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Master of Fine Arts in
Contemporary Art Practices at
Portland State University
💡Graduate publication spotlight💡 The Artists 💡Graduate publication spotlight💡 The Artists’ Emergency Response Cycle by @zephxfish, 2020 graduate: Zeph began to research disaster in spring 2019—one year before the beginning of a pandemic, economic chaos, a racial justice uprising, and ash falling from orange Western skies. This book details some of their research and projects through this eventful time, and appropriates a standard tool of emergency management to propose the necessity of play, ambiguity and open-ended questions in urgent times. Get a print copy or download a PDF here: zephrocious.com/response-cycle . We have a growing number of grad publications on our site and will start featuring them here. Head to psusocialpractice.org/publications/ to check them out!
Comment below or DM us! Once we have enough questi Comment below or DM us! Once we have enough questions we will get together and answer them for you 🙂 Applications are open Dec 1 to Jan 15.
🎉TOMORROW meet the East Portland Art + Justice 🎉TOMORROW meet the East Portland Art + Justice Lab’s first cohort of Artists-in-Residence! From September 2020 – November 2021, Sabina Haque, Cary Miga, Roshani Thakore, Nikki Acevedo, Myra Aldan, and Felecia Graham will work together to create new community artworks for East Portland, all situated in and around the Orchards of 82nd (O82). Hear what projects they are working on and how you may be able to get involved. Join us to get to know your neighbors, friends, and fellow artists!🎉 The East Portland Art + Justice Lab’s Artist Residency Program is an initiative that developed from the community member recommendations from the Orchards of 82nd Art Plan, Living Culture: Past, Present and Future. Each pair’s community artwork will be focused on relevant social topics including education inequities, immigration, and reproductive justice. This relationship-prioritized program will help build pathways to preserve and sustain connections between neighborhood residents in order to cultivate community resiliency and a strong social fabric. The event will be online tomorrow, Friday the 13th at 5:30 pm as part of @apanonews East Portland Arts + Literary Festival. More info about how to register and the festival can be found at www.apano.org/epalf-2020/
Application open Dec 1 - Jan 15 — Included in @a Application open Dec 1 - Jan 15 — Included in @artsy’s list of The Top 15 Art Programs in the country, the Art and Social Practice MFA is a three-year, flexible residency program combining individual practice, group work, community partnerships, and experiential learning with diverse faculty. The program's blend of critical and professional practice, alternative pedagogy, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration produces an immersive educational environment. As part of the flexible residency format, students can be in Portland, Oregon or away making work in diverse locations. As an extension of the program’s unique approach, graduate students have the opportunity to collaborate directly in ongoing projects including @crci.art and @ksmoca. To support writing and web-based projects that offer documentation, critique, commentary and context for a field that is active and expanding, the program produces @sofa_journal, a bi-annual journal. Graduating students are offered the opportunity to design and teach their own class; they also each produce a graduate project, a public artist lecture surveying their work in the program, and a graduate publication that adds to the unique breadth of publications on socially engaged art emerging from the program. Each Spring the program hosts Assembly, a co-authored social practice conference with workshops, lectures, and participatory projects. A Visiting Artist program creates exposure and sustained mentorship for students through the academic year. @artandsocialpracticearchive, a new initiative housed in the PSU Library Special Collections, is the first public archive of ephemera related to art and social practice. Learn more and apply at psusocialpractice.org!
