Blog

Welcome to the School of Art + Design and the CORE Program!

Next week school begins. We can’t wait to meet you…and we are so pleased that you will be joining our art community. Whether you are new to PSU or not, we want to assure you that your faculty are working to make this a safe, learning-filled adventure and that soon you will feel AT HOME!

What will we cover in this post ? 

(Cause I know sometimes people just want the short version!)

1. Welcome, super glad you are joining us!

2. CORE courses are hybrid, what does this mean?

3. What do you think? We want to KNOW> Survey for YOU

4. A tad of advising.

5. Links for more.

CORE courses are hybrid, what does this mean?

Hybrid simply means that we will have the flexibility to meet online and face-to-face in the Fariborz Maseeh Hall studios. We know this is not as straightforward and might be a little hard to follow! But we want to be flexible to meet the needs of the students and the challenges of the pandemic. We love having students use the studios and have access to all the tools and materials there. And yet, the pandemic continues and students and faculty have different levels of concern. So flexibility is key! Your instructor will give you specifics about your course in an email this week… and we will make sure to keep everyone in the loop if anything needs to shift!

How do you feel about coming back to school ?

We want to know how you are feeling about the return to campus, what challenges you may face, and what you are super excited about… tell us right here! Super pretty please, fill this out! Also take the time to read the updated Code of Student Conduct on this site!

A tad of advising:

If you are a new Art Practice student in the School of Art + Design, you will start off in the CORE Program. This is where you will meet your cohort, your faculty and learn lots about the school and our city. During that first year, you will take 6 CORE classes that will give you loads of new making and thinking experiences. Take one 5-credit studio course each term and the other courses below to finish your first year requirements. You will have more advising during coLAB or can contact your Pathway advisor for more help!

Here are all the CORE courses to take your first year:

ART 101 CORE: Surface (5-credit)

ART 102 CORE: Space (5-credit)

ART 103 CORE: Time (5-credit)

ART 104 CORE: Digital Tools (2-credit)

ART 105 CORE: Ideation (2-credit)

ARH 106 CORE: Visual Literacy (2-credit)

You will also want to take: ART 131 DRAWING, ART HISTORY (204 or 205), and UNIVERSITY STUDIES FRINQ (each term)

Keep in mind, if you are a transfer student, you may have already received credit for these courses. See your Pathway Advisor.

A couple helpful links:

PSU Covid-19 Student Resources https://www.pdx.edu/covid-19-response/students

To learn more about CORE, visit https://psu-core.com/ and join our CORE Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psu_core/

Art Practice Student Resources https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/art-practice-student-resources/home

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Have a great start to the new school year… and watch for more information from your faculty in the coming days!

Best!

Michelle

PSSSST. We really want to hear what you are thinking… Thanks for filling out the survey!

PSSST again. And feel free to email me if you have questions!

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In the School of Art + Design, we want to make sure that we all feel safe and are safe! We’ll do this in a number of ways, from having conversations, creating community agreements, and listening to the needs of our classmates. All of this work will build off of the clear foundation that the university has set up in the updated Student Code of Conduct. Please take time to read it.

Student Code of Conduct

The University has established rules and policies to make the return to the classroom as safe as possible.  It is required for everyone to follow all the Return to Campus rules and policies. To participate in this class, PSU requires students to comply with the following. 

Masks Required at all Times in Classroom 

• Wear a mask or face covering indoors at all times. Your mask or face covering must be properly worn (fully covering nose and mouth and tight fitting). Mesh masks, face shields, or face covering that incorporates a valve designed to facilitate easy exhalation are not acceptable. Because a mask must be worn in the classroom, there should be no eating or drinking in the classroom. If you have a medical condition or a disability that prevents you from wearing a mask or cloth face covering, you must obtain an accommodation from the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to be exempt from this requirement. CDC, State, and County guidance does not limit class size for in-person instruction or require physical distancing.
  

