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Master of Fine Arts in
Contemporary Art Practices at
Portland State University
Big congrats to our students @_k_j__w and @pedestr Big congrats to our students @_k_j__w and @pedestrianvision along with alum @momobirdie for receiving grant funding from @precipicefund for their projects Kitchen and HI-VIZ! Keep an eye on both of these exciting new works 👀 💈🦺💈🦺💈🦺💈🦺💈🦺💈🦺💈🦺💈🦺💈 Kitchen explores the relationship between hair and intimacy while centering the experiences of Black clientele and natural hair practitioners. The project will celebrate stories told by Black voices to archive the oral histories surrounding the physical space, care, and intimacy that is cultivated through hair styling. Kitchen will provide artistic form to the processes of this culture by sharing the perspectives of clients and beauticians while recognizing the historical/political context surrounding this specific experience. HI-VIZ is a social practice art project with the student crossing guards of the Dr. MLK Jr. School 5th Grade Safety Patrol at @ksmoca. Through monthly visual, performing, and interdisciplinary arts workshops, we explore the crosswalk as a stage for creative expression and civic agency. This series of workshops builds skills and understanding that will culminate in our end-of-the-year public, participatory pedestrian parade, the Hi-Vizibility Crosswalk Spectacular.
Wise words from alumnae of the Art + Social Practi Wise words from alumnae of the Art + Social Practice Program, pt. 2. @elizagregory @_lo_and_behold_ @gabrielrey4 @constancehockaday @mjmenjivar @avalonkalin @illia.yakovenko as told to @helloprettycity @dogsighs__ @lillyannepham @gilnotjill @levelyellowproblemchild @pedestrianvision @cereza699
Wise words from alumnae of the Art + Social Practi Wise words from alumnae of the Art + Social Practice Program. @saltythunder13 @zephxfish @singleparentarchive @justinmeadmaxon @amandaleighevans @patriciavazquezmx, as told to Nadine Hanson, @oliviadelgandio @morganhornsby_ @marinamarialopez @midorisees @manfredpunky Read student interviews with graduates of our program in the Fall 2022 issue of SoFA Journal. Link in our bio.
The Fall 2022 SoFA Journal is out! Peruse conversa The Fall 2022 SoFA Journal is out! Peruse conversations between our current students and program alumni in this issue of our interview-centric online publication, Social Forms of Art. Link in our bio 📗 Interviews by @levelyellowproblemchild @marissa_perezzzzz Nadine Hanson @oliviadelgandio @pedestrianvision @helloprettycity @morganhornsby_ @midorisees @manfredpunky @gilnotjill @lillyannepham @marinamarialopez @dogsighs__ @cereza699 with 14 program alumni from the past fifteen years. Cover design by Gilian Rappaport and Luz Blumenfeld. Image from Tia Kramer and Amanda Leigh Evans project with students and staff at Prescott Elementary School, “When the River Becomes a Cloud,” 2022-2024. Walla Walla, WA. ________________________ The Social Forms of Art (SoFA) Journal is a publication dedicated to supporting, documenting and contextualising social forms of art and its related fields and disciplines. Each issue of the Journal takes an eclectic look at the ways in which artists are engaging with communities, institutions and the public. The Journal supports and discusses projects that offer critique, commentary and context for a field that is active and expanding. Created within the Portland State University Art & Social Practice Masters in Fine Arts Program, SoFA Journal is now fully online.
SEEKING PARTICIPATION! Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice Program is a flexible residency MFA program that focuses on the art of social engagement. Interested in social practice? Apply to our program! Explore our program projects: @ksmoca @artandsocialpracticearchive, our program publication SoFA Journal (see our website). Links are in our bio! Applications for Fall 2023 are due on January 27, 2023, 11:59pm PST. If curiosity strikes and you have any questions, reply here, DM us, or email our program director Harrell Fletcher at harrell@pdx.edu.
📡📖📡📖📡📖📡📖📡 Introducing 📡📖📡📖📡📖📡📖📡 Introducing Art & Social Practice Radio! ▶️ Mondays 1-2pm PT on @kpsu_radio Hosted by MFA student (and professional voice over artist) Becca Kauffman @pedestrianvision 🗣️ Listen 🔊 on kpsu.org and @psuartandsocialpractice instagram live Call: (503)-725-5669 ☎️ Art and Social Practice Radio is a new weekly radio show broadcasting live from Portland State University’s student station, KPSU. Each episode opens with a working and subjective definition of “social practice art,” followed by a live reading of a published text on socially engaged art, and a ten minute call in time at the end! This week’s episode features a live reading of performance studies scholar Shannon Jackson’s book, Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics. This book critically investigates the “social turn,” or the turn towards the social, in contemporary experimental art and theater. 🔊 Live stream at kpsu.org and right here on our Instagram Live. 💡 About Shannon Jackson @shannonjacksonucb is a Professor of Rhetoric and Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at University of California, Berkeley. Jackson’s research focuses on two broad, overlapping domains: 1) collaborations across visual, performing, and media art forms and 2) the role of the arts in social institutions and in social change. Her most recent books are Back Stages: Essays Across Art, Performance, and the Social (Northwestern University Press, 2022), and The Human Condition: Media Art from the Kramlich Collection (Thames & Hudson, forthcoming). Other recent projects include the guest-edited Valuing Labor in the Arts with Art Practical, a special issue of Representations on time-based art, and a new online platform of keywords in experimental art and performance, created in collaboration with the Pew Center for Art and Heritage, In Terms of Performance (intermsofperformance.site). Jackson’s writing has also appeared in dozens of museum catalogues, journals, blogs, and edited collections. Flier by @pedestrianvision with major guidance from @helloprettycity
Where were we….📖 Tune in NOW, TODAY, 1pm PT Where were we….📖 Tune in NOW, TODAY, 1pm PT 📡 to kpsu.org (@kpsu_radio), PSU’s on-campus radio station, for the second installment of a live reading of our program founder Harrell Fletcher’s (@harrell_fletcher) new publication, “An Incomplete and Subjective List of Terms and Topics Related to Art and Social Practice Volume 1,” voiced by third year MFA candidate Becca Kauffman (@pedestrianvision). Words from Harrell on the terms and topics discussed in the book, which you can buy online or download for free at harrellfletcher.com: “Each week in the Art and Social Practice MFA Program at Portland State University we have an hour of what we call “topical discussion.” During that hour we explore a term or topic related to art and social practice. Some of the terms and topics are very basic, like collaboration, and site-specificity, but there are also less common terms like a touch of evil which we heard about from Pedro Reyes when we were visiting him in Mexico City a few years ago. Many of the ideas we discuss are not specific to socially engaged art, but we are looking at them from a socially engaged art perspective. Several of the concepts are ones that I have used in my own work but until recently hadn’t named what they were or detailed how they could be used as strategies when developing or analyzing a project. I hope that the list might be useful to people interested in socially engaged art. I started with about sixty terms and topics that I wrote about in 2019, and now I have added an additional forty or so. I’m already working on several new ones for a second volume.”
We went to Manzanita on the Oregon coast this Sept We went to Manzanita on the Oregon coast this September for our annual MFA program retreat. Heavily featured: group meals, experimental metal detecting, personal philosophy karaoke, and actual long walks on the beach 🌊
Today at 1pm PT 📡 Tune into kpsu.org (@kpsu_rad Today at 1pm PT 📡 Tune into kpsu.org (@kpsu_radio), PSU’s on-campus radio station, for a live reading of our program founder Harrell Fletcher’s (@harrell_fletcher) new publication, “An Incomplete and Subjective List of Terms and Topics Related to Art and Social Practice Volume 1,” voiced by third year MFA candidate Becca Kauffman (@pedestrianvision). Words from Harrell on the terms and topics discussed in the book, which you can buy online or download for free at harrellfletcher.com: “Each week in the Art and Social Practice MFA Program at Portland State University we have an hour of what we call “topical discussion.” During that hour we explore a term or topic related to art and social practice. Some of the terms and topics are very basic, like collaboration, and site-specificity, but there are also less common terms like a touch of evil which we heard about from Pedro Reyes when we were visiting him in Mexico City a few years ago. Many of the ideas we discuss are not specific to socially engaged art, but we are looking at them from a socially engaged art perspective. Several of the concepts are ones that I have used in my own work but until recently hadn’t named what they were or detailed how they could be used as strategies when developing or analyzing a project. I hope that the list might be useful to people interested in socially engaged art. I started with about sixty terms and topics that I wrote about in 2019, and now I have added an additional forty or so. I’m already working on several new ones for a second volume.”
We had an amazing experience at the @pdx_zines sym We had an amazing experience at the @pdx_zines symposium! Thank you to the organizers and visitors and @psugd for making it so dang welcoming and exciting. And to @levelyellowproblemchild for gathering projects by A+SP students and faculty into a stellar booth. (See our Story for pics of what was available at our booth!)
First slide: Luz Blumenfeld with their grandmother First slide: Luz Blumenfeld with their grandmother, Yolanda Ronquillo Second slide: Laura Glazer with Melodie Adams Third slide: Lillyanne Phạm with ridhi d’cruz and Jackie Santa Lucia Forth slide: Marina Lopez with Sonia Erika Fifth slide: Mo Geiger with Dr. Jennifer Kling Sixth slide: Olivia DelGandio with Roz Crews Seventh slide: Shelbie Loomis with Benita Alioth Designs by: Gilian Rappaport The Social Forms of Art (SoFA) Journal is a publication dedicated to supporting, documenting and contextualizing social forms of art and its related fields and disciplines. Each issue of the Journal takes an eclectic look at the ways in which artists are engaging with communities, institutions and the public. The Journal supports and discusses projects that offer critique, commentary and context for a field that is active and expanding.
Looking for some summer time social practice readi Looking for some summer time social practice reading material? Our Social Forms of Art Journal archive is available through the link in our bio. Featured quotes from our Spring 2022 Issue. First slide: Diana Marcela Cuartas with Yolanda Chois and Michelle Szejner Second slide: Becca Kauffman with Crosswalk Collective LA Third slide: Rebecca Copper and Marti Clemmons with Cindy Cumfer, Katharine English, Gilah Tenenbaum, and Pat Young Forth slide: Caryn Aasness with Charlie Brewer Fifth slide: Gilian Rappaport with Nellie Scott Sixth slide: Justin Maxon and H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams PhD with Wydeen Ringgold Seventh slide: Kiara Walls with Kenny Walls #socialpractice #artandsocialpractice #psu #sofajournal #socialformsofart #interviews #digitalpublication
☀️A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our 2022 graduates! ☀️A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our 2022 graduates! 👏🏼🙌🏼@shelbieloomis @momobirdie @rebeccalcopper @justinmeadmaxon @illia.yakovenko and to @lisanicolejarrett for her first year of being a co-director of the program! 🤍 The tradition continues of 1st and 2nd year classmates creating personalized sashes for the third year students and third years adding pieces to the co-directors sashes. 🤍
Thank you to everyone who joined us this past week Thank you to everyone who joined us this past weekend for Assembly 2022! A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to 3rd year students who presented their graduate lectures and to all MFA students for facilitating a fun and engaging Art + Social Practice Conference!! Events were streamed live via zoom and YouTube Live! Visit our YouTube channel to relive the weekend on your own time! Link in our bio!
Join us for the Spring 2022 Issue of the SoFA Jour Join us for the Spring 2022 Issue of the SoFA Journal Release Party TODAY in person at @ksmoca or virtually via Zoom or YouTube Live. Event starts at 10am Pacific. Link in bio as a part of Assembly 2022! 📚 Cover Art Direction: Gilian Rappaport @gilnotjill Cover Art Production: Laura Glazer @helloprettycity Editors: Emma Duehr Mitchell @emmasprojectarchive Becca Kauffman @signalsfortraffic Caryn Aasness @levelyellowproblemchild
Day 1 of Assembly WRAPPED! ✨ Events facilitated Day 1 of Assembly WRAPPED! ✨ Events facilitated by @liv__bliss @levelyellowproblemchild @dogsighs__ @illia.yakovenko @pedestrianvision @jennifervanilla @momobirdie Special thanks to @ksmoca & @mlk_school_pdx & @michaelstevensonjr & @emmasprojectarchive your participation and collaboration! All events were live streamed through YouTube - link in bio for the reruns!
