It’s hard to keep you posted about all the incredible things we get to experience in our classes. I’m going to focus on two classes for this blog post- our New York Seminar class with Jane Benson and our Professional Practice class with Jane Farver. These classes are both on Thursdays and usually we run around the city from 10 am to 5 pm visiting artists studios, museums and galleries where we get to meet an abundance of important people in the art world. I thought that I should give an overview of what we have done and who we have met so far in the semester. I’m breaking it up per week per class so it will give you a picture of how classes work and how busy we are!
February 7th
Farver’s class: We meet Jackie Battenfield, author of “The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love.” Every person who wants to make a career through art should read this book. Really. Go buy it. Right now. It’s a perfect book to reference for any questions you may have, especially if you are young and just beginning your career. We engaged in a long conversation with Jackie and since our class consists of only four people she was able to hear more about what type of artists we are and what are individual goals are, thus offering personalized advice. It was probably the most eye-opening conversation in terms of what I have to do to make in the art world in or an art field.
Benson’s class: We meet at Paula Cooper Gallery where there are two exhibitions going on: Meg Webster and Julian Lethbridge. Webster’s “Sand Bed” is attention-grabbing and memorable and I can still smell the oil paints coming off the Lethbridge’s canvases of choreographed brushstrokes. Amazingly, we are invited to go to the second floor of the gallery, and get to meet Paula Cooper herself in her office, filled with rarely seen artwork. The perks of having a small class! Then we check out the Sascha Braunig show at Foxy Productions.
February 14th
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Farver’s class: We stay in the classroom and Farver takes us through the projects she worked on when she was a curator at MIT’s art museum. It’s great to hear about the public art projects Farver has completed- she is a brilliant curator and I’m honored to have her as a mentor and teacher.
Benson’s class: After a quick lunch we head off to Queens to meet Shaun Leonardo, Director of Public Programs and Community Relations at the Socrates Sculpture Park. He gives us a personal tour of the park which is dedicated to provide space for large-scale sculpture and also has a beautiful view of Manhattan across the water. Then we run to the PS1 MoMA where we see the current exhibitions such as “Confettisystem: 100 Arrangements” and “New Pictures of Common Objects.” Then we get to meet Christopher Lew, Assistant Curator, and have a conversation about the “New Pictures” show that he curated.
February 21st
Farver’s class: Sung Hwan Kim comes into the class to talk to us about his life and give us advice about how to get where you want to be as an artist. He takes us through the abundant amount of experiences he has had and focuses on how it is important to do many things that interest you. You can do it all, if you want.
Benson’s class: We get to personally visit Robert Melee’s studio, who takes us through his past artwork and gives us a preview of artwork that hasn’t been exhibited yet. Melee has prominent overarching themes in his artwork and it was nice speaking to such a consistent artist who knows exactly what his aesthetic is and continues to expand on it.
February 28th
Farver’s class: A busy day! We meet at Apexart and get a personal tour and mission statement from one of the directors. Then we head to Art in General, where we meet Anne Barlow who takes us through the space and answers our questions about alternative spaces, discussing the differences between these type of spaces and galleries, and the pros that come along with an alternative space. Next we go to The Drawing Center and meet Brett Littman who graciously invites us into his office and speaks about the past and current conditions of The Drawing Center and where he hopes to see it go into the future. Littman also speaks to us about his personal career and how he got to this position, and talks about his side writing jobs that he picks up for different art publications.
Benson’s class: The busy day continues! We head to Brooklyn to check out three different artist studios. Each artist talks about past work and work that they are currently making. First up is Ellen Harvey, then Blane de St. Croix, followed by Diana Shpungin.
March 7th
Today Jane and Jane combine forces and take us to three different art fairs. We start our day at the Armory Show. Next, we head to the Independent Art Fair. Lastly, we go to the Volta. We are overwhelmed with art…art, art and more art! But it is the best experience because we are all able to discuss what we see and get an overall feel for contemporary art from around the world and of all different calibers. By the end of the day, we are worn out! But I am happy because we each picked up our own Andy Warhol Brillo Boxes from the Armory Show- large pieces of cardboard we trucked along with us the entire day!
March 14th
The classes combine forces once again. First we all head to the Guggenheim, and although it’s closed on a Thursday we are lucky enough to get to meet Christina Yang, Director of Education & Public Programs. Christina talks to us a little bit about what she does here at the Guggenheim and her personal career history. Then she takes us to see the current shows being exhibited.
Later that afternoon we head back to AAP NYC and meet with Mari Spirito, Founding Director of Protocinema and past Director of 303 Gallery in Chelsea. Mari is a wonderful, energetic person to talk to about her involvement in the Istanbul art world and her non-profit experiment with Protocinema where she makes exhibitions in New York and Istanbul.
March 21st
SPRING BREAK: I head to Miami to get some warmth and some much needed rest!
March 28th
Farver’s Class: We meet with art critic Eleanor Heartney who talks to us about topics that she usually focuses on with her writing such as religion, feminist art and contemporary art in general. It’s helpful to speak to Eleanor because we usually have to write exhibition reviews as our homework assignments. We are required to visit the show, and then write a piece on it. And how common is it to meet someone whose work we have researched and read and then question her about it? Pretty amazing.
Benson’s Class: We use class time to volunteer for the Guggenheim’s performance piece “Sanbaso, Divine Dance,” by artist Hiroschi Sugimoto and actor Mansai Nomura.
I’ll stop here because that’s quite a lot to take in! I hope I got to give you just a small glimpse at our life here in AAP NYC and I’ll keep you updated!
-Sam
Here is a photo from the Armory Show with our Brillo Boxes: