SUMMER ABROAD IN VALAND, SWEDEN

MEETING MARIESTAD

A three-week intensive summer workshop for site-specific artistic engagement in central Sweden

July 4—26, 2011 (In partnership with the Valand School of Fine Arts)

Instructors: Amanda Herman, with Valand faculty members: Haky Jasim

Visiting artists: Andreas Eriksson, Mason Nye, Anna Viola Hallberg

Description

This summer course invites students from all disciplines to investigate Mariestad (est. 1583), a historic seemingly idyllic city on Lake Vanern in central Sweden. In response to loss of industry and a shrinking population, Mariestad has embarked on an experiment to increase cultural activity in the hope of redefining itself. The city government is launching a series of cultural initiatives in 2011, including inviting professional artists and art students to live, research, and create projects in response to the town. This course is a unique opportunity for students to work – and examine their role—as invited artists, designers or architects in a regional rejuvenation effort.

Course lectures and discussions focus on the town’s architectural and social history, geography (Mariestad is located on the shores of Sweden’s largest lake and is the site of the country’s newest biosphere reserve), tourism/voyeurism, national identity, uses of public space, and socially engaged art practices. What role and relevance do artists have in communities that are not their own? What benefits and risks do temporary projects entail? Students are asked to critically examine their role while creating small projects in or about Mariestad that use the themes of the course as inspiration.

The class includes talks and possible collaborative opportunities with celebrated artists from Sweden and abroad, including Andreas Eriksson (one of two artists presenting in the Nordic Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale), Mason Nye (NYC), and Anna Viola Hallberg, currently the artist-in-residence for Mariestad’s City Culture Council. Hallberg also acts as a liaison between the students and the city.

On July 22, artists’ works are presented at a festival, in public sites of their choosing, along with public seminars discussing their investigations.

A reading and research packet is distributed in June, to be read before the class commences on July 4.

San Francisco-based artist Amanda Herman will lead the course with Swedish artist Haky Jasim. Meeting Maristad is their fourth summer teaching site-based courses in Sweden; the past three summers, they led Bergsjon Public, a similar course based in a suburb of Gothenburg.

Valand summer programs bring together students from across the world; students from Moscow's Institute for Problems in Contemporary Art will participate in the course.

About the Instructors

Amanda Herman is a San Francisco-based artist with an MFA in Social Practice from the California College of the Arts. Her work focuses on themes of survival, memory, migration and history. In 2007 she produced a series of public projects with families displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Herman was a post-graduate fellow at Valand School of Fine Arts where she completed an alternative audio-tour of Gothenburg’s Stadsmuseum and began an ongoing collaborative video project with an Iraqi refugee in Sweden. Her work has been shown at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Outpost Center for Contemporary Art, New Langton Art Gallery, Patricia Sweetow Gallery and other venues.

An adjunct professor at California College of the Arts and Valand School of Fine Arts in Sweden, Herman was awarded the Jean Gimbel Lane Artist in Residence at Northwestern University for Spring 2011. Visit the instructor's website at www.amandaherman.com.

Haky Jasim is a Gothenburg based artist who was born in Baghdad, Iraq and received his Masters in Fine Art in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. His work focuses on social and political concepts through the use of photography, video, installations and painting. He began the Cosmopolitan Gallery in Gothenburg and is the project leader of BOB Culture Association’s “International Culture House of Gothenburg”. He lives and works in Bergjson.

Prerequisites

Graduate standing and instructor approval. In addition students must be in good academic, conduct, and financial standing for the 2010–11 academic year.

Note: Only eight students will be selected for the course.

Program Fee

Tuition for 3 credits is the same as for the preceding fall 2010 / spring 2011 academic year; $3,636, plus a $50 nonrefundable registration fee for summer school.

Registered students receive free housing and studios for the duration of the course. Funds are available to assist with material costs and cover select bus trips to investigate nearby points of interest.

Students are responsible for airfare, travel insurance, medical and personal insurance (students must provide their own insurance), and all other expenses associated with this course.

Please make sure you read the related links in full:
Registration
Financial Aid
Passport, Visa, and Insurance
Code of Conduct

Registration begins on March 1 for all summer study abroad courses. Students should register by March 31, but may register on a space available basis after this date. Please contact the Office of Special Programs at 510.594.3710 if interested in registering after March 31.

Interested students should contact Amanda Herman, aherman@cca.edu, right away to start the approval process for registration.