Vaccination

• Be vaccinated against COVID-19 and complete the COVID-19 vaccination attestation form. Those students with medical or nonmedical exemptions or who will not be on campus at all must complete the process described on “COVID-19 Vaccine Exemption Request Form” to establish those exemptions. Health Check, Illness, Exposure or Positive Test for COVID-19

Health Check, Illness, Exposure or Positive Test for COVID-19

• Complete the required self-check for COVID-19 symptoms before coming to campus each day.

• If you are feeling sick or have been exposed to COVID-19, do not come to campus. Call SHAC to discuss your symptoms and situation (503.725.2800). They will advise you on testing, quarantine, and when you can return to campus.  

• If you test positive for COVID-19, report your result to SHAC and do not come to campus. SHAC will advise you on quarantine, notification of close contacts and when you can return to campus. 

• Please notify me/your instructors should you need to miss a class period for any of these reasons so that we can discuss strategies to support your learning during this time. 

• If I become ill or need to quarantine during the term, either I or the department chair will notify you via PSU email about my absence and how course instruction will continue.
  

Failure to Comply with Any of these Rules
As the instructor of this course, the University has given me the authority to require your compliance with these policies. If you do not comply with these requirements, I may ask you to leave the classroom or I may need to cancel the class session entirely. In addition, failure to comply with these requirements may result in a referral to the Office of the Dean of Student Life to consider charges under PSU’s Code of Conduct.  A student found to have violated a university rule (or rules) through the due process of student conduct might face disciplinary and educational sanctions (or consequences). For a complete list of sanctions, see Section 14 of the Student Code of Conduct & Responsibility.   

Guidance May Change
Please note that the University rules, policies, and guidance may change at any time at the direction of the CDC, State, or County requirements. Please review the University’s main COVID-19 Response webpage and look for emails from the University on these topics.

Hannah Newman dropped by to share their project Shapeshifters: A Guided Meditation… and then we all went outside with our earphones to listen and look at the clouds (as they are looking back at us!). Students then documented the sky above and contributed it to a file to be shown together!

You can find the meditation here: http://www.hannah-newman.com/shapeshifters-a-guided-meditation

Hannah Newman is an interdisciplinary artist reuniting digital technologies and experiences with their physical, emotional, and material sources. Most recently she has exhibited in group shows with The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale online, Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, OR, Outback Arthouse in Los Angeles, CA, Her Environment and The Yards Gallery in Chicago, Il, and Neon Heater/ Real Tinsel in Milwaukee, WI. Her work has received press from Chicago’s New City Art blog, the Duplex Gallery blog series and the Boston Globe, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Oregon awarded her a 2017 Professional Development Grant. Newman received a Master of Fine Arts from Oregon College of Art and Craft and a B.S in Ceramics and Fine Arts with a minor in Art History from Indiana Wesleyan University.

We were delighted to be a part of the interactive performance 147 DEVICES FOR INTEGRATED PRINCIPLES a work made by Hillerbrand+Magsamen in collaboration with Kirk Lynn, Peter Stopschinski and their son and daughter Maddie and Emmett.

The artistic team of Hillerbrand+Magsamen is the collaboration of Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen. Together they create sculpture, installation, performance, video and photographic works they call “Suburban Fluxus”.  Often including their two children, Madeleine and Emmett in their work, the family critiques and playfully scrutinizes contemporary suburban life.

Hillerbrand+Magsamen have presented their videos in international film and media festivals including Houston Cinema Arts Festival, London SciFi Film Festival, WAND V Stuttgarter Filmwinter, New York Underground Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Boston Underground Film Festival and MonkeyTown. Their cinematic based installations have been exhibited at the Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY), Center for Photography Woodstock (Woodstock, NY), Diffusion Photography Festival (Wales, UK) and Houston Center for Photography (Houston, TX).

They have received grants from Sustainable Arts Foundation, Austin Film Society, Experimental Television Center, Ohio Arts Council, Houston Arts Alliance and Houston Center for Photography. Their project HIGHER GROUND was a commission from the Houston Airport System and received 1st prize from juror Richard Linklater in the CineSpace program at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

Hillerbrand+Magsamen have participated in residency programs including: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York, NY), Experimental Television Center (Owego, NY), Elsewhere (Greensboro, NC), Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM). Stephan Hillerbrand is a recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships (Germany) and MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH) residency.

