Glance | Spring 2012 by California College of the Arts

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LETTER from the PRESIDENT

glance

Spring 2012 Volume 20, No. 2

Dear friends, Interdisciplinary, collaborative, diverse, and inclusive—this describes the learning environment we strive to create at CCA. It also describes the evolving workplace our graduates will enter. According to a 2011 study by the National Endowment for the Arts, jobs in the creative sector will increase by 11 percent by 2018, with some careers projected to grow at an even higher rate: curators (23 percent), interior designers (19 percent), animators and multimedia artists (17 percent), architects (16 percent), and writers (15 percent). While we are pleased that the job market looks promising for our graduates, career preparation is just one aspect of the educational experience here. It’s difficult to quantify the broader learning outcomes we value: critical thinking skills, innovation, creative problemsolving abilities, work ethic development, leadership, and entrepreneurship. But it’s very easy to find great examples among our graduates. In this issue of Glance you will read about some of our alumni who have used their CCA education to forge meaningful, lucrative, and highly creative career paths. From food and wine industry entrepreneurs to designers, teachers, and activists for social justice, the alumni profiled here represent some of the best qualities of the CCA educational model. As we look to the future, we shouldn’t forget that CCA, at age 105, has a tremendous legacy. Students are inspired by their teachers and, in turn, eventually become their teachers’ professional peers. We are reminded of CCA’s influential role in creating these kinds of connections in the article on Jon Sueda and Martin Venezky. Our founders believed that connecting the arts to social, economic, and political life would deepen the power of creative work while making a positive contribution to the community. These values are even more relevant today. Students come to CCA because they want to make a difference in the world—or, to quote our tagline, to “make art that matters.” They leave filled with a lifelong passion for learning and prepared to join a global workforce where they can apply their knowledge and creative energy to a host of issues. Thank you for your continued interest and support. Sincerely,

Stephen Beal President

E d i tor Lindsey Westbrook Con tr i b u tor s Susan Avila Chris Bliss Samantha Braman Allison Byers Simon Hodgson Chris Johnson Barbara Jones Lindsey Lyons Jim Norrena Clay Walsh Lindsey Westbrook D e si g n CCA Sputnik, a student design team Fac u lty A dv i sor Bob Aufuldish D e si g n & p r od u c ti on M an ag e r Steve Spingola D e si g n e r s Chris Riesner Liz Tran C h an g e of ad d r e ss? Please notify the CCA Advancement Office 5212 Broadway Oakland CA 94618 510.594.3779 bjones@cca.edu Printed by American Web Inc., Denver, on 10 percent postconsumer waste paper. Our printer is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and meets or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) standards. All inks are Soy Seal approved.

Glance is a twice-yearly publication of c al i fo r n i a co l l eg e o f t he arts 1111 Eighth Street San Francisco CA 94107-2247 415.703.9542 lwestbrook@cca.edu

COV ER IMAGE The photograph on the cover, “Fun Times with the JET Mill” is by san ti ag o p orti l l a (Industrial Design 2014). It was a 1st-place winner in the 2011 R.A.W. Photo competition (see story on page 27). When he is not taking pictures, you can almost always find Santiago in the CCA model shop. See more of his photographs (all his work, none of this Instagram business) at santiagoportilla.tumblr.com.

P h oto c r e d i ts All images of student work appear courtesy the students, copyright California College of the Arts, unless otherwise noted. Images of alumni work appear courtesy the artists unless otherwise noted. Cover: Santiago Portilla; inside front cover: Bob Adler; pp. 2–3: Jess Bianchi; p. 5 (Morris): Nicole Franzen; p. 5 (Rosenberg): Klea McKenna / In The Make; pp. 6–7: Paul Sun; p. 8: Tim Kelly; p. 12: Mike Davis; pp. 13, 30 (1–5), 31: Nikki Ritcher; p. 14: Johnna Arnold Photography; pp. 16, 17, 19, 20–21 (bottom row, except Bishop), 30 (6–7): Jim Norrena; p. 18: Charlie Milgrim; p. 20 (deer): Ann Morhauser; p. 20 (tree poster): Brenda Tucker; p. 21 (Bishop): Larry Keenan Jr.; pp. 22–23: Liz Tran; p. 28: courtesy IntheMake.net; p. 29 (top): Chris Nickel; pp. 42–43: courtesy the artists and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; p. 48: Steven J. Gelberg. Sign up at cc a. e d u/ su b sc r i b e to get CCA news and events delivered by email. You can also change your mailing preferences from postal mail to email here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS FE ATURE S The Art of Food

2 27

CCA Holds Its Own at the Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge

A Tale of Two Graphic Designers: Martin Venezky and Jon Sueda

Entrepreneurial Aesthetics: Transforming Oakland Into an Art Destination

CCA on Facebook: What’s Not to Like?

COLLEGE NE WS

At the CCA Wattis Institute

24 Bookshelf 26

New Trustees

R.A.W. Video and Photo: A New Tradition

ph i lant h ropy

Spotlight

Honor Roll of Donors

Gifts and Grants

ALUM NI STO RI ES

Adrienne Skye Roberts Traces Her Radical Roots

Lucas Ainsworth: Industrial Strength

Question Bridge: Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith

Extra Ordinary: Kate Pocrass’s Mundane Journeys

46 IN M EM O RI A M 48

BAC KWA RD G L A NC E

From painter to pastry chef, ceramicist to winery owner, innovative CCA alumni are shaping creative niches across the world of food and drink.

S i m o n H o d gs o n

Twenty people stand around a long butcher-block table. The lights above cast a pale glow on its surface, illuminating the ingredients piled in its recessed trough—lemons, lettuce, flour, eggplants, bell peppers—while the faces of the diners remain shadowed. They are here for Hands On, a foodmaking experience in which they use their hands rather than utensils to create a three-course meal. “Cooking is very much a form of art,” says Lisa M ish ima (Graphic Design 2005), who concocted Hands On together with her boss, Randall Stowell of the creative production company Autofuss, and friend Yvonne Mouser (Furniture 2006). “Both cooking and art involve concepting, crafting, and presenting a piece. But there is something about consuming one’s creation that feels even more personal, immediate, and honest.” Initially, the guests are nervous, even clumsy. Flour spills onto the floor. Then, slowly, the experimental chefs grow more confident. There are giggles around the room, and nods of approval as the dishes take shape. The menu features Caesar salad, handmade pasta with pesto sauce, and tiramisu. Some diners shape vegetables into utensils and use those instead of spoons or spatulas. Maybe there will be a meal at the end of this.

yvonne mouser dishes up popcorn at Sam’s Movie Night. preceding page: The stage is set for Hands On. The table was designed by Yvonne Mouser.

food as t h e co nce p t m a k e r s theater

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Mishima, Mouser, and Stowell are carving new ground at the cutting edge between food and art. Hands On presents food as theater. At their concession stand for another creative venture, Sam’s Movie Night, they make metaphor literal. To accompany the creaturefeature Piranha, for instance, they dreamed up a beverage called Flesh Wound, limeade served with a mangled cherry and a cherry-juice ice cube that bleeds into the soda. The drama of these food-themed presentations is a thrill for both the participants and the creative team. “We had no idea people would be so excited,” says Mishima. “The first time we staged Hands On, they were so anxious to get started, they jumped in before we’d finished the instructions. They were just happy to get their hands dirty—it looked like a bunch of children playing.” That youthful sense of play is the dynamic driving this creativity. Mouser, a furniture artist (she designed the butcher-block table for Hands On), points to the way the chefs created utensils. Several used zucchini as rolling pins, while one enterprising diner grated pecorino with an artichoke. “The artifacts for eating can be just as meaningful as the food. The ingredients become sensory paints to color a meal, and the tools can elevate the experience out of the ordinary.” The strangest sensation, Mishima adds, can come from just “swirling heavy cream with your hand, and feeling it transform in your fingers.” The melding of art and food by so many CCA alumni is almost certainly a natural consequence of the crosspollination among the college’s many programs. The curriculum encourages openness to other media, and alumni carry this with them out into their careers. Mishima and Mouser first met in 2005 in Oaxaca, Mexico, as participants in a CCA Cultural Diversity

