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Section of Arts and Humanities

Meet in Beijing Arts Festival

Meet in Beijing Arts Festival is a large-scale international festival hosted by China’s Ministry of Culture, Beijing Municipality Government and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The Festival was  held annually.

Meet in Beijing Arts Festival made its debut and attracted 38 groups of artists, large and small, from 24 countries around the world. These artists offered the audience of Beijing, as well as other parts of China, 109 stage performances, 6 outdoor shows and 6 art exhibitions.

With the principle of spreading Chinese traditional culture, introducing the essence of overseas arts as well as promoting cultural exchanges between China and the other parts of the world, Meet in Beijing Arts Festival has established itself as China’s national-level artistic activity and topped its Asian competitors. Now it has turned into Beijing’s famous cultural brand.

 

Celebrating the success of the China Europe Art Festival

Established in 2012, China Shanghai International Arts Festival Rising Artists’ Works program (hereinafter referred to as R.A.W.!) is a leading comprehensive original artwork incubation platform in China. It provides young artists with high-quality soil for their all-round growth and mutual collaboration, and has set up a broad platform for international cooperation. To this day, R.A.W.! has commissioned 105 young Chinese artists in various fields and created 89 diversified original artworks. Close connection has been made between R.A.W.! and Asia Society, USA; COIL Festival, USA; Budapest Spring Festival, Hungary; Southbank Centre, UK; New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong; and Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania. For 28 times, R.A.W.!'s commissioned works have been showcased in USA, Hungary, UK, Australia, Israel, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Germany, Hong Kong China, etc.

In 2024, R.A.W.! will play a greater role as a platform, promote the incubation and display of global young artists' works of stage performing arts and visual arts, and reflect the new developments, trends and characteristics of this field. All artists in the world under 45 years old (45 included) are welcomed to apply for R.A.W.!, including but not limited to professional young artists, amateur young artists, and curators. Both individuals and teams are accepted. Priority will be given to the works reflecting the Belt and Road development and to those created by artists or teams from the BRI partner countries and regions. This rule is intended to facilitate high-quality BRI development, encourage and enhance the support for young artists from the BRI partner countries and regions, and promote openness, inclusiveness, communication and mutual learning.

                                                                                                           

Drawing New LinesVoices in Swiss Architecture

Encounter the new spirit that is emerging in Swiss architecture in this free display of photography, collages, posters and drawings.

The new mood in Swiss architecture is expanding the boundaries of what architecture is.

With provocative and playful approaches, younger architects are starting to consider how we should act, for the future of architecture, the future of public life and the future of the planet.

This display will introduce the work of five Swiss architecture practices and organisations: Bessire Winter, Parity Group, Schneider Türtscher, Truwant+Rodet+ and 8000.agency. All of them teach and undertake research as part of their work as architects, giving them the greatest opportunity to discuss and debate what architecture means. Bringing together photography, collages, posters and drawings, this display will present an expanded idea of architecture – one which links it to art, landscape and performance.

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Young Artists' Summer Show 2023

18 July - 13 August 2023

From gangster chickens to penguin parades, mind galaxies to space parties, the artists featured in the fifth year of the Young Artists’ Summer Show have astounded us once again.

Artists are at the heart of everything we do at the Royal Academy of Arts – we’ve been championing them since 1768 and firmly believe in nurturing young talent and celebrating the next generation of artists.

Now in its fifth year, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4–19 studying in the UK. Artworks are judged by a panel of passionate artists and arts professionals, with selected artworks displayed online and on-site at the Royal Academy of Arts.