*bri @briandthesea takeover continued* Here we ar *bri @briandthesea takeover continued* Here we are—Nola, Jordan and I, fellow cohort members, thinking about our art practices, overjoyed at the sounds of the leaves in the wind behind our heads. @_nolahanson and I often talk about our practices with each other as we both do a lot of organizing work and combine sports and art in our work ( @_nolahanson being @transboxing and me with @sea.together.mag ) @zeroprocess is teaching an amazing class about design in spaces next term that you should consider! If you scroll to the next slide, it’s an Eagle I spotted at the beach (maybe golden?) that continued to hover in place and the three of us watched it together for like a half hour. 🦅😍🌊 • The next post will be about the bunnies 🐰
Don’t worry. You didn’t miss the (pending) Mas Don’t worry. You didn’t miss the (pending) Master Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr. Artist Residency + Lecture Series @ksmoca + @psuartandsocialpractice graduate lecture! The recording is live over at the @ksmoca YouTube now! It’s also the top link on my https://linkTr.ee/ambsj which is in my bio. There’s also a direct link over @ksmoca. And, if you’re on Facebook, the link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxor746f91w&app=desktop You’re welcome 🧛🏼‍♀️👹🥳
*Instagram Takeover* [[Photo caption: We had our p *Instagram Takeover* [[Photo caption: We had our program campout in September at the beach and we went to my local surf shop where we met up with Dennis owner of @seasidesurf ! Thanks to Dennis for making it happen for everyone to go surfing during our weekend!]] My name is Brianna Ortega @briandthesea! I’m in my last year of the MFA Art & Social Practice program! I use art as a tool to explore the relationship between identity, power, and place through questioning power in social constructs and physical spaces, oftentimes through the lens of surf culture. I engage with otherness and the in-between spaces of identity through publishing, organizing, performance, video, and other projects. For my whole life of moving over 28 times I’ve explored the question: What does it mean to be a local? Look for more posts about my work coming this week 🐳🏄🏾‍♀️⭐️😇
Final grad lecture of the year alert! ⚡️ Don’t miss @michaelstevensonjr this Friday 10am PST! Also part of the virtual artist-in-residence lecture series at @ksmoca ⚡️Register at bit.ly/ambsjgrad . Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr. is black, non-binary, and practices primarily in America. Their collaborative approach results in artwork by and for the people. Stevenson’s practice has been dedicated to supporting young people ages 4 to 18 in developing the necessary skills to encourage advanced imaginative thinking and self-confident expression. They have spent the last year developing the Afro Contemporary Art Class at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School. Stevenson also has a robust portfolio of artist projects centering food and gathering around it, and new work in collaboration with currently and formerly incarcerated folks such as Gallery Blue, a curation and exhibition project, as well as Tin Can Phone, a forthcoming radio show on KBOO Community Radio. They pursue these professional and creative goals passionately because they believe that empowered and open-minded young people are the best and most direct way toward ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future for all.
Welcoming Lucia Monge @plantonmovil, our other vis Welcoming Lucia Monge @plantonmovil, our other visiting artist, also artist-in-residence at @ksmoca this year! Lucia is a Peruvian artist with a background in education and art + science collaboration. Her work explores the way humans position ourselves within the natural world and relate to other living beings, especially plants. For the past nine years she has organized Plantón Móvil, a yearly “walking forest” performance that leads to the creation of public green areas. . Lucia has exhibited in South America, Europe, and the United States as well as at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP20). She has presented her work in conferences including Performance Climates at Melbourne University and Open Engagement at the Queens Museum and has been included in publications such as Global Performance Issues and MoMA’s Uneven Growth as well as in the popular press.
Introducing one of our program’s visiting artist Introducing one of our program’s visiting artists for the year, @soheilaazadiartist, also currently an artist-in-residence at @ksmoca! Soheila is an interdisciplinary visual artist, writer, educator, and a mother based in Portland, OR and Iran. Born in the capital of Islamic cities, Esfahan, she absorbed story-telling skills through Persian miniature drawings and Islamic architecture since she was nine. Her inspirations come from her experiences of being a woman of color living under Theocracy and Democracy. Now residing in the U.S. Soheila is dedicated to Transnational Feminism with a passionate devotion to the ways in which gender, sex, race, culture and religion intersect. She uses different media to both investigate, materialize, contextualize, and narrate stories of women as minorities.
#Repost @zephxfish with @make_repost ・・・ The #Repost @zephxfish with @make_repost ・・・ The world may be on fire, but @zephxfish is graduating come hell or high water (or election). Zeph is excited to share the last few years of work with friends, collaborators and community, as part of the PSU Art & Social Practice graduate lecture series. We hope you'll join! Thursday, October 22nd 6-7:30 PM PT RSVP at bit.ly/zephgrad to get the Zoom link Zeph will also be previewing a small book, The Artists' Emergency Response Cycle, about the role of art in a crisis. It draws from 18 months of research and interviews about disaster, frameworks from emergency management and survivalism, and their recent projects as they put their ideas to the test.
