Schedule

Schedule overview
DATE TOPIC and READINGS
WEEK 1
  • Class introductions professor/graduate students. area, prime research and year in program and where you intend to go after your MFA Graduation. Send me a link to your website if you have one.

    Defining the various art worlds.

    A few would be:

    • Professional gallery artist
    • Museum artist
    • Public commissions artist
    • Academic/professor or variant of any of these.
    • Artist in residenceWhat are some others? Which ones do you resonate with?Class excercise: Affiliate with a group consisting of your choosing, of which you have experience: Go away for 1/2 hour and come back with your known tested and new strategies you have discussed, to access these worlds. Keep a written log to leave with professor.

      Group comes back and collectivly shares ideas with class.

    • Professional gallery artist:Key concepts and concerns: Support through sales/commissions. Question: How can I have an art gallery career?Types: commercial gallery, private gallery, self representation, non profit and coop galleries, academic, etsy, commissions, finding respresentation. Critical question: What do galleries want?
    • Museum/festival/faires artist:Key concepts and concerns. Question how do you develop a museum/festival reputation for your practice? Primary issues, common collectability, collectability with new materials, longevity, does work fit expected forms? Negotiatiating with curators, getting invitations, applying to festivals, visualizations, marketing to museums?
    • Public commissions artist:Key concepts and concerns: Sources for commissions, procedures for getting commissions, financing works, creating realistic budgets, visualizations, negotiations.
    • Academic/professor Artist in residence, or variant of the aboveKey concepts and concerns; CV, presentation, web page, authoring papers, publishing papers, presenting in academic conferences,
  • What specialties: digital capabilities, web, printing, photo, etc graduate student questionaire.

    Homework for this coming tuesday: 1) Come prepared with 3-4 possible shows, competitions, galleries, university jobs, (links) etc you will apply to and be prepared to discuss why.

    2) Come prepared with 10 web links of artists/curators that you follow or find resonant with your practice as a fine artist and show us for 5 minutes. Identify your top choices and tell us why.This schedule is subject to change –
WEEK 2

Graduate student presentations: Propose to the class which organizations, residencies, exhibitions or faculty positions you will be applying to. (five minutes per student presentation.

Discussion: Class brainstorming session to suggest methods to optimize the application 5 minutes per student.

Discussion of decoding the applications and the subtexts of what you read.

Homework: Come prepared with a detailed plan to create a winning appliction/art image.

Send me via email the 2-3 opportunties you will be applying to.

WEEK 3

Questions and frames of reference: What is best format and presentation for your work? What is the context in which you are showing your work?

How might this influence the presentation of your work?

Who is your audiance? Again who is your audiance? This is the critical and key question you must ask each and every time you present your work.

What makes for a compelling story/artwork? Discussion.

How does story influence our perception of the work and the artist? Examples (movies about Banksy, Pollack or films about artists) Caveat: The documentation is not the art though it can influence how we see and understand the art and work of artists.

What makes a compelling photo?
Discussion of 3 point lighting system. Using backrounds. Capturing faces and crowds in your photos. Documentation at opening. Shots both with and without humans. Photoshop retouching.

What makes a compelling video?
Examples: Doo Sung Yoo, Ken Rinaldo Paparazzi Bots. Discuss strategies and methods. Multiple cameras, cinamatography. Shots moving the camera in and out of focus, pan shots, framing Adobe aftereffects for titling.

(Wide Shot) Shows the whole object or subject.
(Close Up) Shows a feature of the subject or object.
(Very Wide Shot) Shows the object or subject’s environment.
Transition shots: in a sequence spliced with transisitoin shots you pull your film together.

How do you write about your work? What is compelling about your work or your story?

How do you speak about your work?
Discussion.

*What other inovative ways can you imagine to get your work out there that are more unconventional?

Homework: Continue to prepare your proposals in preparation for in class review.

WEEK 4
WEEK 5
  • Creating visualizations for curators / styles. Hand drawn vs 3D. Mockups and rapid prototyping of installations.Vito Acconci
    Ken Rinaldo
    Todd Slaughter
    Brian Goggin
    Malcolm Cochran and Private Passage by Malcolm for Clinton Cove Park
    Sabrina Raaf
    Ann HamiltonExamples of visualizations from the Paparazzi Bots and Face Music Project out of Toronto for Nuit Blanche.

    Good project proposals include: Organized ideas that are well written about, conceptually creative works that support and reflect an awareness of the “site” and “environment” in which the works is being proposed for, logistical foresight, how the work relates to the field, how the work will enhance the funding agencies goals and your own goals.

  • Creating budgets for Public commissions, festival budgets etc.
  • Breaking down costs into catagories
  • Using excel to create budgets: Material costs, labor costs, installation, tear-down, movement if a traveling exhibit, building crates. Expenses related to maintenance, upkeep, and any related purchases necessary for public exhibition.
  • Example budgets from Contracts.
  • Writing grants Betha Grant Examples, other grant examples.Jerry Gorovoy and Germano Celant: Remembering Louise
    Lambert Family Lecture
    Tue, Apr 26, 2011 | 7:00PMJerry Gorovoy was artist Louise Bourgeois’s assistant, collaborator, and friend. Noted critic and curator Germano Celant, former senior curator of contemporary art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, organized Bourgeois’s final exhibition before she passed away in May 2010.
WEEK 6
  • Developing fair contracts for the artist with examples.
    Examples of contracts.The Technical rider…what is it? Way to begin negotiation.
  • Hand out general contract and links: http://www.nyfa.org
    Art Office Business Letters
    Art Marketing 101
  • Writing contracts for artists for public commissions.
  • Negotiating with curators to be paid. The assumptive tone about budgets. What you can reasonably expect.
  • Shipping nationally and internationally.
  • Carnet and temporary import bonds.
  • Finding a shipper and establishing a bond.
  • Building crates and what is legal and what is not.Class ends at 7:30
WEEK 7
  • Academic worlds (The Process) Your application package, your reel, your work and website, the short list of phone interviews, the short list of 3 candidates.
  • Preparation of your package. Your work. Your students work. Your CV.
  • Phone interviews skills and careful listening.
  • The short list and how to be sure you are on the list.
  • Getting the job and negotiation techniques.
  • Interview skills (interpersonal skills for interviewing, verbal and non verbal skills, how to dress, what to bring, the dinner, the campus visit, supporting documentation, supporting web presence.
  • Mock interviews in class.
  • Sample questions will be shared and represent the kind of questions you will be answering.
WEEK 8
  • Guest speakers: Museum and public commissions and gallery art worlds speaker.Professor Ann Hamilton (May 17) 5:30Ann Hamilton will give a presentation on the nature of her studio practice.
WEEK 9
  • Students propose their new work:
  • Chair Professor Sergio Soave and Professor Michael Mercil are part of review panel designed to highlight and to offer constructive feedback on graduate proposals.
  • 8 students present their proposals and class offers feedback. 6 minutes to present 4 for feedback and critique.
  • break
  • 7 students present their proposals and class offers feedback. 6 minutes to present 4 minutes for feedback.Propose a new work of art with sketches, drawings, models or mockups and submit that piece to a necessary competition for funding.Strategies for presenting work to potential funding entities and help graduates research and identify funding sources and alternative ways of getting project done.
WEEK 10
  • Remaining review of proposals for continued refinement of your proposals and your artists brand.
    Review and feedback on websites