Studio. “With a continuing interest in experimenting,” they say, “we let the concepts drive the medium, and in doing so we are always discovering something new.”

food as TH E PRESENT e RS experience L ea h R o s enb erg (MFA 2008), today head pastry chef at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s fifth-floor Blue Bottle Café, understands how inspiration can come in unexpected forms and places. “During my first year in the MFA program, I started taking cake decorating classes outside of school, out of an interest in the parallel processes that occur in making paintings versus cakes, and the various notions of consumption that arise while looking/eating. I’d bring my cakes to my CCA critiques. I loved the response—it was what I wanted when someone looked at one of my paintings. Eventually I realized that my gratification was not so much about the cake or the painting, but watching my peers consume and enjoy something I made. A cake is a work of art with the intention of generosity. It is beautiful, structural, an evocation of color and balance. Then people eat it—and find it too sweet or too sticky or too vanilla-y or just right—and move on. This is the generosity of art: to create and set free.” M ag g i e Presto n (MFA 2008) observes a similar alchemy. She grew up on a winery outside Healdsburg, in Northern California wine country. She’s now a photographer, a teacher in the after-school arts program Out of Site Youth Arts Center, and, you might say, still grafted onto her family’s vineyard. “I work at the winery part-time, doing all their photography, maintaining the website, and helping with events. And I’ve worked crush—it’s also known as harvest, when all of

kari morris at work on her smallbatch syrups. The “Thank You” tags are by CCA alumna Chloë Greene (Printmaking 2005).

the grapes are processed in the winery. That’s handson, and pretty intense.”

wine as the cr e ator s artwork Self-described “cellar rat” S h auna R o s enb lum (Ceramics 2006) had a rather more instinctive reaction to the prospect of joining her father’s wine business. “I didn’t want anything to do with it. No way!” She chose art instead, and, with her parents’ encouragement, won a scholarship to study Ceramics at CCA. Five years later, she has launched her own viticulture business, Rock Wall Wines, in Alameda. So, what changed her mind? leah rosenberg of SFMOMA’s Blue Bottle Café

“My lightbulb moment came when I was in the glaze lab one night. I was preparing for John Toki’s Clay and Glaze class, creating new glazes using base glaze and different additives. I confronted my triple-beam scale, wearing my safety goggles, surrounded by all my cups of glaze, when it hit me—I already know how to do this! Blending glaze and blending wine are very similar processes. All the time I spent helping my dad blend wine had made those skills totally innate. That

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Preston articulates a link between the experience of food and the experience of art. “In my photography, I’m trying to create spaces, images, and installations that people can’t just label and move on from; they need to spend time with them, and also, ideally, encounter them outside of where they were originally made. People seeing or tasting something for the first time can enjoy a purely aesthetic experience, rather than examining it in a technical light. Whereas when you make something, you’re too close to it and can’t taste it anymore.”

summer, I went back to the winery with a flurry of new questions. I’d been bitten by the winemaking bug. It was through ceramics—something I fell in love with on my own—that I fell in love with my family’s winemaking tradition. “People laugh when I tell them my undergrad degree is in ceramics, but I couldn’t have had a more perfect education. It taught me about risk taking, speaking in front of an audience, explaining myself concisely, being able to fluff up a story when necessary and, most importantly, creative problem solving. In both the wine business and the art world, people want to hear the story of what they’re buying. When people bought my art, they wanted to talk about what I was thinking when I made the piece. In winemaking, people are thirsty for those same geeky little facts. Rock Wall Wines has a pilot program with terra-cotta tanks made by John Toki. He taught me so much about working with clay, glaze, glass, and metals. We’ve stayed in touch, and he’s doing some very exciting stuff with terra-cotta winery tanks— totally against the industry’s move toward concrete. This last harvest I fermented some Muscat Canelli in his tanks, inoculated it with a champagne yeast, then put it through malolactic fermentation to create a velvet finish. The result is a floral, aromatic muscat with flavors of blood orange, starfruit, honeysuckle, and mandarin blossom. We call it the Hipster Muscat.”

