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Master of Fine Arts in
Contemporary Art Practices at
Portland State University
It’s here — the Winter issue of SoFA Journal: It’s here — the Winter issue of SoFA Journal: Conversations On Everything, an interview-based publication on social forms of art. In this second issue, art & social practice graduate students continue their artistic inquiries by spending time in dialogue with artists, curators, boxers, undergraduate students, a livestock apprentice, a third-grade student photographer and their mum, as well as a Times Square security guard. Read it at psusocialpractice.org/journal ! 🙌🏽 Slides: 1. Jordan Rosenblum @zeroprocess with @natandreini of @fiveoaksmuseum 2. Laura Moulton of @street.books and one of the Street Books bikes 3. Laura Glazer @helloprettycity with Laura Moulton 4. Kiara Walls @blackboxconversations with Darryl Ratcliff @thekingfish08 5. Caryn Aasness @levelyellowproblemchild with Ethan Seltzer [ (front) Postcard featuring a shower located in Pittock Mansion, Portland, OR. (back) A handwritten list of books and movies recommended by Ethan Seltzer during this interview. 2021, Portland, Oregon, USA. ] 6. Carlos Reynoso @gabrielrey4 with @dorianwoodmusic 7. Mo Geiger @momobirdie with Danielle Moser [ My home and the farm, seen here in an aerial view of the area. The Yellow Breeches Creek snakes along the image’s lower third towards the village of Boiling Springs, PA. Satellite photo edited by Mo Geiger. ] 8. @rebeccalcopper with @natothompson of @alternativeartschool Enjoy! Edited by @saltythunder13 (receiving letters to the editor at xi3@pdx.edu) Web by @emmaduehrmitchell Copyediting by Becca Kauffman
It’s here — the Winter issue of SoFA Journal: It’s here — the Winter issue of SoFA Journal: Conversations On Everything, an interview-based publication on social forms of art. In this second issue, art & social practice graduate students continue their artistic inquiries by spending time in dialogue with artists, curators, boxers, undergraduate students, a livestock apprentice, a third-grade student photographer and their mum, as well as a Times Square security guard. Read it at psusocialpractice.org/journal ! 🙌🏽 Slides: 1. Cover design by @helloprettycity, with artwork by @rebeccalcopper 2. @briandthesea with @michaelstevensonjr 3. Becca Kauffman with James Blount at @timessquarenyc 4. @cereza699 with Moe and Nikki Hall via @ksmoca 5. Nolan Hanson with @transboxing and PSU students [ Trans Boxing Poster, by Belen Murray, Mai Ide, Dane Kelley, and Brianna Graw, March 2021. ] 6. @justinmeadmaxon with Desire Grover 7. @emmaduehrmitchell with @briandthesea Enjoy! Edited by @saltythunder13 (receiving letters to the editor at xi3@pdx.edu) Web by @emmaduehrmitchell Copyediting by Becca Kauffman
Our final year students are getting ready for thei Our final year students are getting ready for their graduate exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum @psu_museum_of_art on the PSU campus! From left: @zeroprocess, @emmaduehrmitchell, @gabrielrey4, @briandthesea, A+D Professor @ralphpugay, Museum Director Maryanna Ramirez, and Museum Program Assistant Kathleen N. Murney with A+D Professor @lisanicolejarrett’s work. @psu_artanddesign
If y’all are interested in learning more about o If y’all are interested in learning more about our community engaged art project check out our instagram link below ♥️♥️♥️ Polo Bañuelos and have been hustling pretty hard in Portland OR in establishing @mistaconespdx to take up 💋brown 💋queer 💋working class space in extremely and hella gentrified areas up here we have a pop up coming up 4/3/21 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 #blessed . . . . . . . . . . #vegan #mistaconespdx #portland #comidavegana #streetfood #vegantacos #pdx #portlandeats #pdxeats #popup #lgbtq #latinx #chicanx #community #supportsmallbusiness #supportlocal #supportpoc #love #xoxo #muah
This year, instead of a physical class trip, we we This year, instead of a physical class trip, we went on a virtual tour of art spaces around the world - 6 countries, across 6 time zones. Thank you so much to these folks for generously sharing their time! On day 2, we toured @espacioodeonbog in Bogotá Colombia, @artjunctionudr in Udaipur India, Johannes Willi’s studio @pilzwellelust in Basel Switzerland, as well as @generalsisters, @pie_ranch, @lapovertydepartment, @mjmenjivar’s studio, @mildredslane and @grandcentralart in the US. Whew. Additionally, Espacio Odeón curator Alejandra Sarria gave us a guided tour of the exhibit Aqui Vive Gente, a collective community museum, which featured a cooking demonstration after. Thank you everyone! 🙌🏽
This year, instead of a physical class trip, we we This year, instead of a physical class trip, we went on Golden Opportunity, a virtual tour of art spaces around the world - 6 countries, across 6 time zones. Thank you so much to these folks for generously sharing their time! On day 1, we toured @livingschoolart, @greensboroprojectspace, @elsewheremuseum and professor of socially engaged art at Goddard College @goddard_bfasea H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams’ studio in the US, as well as @drama_box_ in Singapore and @bcs_tw in Taiwan. Additionally, Herukhuti conducted a session on the roots and fruits of social practice, where lineages were named and reflected upon. We were joined by students and faculty from Goddard. Drawings by @shelbieloomis 🙌🏽
Thank you @tomfinkelpearl for popping into class t Thank you @tomfinkelpearl for popping into class this week to speak with first year graduate students, who had been reading Tom’s 2012 book, What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation ! #socialpracticeart
@ksmoca, an art museum in a public school that beg @ksmoca, an art museum in a public school that began as a collaboration between the art+social practice program with Dr. MLK Jr. School, was recently featured by @artswatch. Link in bio 🍦 . The biggest way you can support KSMoCA’s community during the pandemic is by donating to the Dr. MLK Jr. School Family Stabilization Fund. Go to ksmoca.com, and click Get Involved for more information.
