Visual Arts Briefs

A recent episode of  the New York Foundation for the Arts’ new video podcast series (which has also included alumnus Kate Gilmore [MFA 2002 Fine Arts]) features an interview with MFA Art Practice Department faculty member Vito Acconci in his studio. Explaining that he set up Acconci Studio in 1988 with three people in order to create work through a process of group thinking and dialogue, Acconci underlines that their projects start with a site, something he notes is uncommon with contemporary technology strategies. His focus on architecture and design lies in his interest in active participants instead of passive viewers, borne from a belief that design is, “art in the middle of people.”

The latest in a series of one-on-one conversations with SVA department chairs.

The new academic year officially begins in the fall, but in July SVA is breaking ground on a new graduate program, the MFA Art Practice Department. The department is a low-residency, interdisciplinary course of study that will alternate summers in New York City working on studio projects with fall and spring semesters online, focused on criticism, history and other academic aspects of the program. The department will be chaired by educator, art museum professional and musician David Ross, who spoke with the Briefs about how he assembled the program’s curriculum and what he’s expecting from the inaugural class of students.

What is the origin of the MFA Art Practice Department’s title?
The idea was to find a term that went beyond or around the ideas of fine art or craft or design and would be inclusive and less proscriptive. I find it’s in current use by most artists when they describe their work: ‘My practice is defined by…’ The word ‘practice’ involved more than the idea of ‘my work’ or ‘my painting,’ but looks at the totality of an artist’s activity. So practice then becomes a good word to describe the totality of what an artist does: The production of objects, teaching, writing, performing—it can involve any number of things.

What sort of curriculum should a student enrolling in the program expect?
The intensives in the summer are centered around studio work and are critique centered, along with seminars and workshops. Each day is led by a different seminar leader, who will impart a different tone to that day. In the online courseware, the courses run from art history to critical theory, criticism, writing and reading of artists’ writing.

What are you looking for a in a student?
We’re looking for people with intelligence and talent, with a demonstrated ability to work independently, who have already begun to establish their practice in art, who are at a point in their development where they recognize the need for the opportunities our program creates. People who are intellectually curious, who don’t believe they have all the answers, their attitude toward making art doesn’t come from a fixed place. The kind of artist were looking for asks, ‘What’s my job as an artist?’

What from your background working in museums informs the program?
Since 1971 I’ve worked as a museum professional and became the director of three really extraordinary American museum institutions: The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. During that time, I spent thousands of hours in the presence of great art and great artists. The collective experience of knowing those artists and their work informs my ideas of what good art is.

You’ve already launched a Web site and have an active Twitter feed. Why are these online media important?
This is a program that is taking full advantage of the advances of online rich-media educational courseware. Those who haven’t experienced it would find it incredibly rich and easily personalized to serve the needs of people who don’t live in the New York City area, have jobs they can’t afford to give up and/or families they can’t leave for two years. We have applicants from Brazil, Los Angeles, Saudi Arabia, Maine, as well as people in the New York area. These people will be able to go back to their homes and studios, and will have an ongoing critical relationship with a mentor who is giving them continuous feedback on their work and practice.

What are you most looking forward to in the summer?
This is still an idea in process. As well as we believe we’ve designed this program, no design is really real until it’s road tested. We’ll see how the program works with a group of very interesting men and women. We’ll hopefully enjoy the process of refining the program and begin attracting our second and third classes. I’m looking forward to the time when we have three class operating in parallel, because the dialogue will be that much richer.

Image: ©Visual Arts Briefs, Ltd., 2011.

MFA Art Practice Department faculty member Daniel Kunitz recently wrote a piece  for Modern Painters about artist Glenn Lignon, who will be a visiting artist for the new program.

Lignon tells Kunitz, “I don’t even make work to sell anymore. I just make it to trade…[for] all those artists that I can’t really afford to buy.” Six images accompany the piece, featuring Lignon in his studio along with works-in-process that reveal more about his practice.

In a new campaign against gun violence, MFA Art Practice Department faculty member Carrie Mae Weems has created a new billboard project which has been covered by Syracuse.com.

There are currently two electric billboards already running Weems’ campaign, with printed street signs to follow. Text on the posters include statements like, “A man does not become a man by killing another man,” and are a response to the increasing gun violence in Syracuse, NY. Reporter Dick Case also explains that this is part of a, “six-month public art campaign that will include billboards, radio and TV public service announcements, comic books and coloring pencils, tee shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and other ‘meaningful slogans.’”

In a recent announcement from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, MFA Art Practice Department faculty member Linda Yablonsky has been named as a nominee for Blogger/Critic of the Year by Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards.

The award event (for which Yablonsky is co-writing the script) was conceived as a performance-based artwork that will follow the format of a Hollywood awards ceremony when it takes place at Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, on Wednesday, December 8.

In an interview in Frieze magazine, Lynda Benglis—BFA Fine Arts Department faculty member and visiting artist for the new MFA Art Practice Department—talks to Marina Cashdan about misconceptions viewers have of her sculpture and how her work has evolved over the years. In addition, Vivian Rehberg discusses the work included in Benglis’ major touring retrospective, which will travel to five institutions across the United States and Europe.

Benglis’ retrospective is currently on view at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art through Sunday, Janury 9, 2011; and will appear at the New Museum in New York City, February 9 – July 13, 2011.

Drawing on the similarities as well as differences between John Baldesseri and Yoko Ono, MFA Art Practice Department Chair David Ross has compiled a multimedia presentation for FLYP magazine. The piece is dedicated to the two artists following the Golden Lions awarded to them both for Lifetime Achievement at the 2009 Venice Biennale and traces their artistic careers over the past few decades.

The College’s announcement of a new graduate program—the MFA in Art Practice—has captured the attention of the art-world press. Artinfo, artdaily.org and Artforum have covered the new low-residency, interdisciplinary program that offers experienced artists an opportunity to deepen their studio practice and to develop an advanced body of work. The department is chaired by museum world veteran David Ross, who says, “With the flexibility that a low-residency program offers, SVA will provide a new option for practicing artists—across the county and the world—to advance their careers while taking advantage of the remarkable range of resources available to students at SVA.”

Faculty members, guest lecturers and mentors for the MFA Art Practice Department include Vito Acconci, Cory Arcangel, Dara Birnbaum, Liam Gillick, Terrence Koh, Ming Wei Lee, Glenn Ligon, Stephen Henry Madoff, Robert Pincus-Witten, Gary Simmons, Andras Szanto, Carrie Mae Weems, Lawrence Weiner and Terry Winters, among others.

For more information about the Department, visit the Press Resources page or contact artpractice@sva.edu.

Image: Photo of David Ross by Henry Zernike, 2010.