cca from to coa st coast It’s not just in the wine industry where inventive alumni are crossing the boundaries between food and art. Oakland-based A aron Gach (MFA 2002) has driven his Tactical Ice Cream Unit—a working ice cream truck that doubles as a mobile home base for activism—to demonstrations in Vancouver, Chicago, and New York. In the Big Apple, Kari Morris (Painting/ Drawing 2005) is steadily building a business making small-batch syrups. “The goal of Morris Kitchen,” she says, “is to provide quality products that are made with genuine care, by hand. The ginger syrup is produced here in Brooklyn. The labels are letterpressed and hand stamped with a bottled-on date. We’re also working with an apple orchard in upstate New York to

joseph pitruzelli’s Wurstküche restaurant in Los Angeles

make a boiled apple cider syrup, which is great served with ice cream or fall cocktails.” Another alumna steeped in the art of the cocktail is J enni fer Co ll i au (Wood/Furniture 2005), whose company Small Hand Foods creates specialized syrups for pre-Prohibition drinks. Given the recent resurgence of enthusiasm for speakeasies among hipsters and foodies, Colliau’s orgeat (a French almond syrup originally made with barley) and grenadine are prized by advanced bartenders from the Mission District to Massachusetts. Colliau’s vocation combines art and science (for instance, investigating the inversion process sugars undergo when heated) as well as history. She created a pineapple gum syrup after rediscovering an old recipe for Pisco Punch, invented in San Francisco in 1893.

the compulsion

to cr e ate

R o na l d Wo rni ck , a longtime CCA trustee, notes many similarities among creators in the food industry and the art world. “They are often people who are restless. They’re the ones possibly born on the cusp, with more than one personality. Whether in business or science or art, they’re driven to make new observations, to find their voices as makers.” Wornick has experienced that drive himself. Over the course of his long and varied career he has been a professional musician, pioneered freeze-drying technology, earned a graduate degree at MIT, and risen to senior positions at such food giants as United Fruit and Clorox as well as his own Wornick Company, which introduced MREs to the U.S. military. As a food industry scientist, executive, and director, Wornick has been responsible for inventing many new products. “It feels very good to

tim kelly’s Kelly’s Fuel and Provisions, with Joel Ross’s Measuring Texas (1988) at left. To create it Ross photographed every mile marker, from 0 to 880, along Interstate 10.

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create,” he says. “And if you combine creativity and restlessness, you may find yourself running a corner bakery, or you may find yourself running Sara Lee.” Today Wornick is an amateur wood artist, a collector of contemporary craft, and the owner of Seven Stones Winery in California’s Napa Valley. “I put a few vines in the ground,” he says, modestly. “They became one of the small number of Napa vineyards with a cult following. It has been an exciting and fulfilling adventure, the shift from food to art and wine.”

Otherwise, as the basketball player Allen Iverson might say, ‘It’s just practice.’”

food as t h e e nt r e p r e ne u r s business

In 2011 Kelly had the opportunity to renovate an old gas station in the northern California food mecca of Yountville and open it as Kelly’s Fuel and Provisions. The store features local wine, beer, and merchandise as well as rotating art exhibitions. “I’m interested in having an artist residency to see how other artists respond to the site. A fascinating mix of people comes through here, from farm workers to vineyard owners. I help them all refuel in one way or another.”