More than 21,000 students participated this year, thanks to the commitment of teachers, parents and guardians who are championing the role of art in education. Our judges were overwhelmed by the passion, insight and skill in the artworks they saw, and all expressed how difficult it was selecting the artworks exhibited.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Golden Globe Foundation Awards Grants to SMC Journalism & Film Programs

Awards Will Support Named Scholarship to Develop Diverse Pipeline of Future Journalists & the Production of Capstone Short Film for College’s Award-Winning Film Program

SANTA MONICA, CA—The Golden Globe Foundation (Foundation) has given the Santa Monica College Foundation(opens in new window) two grant awards to support the award-winning Santa Monica College (SMC) film production and journalism programs. The grant awards will support a named scholarship for SMC journalism students to work/intern on the college’s media outlet/newspaper The Corsair(opens in new window), and help fund the film production program’s capstone class “Making the Short Film.”

The $20,000 renewed grant award to SMC’s journalism program and $35,000 to the film production program were part of $5 million overall granted by the Foundation for 96 programs through its philanthropic program, announced on Jan. 5 in Los Angeles, Calif. These donations support a diverse range of nonprofit organizations assisting underserved communities, universities, and colleges. The grants also support film restoration projects in the United States and abroad, as well as programs providing aid and assistance to journalists across the globe. Funding for the philanthropy program comes from revenue generated by broadcasting the Golden Globe® awards show.

 

                                                                                                                                                                        

Masters of Dance with Holly Johnston

A workshop designed to teach dance majors feel at peace with their physique

On Thursday, Oct. 26, Santa Monica College (SMC) Dance Department held its Masters of Dance workshop. Masters of Dance is a series of three master classes the department holds every semester.

“Every semester we bring in three artists who often pertain to something that we don’t have in our curriculum or something that we feel our students really need and would benefit from,” said chair of the dance department, Mark Tomasic. 

Thursday, the special guest hosting the event was Holly Johnston. Johnston is a “The Joyce A.W.A.R.D.S.! Show” finalist, the creator of a social movement and body liberation practice titled Responsive Body, a podcast host, and a professor of several academic institutions in California. 

During her workshop, Johnson shared several techniques on how to love and feel more in tune with one’s body. “This workshop is an opportunity for SMC students who are interested in performing arts, particularly dance and choreography, to engage with somebody who is working in that field,” said Johnston. She believes that everyone should be aware of how to be amicable with one’s body as well as with each other. “I think it’s time for a revolution. And that revolution begins with our bodies; it grows as we connect.” 

The workshop was a series of exercises that focused on moving freely, in a way that feels most natural. The purpose of the practice was to listen to one’s body, and accept it as it is. First, Johnston had everyone lie down on the floor and just move around in one spot to the beat of a banging drum. Next, the drill evolved into the students breaking down into four separate groups and moving across the dance floor, letting their bodies move openly. 

The last portion involved every participant mimicking their teammates’ movements, trying to feel at one with each other. In between the exercises, Johnston gathered the students in a big group and gave a speech on the importance of dance therapy and loving and accepting one’s physique. 

Business major Michelle Michlewicz believes that “music and therapeutic dance is going to be the future of medicine.” 

Dance major Sophia Aponte agrees. “It was very validating to just be able to connect with my own body and to receive so much love and energy from Holly and everyone else in the room. The people here are so welcoming, and it was great to receive such support at this hectic time in my life,” said Aponte.

The next Masters of Dance class will be held on Feb. 27 2024, at the Core Performance Center, Room 304, at 1900 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90405.

                                                                                                                                                                

 

California Arts Council Announces Creative Economy Workgroup Members

SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Arts Council (CAC) today announced members of the Creative Economy Workgroup (CEW), which will develop a strategic plan to expand workforce opportunities to benefit the state’s creative sector, with a focus on developing new and additional pathways into California’s competitive creative fields. The workgroup is led by the Executive Director of the CAC.

Established in last year’s budget, the CEW is tasked with developing a strategic plan which will conduct a comparative analysis with other jurisdictions, evaluate existing financing models and government initiatives, identify opportunities for educational programs as well as earn and learn job training employment, detail the geographic areas with the least amount of access or opportunity for a creative economy, and analyze existing initiatives and projects, including the role that local governments can play in creating a stronger creative economy. The strategic plan is due to the Legislature by June 30, 2025.

