Have you heard about @wideawakeswi? They are building a coalition of artists in Wisconsin to help make sure everyone knows how and takes advantage of early voting! Join their call to action on October 3!
Wide Awakes 2020 is an artist founded initiative that is national in scope and is building a coalition of civically-minded artists all across the country! The historic Wide Awakes were a pro-emancipation, pro-women’s suffrage, pro-immigration, youth-led organization that championed Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 presidential election. They coordinated voter registration drives and engaged new and young voters to participate in democracy. In 2020 a group of artists around the country are carrying on this action. As an offshoot of the For Freedoms project the Wide Awakes aspire to center the arts in political and civic discourse, interjecting joy, play, and imagination into our social, political, and cultural scene.
Mindful of the constraints of time and of the pandemic the organizers are planning a nimble day of action to celebrate the start of early voting in Wisconsin, Tuesday, October 20. They envision distributed celebrations around the state. Whether you are already engaged in voter organizing and would like to partner and promote your action under #wideawakes2020 #wideawakeswi on that day or if you are an artist interested in participating in any of the civic celebrations Wide Awakes is planning, they would love to hear from you and work with you.
Below is more information about Wide Awakes Wisconsin and an invitation to join a Zoom call to action this Saturday, October 3 on the 160th anniversary of the 1860 Wide Awakes March in the name of Emancipation.
Please pass this call on to anyone you think would be interested.
Join Wide Awakes on October 3 at 10 am for a Wide Awake WI call to action!
Tuesday, September 8th – Center for Creative Citizenship – The Maryland Institute College of Art’s Center for Creative Citizenship integrates civic learning and action, as well as democratic engagement, by engaging art and design students in projects relating to civic engagement, voter education, and get out the vote efforts, as well as supporting the development of partnerships, programs, and initiatives that advance the interests of Baltimore’s communities and neighborhoods.
Tuesday, September 29th – Amanda Lovelee – Amanda Lovelee is a visual artist based in Minnesota. Lovelee has focused on civic engagement through a variety of projects. She worked as a “City Artist” through the Public Art St. Paul program developing projects that made city planning more accessible to city residents.
Tuesday, November 10th – Girl Child Art Foundation – The Girl Child Art Foundation is an organization based in Lagos Nigeria that focuses on advocacy, empowerment, and civic engagement of girls through the arts.
Tuesday, November 17th – Laurie Jo Reynolds – Laurie Jo Reynolds is an artist, policy advocate, and researcher who developed the concept of “Legislative Art”, an art practice that seeks to intervene in government systems with the goal of concrete political change.
Due to Covid-19, the Art Galleries will remain closed for the remainder of this academic year. I am very sad to bring you this news but leave you with a few images from the beautiful show we just closed, Negotiating Space. It featured the work of painters Marjorie Mau and Ginnie Cappaert.
All current SNC students are invited to enter the 2019-20 Juried Student Art Exhibition. The deadline for entries is October 7, 2019. Please see the entry form below for further information. Best of luck!
Two Domains workshops for art students are this week and next. If you are a Sophomore or Junior art major and do not already have a website, you are strongly encouraged to attend one of these sessions.
First-year students are also welcome to attend and create a domain.
Workshop dates and location:
Wednesday, November 28, 3 -4 p.m., BAC 100 (critique studio)
Thursday, December 6, 2-3 p.m., BAC 100 (critique studio)
Bring three domain name options with you to the workshop–your top choice and two back up names. The name you choose will be the url for your website. Check out this blog post to help you with choosing a domain name: https://blog.knight.domains/gs/whats-in-a-name/
Chicago-based painter and commercial artist Shelby Rodeffer, a visiting artist on campus, is painting a mural in the north entryway of the Bush Art Center with the assistance of SNC Art Students!
Stop by to see the work or lend a hand. An exhibition of Rodeffer’s art will be in the Bush Art Center later this semester.
Apply now to the Student Studio at St. Norbert College
Applications are due Friday, September 21st by 5 pm.
The Student Studio at St. Norbert College is a work-space for serious practicing art and design students to complete more ambitious and significant work. Students apply to work in the studio by proposing an independent project. Accepted students will have key access to the studio and be able to store work and tools in the studio for the fall semester. Student Studio residents are expected to work independently and to show their work-in-progress to faculty at a meeting November 29th at 3:30 PM. Those who have not made sufficient progress with their work will not be asked back for the spring semester.
Studio residents are expected to exhibit or otherwise present their work from the studio in the spring and are responsible for arranging these details. Graduating students can show their work in the Senior Art Exhibition.
