CCA will be hosting a National Portfolio Day event Sunday, October 14, at which portfolio reviews will be offered for graduate candidates in the following graduate areas:
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 by Joyce Grimm
On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, CCA Film and Fine Arts faculty member Lynn Marie Kirby, together with collaborator Alexis Petty, will present The 24th Street Listening Project at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. The evening will include the screening of a new video by Kirby exploring the neighborhood through color and language mapping, a musical performance reflecting local stories and topography, a book release, and the launch of the new website, 24thStreetListeningProject.com.
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by Jim Norrena
Windgate Fellow
To say CCA alumnus Kaii Tu (BFA Individualized Major 2012) is on the right path toward career success is probably the understatement of the year. That's because Tu, who graduated with high distinction, was recently awarded a 2012 Windgate Fellowship by UNC Asheville’s Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (CCCD).
Learn more about the 2012 Wingate Fellows »
The $15,000 fellowship, for which more than 120 universities across the United States nominate two graduating seniors with exemplary skill in craft, is one of the largest awards in art and design in the nation.
Tu graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies, but he's also one of the youngest persons to reach the level of brand manager at Procter & Gamble, his employer from 2005 to 2009 in Cincinnati, where he worked in product design, brand architecture, and business management.
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by Lindsey Westbrook
The following speeches were delivered by CCA students at the spring 2012 commencement ceremony.
Brittany Luby
While I am proud to have been chosen to speak to my graduating class, I had to ask myself, What qualifies me to address my own peers, the very people who spent entire nights in the studio alongside myself? What advice could I possibly bestow upon those with whom I have been growing and learning in concert . . . other than "Ginger is good for settling an upset stomach, and always drink water."
I'm not quite sure, and hopefully by the end of this something pithy yet insightful will have fallen out of my being here. But for now, I think I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the last four years and congratulate my classmates on following through to the end.
This is for everyone who slept in their studio. For those who took poorly paying freelance jobs only to empty their bank accounts again the next day in the name of art. This is for my friends who took two buses and a train five days a week to get to their six classes and two jobs (you know who you are); for those who left home without looking back to fearlessly take charge of their own destiny. You are the reason that I keep going, keep making, keep thriving.
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by Lindsey Westbrook
The following speeches were delivered by CCA scholarship recipients at the Scholarship Dinner in fall 2011.
Renata Maria Araujo
My name is Renata Maria Araujo. I am a fourth-year Architecture student, and I would not be here without the Lloyd H. Oliver Memorial Scholarship. It is the reason I attend CCA. I share your understanding that education is the most transcendent gift one can be given, and it allows us to have a foot in the door of the future.
Knowing I have been awarded this scholarship makes me feel proud, and, at the same time, obliged. No artist is an island, and I am very aware of the community I aspire to be part of. More than anything, though, every time I present my work I am thankful for the trust and encouragement this award represents.
I lived abroad almost all my life, so arriving at CCA was a dramatic change. I was even unsure about pursuing architecture. Now, I am in my fourth year, and it is my future career. I've met new housemates, work buddies, and the city of San Francisco. I've learned how to take a design from my mind, to paper, to physical reality. This knowledge has changed the way I see the world. Sometimes I'll look at a building today and think now I understand, or, sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
Read the restPosted on Monday, August 13, 2012 by Lindsey Westbrook
Bean Gilsdorf (MFA 2011) never imagined herself as a professional advice columnist. But in a moment of levity at an editorial meeting of the art blog Daily Serving, she tossed out the idea of an art advice column, and the others wouldn't let it drop.
And once she launched the thing, it really took off. She posted her first "Help Desk" column in January 2012, and it was almost immediately picked up by KQED.org and the Huffington Post.
What have been the most memorable questions? "One was, 'I just discovered that my MFA faculty advisor is an adulterer. I find that morally reprehensible. Should I continue to trust him in our student-advisor relationship?'"
This dilemma can't be reduced to yet another case of people not living up to expectations, Gilsdorf explains, since your advisor is your designated critic-advocate, and the nuances of the trust and the power dynamic are quite specific. In other words, Dear Abby can't deal with this one. You really need the advice of another artist.
What's been the strangest question so far? "'What is the best and most humane way to skin a cat as part of an art piece, in front of an audience'’ I wrote the guy back privately and told him I wasn't qualified to give an answer."
Read the restPosted on Thursday, August 9, 2012 by Allison Byers
Building a bike is an expensive and time-consuming process, traditionally reserved for devoted hobbyists and the very wealthy. But as cycling gains a stronger foothold in American cities, it’s likely that such skills will become more commonplace in design education programs. Leading the way is Nicholas Riddle, a designer at Easton and the founder of the Urban Mobility Lab at the California College of the Arts.
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 by Allison Byers
San Francisco, Calif., August 8, 2012--The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts will present the exhibition When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes: A Restoration / A Remake / A Rejuvenation / A Rebellion (script and display by Jens Hoffmann, based upon an original exhibition by Harald Szeemann) September 13 through December 1, 2012, in the Wattis Institute galleries, located on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts. The exhibition is free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Thursday, September 13, from 7-9 p.m.
The exhibition is a sequel to, and reevaluation of, the legendary 1969 exhibition When Attitudes Become Form, curated by Harald Szeemann at the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland. The new show brings together 82 international contemporary artists who follow, in various ways, the legacy of Szeemann’s iconic exhibition. The artists will present both existing and newly commissioned works. The show will also bring together archival material, floor plans, and installation images from the 1969 show. This new exhibition does not make a distinction between what is past and what is present, but rather considers When Attitudes Become Form as a living past.
Read the restPosted on Monday, August 6, 2012 by Matthew Harrison Tedford
Every five years the art world descends on Kassel, Germany, for Documenta. For 100 days, venues across the city present one of the world's largest and most prestigious art events to hundreds of thousands of visitors. The 2012 edition is curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and features an all-star list of hundreds of international artists, from William Kentridge to Song Dong.
Read the restPosted on Thursday, August 2, 2012 by Lindsey Westbrook
A year ago Derek Weisberg (Ceramics 2005) moved to New York to take a full-time job at Greenwich House Pottery, where he is a studio technician and teacher. His art has been included in recent exhibitions at POW WOW Hawaii in Honolulu, the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, and Greenwich House Pottery.
Having recently returned from completing the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, he took a moment to give us the scoop on his current projects, life after graduation, and exactly how many jobs you should expect to work when you call yourself a full-time artist!
What is Greenwich House, and what exactly is your job there?
My job involves teaching a hand-building sculpture class and helping the ceramic studio function smoothly and properly. Greenwich House was founded in 1902 as a settlement house to help New York's immigrant population adjust to life in the U.S. Today they have various programs in social services, arts, and education that are open to the public.
What are you working on now in your personal work?
One current project is a group of canopic jars. The idea comes from ancient Egyptian burial practices and beliefs about the afterlife. I am taking this very old ritual and bringing it into the present by replacing the gods with portraits of rappers who have passed away. This series tests my "chops" as a sculptor, and deals with themes I am interested in such as life, death, the afterlife. It is also about a culture I have been involved in almost my whole life.
Read the rest