@transboxing is an art project in the form of a bo @transboxing is an art project in the form of a boxing club, founded by final year student @_nolahanson in 2017. By centering the participation of trans and gender variant people and partnering with local gyms, arts institutions, and community organizations, Trans Boxing critically intervenes in the rigidly gendered system of athletics, and increases availability to people who typically experience barriers to access. . Find out more at transboxing.org or watch a video on transboxing by BK Stories at bit.ly/transboxing1. Trans Boxing is supported by a Research Assistantship from the PSU Art & Social Practice MFA program. . #transboxing #accessibility #socialpractice #sociallyengagedart
Hola amorcitos!! We have a pop up coming up ❤️❤️❤️10/10/20❤️❤️❤️ At the @localloungepdxx 🌈 🌈 details in @mistaconespdx bio 🌈🌈 We are bringing back our #nachos Can’t wait to see y’all there Online orders will be available We perfected it 😉😉😉 #queer#popup#local#brownbuisness#queerbuisness#support#community#vegan#pdx#tacos#comidamexicana
Join Portland State University’s Art & Social Pr Join Portland State University’s Art & Social Practice MFA Program for its Graduate Lecture series! Due to the onset of the pandemic last spring, a number of the 2020 MFA candidates decided to postpone their graduation to the Fall. Join us on Thursdays this October for a series of lectures detailing the themes, projects, and practices of our most recent graduating class. All lectures will be available to join via Zoom. Swipe to see rsvp links, dates and times.
This year’s program campout at Cannon Beach 🤍 This year’s program campout at Cannon Beach 🤍
Tomorrow at 10am PST (1PM EST) is the Tin Can Phon Tomorrow at 10am PST (1PM EST) is the Tin Can Phone debut! Check out @michaelstevensonjr @armon.poost @misfit_otti @joseph.rosenberger at @picapdx Tin Can Phone is a radio-based project that originated inside the Columbia River Correctional Institution and is being supported by KBOO Community Radio in Portland, Oregon. The initial collaboration took place over the course of a few months in which Armon Poostpasand, Queaz Otti, and Joseph Rosenberger (all inmates at the same time) worked with Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr. to interview their peers inside the prison. Starting this summer, all members of the project have since been released and are actively recording the podcast for release on KBOO this fall. As part of PICA's TBA Institute, the Tin Can Phone team will meet online to record an episode of Tin Can Phone live with an opportunity for participants to have questions answered as part of the show. Check us out at PICAtv.org - Direct link: https://watch.eventive.org/tba20/play/5f49884f97161d0036722f97
@blackboxconversations is a project by incoming fi @blackboxconversations is a project by incoming first year student Kiara Walls (kiarawalls.com) and supported by a Research Assistantship from the PSU Art & Social Practice MFA program. It broadcasts weekly - check out their past episodes and the next on forgiveness happening Friday 9/25. Edit: Tonight episode is postponed. The next episode will be next Friday 10/2.
Program faculty @la_pati_vg wrote Compass, a short Program faculty @la_pati_vg wrote Compass, a short piece on the ethics of being a socially engaged artist for @presencecneserp magazine! The article includes questions generated by graduating students @tiakramer @roshanithakore @michaelstevensonjr @zephxfish @ericjohnolson. You can support this independent publication by buying a printed copy or a pdf at https://grouper.bandcamp.com/merch/presence-issue-1-in-the-mist - link in bio. . #ethicsandart #sociallyengagedart
Tonight @michaelstevensonjr will be talking about Tonight @michaelstevensonjr will be talking about their practice with friend and art partner @brushfireheart.art on ART.V. Which you can see on IG LIVE @adxportland tonight starting at 6PM PST Tonight! Don’t miss it!
