Art Education Department focuses on training art educators and preparing them for careers in schools and educational programs around the city and across the country. Barbara Salander, the program’s thesis director, has also been studying the people who are studying at SVA: she recently completed a five-year investigation of the artistic development of people who completed the College’s MAT program.

Using multiple sets of questionnaires that were distributed at strategic moments in the three-term program (the first day of the first semester, first day of the second semester, the last day of the third semester and a post-graduation follow-up), Salander tracked how the students developed as artists and as educators, along with how the art education program impacted their growth as artists. “I was looking for the aspects of our program that had an impact,” she says, “things like peer interaction, new approaches to material use, process and methods.”

Having recently completed the study, Salander was invited to present her findings at this year’s National Art Educators Association conference, which took place on Wednesday, April 14, in Baltimore. Over the course of the presentation, titled “Artistic Development of Students in the MAT Program at SVA,” Salander showed the different approaches students took to creating their own artwork during the program, the impact of certain courses on their artistic development, and how their perceptions of themselves as artists shifted over the course of their classes and internships. “[In the first questionnaire] I answered that I am not yet an artist, but I am studying to be one,” said one of the study’s participants. “But through this program, I have come to realize that how I think makes me an artist…I now consider myself an artist. This program has helped me realize this.”

Image: A slide from Barbara Salander’s presentation, “Artistic Development of Students in the MAT Program at SVA.”

The second in a series of one-on-one conversations with SVA’s department chairs.

Rose Viggiano chairs the MAT Art Education Department, which is built around the hands-on experience of teaching in New York City’s public schools and SVA’s community-based programs. It’s how students in the department learn course development, classroom management and educational theory. Viggiano, who recently became co-president of the University Council for Art Education, talked to the Briefs as the department was in the process of surveying graduates about the impact of their studies at SVA for a study that will be presented at the National Art Education Association convention in April.

What makes your department unique?
The first thing is that the students are artists–and that’s the most important thing, because that’s where their inspiration comes from. When they get here, we teach them pedagogy. How do you take everything you love and translate that into lesson plans, and communicate with children?

One of the public programs the department offers is Art for Kids, weekly art classes for children in grades kindergarten through 9. How is that going?
They come on Saturday and Sunday now because it’s so popular! And a person who had gone through Art for Kids was accepted to go to SVA, which has always been our dream—that you would get turned on to art and then continue to study it.

What does this kind of experience mean for your students?
Schools are part of the community, and teachers are in service to the community. If we can expose our students to Art for Kids, to the Liberty Partnerships Program, or to a class we have in a shelter, they really become a part of that community, and begin to see the impact of art on that community. They also get to see the different kinds of environments they would feel best about teaching in.

Your incoming students include successful designers, photographers and fine artists. Why do they decide to teach?
They want to give back, and they’re coming from jobs where they don’t feel they’re giving back, or it’s not rewarding enough. People who teach are people who like to give back. They love their subject and want to pass it on. It’s a rite of passage.

What impresses you most about your students?
How hard they work, and their transformation. I’m very impressed by how open they are to allowing this change to occur, because that’s the most important thing. If they’re open and flexible, and love making art, then you have the makings of a really good teacher.

What do you like most about chairing the department?
My students’ absolute love of art, and children. There’s nothing more exciting than to watch someone’s creative process unfold. I think what makes art teachers art teachers is shared enjoyment, just watching that spark.

Image: Photo of Rose Viggiano

SVA President David Rhodes recently gave a keynote address at the University Council for Art Education (UCAE) symposium. The symposium, titled The Future of Arts Education In this Time of Economic and Political Turmoil, was organized by UCAE Co-presidents Gary Bates and Rose Viggiano, the latter of whom is chair of the MAT Art Education Department at SVA. The conference was held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, September 25.

The goal of the symposium was to present an open dialogue on the role of visual arts in education. Topics included the U.S. Department of Education’s role in ensuring that the visual arts continue as a core academic subject, and the importance of certified art teachers. Other areas of concern, many of which Rhodes touched on in his keynote, included grants for art education, the repercussions of the No Child Left Behind legislation on art education, and the role of higher education in transforming the current status of art education in public schools. According to Viggiano, who introduced the SVA President’s speech, “David Rhodes reinforced his ongoing commitment to the invaluable role of art education in the contemporary world.”

Last month, the Institute of Jamaica presented its annual Musgrave Medals, which honor achievements in the fields of literature, art and science. At the awards ceremony in downtown Kingston, alumnus Howard Moo-Young (G 1967) received a silver Musgrave Medal for his contributions to the field of photography. The prestigious Jamaican prize was created over 100 years ago as a memorial to Sir Anthony Musgrave, former Governor of Jamaica who founded the Institute in 1879.
Another prize went to MAT Art Education Department faculty member Andrew J. Bencsko. He received a 2008 American Graphic Design Award for his layout work on the department’s most recent catalog, which features work created by students in his Technology in Art Education course. The award was given by Graphic Design USA, a monthly magazine aimed at graphic design professionals.