“We are deeply grateful for this opportunity afforded us by the Legislature to contribute to a sustainable future of opportunities for workforce development in all sectors of the creative economy,” said CAC Executive Director Jonathan Moscone. “Convening leaders in the nonprofit and private sectors alongside members of state government, we aim to lift up innovative pathways—and recommend new ones—for all members of California’s cultural workforce to thrive.”

“The Creative Economy Workgroup represents a timely opportunity to understand, analyze, and make recommendations regarding the best ways to strengthen the state’s critical creative industries, generate more opportunities for our workforce in those industries, and ensure that California remains the most attractive option for creative businesses that are looking to start up and expand,” said Dee Dee Myers, Director of the Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development and Senior Advisor to Governor Newsom.

 

                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Solo Exhibit: Karen Bright — Within the Anthropocene

Karen Bright’s (MFA Printmaking 1984) solo exhibition, WITHin the Anthropocene opens at CVA Gallery at Brookdale Community College on November 2, 2023. Brights featured works span a range of methods including encaustic, fresco, sculpture, and graphic design.

WITHin the Anthropocene aims to provide visitors with a space for reflection and contemplation about the challenges our world faces in the 21st century, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and the Anthropocene epoch. It encourages viewers to expand their imagination and consider new, sustainable interrelationships between humans, nature, and our planet.

The exhibition opens with a powerful series of post-Sandy infographic prints derived from data sourced from organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, and the United States Naval Observatory. These prints serve as a stark representation of climate change, its regional legacy, and its impact on our planet.

A sculptural series – “Still Water,” created for the exhibition – explores the multifaceted nature of water, both as an essential giver of life and as a primary player during extreme weather events.

The artist, Karen Bright, shared her inspiration for the exhibition: “My work is enlivened by my deep connection to nature and informed by my personal experiences with our shared climate crisis. The living environment – with particular focus on ocean ecosystems – has offered a consistent well of inspiration for my work over many decades. My work draws energy from the use of color and texture to create added depth and meaning. ‘WITHin the Anthropocene’ is an opportunity to expand our imagination and provoke thoughtful dialogue about how we can spur innovative, sustainable, and equitable solutions to safeguard the health and prosperity of our communities—and to protect our planet.

 

 

Lennart Anderson Retrospective Travels to Southern Utah Museum of Art

A retrospective exhibition of Lennart Anderson (MFA Painting 1952) makes its third stop at Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) and is on view through September 23, 2023.  This survey is the first retrospective of Anderson’s work since his passing and SUMA’s presentation is the largest iteration.

Anderson was well known for his mastery of tone, color, and composition. He held not only high regard in his artistic community but also for his dedication as an instructor who influenced generations of artists and curators at Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University, and finally Brooklyn College.

The Executive Director of SUMA, Jessica Kinsey said, “When I have spoken to former students about Lennart’s pedagogic approach, they describe it as both tender and uncompromising, expecting from his students the same high standards that guided his own practice.”

Anderson was born in Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before returning to the Detroit area to complete his Master of Fine Arts at Cranbrook. He received numerous awards including the Prix de Rome, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tiffany Foundation. Anderson’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Fralin Art Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Palmer Museum of Art, and Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts, among others.

 

                                                                                                

"A Million Miles Away" Solo Exhibition by Kaylie Kaitschuck On View at Goldfinch Gallery

A Million Miles Away, a solo exhibition by Michigan-born and based artist Kaylie Kaitschuck (MFA Fiber 2021), is currently on view at Goldfinch Gallery, in Chicago, IL.

Like a stickered skateboard or a backpack embellished with patches and pins, Kaitschuck’s embroideries balance the immediacy of everyday life with a nostalgic nod to the past. Each of her vivid dreamscapes is loaded with familiar symbols (suns, moons, animals) and iconography from popular culture to negotiate complicated desires to escape, shake loose old identities, and transcend familiar surroundings.

