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Master of Fine Arts in
Contemporary Art Practices at
Portland State University
The 2023 cohort MFA exhibition at the Jordan Schni The 2023 cohort MFA exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art opens next week! Join us at the opening Thursday, May 25 from 5-7pm, or stop by any time May 23-June 10, 2023 to see art and artifacts from socially engaged projects by @cereza699 @levelyellowproblemchild @helloprettycity @_k_j__w and @pedestrianvision. Diana Marcela Cuartas, Still Life with Reynolds Caryn Aasness, Can I Borrow a Feeling? Laura Glazer, Let the City Serve Knowledge Kiara Walls, Sovereignty Becca Kauffman, Crosswalk Fantasy Lab May 23-June 10, 2023 @psu_museum_of_art 1855 SW Broadway, Portland OR
ASSEMBLY is coming! Friday June 9 to Sunday June 1 ASSEMBLY is coming! Friday June 9 to Sunday June 11 in Portland, OR 👨🏼‍🤝‍👨🏾👩🏿‍🤝‍👩🏼👩🏽‍🤝‍👨🏾👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏽👩🏾‍🤝‍👨🏽 Join us to partake in a collection of experimental and experiential offerings from the 15 artists of the Art + Social Practice MFA program working in socially engaged forms. Free and open to the public! Assembly is our annual three day gathering of participatory events, workshops, and presentations highlighting the collaborative work and inspirations of our MFA cohort. From a roving social practice archive to an edible exploration of the art of the sandwich to a crosswalk parade with a group of fifth graders to a cumulative installation in a tree, there’s something for everyone at this year’s Assembly. Plus, artist talks from the graduating 2023 cohort, Laura Glazer, Diana Marcela Cuartas, Caryn Aasness, Becca Kauffman, and Kiara Walls. @helloprettycity @cereza699 @levelyellowproblemchild @pedestrianvision @_k_j__w We are also excited to present Portland artists Kayin Talton-Davis and Cleo Davis with our first-ever Art + Social Practice Collaboration Award, which recognizes and celebrates an artist team for their outstanding work rooted in collaboration. The award ceremony will take place Friday June 9 at 4pm in the school library. Come in person to any or all of the weekend’s events. ASSEMBLY-AT-A-GLANCE FRIDAY JUNE 9 11am-5pm Student Workshops + Events Inside and outside at Dr MLK Jr School (@ksmoca) SATURDAY JUNE 10 10am-5pm Graduate lectures from ___ at Portland Playhouse Community Studio (@portlandplayhouse) SUNDAY JUNE 11 10am-2pm Student Workshops + Events at King Farmers Market outside MLK School (@portlandfarmers) 4pm-7pm Video Screening at 5th Avenue Cinema (@5thavecinema) Illustration by @marissa_perezzzzz
We welcomed Dr. Susan Jeffords, Provost and Vice P We welcomed Dr. Susan Jeffords, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, as our Conversation Series guest this week. (The provost handles everything related to student learning.) Our lively discussion included what brought us to the MFA program, Susan’s inspiring reading habits, and our ideas about what we would like the university to do (or not do) in relation to our graduate experiences. Harrell gave her a tour of KSMoCA and second year student, Ash Yang Thompson, presented Susan with a shirt from her ongoing project. Read more about Susan in @helloprettycity’s SoFA Journal interview with her in the Winter 2023 issue, linked in bio.
Open call for Moe’s photography collection! Moe Open call for Moe’s photography collection! Moe is a fifth-grade student who has worked with KSMoCA in a variety of roles—artist, curator, lecture MC, documentarian, spokesperson, etc. Moe is also very interested in photography. As a project, KSMoCA has worked with Moe for over a year to help them research and develop a personal photography collection. As part of that, Moe has visited with galleries and museums, met with photographic artists and curators, and acquired a photo book library and a variety of prints. KSMoCA is now asking photographers globally to add to Moe’s photography collection by sending a print of their choosing to Moe. The prints will be posted on KSMoCA’s website along with crediting information and comments from Moe. As Moe moves onto middle school and beyond, the collection will function as a personal cultural asset to assist Moe in various ways on life’s journey. If you or someone you know is interested in participating, send a photographic print to: Dr Martin Luther King Jr School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA), Dr Martin Luther King Jr School c/o Moe 4906 NE 6th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97211. Donated prints need to be appropriate for a fifth-grader and will be approved before being given to Moe by a school counselor. Pic of Moe in front of Alex Soth’s photograph series, “Cherish”, part of the KSMoCA collection. @littlebrownmushroom
Miranda July @mirandajuly recently spent time with Miranda July @mirandajuly recently spent time with the Art and Social Practice MFA program with visits to @ksmoca and @somepeoplepress along with a very engaging conversation with the MFA students. Thanks Miranda!
Third year student Laura @helloprettycity continue Third year student Laura @helloprettycity continues her guest takeover for @10x10photobooks. She’s sharing books that inspired her book about her practice and recent project at the NYPL Picture Collection. Pop over to their feed to read the full posts!
Interviews with Dr Christa Mcdermott, Ruby Bontrag Interviews with Dr Christa Mcdermott, Ruby Bontrager, @liv__bliss @psuviks (Viktor E Viking) Talisman Saunders @k3tellem and Albert Spencer by @levelyellowproblemchild @leaky_rat @dogsighs__ @pedestrianvision @_k_j__w and Nadine Hanson Link in our bio to read all these wonderful interviews 💌
Interviews with @bruisedfroot Dr Tina Burdsall @li Interviews with @bruisedfroot Dr Tina Burdsall @linda_k.johnson @emgracefitz Anri Zama @kacy.mckinney Amara H. Pérez Phd and @jeffordssusan by @leaky_rat @liv__bliss @gilnotjill @morganhornsby_ @midorisees @marissa_perezzzzz @lillyannepham and @helloprettycity Read these interviews and more in our Winter 2023 SoFA Journal. Link in our bio 💌
Our Winter 2023 SoFA Journal is out now! This issu Our Winter 2023 SoFA Journal is out now! This issue features interviews with the greater PSU community. Link in our bio to read! Interviews by @dogsighs__ @gilnotjill @cereza699 @pedestrianvision @helloprettycity @levelyellowproblemchild @_k_j__w @liv__bliss @leaky_rat @lillyannepham @manfredpunky @morganhornsby_ @midorisees @marissa_perezzzzz and Nadine Hanson Cover design by Luz Blumenfeld and Gilian Rappaport featuring Linda K. Johnson’s ‘Finding the Forest’ project with Tim Warner’s frame installation. Conceived and Directed by Linda K. Johnson. 1991. Forest Park in Portland, OR. Photo by Julie Keefe. ________________________ 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.
The third year MFA students are collaborating with The third year MFA students are collaborating with PSU @psu_artanddesign group @ad.projects on their graduate interview publications! Special thanks to Edwin and Bryce for their design work!
@ksmoca has a show at PSU’s @littmanandwhite gal @ksmoca has a show at PSU’s @littmanandwhite gallery opening this week! Welcome to My Happy Place 💖 is an exhibition curated by Rose, a fifth grader at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and Dr. Kiara Hill, a professor in the School of Art + Design at PSU through @ksmoca See the show @littmanandwhite Gallery Feb 1- Mar 17 Reception Feb 9 from 5-7pm Or stop by the gallery Monday-Friday noon-5pm in Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 250 @mlk_school_pdx @psu_arts @psu_core @psu_artpractice @psuartandsocialpractice @portlandstate
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
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