| Course Description |
This required Visual Arts core MFA curriculum course, comprising two parts, allows MFA students to deeply engage with and learn directly from a wide variety of working artists who visit the program each year. Lecture Series
The lecture component, taught by an adjunct faculty member with a background in art history and/or curatorial studies, consists of lectures and individual studio visits by visiting artists and critics over the course of the academic year. The series is programmed by a panel of graduate Visual Arts students under the professor's close guidance. Invitations are extended to artists whose practice reflects the interests, mediums, and working methods of MFA students and the program. Weekly readings assigned by the professor provide context for upcoming visitors. Other course assignments include researching and preparing introductions and discussion questions for each of the visitors. Undergraduate students enrolled in Visual Arts courses are encouraged to attend and graduate students in Columbia's Department of Art History are also invited. Following each class-period the conversation continues informally at a reception for the visitor. Studio visits with Visual Arts MFA students take place on or around the week of the artist or critic's lecture and are coordinated and assigned by lottery by the professor. Artist Mentorship
The Artist-Mentor component allows a close and focused relationship to form between a core group of ten to fifteen students and their mentor. Students are assigned two mentors who they meet with each semester in two separate one-week workshops. The content of each workshop varies according to the Mentors’ areas of expertise and the needs of the students. Mentor weeks can include individual critiques, group critiques, studio visits, visits to galleries, other artist's studios, museums, special site visits, readings, and writing workshops. Here are a few descriptions from recent mentors:
• During Mentor Week we will individually and collectively examine our assumptions and notions about art. What shapes our needs and expectations as artists and the impact of what we do?
• Our week will include visits to exhibition spaces to observe how the public engages the art. Throughout, we will consider art's ability to have real life consequences and the public's desire to personally engage with and experience art without mediation.
• The week will be conducted in two parts, f |