What started out for Tim Ke lly (MFA 1999) as a job to pay off student loans evolved into a long-term partnership with Hillstone Restaurant Group, a company that owns numerous restaurants from Santa Monica to the Hamptons. “In 2002 I joined Hillstone’s design and construction department, and I maintain an art practice that includes video and photography. A restaurant is essentially a theater in which food is the main character. Everything else is the supporting cast. There’s a lot of overlap between art and food, particularly in performance, which is what I studied at CCA. The differences arise in process and execution. Working in a corporate environment is quite different than the studio. But in the end it’s all about connecting on an emotional level with your viewer or customer.

J o s ep h Pi t ruzzell i (Industrial Design 2005) has also parlayed restaurant design into ownership. Having cut his teeth designing San Francisco’s Etiquette Lounge, he then opened his own place in Los Angeles, Wurstküche, which bills itself as a “Purveyor of Exotic Grilled Sausages” and features flavors such as rattlesnake-and-rabbit, alligator-smoked-andouille, and of course a handful of vegetarian options. “It was at CCA that I learned the design process that I now apply to almost everything. I also gained technical experiences, which I call upon to speak the language of contractors and architects. CCA challenged me to take risks by exposing me to other creative people. I tell our staff that we sell sausage, beer, and an experience— and that that experience is consciously designed.”

sasha wizansky’s Meatpaper

food as Th e A r b i t e r s o f Ta st e culture As editor in chief of the print magazine Meatpaper, Sasha W izan s ky (MFA 1998) has a unique viewpoint not only on meat eaters, but also on the way food and art fulfill a range of desires. “Food can fill a physical hunger or stimulate an aesthetic demand. Art can feed a sensory void or stimulate academic discourse. Food and art can both be cheap, mass-produced, democratic, expensive, rarified, or entirely exclusive. The more I think about this question, the more similarities I see. In the U.S., though, the necessity of food never needs to be defended, whereas there’s a schism between those who consider art a basic human need and those who consider it superfluous.” A former vegetarian, Wizansky coined the neologism Fleischgeist after noticing a shift toward meat in Bay Area eating habits. “In 2004 I started a collaborative project about meat, and wound up carrying around a ‘meat notebook,’ talking to people about meat. It’s one of the world’s best conversation starters. I heard childhood memories, Brazilian barbeque recommendations, and deeply personal meat confessions. Some people felt compelled to tell me how much they loved certain meat dishes even though they felt terribly guilty about eating them.”

The Brazilian food historian M a rc i a Zo l a dz (Graphic Design 1975) also has a more theoretical perspective on the links between making art and cooking food. She stresses the artisanal over the aesthetic when comparing the two. “Although today both are what could be described as cultural industries, originally they belonged to the crafts rather than the arts.” Based in São Paulo, Zoladz is a journalist, an author who has published cookbooks in Holland and Germany, and a restaurant menu consultant. She delivers lectures around the world (regularly at the Oxford University Symposium on Food and History), and she has traced her nation’s sweet tooth from the Arabian Caliphs to the Iberian peninsula, the court of Portugal, and the African coast.

creativity crosses boun da r ie s From São Paulo to San Francisco, compelled by intellectual curiosity and pure creative drive, CCA alumni are discovering the many threads that connect art and food. M i c h a el M us c a rd i ni (Printmaking 1972) spent 27 years in the construction business, and then in 2004 sold his company to follow in the footsteps of his Italian-born grandfather Emilio, making wine. “My life has been profoundly affected by CCA. Today, running Muscardini Cellars requires both the business skills I gained from being a builder and the creativity I experienced at CCA. The whole process is wonderful—producing a perishable item that produces so much joy.”

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Pitruzzelli’s fusion of Deutsche fare and design flair has won thousands of carnivorous converts in Southern California. Wurstküche recently opened a second location in Venice Beach. “The most rewarding aspect of owning a restaurant is seeing people appreciate the experience we create—watching them meet and fall in love, if only for a night.”