Contribute your ideas to @zephxfish’s Backyard D Contribute your ideas to @zephxfish’s Backyard Design Lab to prototype apparatuses for Covid-Safe Intimacy.
 People need physical connection, but many folks who live in shared housing face complex Covid negotiations any time they want to connect closely with a new person. If negotiations fail, what are the options besides celibacy or recklessness? Among other things, the NYC and SF Health Depts suggest barriers that allow contact without exchanging air. 
We want your ideas! Here’s how to submit: 1. Scribble your idea down on a napkin (or design it in CAD, if that’s your thing) 2. Take a well-lit photo or scan it 3. DM it to @zephxfish. Write a little about the materials, how to use it, and how it keeps its users from giving each other covid 4. We’ll build a few things IRL (see pix of what we built already!) and we’ll share the rest in a small book to spark more public creativity.
Social Practice Alumni @roshanithakore and @michae Social Practice Alumni @roshanithakore and @michaelstevensonjr invite you to their virtual opening at the JSMA for the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize. They’ll be in conversation with fellow prize winner Kris Blackmore and artist + faculty @lisanicolejarrett to talk about their recent works currently at the museum. ✨THURSDAY 2/25 @ 6pm✨ ✨Register at www.pdx.edu/museum-of-art/✨
👋🏽 folks, art+social practice grad @roshanit 👋🏽 folks, art+social practice grad @roshanithakore here. I’ve been collaborating with some rad organizations on an exhibition by some talented artists that are currently or formerly incarcerated. We’re having an online opening on 2/20! Details ⬇️Hope you can tune in to support these folks! 💜🙏🏽💜 REPOST @lillyannepham We Are Still Here: An Exhibition of Artworks by those Formerly and Currently Imprisoned. Attend the opening of the exhibit online! Live performances, speeches, poetry reading, and meet the artists. Saturday, February 20, 2021, 6:00 PM PST on Zoom More info & RSVP: tinyurl.com/wearestillhere21 Questions? Email phamlillyanne@gmail.com ASL Interpretation Provided by Fingers Crossed Interpreting Organized by APANO, Black and Pink PDX, Liberation Literacy, Rosewood Initiative, All Rise Mag, Unite Oregon, and Imagine Black Event poster by Blue [Image description: A square in the middle with black text on the top and bottom of the square. The top text states, “artworks by those formerly and currently imprisoned.” The bottom text states, “more info & rsvp: tinyurl.com/wearestillhere21.” The square encompasses a black silhouette of three people with a building silhouette behind them. These silhouettes are in front of a pink mixed with an orange sky. A light blue strip and green triangles are overlapping these objects. On top of the square has white text that states, “WE ARE STILL HERE, 6:00 PM PST, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20 2021.”]
📡PORTLAND📡 tune in today at 11 am on @kboora 📡PORTLAND📡 tune in today at 11 am on @kbooradio to hear a conversation about the trickiness and magic between artists and institutions interviewed by Art Talk Bus Stop hosts Nicole and Erica💕 @ericameryl @roya_a @nickel.n_ @apanonews @picapdx @worksprogressagency @roshanithakore REPOST @ericameryl @worksprogressagency
Remember - prospective students have to apply for Remember - prospective students have to apply for scholarships by Feb 1 as well! Good luck 🙌🏼 @psu_artanddesign
More from Conversations on Everything, an ongoing More from Conversations on Everything, an ongoing collection of interviews for the Social Forms of Art Journal, which the program has produced since 2018. Each term, graduate students in the program interview someone as part of their artistic research. The interviews in this collection reflect the diverse concerns of a band of today’s contextual practitioners, who are sited and making work in different locations within the U.S. during a global pandemic and social upheaval. Topics and themes explored in this issue include: the complex intersections of religion, culture, and art; equity and lineage in the social practice field; letter-writing; collecting; arts administration as a social practice, and more. Read it at psusocialpractice.org/journal ! Next issue out end March. Edited by @saltythunder13, PDF design and layout by @emmaduehrmitchell, web by @rebeccalcopper.
