Background
The start of this academic year brought layers of anxious excitement for our new cohort of BA in Art Departmental Honors students. This group of 17 were selected through a competitive admission process during the year prior, and for many of them, this autumn was their first time stepping onto the UW campus, their first quarter in the UW Art Building, and their first time meeting their classmates in real life.
Despite the ongoing challenges that we all still face with COVID-19, this new community gathered in-person each Friday in their required autumn course, Art 480, to begin discussing their work, ideas and futures. Art 480: Cross-Disciplinary Honors in Art, is a required honors requirement offered annually in autumn quarter by a rotating faculty member from one of the four Art concentrations.
This program offers students strong faculty mentorship toward continued study at the graduate level and professional advice and support as they move into the larger world of art and artists. Students leave well-prepared and encouraged to apply for local, national, and international awards and distinctions. Additionally, they gain access to a dedicated honors studio space, which will support the development of work for the spring 2022 honors exhibition in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery. This autumn, Art 480 was led by Rob Rhee, Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Visual Art.
Here are some reflections on autumn quarter, back in the Art Building, from two Art Honors seniors, Kristen Walter (3D4M) and Tiffany-Ashton Gatsby (IVA and Anthropology: Medical Anthropology and Global Health). Kristen and Tiffany-Ashton share insights into Art 480 and some goals for the rest of the academic year ahead.
Interview
Can you tell us about Art 480: Cross-Disciplinary Honors? What have you learned so far?
Kristen: The Art 480 course that I was enrolled in this autumn 2021 was held every Friday from 10:30 to 3:20pm. It was designed to provide both studio and seminar time each week. Around the mid-quarter mark, we transitioned from the seminar portion of the class, to a weekly class critique. Each student had the opportunity to show their work in one of the Friday class sessions.
From the Art 480 class I took away a greater ability to look at a piece of art and see ways it could be improved, to identify how it was not serving its goal, and how to best offer advice to others on their own art works. I also worked on planning out the timeline for creating an art piece and utilizing the space I was given to use.
Professor Rob Rhee was consistently very enthusiastic about our class, and wanted all of us to succeed. He offered thought-provoking questions about our work, as to further enhance what we were trying to communicate and display. For our group critiques he brought guests who also contributed to those efforts.
Tiffany-Ashton: Rob Rhee is extremely supportive of everyone's ideas and individuality and encourages artists to express themselves however they choose. Rob takes the time to give thoughtful input and push you to do your best work without attempting to change your core ideas. Rob never says, "you should" but asks "have you thought about...?"
This class validated my work and my process. It's confirmed that I'm in the right place doing the right thing. I know that I'm going to move forward to create art installation pieces in the future, and this course has given me the opportunity to evaluate if that is the right fit for me moving forward. We're not acting like traditional students in this course but presenting work and ideas as real working artists. It's challenging and invigorating and I'm so glad to be a part of the program.
What do you see as some of the benefits of the BA in Art Departmental Honors program so far?
Kristen: So far I have gained a cohort of peers who also continue to push themselves and their artworks and encourage me to do the same with my own body of work. I have also gained more opportunities to participate in exhibitions in the coming year, as well as a bit of insight as to what it may be like to be a practicing artist after I graduate.
Tiffany-Ashton: Having the opportunity to develop a plan for my own work, being free from assignment guidelines, is a really important part of the Art Honors program. In some courses, while you may learn exciting new skills and techniques, you sometimes don't have the opportunity to explore how you would utilize those techniques without clear-cut parameters and guidelines. The honors class gives you the opportunity to develop an installation project from start to finish on your own conceptually and concretely.
What are you looking forward to this winter and spring?
Kristen: In 2022, my honors cohort will all contribute to a spring exhibition of what we have been working on during this school year. Some of us, I believe, only have a couple quarters left and will also be graduating. As each concentration has its own honors requirements outside of the Art 480 class, we will also be moving on towards completing those. As I am in the 3D4M concentration, I have my own individual show to look forward to in my last quarter of senior studio, Art 453, which will take place a year from this autumn.
Tiffany-Ashton: I'm currently working on a collaborative project with one of the members of my cohort. I'm spending the quarter studying abroad in Rome, but I didn't want to get disconnected from my work. I'm taking photos of textural items here in Rome and sending them off to one of the members of my cohort in Seattle that's working on creating 3D images of them. When I get back, we're planning on working together to finalize the project. Belonging to the Honors cohort gave me the opportunity to get involved in collaborative work on a different level than I've experienced in other courses.