The number of CCA alumni who’ve entered the food and wine industries isn’t surprising, Wizansky observes, given the college’s emphasis on interdisciplinary inquiry. “Though I never anticipated that I’d become the editor of a magazine, the essential aspects of the job are collaborative, interdisciplinary, and curatorial—all intuitive approaches for art students.”

max pollock savors a moment in the Graduate Center courtyard

CCA Holds Its Own at the

Oregon Manifest

Constructor’s Design Challenge BY ALLISON BYERS

There’s no denying it: Bicycles are super cool. They offer cheap and sustainable transportation while looking great. But when was the last time you tried to ride your bike and carry your portfolio? A box? Your groceries? It’s a fact: Your sleek street bike doesn’t really measure up when it comes to transporting anything besides you. Enter the Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge. Begun as a search for the ultimate utility bike for modern living, Oregon Manifest has become a one-of-a-kind design-build competition for some of the country’s best custom bike craftspeople. As bicycle culture swells, there is a growing need for a utility bike that can truly integrate seamlessly into everyday life.

Student Teams Compete with the Big Dogs Until this past year, the competitors have been almost exclusively professional bike designers and builders. But on September 23 and 24, 2011, four CCA students and a studio manager stood proudly—with five other student teams—alongside 28 teams of professionals. “Our bike fit in really well amid all of that incredible craftsmanship and talent,” said CCA team member Ch arl i e Weber . Brandon Walker, CCA’s Rapid Prototyping Studio manager and one of the team advisors, reflected, “It was incredibly rewarding, just getting there, knowing our entry had been built from scratch and realizing all the little things that had coalesced into this finished product. Everyone looked really proud.” It had been a long journey of many months leading up to this moment under the bright lights in Portland, and the team had burned some serious midnight oil at the eleventh hour. “It was so nerve wracking!” recalls Walker, “but the students did an amazing job of presenting

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“The two-wheeled revolution won’t come on the saddle of a race bike or a specialty bike,” declares Oregon Manifest’s organizers. “The utility bike is the transportation mode of the future for millions of Americans who want to live healthier, more sustainable lives, but don’t think of themselves as ‘cyclists.’ The key to realizing this future is thoughtful, innovative bike design that fills multiple needs and fits into their lives.”

team members Max Pollock, Charlie Weber, Mateo Hao, and Mac Low

with natural resins and fiber composites. “CCA was the only team that used natural composite materials,” says Walker. “Lots of people at the competition showed interest. It was a real head-turner.” The team also showed its commitment to sustainability by building the bike entirely in-house, taking full advantage of CCA’s shops and available 3D software applications. “The shops have amazing tools for bike frame fabrication. The programs have allocated a lot of resources to outfitting the shop, so we had everything we needed—more than some professional builders out there,” Weber explained. “The Bridgeport mill and metal lathe are indispensable for processing and mitering tubing. We also have jigs and a frame fixture from Anvil, which are important for making frames accurately and efficiently.” A Learning Experience

their design to the judges. No one had slept for two days, but it was just like in a classroom critique—their instincts took over and they knew what to do and say.” Starting the Journey

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The process started in March 2011. nich olas riddle , then a member of CCA’s Industrial Design faculty, began to put together a team, which by the time of the competition included the students Sac h i DeCou (MBA in Design Strategy 2012), Mateo Hao (Furniture 2013), Al Nelson (Graphic Design 2013), Mac Low (Industrial Design 2012), M ax Pollock (Industrial Design 2012), Duff Ryan (Industrial Design 2012), and Ch arlie Weber (Industrial Design 2013). Their mandate: to design and build a utility bike to a set of specific criteria, including a lighting system for safety, a load carrying system, and an antitheft system. They designed with an entrepreneurial mindset: specifically for a small business owner desiring increased urban mobility. They created cargo modules that easily slide and lock onto the bike frame. “Take off the modules, and you are left with a nice commuter bike,” says Walker. “Ever tried to park a cargo bike in a crowded field of bike racks?” Weber reflects, “I feel that we did a good job balancing the practical needs of our intended user with visual appeal. Some bikes in the competition were more conceptual and others purely utilitarian, but we found a sweet spot between the two, which makes ours more likely to move toward real-world production.” Sustainable Manufacturing The team also felt a particular commitment to manufacturing the bike sustainably. The modules were made