Day 1 of Assembly 2022 started off with a great ac Day 1 of Assembly 2022 started off with a great activity by Olivia DelGandio @liv__bliss and fourth graders Valerie, Norma, and Angelica on "How to Make Friends: Advice from Some Fourth Graders" Adults and fourth graders made friends by asking questions and coming up with questions to share with others groups. Thanks for helping us make friends! #assembly2022 #artandsocialpractice #ksmoca
Sunday, June 5th - Assembly Event Schedule ! View Sunday, June 5th - Assembly Event Schedule ! View the whole program - link in bio Design and production team : @dogsighs__ @levelyellowproblemchild @liv__bliss
Saturday, June 4th - Assembly Event Schedule ! Vi Saturday, June 4th - Assembly Event Schedule ! View the whole program - link in bio Design and production team : @dogsighs__ @levelyellowproblemchild @liv__bliss
Friday, June 3rd Assembly Event Schedule ! View t Friday, June 3rd Assembly Event Schedule ! View the whole program - link in bio Design and production team : @dogsighs__ @levelyellowproblemchild @liv__bliss
Introducing our Assembly 2022 Event Program / Year Introducing our Assembly 2022 Event Program / Yearbook! Direct link to the full PDF linked in our bio. These will be available in print at @ksmoca! Design and production team : @dogsighs__ @levelyellowproblemchild @liv__bliss
Here is our custom Map of KSMoCA with upcoming eve Here is our custom Map of KSMoCA with upcoming event descriptions! Direct link to the PDF is linked in our bio! This will be available in print at @ksmoca this weekend! Design and production team : @dogsighs__ @levelyellowproblemchild @liv__bliss
🧘🏽🏃🏽‍♀️🤸🏼‍♂️NEXT WEE 🧘🏽🏃🏽‍♀️🤸🏼‍♂️NEXT WEEKEND! 🤸🏽‍♀️🏃🏼‍♀️🕺🏼Friday, June 3rd - Sunday, June 5th! Join us live at @ksmoca OR virtually via zoom or Youtube Live! Full Assembly 2022 schedule with event descriptions in our bio now! RSVP to receive updates directly to your email. We cant wait to share space with all of you ☀️✨
A conversation on "Phantoms" with Roz Crews ( @roz A conversation on "Phantoms" with Roz Crews ( @rozcrews ) and Harrell Fletcher ( @harrell_fletcher ) In the series of zoom discussions that students and alumni of the PSU Art and Social Pracice MFA program have with Harrell Fletcher on topics he has written about that relate to the field of socially engaged art. This discussion is on the topic of "Phantoms" — Any inaccurate ideas, fears, mental obstacles, etc., that prevent an artist (or anyone else) from producing a project or being open to learning something, etc. What can be a real obstacle for one person or one situation, might not be an obstacle for another person or situation, so frequent individual evaluation is necessary to make sure phantoms are not getting in the way of an artist’s development and success. #socialpractice #artandsocialpractice #sociallyengagedart #harrellfletcher #rozcrews #psu #conversation #termsandtopics #phantoms
✨✨Save the dates!! ✨✨ Assembly 2022 Fri ✨✨Save the dates!! ✨✨ Assembly 2022 Friday, June 3rd – Sunday June 5th, 2022 Join us at King School Museum of Contemporary Art (@ksmoca) OR virtually via Zoom! To receive project, event, and schedule updates – RSVP - link in bio! Since 2014, the Portland State University Art + Social Practice MFA students have co-authored an annual multi-day gathering of participatory events, discussions, and presentations highlighting our collaborative work and inspirations. To create this gathering, students make and cultivate projects through existing relationships, curiosity, and chance encounters. In the past this has led us to many places around the city including a community center, city hall, a school, a panadería, a river, a senior center, and more. This year Assembly is in collaboration with the Dr Martin Luther King Jr School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA). The event is an extension of our return to in-person engagement with the school’s students and community. This will also be our first “hybrid” Assembly event with in-person and virtual access to the programming. We will share new work that has emerged in this context, as well as new conversations within existing projects and collaborations at this site. The PSU 2022 Art + Social Practice MFA graduating class will also present public talks about their work as part of the program! #ksmoca #psu #psuassembly #assembly #art #psuarts #psuart #june3 #june4 #june5