Her works take their inspiration from memory, familiar surroundings, and daydreams of being elsewhere. Kaitschuck explains that the works “become my own versions of maps or postcards. They hold no real navigational route or reference to a specific place but my own. These are an archive of thought, routine, and familiarity.”

A Million Miles Away will be on view in Goldfinch’s East Wing through July 22, 2023.

                                                                                              

Will Wilson Workshops Tintypes and Discusses Representation in Photographic Portraiture

Earlier this month, Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Photography department hosted Diné (Navajo people) photographer Will Wilson as a Visiting Artist. Wilson spent time with students in their studios and shared his process in an all-day workshop.

Wilson was selected as a Visiting Artist by the Second-Year class because his practice aligns with several of their concerns: an identity-informed practice rooted in a social ethos that uses craft to cultivate community.

In the workshop, students created individual and group portraits using wet collodion photography, commonly known as tintypes.  Tintypes were invented in the early 1850s and were regularly produced through the end of the 19th century. With this process, negatives are printed with light-sensitive chemicals on a metal or glass surface. 

After an initial demonstration, Wilson handed camera and chemistry over to the students. They worked with his 8”x10” view camera and antique lens. They poured collodion onto aluminum plates and coated them with silver. They exposed and developed the plates.  

The group photographed both outdoors under natural light and indoors in front of a bank of six strobe lights. Because wet plate photography is not very sensitive to light, they sought out places and procedures that enabled the illusion of instantaneous image-making. Every photograph took fifteen to thirty minutes to make from start to finish, and several exposures required subjects to remain still for up to five seconds.  

All the participants were able to keep the tintypes they made with Wilson’s guidance. 

 

Tintype portraits of Native Americans during the 19th century were often taken by photographers who posed their subjects in costume, portraying an inaccurate representation of individuals and Indigenous culture in the time period. 

Wilson takes portraits today with the same technique to challenge what people think about those historical portraits and create a re-imagined vision of his sitters today. Wilson’s Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX) is one of the largest archives of Native American portraiture. The exchange includes 4,000 portraits made by Wilson over more than 10 years including Native and non-Native sitters from across the world. The portraits of Cranbrook students are now an official entry in the CIPX project. 

 

Wilson also visited Cranbrook Art Museum and its Collection Wing with the Photography department to explore a selection of photographic works. 

Of the workshop, Head of Photography and Artist-in-Residence, Chris Fraser says, “because my students have a wide variety of practices, we seldom host workshops. While I do not expect that any of my students will incorporate tintypes into their practices, I was reminded of how a hands-on approach to photography can gather people together in common purpose. I really enjoyed watching my students get caught up in the process, helping each other technically and conceptually, and visibly having fun.”

                                                                                                                                                                               

Marianna Olague Featured in Texas Statewide Survey of Latinx Art at Centro de Artes

                                                                                                                                                                             

Nick Cave Talks to The New York Times About His Partnership with Knoll Textiles

Nick Cave (MFA Fiber 1989) recently sat down with The New York Times to discuss his partnership with Knoll Textiles on a new collection of wall coverings, upholstery, and drapery.

“When I was invited to do this collaboration, I immediately thought of Cranbrook [Academy of Art], where I did my graduate work. I was surrounded by Knoll and by [Eliel and Eero] Saarinen. I would pull out these amazing textiles created in the 1970s, and think about the Arts and Crafts movement and its influence. It’s part of my DNA now. I’m always thinking about the transition: how does an artwork transition into a textile or bronze? It comes down to the essence, and transferring that essence over.” – Nick Cave to Wallpaper in October 2022.

The textiles were inspired by Cave’s works including different Soundsuits and his installations Until and Architectural Forest. They include photorealistic printing, weaving, embroidery, and hand-sewn elements. The collection includes Knoll Textile’s first floral wall covering, Big Floral, inspired by a beaded Soundsuit. Watch Cave talk with Knoll below.