UMN Art Fall 2020 Highlights

The Department of Art is pleased to present for Fall 2020 new workshops and courses, along with highly sought favorites moved online. 

NEW!
ARTS 5490: Workshops in Art - Section 001 - Introducing Solidarity Art Economies 
Instructor: Diane Willow, Associate Professor
What are the art worlds and modes of participatory culture that we want?
This participatory workshop will introduce a range of processes that support you as you conceptualize, clarify, and articulate your visions for art worlds and forms of culture that you want to activate and share. Students from all disciplines and life experiences, with varying kinds of creative and social practices, are invited to engage in this catalyst for individual and collaborative re-imagining. Inclusive modes of teaching and learning will value the experiences, research interests, and knowledge generated by students, introduced by guest presenters, amplified through readings and interviews, and enacted in whole group, small group, and individual activities.

Caroline Woolard, the 2020 Harlan Boss Visiting Artist for Art, Participatory Culture, Social Practice, and Critical Theory is the guest catalyst for this workshop and will be a guest presenter for five of our fifteen meetings. Caroline Woolard will introduce her work focused on solidarity economy as well as the work of other contemporary artists and designers who consider the entire life of their projects. These perspectives will ground our semester-long process within a global context. They will challenge you to identify art worlds and forms of participatory culture that are appropriate to your work and to your concerns, while drawing connections to a series of organizations, collectives and interconnected art and design worlds. MORE

ARTS 3490: Workshops in Art - Section 001 - Phone It In: Mobile Imaging and the Connected World

Instructor: Paul Shambroom, Associate Professor
The making and sharing of still and moving images has fundamentally changed since the advent of the smartphone. And these images help change the world. The 10-minute video of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 24, 2020 was shot by a high school student Darnella Frazier, who said “The world needed to see what I was seeing.” Social distancing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic also highlights the impact of this technology. While our physical mobility may be limited, our mobile devices not only augment our experience of the world, in many ways they replace it. 

This class will explore how mobile imaging technology and connectivity have transformed photography, as well as every other aspect of our lives- emotional, social, political, economic, and health.

This class will involve making and sharing digital content, as well as serious examination of these changes through readings, viewings and discussions. Topics include: the impact of mobile imaging on domestic and international political movements; citizen journalism; privacy and ethical issues; dating, sex and social structures, the aesthetics of the small screen vs. the gallery wall; and others. Students will use their own smartphones and various social media platforms, and can incorporate GoPros, drones, open access public imaging systems and analog/digital mashups. Individual and team projects will explore differences and similarities with traditional image-making: constructed identity, the currency of “likes”, domestic vs. public space, stretching (and breaking?) the truth, walking and seeing (and more). 

This is not your grandparents’ photo class (although it is open to all generations.)
MORE
 

ARTS 3490: Workshops in Art - Section 002 - Emergency Sculpture - POSTPONED

Instructor: Rotem Tamir, Assistant Professor
Most likely, art isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when we think about emergency situations. Emergencies are usually associated with survival and basic needs such as food and shelter. Yet we know that during times of crisis, artists kept creating and developing new forms and working methods. Throughout history, often we find that art’s most potent innovations happen in times of political or social turbulence. What is the role of art, and what transformations happen to the language of art, during these complicated times? In this studio course, through case studies and hands-on experience, we will try to imagine what responses we can offer as artists, to the social health crisis the world is currently undergoing.
MORE

ARTS 1201: Art + Change: The Transformational Power of Art

Instructor: Diane Willow, Associate Professor
This new course will introduce students to the Department's Interdisciplinary Art and Social Practice area through individual and collaborative hands-on learning opportunities. Art +Change focuses on art as a catalyst for change - individual change, community change, and systemic change. Inspired by examples of the varied ways that artists are responding to the social, political, ethical, and environmental issues of today, as well as the ways that artists have responded in the past, we will create art for change in our everyday environments. Art for change is a social process. You will be introduced to a range of materials and media while focusing on concerns that are important to you and your peers. During this course we will learn with and from one another as each person identifies how they want to focus art for change. Our individual visions will also contribute to a collaborative vision. Over the course of the semester you can expect to imagine and create art as a catalyst for change that begins with yourself and expands to connect with community and globally actions. This is an experiential course where you are encouraged to be present with your whole self, gain confidence in sharing your ideas, experiment with varied forms of art making, and be energized by the collective visions and actions of artists who are committed to working with others for change. This semester you can expect to participate in individual, small group, whole class activities as we expand the potential for learning together online and off line in ways that will also engage us with our immediate environments. MORE

ARTS 1203: Art + The Mississippi River

Instructor: Sean Connaughty
As the Mississippi River flows through campus, it shapes the site of a seventy-two-mile urban national park in the heart of Dakota homeland. Using the river as a basis for artistic inquiry, research, and collaborative practices, students engage in interdisciplinary creative explorations while learning about water ecologies and politics: mapping, book-making, digital photography, sound portraits, aerial photography, underwater photography, and performance. We will examine why place-based learning, systems thinking, and engaged individual and collective creative engagement can lead to out-of-the-box learning, art-making, and innovative solutions to challenging social and ecological problems. 

Students are not expected to have previous art experience but will be introduced to a number of media approaches. Class activities will include traveling on a river boat, launching aerial balloon cameras, visiting cultural, scientific, and historic places, and engaging in conversations with guest artists, architects, composers, scientists, and culture keepers. Many students at the University of Minnesota are looking for ways to be creative in how they connect to issues that they care about. This course introduces approaches that will assist students in learning how to initiate and create these types of art projects and practices. MORE

ARTS 3190: Watercolor

Instructor: Laura Stack
Students will explore expressive and technical possibilities of watercolor including contemporary, traditional, and experimental approaches to painting. They will learn about pictorial structure, color relationships, and forming creative ideas for visual expression. Projects will focus on both representational and abstract imagery. This class encourages the development of critical thinking, self­-evaluation, and the pursuit of independent ideas. Contemporary and historical painting will be introduced as a reference for painting projects. In addition to creating artwork, we will discuss the creative process and artistic practice through selected readings. A goal of this course is for students to understand the importance of painting as a thinking process and as a language.  Prerequisites: ARTS 1101, 1102, or 1104  MORE

ONLINE COURSES THIS FALL: