Exciting Collaboration with the Delaware Contemporary!

 I'm happy to formally announce this upcoming project that will involve all DCAD first-year students. Together with Rachel Bomze and the curators and public educators at TDC, we have designed a "real-world" project with Philadelphia-based poet and artist, Jasmine L. Combs. Details to follow. Yeah!

In this responsive, collaborative living installation, a dialogue will evolve between the art forms of spoken word and visual media. First-year students from DCAD (Delaware College of Art and Design) will create works of art across a variety of mediums in response to the original poetry of spoken word artist Jasmine L. Combs exploring the theme of “object” and “objectification”. A video installation of the original poetry performance by Jasmine L. Combs will be on display in the Draper Gallery from January 16 - May 23, 2021. Selected student work will be exhibited at The Delaware Contemporary and DCAD from March - May 2021. Web link here.

Jasmine L. Combs is a writer, educator, and spoken word artist from Philadelphia. Her work has been published in various literary journals including Apiary Magazine, Vagabond City Lit, Vinyl Poetry, and Painted Bride Quarterly. She has competed in poetry slams both locally and nationally, winning the grand slam championship at Philly’s Grand Slam Finals 2015, College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) 2016, and was a semi-finalist at the 2015 National Poetry Slam. Jasmine’s work focuses on the personal as universal and the intersecting relationships between Blackness, womanhood, girlhood, mental illness, love, and home. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Universal Themes (2014) and This Drowning Was A Baptism (2019).

Sylvan Barnet: A Short Guide to Writing About Art

 

Sylvan Barnet, the author of our textbook: A Short Guide to Writing About Art had a fascinating life. He was best known as a Shakespeare scholar and as an advocate for humanities education. He died five years ago. Here is a link to his obituary in the New York Times.  For class next Tuesday, Feb. 2, read the first chapter of A Short Guide to Writing About Art, (1-36).

Everybody should have a copy of the 11th edition of this book. It was included in your art-kit. Send me an email message at csmith@dcad.edu if you don't have a copy. 

Should we Have a Zine Assignment?

 

I'm starting to think that I need to get over my doubts about teaching an online zine project in this course. What do all of you think? Check out this link for the DC Zinefest. The following program next Tuesday night is just something I wanted to share. It's not an assignment. 

File-Naming Protocol

 Let's do it like this for the files you upload to Populi:

csmith28jan.docx

That's your first initial followed by your full last name followed by the day of the month followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the month.

Homework for Next Class: Thursday, January 28

 Each student will get a "discussion group" email from me during your breakout session today. These two or three people are your teammates. Help each other. You might choose to email each other your revised draft (due at 9:00 am this Thursday) and conduct an informal discussion thread. Your group will choose one person to represent your group in Thursday's "big class" critique. Over the course of the semester, every student will have at least one "big class" critique, so you might want to get it over with early.

You are free to revise your paper in a global and complete way. Your paper for Thursday might not look anything like the one you submitted today. Avoid the tendency to treat revision as a form of copyediting. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu.

 

Why do people make art? Why do people write about it?

 

1.  American sculptor Richard Serra has an answer.

2. Malaka Gharib Says Art is Good for Your Brain.

3. SVA MFA in Art Writing

Amanda Gorman!

 

Amanda Gorman, Inaugural Poem 2020

First Short Essay: "Why Art?"

Art is so hard to define. Some people would say that it's impossible because art is always shifting and moving. Still, lots of artists and critics have tried to formulate words that aim to describe what art is, what art does, why people make and consume art. My favorite definition is by the Black American poet Amiri Baraka: "Art is what makes you proud to be human." 

This web listicle (published way back in 2014) gives 27 definitions. Most of them were written by dead white men from Europe and America. Only one, Georgia O'Keefe, makes the cut. This seems outrageous in 2021, doesn't it? 

For your essay, choose one of these 27 definitions and place it at the very beginning of your essay. This is called an "epigraph" (which means "before writing").

Why did you choose this particular definition? Do you agree with it, disagree with it, have mixed feelings about it? Why? Explain. Give examples from your life or other things you know. Tell stories. Use your "I" voice. Be controversial if that's your jam. Be conciliatory if that's your jam. Assert your ideas.

Those of you who took my Reading and Composition class last semester remember my unusual format for these short essays. Here's what I'm looking for: 

1. Two columns

2. Single-spaced (One full page is sufficient; use a second page if you like.)

3. The default font should be Times New Roman, 11 pt.

4. Insert an image in the top left column. This could be your own work or something appropriated from the internet. Don't worry about copyright, because it doesn't apply to educational purposes like this. 

5. After the image, give your essay a meaningful title.

6. After the title, simply type your name (no date or MLA type of format).

7. After your name, insert the quotation, the epigraph you've chosen from the Mental Floss inventory of 27 responses.

8. Write your essay (which will probably be between 4 and 8 paragraphs).

9. Proofread carefully.

10. Upload your draft to Populi next Tuesday. 

Your first graded essay will be due one week from today, January 28, at 9:00 am. A required (ungraded) draft is due next Tuesday, January 26, at 9:00 am. If you choose to not upload a draft, your final score will be dropped one point (10%)

 

On our Populi page, click on "Files". Sign the syllabus and date it, return it to me at csmith@dcad.edu. 

Also, please let me know your preferred pronouns and any other information that you would like to communicate. Thanks.  

Art is Everything

 

Welcome to the first blog post of this semester's "Writing for the Arts" class at the Delaware College of Art and Design. Below you'll find a link for an interview with the artist, writer, and law professor Yxta Maya Murray. Her new novel, Art is Everything, combines traditional and innovative writing strategies to address ideas and experiences at the intersections of art, identity, politics, and equity.

This Thursday, January 21, we'll have a brief reading quiz at the start of class. It will not be a "gotcha" kind of quiz, but rather an opportunity for you to share your ideas and reactions in writing about the issues she discusses with your classmates. The interview is comprised of only nine questions, but many of the responses are fully developed over several paragraphs. It was published just three days ago, on January 15, 2021.

Read the Interview Here

If you have any questions, send me an email message at csmith@dcad.edu.

Welcome to the class, Casey