Former student @michaelstevensonjr has been postin Former student @michaelstevensonjr has been posting all about their practice oriented around food on the @fiveoaksmuseum Instagram. Go check it out!
#Repost @zephxfish with @make_repost ・・・ Ami #Repost @zephxfish with @make_repost ・・・ Amidst uprisings and crises, take time to imagine the futures of gender. You have one more week to participate in our Portland photo collaboration for @fiveoaksmuseum’s Gender Euphoria exhibit! Pick up a disposable camera at one of our no-contact porch pickup locations and take a moment to play. Go to bit.ly/5oaks_photo for more info. Not in Portland? You can still dream up more fantastical descriptors for future genders at bit.ly/gender_prompts! . #socialpractice #scavengerhunt #genderfuck #genderfluid #transgender #genderqueer #lgbtq #queerartist
Portland-area folks: @zephxfish and @fiveoaksmuseu Portland-area folks: @zephxfish and @fiveoaksmuseum invite your participation in a collaborative photo scavenger hunt capturing the multifarious futures of gender! We have created five no-contact porch-pickup locations around Portland, each with a disposable camera and a card with crowd-sourced photo prompts suggesting possible genders. Check out a camera, then snap a photo that reflects one of the prompts on the list, or invent your own. For more information: https://fiveoaksmuseum.org/gender-euphoria-sum-of-its-parts. This project is part of the @gender_euphoria_art exhibit. Stations will be in action until Aug 9th. . #socialpractice #scavengerhunt #genderfuck #genderfluid #transgender #genderqueer #lgbtq #queerartist
Call for participation: Imagine a future gender, h Call for participation: Imagine a future gender, human or inhuman. What could it look, taste or feel like? What is its spirit? Share 3-10 words about this gender at the link in @zephxfish’s bio. This ask is part of Sum of its Parts, a collaborative photo project that is part of Five Oaks Museum's Gender Euphoria exhibit. @zephxfish will remix your prompts to inspire project participants to create photographs offering glimpses of future genders. More info to come. . #futuregender #queerartist #transart #genderreveal #genderqueer #genderfluid #genderfuck #socialpracticeart
Hi there👋🏽@roshanithakore here. I’ll be gi Hi there👋🏽@roshanithakore here. I’ll be giving my graduate talk tomorrow online at 5 pm PST. I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve been working on with different communities in Portland in relation to power, relationships, and community. Registration required - email rthakore@pdx.edu 💜🦚💥🌈
🐳Thank you all who joined us yesterday at 5PM f 🐳Thank you all who joined us yesterday at 5PM for Be a Local Of My Life with artist and surfer @briandthesea with special guest surf researcher Dr. Rebecca Olive from Byron Bay, Australia. @briandthesea presented her project and we had @rebeccajaneolive join us in a group discussion on surf localism & white colonialism in surfing. 🌊🌊🌊About the project: “For my project Be a Local of My Life, I sent out an email to community members inviting them to participate in a local tour to explore five specific landmarks that have specific significance to me. Our community is situated in a small town on the Pacific Northwest Coast. In the email, the community members were invited to go to each of my personal landmarks and take a photo there as documentation of going to the place from my memory. After working through the personal landmark tour, the community members emailed photos back to me, along with a written response to each memory. Once I received these responses, each community member received a certification for being a “Local of Brianna’s Life.” Inspired by both surf localism and locality, Be a Local of My Life explores what it means to be a local person in a community. In this project, community is defined as the people you come in contact with and have relational, verbal, social, or object exchanges with on a recurring basis. How do intimate relationships with a place shape a community? How can our identification as a local be shaped by memory-based knowledge instead of only site-specific factual information about a place? How does power, memory, and time influence a community member's journey to becoming a local?” — @briandthesea •••Be sure to tune into the programming of amazing events today and tomorrow on zoom with the rest of the MFA Art & Social Practice Program! ASK US if you have any questions!
