Jill M. Lanza

Curious Cravings will explore making through the lens of intense curiosity and freeplay with the opportunity to research, test, and experiment chosen topics with new and familiar media. Students will find, define, and dive into what they crave. We will make time for those projects left aside and consider the desire and needs to make through experimental-based approaches in creative production and presentation development. What risks can one take to increase the message in their work with the opportunity to explore new media or a topic in depth? This course will examine artists’ practice beyond the studio, from Georgia O’Keefe’s recipes to the beauty and emotional states of Agnes Martin. Assignments will include performance based book reports and experimental research projects to pause and look into lingering interests. This course will make space for play in a busy semester. Readings will include works from Rilke, Hickey, Sontag, and expand with podcasts such as Radiolab and Sporkful. Students will leave this course with a greater understanding of their personal making process, an expanded portfolio, and a strong understanding of the possibilities in a critique and play.

In this course, students will explore and create their own definitions of success, starting with their preconceived notions of what it means to be a successful artist. We will break down outdated expectations and myths and will rebuild unique, personal, and fulfilling plans for a creative life. Through writing, mentoring, and research students will explore career paths and what it means to live the flexible and nuanced life of an artist. We will investigate a number of topics and tools that support a career in the arts, including: mind-mapping, goal-setting, creating professional materials (CV, statement, bio), applying to professional opportunities such as grants and residencies, studio visits, and working with galleries. Course material will include artists’ personal accounts of leading a creative life and tools they use to make projects more rich. This course involves numerous written assignments; students must be prepared to write and edit their work. Students will choose from a vast menu of short projects in order to tailor their experience in the class to their career goals. Final assignments will include 1) a clear personal vision of success; 2) steps for achieving short and long-term goals, and 3) refined professional materials suitable for application.

This interdisciplinary critique seminar is designed to help students recognize patterns of inquiry within their studio work while proceeding toward an outward-facing practice beyond graduation. An assessment of previous projects will be the starting point for an ongoing critical examination of your creative practice, through which you will be asked to contextualize and position your work in the art-worlds of the 21st Century. This course is a forum for in-depth individual and group critiques with technical and conceptual discussions tailored to your practice and research. In addition to various readings, screenings, and field trips, class visits by local artists and curators will provide the opportunity for conversation about the lived experience of sustaining a creative practice. With an emphasis on faculty mentorship, class meetings will support the development of a focused, self-initiated Senior Project, a strong portfolio, and the tools for maintaining an independent studio practice.