Mary and Stephan live and work in Houston with their two children, Madeleine and Emmett.

Be inspired by more of their work here: http://www.hillerbrandmagsamen.com/

We were inspired this week by Nina Elder’s insight, research and artworks during coLAB.

Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on, and interruption of, the natural world. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, Nina advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. She is the co-founder of the Wheelhouse Institute, a women’s climate leadership initiative. Nina lectures as a visiting artist/scholar at universities, develops publicly engaged programs, and consults with organizations that seek to grow through interdisciplinary programming.

Nina’s artwork is widely exhibited and has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, and on PBS. Her research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation award for Arts & Activism, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. She has recently held positions as an Art + Environment Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art, a Polar Lab Research Fellow at the Anchorage Museum, and a Researcher in Residence in the Art and Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico. She is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Be inspired by more of her work here: https://www.ninaelder.com/

Artist Alicia Eggert is our next visitor! Join us next week, Wednesday February 3 at 12:30 for coLAB to learn more about her amazing work! https://aliciaeggert.com/

Alicia Eggert

(b. 1981) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work gives material form to language and time, the powerful but invisible forces that shape our perception of reality. Her creative practice is largely motivated by an existential pursuit to understand the linear and finite nature of human life within a seemingly infinite universe. She derives her inspiration from physics and philosophy, and her sculptures often co-opt the styles and structures of commercial signage to communicate messages that inspire reflection and wonder. Alicia creates neon signs that illuminate the way light travels across space and time, and billboards that allow Forever to appear and disappear in the fog. These artworks have been installed on building rooftops in Russia, on bridges in Amsterdam, and on uninhabited islands in Maine, beckoning us to ponder our place in the world and the role we play in it.

Alicia’s work has been exhibited at notable institutions nationally and internationally, including the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, the Telfair Museums, and many more. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Galeria Fernando Santos (Porto, Portugal), The MAC (Dallas, TX), and T+H Gallery (Boston, MA). Alicia is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a TED Fellowship, a Washington Award from the S&R Foundation, a Direct Artist Grant from the Harpo Foundation, an Artist Microgrant from the Nasher Sculpture Center, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Maine Arts Commission. She has been an artist in residence at Google Tilt Brush, Sculpture Space, True/False Film Festival, and the Tides Institute and Museum of Art. In 2020, she was added to the Fulbright Specialist Roster by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Alicia earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University in 2004, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies from Alfred University in 2009. She is currently a Presidential Early Career Professor of Studio Art and the Sculpture Program Coordinator at the University of North Texas. Her work is represented by Galeria Fernando Santos in Porto, Portugal, and Liliana Bloch Gallery in Dallas. She lives with her son, Zephyr, in Denton, Texas.

Artist Ryan Pierce inspired the coLAB cohort to think about the ecology and the relationship between things today!

To learn more about his work visit https://ryanpierce.net/home.html and read his bio below!

Ryan Pierce’s vivid, large-scale paintings depict our world recovering from human industry. He draws on influences from ecological theory, literature, and folk art to create scenes that portray the resilience of the natural world.

He has exhibited internationally and his work has been recognized by grants from the Joan Mitchell and San Francisco Foundations, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council, as well as by reviews in Art in America, Art Papers, and The Oregonian. Pierce has been an artist in residence at the Ucross Foundation, Caldera, and Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder in Norway, and a fellow at the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. Pierce has taught at colleges and universities throughout Oregon and lectured as a Visiting Artist at more than 30 institutions. In 2012, he was the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. He is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland.

Pierce is the co-founder, with activist Amy Harwood, of Signal Fire, a group that facilitates wilderness residencies and retreats for artists of all disciplines. Pierce currently works as the Director of Signal Fire’s academic program, Wide Open Studios.