How to apply to the Student Studio:
Please submit a folder with the following to the folder on the google drive here: goo.gl/rRwiFJ
A document with the following information:
Your name, your year at SNC, and your major
The title/name of the proposed project and a brief outline of what you hope to accomplish each semester in the studio
A tentative timeline including what you hope to have done by the winter Studio Visit with faculty
A short statement outlining other time commitments you have this semester and what time of day/days of the week you think you’ll do most of your work (this is an estimate)
A tentative plan for where you will show your finished work in the Spring
2. Three (3) digital images of recent art or design work and/or images related to the proposed work
(please place this separately in a folder, don’t embed them in the document)
A sample application is available in the Google Drive folder. Please contact Professor Ries with questions: katie.ries@snc.edu
Apply to attend Wayzgoose at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum!
Wayzgoose is a great national conference that just happens to take place not too far from us in Two Rivers, WI (November 2-4, 2018). The Art Discipline will pay the conference registration fee for two motivated SNC art students. To apply: send a thoughtful paragraph explaining why you think attending Wayzgoose would be a meaningful experience and how you might share your experience with your fellow students?
Applications due by October 12th to either brian.pirman@snc.edu or katie.ries@snc.edu. Chosen students who choose to stay in Two Rivers for the duration of the conference will need to arrange their own travel and accommodations.
Hamilton offers their own student scholarship to Wayzgoose. Although you can only receive one or the other, we encourage interested students to apply to both. Information on that scholarship is here: https://woodtype.org/pages/wayzgoose_scholarships
St. Norbert College art professor, Katie Ries, discusses The Moth Project, the Greening of the Bay residency idea, and writing grants.
What made you decide to start Greening of the Bay and bring The Moth Project to St. Norbert College?
Katie: I want to see more contemporary art in Green Bay. Especially excellent interdisciplinary art. I was also interested in bringing in artists whose work would actively engage both our immediate community and ecology. I heard about PlantBot Genetics through a colleague at a conference and their work was a perfect fit for the residency.
You were awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant in support of The Moth Project. What challenges and opportunities did the grant writing process present?
Katie: We have a great resource at SNC in Sarah Ryan the Director of Grant Development. She helped me navigate the specifics of the NEA’s process. For example, one of the first things we did was to make sure the project I had in mind was a good fit for the category to which we were applying. Fleshing out the grant was a lot of fun because I got to dream big about art for Green Bay, but also to reach out to and work with some of the excellent non-profits in our area.
The process of writing a grant can be intimidating for artists and staff at small organizations. Any tips you’d like to share?
Katie: Start early so you can make sure to cover all your bases and get partners on board. Make sure your vision for whatever you want to do with the grant is clearly articulated and that what you’re proposing satisfies the parameters of the grant and aligns with the mission of the granting organization.
This was very much a community project, with several partnering organizations hosting nighttime Moth Garden events. Do you have some favorite moments from these events?
I loved seeing the Moth Gardens set up publicly in all these beautiful spaces like the Neville Museum, Green Bay Botanical Garden, and the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, to name a few. At the Neville Museum we had the good fortune of overlapping with the Wednesday evening Farmers Market. It was neat to see people drawn to the project and to see the artists Wendy and Jeff work the crowd and get them excited about moths.
How do you define social practice art? Would you share an example of your own work that falls under this practice?
This is something I talked about with PlantBot Genetics (Wendy and Jeff) towards the end of the residency. I describe social practice art as work that relies on human interactions and systems to make the art. Often the work is collaborative. Wendy and Jeff lean towards the term “community engaged art” (as encouraged by MacArthur Fellow and artist Rick Lowe). As an example my sculptural piece What You’ve Gotrelies on the audience or gallery visitors to happen. I set out a grid of seed balls and invite people to trade things for them. Both the objects people trade for the seed balls and the transition from the orderly monochromatic grid to the varied and colorful objects people leave make the piece. In a similar way the Moth Project involves a lot more than a single static object. It’s a collection of social interactions and objects that gains meaning and resonance through people’s participation in it. I love that about it.
Katie Ries, What You’ve Got
Thanks to Katie Ries for sharing her vision and grant writing tips. Curious to learn more? Check out PlantBot Genetics: Mothology, on exhibit in the Baer Gallery of the Bush Art Center through September 25.
Exhibit Events (all free and open to the public):
Friday, Sept. 18, 4:00 p.m. Artist Talk
Friday, Sept. 18, 5:00-6:30 Gallery Reception
Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. SNC Day in the Galleries– Meet the artists. Listen to an inspiring talks. Make art.