Last week’s Conversation Series, Ashley Stull M Last week’s Conversation Series, Ashley Stull Meyers shared her generative journey in failing to fit into dominant curation culture. We learned how she uses conversation and material resources to help BIPOC and Queer artists do what they want to do. She showed us how she’s uplifting living artists in local urgent conversations too. Ashley Stull Meyers’ Highlighted Quotes: “I always want to know why you're making the things you're making, and then we'll think about an appropriate container for it, and that may or may not be a gallery exhibition.” “I often have no idea what my exhibitions are gonna look like until they're happening because I have no idea what's going on with artists in their studios. I try to resource them both through conversation and material resources. To make a thing that they wanna make and have a conversation that they wanna have.” “White walled gallery space is weird like what a strange, made up environment.” “No one's better at making interesting things boring than academics.” More about @ashleyontheinternet : http://www.astullmeyers.com/
Inspired by recycling and pottery shards, Laura, L Inspired by recycling and pottery shards, Laura, Luz, and MO led a workshop in Amanda’s Beginning Ceramics class at Whitman College during the trip to Walla Walla. Photos by Laura Glazer and Amanda Leigh Evans @helloprettycity @momobirdie @dogsighs__ @amandaleighevans
This week for Conversation Series we learned about This week for Conversation Series we learned about the history of @ksmoca from Nancy Rios, Dr MLK Jr Elementary School’s Secretary and Project Manager. Nancy has worked with us from the beginning and has worked at the school for 20 years. She remembers all the bumps, redirects, and successes. "I have two positions. 1 is half-time school secretary and the other is half-time project manager. School Secretary: I take care of the attendance, classroom assignments, class lists etc. Anything connected to students and parents I deal with as I have access to the softwares to do registration and more things. Project Manager: There are a variety of things. I handle newsletters, school communication, social media pages, latino parent coffee chats, website, organize school events, create flyers, KSMOCA, and order school supplies. Basically anything the school needs support in or projects that need to be done. I also help handle the off-site covid home screeners.  What I do in this position varies and is filled by the needs of the school." -Nancy Rios
Have you heard of the Walla Walla Foundry? The lar Have you heard of the Walla Walla Foundry? The largest foundry in the US used for the purpose of art making. We are grateful and lucky to have gotten a private tour from program coordinator, Hannah Bartman, and followed by an incredible conversation about Monuments: what are they and what do they do? Big double thank you to @amandaleighevans & @tiakramer for coordinating! #wallawalla #wallawallafoundry #foundry #bronze #socialpractice #monuments
Yesterday students presented their work at Whitman Yesterday students presented their work at Whitman College for the Walla Walla community! Thank you to all who came to learn more about a series of socially engaged art projects. Special thank you to @amandaleighevans for the invitation and @tiakramer and Amanda for organizing and facilitating an amazing trip! Learn more about our current students via our website - link in bio. @shelbieloomis @jennifervanilla @cereza699 @momobirdie @helloprettycity @levelyellowproblemchild @dogsighs__ @gilnotjill @oliviadelgandio #whitman #whitmancollege #artandsocialpractice
We are embarking on our annual program trip!! 2022 We are embarking on our annual program trip!! 2022 Destination: Walla Walla, Washington 📍
This week we had Adrian Rosser as our Conversation This week we had Adrian Rosser as our Conversation Series guest, who is 11 years old and plays the violin. “You Should've kept your toys. If you didn't then you should buy new ones. Sit down and play with them because it might unlock memories from the past." Adrian gave the following prompts for play to students: 1) Everyone in the same place (the yellow house) who likes to run: go outside and play tag. Luz: find leaves - each leaf is worth 2 points 2) Justin: climb a tree 3) Mo: pet a sheep if you can 4) LP: go outside and draw whatever you find that is interesting 5) Caryn: Imagine a mystical land in your head and write a poem about it 6) Lisa: Skip outside around your house 7: Kiara: Rate the street names as your drive home from the grocery store
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