TOMORROW, June 6th, 1-2pmPST/4-5pm EST join the @t TOMORROW, June 6th, 1-2pmPST/4-5pm EST join the @transboxing crew for their weekly boxing class as part of Assembly. This class will be open to the broader public (youth welcome!) and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to @changethenypd !!!! DM for zoom link + password!!! IT IS NECESSARY— AND YET NOT ENOUGH —TO SAY THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER. WE MUST EMBODY THIS BELIEF ON A DAILY BASIS. LET’S GET THIS MONEY RIGHT !!!! 💯❗️ #donttalkaboutitbeaboutit Let’s gooooo!!!
ASSEMBLY 2020 —— join @roshanithakore with Gar ASSEMBLY 2020 —— join @roshanithakore with Garima Thakur, Jenny Chu, and Felecia Graham for a virtual reading of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower on Saturday June 6 at 4pm PST! Part of Roshani’s collaborative project: East Portland Art + Justice Lab at APANO @apanonews pictured is @theafrocentricdoula ! Registration link in bio
#Repost @michaelstevensonjr with @make_repost ・・・ Assembly 2020 *zoom link in our bio, and zoom link for this particular event is in Michael’s bio* Things are pretty wild out there right now, and to be honest I have a fair bit to say about it. ✊🏾 A post on Instagram feels “gently” shy of the layers and nuance that are applicable at this time. That said, no fear, I have an event coming up soon that is free and open to the public. ✊🏾 On Saturday June 6th I’ll be presenting about the work I’ve done with the Afro Contemporary Art Class. Kent Ford a former Black Panther whose helped facilitate some of the programming will be in attendance. ✊🏾 The link with details is in my profile. ✊🏾 On The Friday before I’ll also be meeting with @mistaconespdx and @escalante_erica of @thearrowpdx to talk about building community through gathering around food. Which while challenged at the moment is something so important to hold onto. 🌮🍝🥞☕️ Info for that event can be found @cityrepairproject and the village building convergence website in my bio. ✊🏾 For security reasons it’s important to preregister, so please do so. 📸 @kellylynnlunde
ASSEMBLY 2020: June 5th - 7th via zoom! Join us fo ASSEMBLY 2020: June 5th - 7th via zoom! Join us for three days of dynamic and thought-provoking experiences and socially engaged projects. Stay tuned for an upcoming companion publication and attend one or all of the free discussions, presentations, and participatory events. Come explore, think, and play with us! RSVP by following the link in our bio.
Join @zephxfish tomorrow night for an Emergency Da Join @zephxfish tomorrow night for an Emergency Dance Party with (socially-distant) in-person and virtual components. More from Zeph: ・・・ I’ve been thinking about how late 80s queers responded to the raging AIDS epidemic by bringing safe sex education to bars and clubs, so we could continue to celebrate and hold our communities while learning new habits to keep each other safe. Tomorrow night I’m holding another Emergency Dance Party with a small in-person component practicing social distancing. I’d love to dance with you. https://www.facebook.com/events/175254437135719 or bit.ly/emergency dance. I’ve been thinking a lot too about public space and who gets to enjoy it without fear of harassment or racist attack. Reposting the latest enraging incident on social media feels so inadequate. RIP Arbery Ahmad and George Floyd. Cheers to Christian Cooper for fighting back.
Silver linings of Covid-19 and technological dysto Silver linings of Covid-19 and technological dystopia: @zephxfish attending class from the woods.
This Thursday at 6pm PDT, join @zephxfish for an e This Thursday at 6pm PDT, join @zephxfish for an exploration of our collective public spaces. “I want to take a walk* with you, and you, and you and you. I want us to feel into where we are, right now, in this time where everything's suddenly different—and not. I will guide us through a socially distant wander around the internal and external landscapes of our own neighborhoods. Can we come to some collective impression of the space and time we're in? By participating, you're collaborating in an ongoing experiment into the ways that virtual technologies connect and disconnect us in this moment. To join, please RSVP at bit.ly/emergencywalk and I'll send you details. I would love to hear your thoughts after the fact, as well. *If you can’t leave your home, I invite you to explore your home space with us as if it was your neighborhood, or just tag along with the crowd.” #socialpractice #participatoryart #publicspace
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