It’s launched! — Our inaugural issue of Conver It’s launched! — Our inaugural issue of Conversations on Everything, an ongoing collection of interviews for the Social Forms of Art Journal, which the program has produced since 2018. Each term, graduate students in the program interview someone as part of their artistic research. The interviews in this collection reflect the diverse concerns of a band of today’s contextual practitioners, who are sited and making work in different locations within the U.S. during a global pandemic and social upheaval.  Topics and themes explored in this issue include: the complex intersections of religion, culture, and art; equity and lineage in the social practice field; letter-writing; collecting; arts administration as a social practice, and more. Read it at psusocialpractice.org/journal ! The team - design by @emmaduehrmitchell, web by @rebeccalcopper and editing by @saltythunder13 🙌🏼
Recent program grad @zephxfish just wrapped up a p Recent program grad @zephxfish just wrapped up a project at Portland’s Five Oaks Museum! . #Repost @fiveoaksmuseum ・・・ The images and future genders created in the Sum of its Parts: Glimpses of Future Genders collaborative photo project as part of the Gender Euphoria exhibition are now available to view! Check them out in this post! . Here’s a project description from artist Zeph Fishlyn: Close your eyes. Imagine a future gender. It could be five years from now or five thousand years from now. It could be human or inhuman. What could it look like? What color(s) is it? What shape(s) is it? What does it sound and smell like? What does it wear, how does it move? What is its spirit? . Glimpses of Future Genders is a crowd-sourced photo project that experimented with remote forms of co-creation in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Created in collaboration with curator Becca Owen, the project was entirely conducted via web, snailmail and remote pickup. Members of the public anonymously contributed descriptions of future genders, which then became prompts for photographs. We paired those prompts with disposable cameras made available via five porch-pickup locations around Portland. Participants picked up a camera, then snapped a photographic fragment or glimpse of a future gender. . The result is a kind of “contact sheet” that is simultaneously a portrait of a certain present-day Portland amidst a pandemic, and a glance towards an imagined future beyond the gender binary. . Thank you to my collaborators: 🔸All of the anonymous and semi-anonymous participants who contributed new names for genders and snapped photographs. 🔸Porch Pickup Hosts— Becca Owen, Everett Owen, Molly Alloy, Brendan Curran, Victoria Sundell 🔸Blue Moon Camera @bluemooncamera . #FiveOaksMuseum #ZephFishlyn #GenderEuphoria #CollaborativeArt
Two weeks left to apply! It’s not too late - rea Two weeks left to apply! It’s not too late - reach out if you have questions! This image is from the annual program campout last year when @rozcrews facilitated an activity.
REGISTER NOW! 💯 Winter Term 2021/ THURSDAYS fro REGISTER NOW! 💯 Winter Term 2021/ THURSDAYS from 9-10:50 PST!!!! . . In this seminar course, students are introduced to the field of socially engaged art and asked: how can artists use their practice to disrupt, transform, critique, and challenge social dynamics and institutions? This course– which includes lectures, readings, discussions, and community-based learning– is designed to support students with both conceptual development as well as in-practice application of the strategies involved in socially engaged art projects. The community partner for this course is Trans Boxing– an art project in the form of a boxing club which was founded in New York City in 2017. Students will have the opportunity to engage directly with the project and it’s participants throughout the term. . .
💡Graduate Publication Spotlight💡 some light 💡Graduate Publication Spotlight💡 some light, shades of support in our current art ecosystems, by @roshanithakore, 2020 graduate . This publication examines the support systems created by artists and organizers BECAUSE of the systems that continually fail us. Made during the global pandemic of 2020, some light comes in the form of an inverted rainbow packet mailed to each recipient to pause, reflect, and examine the shades of support in our current art ecosystems. . some light was produced by nůn studios: an emerging print co-operative and affordable print resource in NE Portland. nůn creates artist books and community organizing curriculum for global solidarity movements, centering BIPOC womxn, femmes, GNC and non-binary folks. . You can receive a printed version with sliding scale funds that will go towards the cost of production as well as support nůn studios. Visit psusocialpractice.org/publications for a link and to check out the rest of our publications ☎️
💡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
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