Weber was a particular asset to the team because of his experience in bike building. He had previously taken a frame-building course at the United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon. “I had seen the entries from the last Oregon Manifest competition in 2009 and had a strong interest in the hand-built frame scene. The Urban Mobility program started by Nick Riddle was one of the main reasons I chose to attend CCA. This was an extremely complex project that had to function in the real world while still looking great. To do that took lots of collaboration and planning. I learned a lot about project management and the challenges of leading a team. That is something that I really want to take forward into my professional work.” Another valuable aspect of the competition for many of the students and faculty was meeting and connecting with the judges. “The judges are very well known in the field, so it was really cool for the students to get to meet them,” says Walker. “Like meeting an idol.” The panel featured some of the biggest names in bikes, including Rob Forbes, founder of Public Bikes and Design Within Reach, Bill Strickland, editor of Bicycling magazine, Tinker Hatfield, VP of innovation design and special projects for Nike, and Joe Breeze, founder of Breezer Bikes. Breeze remarked, “I loved the fresh eyes of the students. They represent 90 percent of the potential demographic who could be riding bikes in America. To see what they want in a bike is exciting.” Students were encouraged to connect with local bike builders. “We had great support from companies based in the Bay Area,” says Weber. Easton, Gates Belt Drive, TRP Brakes, and Paragon Machine Works all provided parts to help us complete the build.” The team was also advised by Curtis Inglis, a Bay Area local and award-winning frame builder who was a guest instructor for CCA’s Bike Building I: The Frame course in summer 2011.

A Tale of Two Graphic Designers: martin venezky & Jon Sueda

by simon h o d gs o n Today, professors J o n S ueda and m a rt i n venezky seem like two sides of the same coin. In the Graphic Design courses they co-teach at CCA, they listen to their students before speaking, argue with each other fruitfully and comfortably, then almost always agree on what the student should do next. In addition to their teaching work, each has forged his own independent professional career. Venezky is one of the most influential designers of his generation. His clients have included SFMOMA, the New York Times, Wired, and the Sundance Film Festival; recently he designed the twovolume, 600-page, award-winning publication for the International Center of Photographyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Mexican Suitcase, which documents newly unearthed Spanish

the way beyond art 2: Wide White Space, an exhibition of graphic design curated by Jon Sueda and presented in 2011 at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

processes like collage and photography, and finding a story in the process. There’s an exuberance in the form-making. It’s not linear, it’s poetic. Martin is a really inspirational teacher. He has always been what I call a ‘student saver.’”

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Civil War photographs by Robert Capa and others. Sueda just finished a major international commission, designing the graphic identity for the 12th Istanbul Biennial, and he is curating an exhibition for the International Biennial of Graphic Design in the Czech Republic that will open later this year. While the rapport and respect between these two designers is solid and obvious today, it’s not a relationship that developed overnight. This is the story of a mentorship spanning two continents, four states, and 15 years. Back in 1996, the 25-year-old Sueda enrolled in CCA’s undergraduate Graphic Design Program. A tennisplaying Hawaiian with a BFA from UC Davis and a background in painting and printmaking, he signed up for a class with Venezky. “Jon was extraordinarily shy,” says Venezky, “but he was also really, really good. He wasn’t used to critiques and initially hated them, but when I made suggestions, he followed through and went much further, and I was really impressed with that. His development was amazing to watch.” Says Sueda, “I didn’t even know what graphic design was, and I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. At UC Davis, we never had critiques. So I wasn’t prepared, and I found it hard. I didn’t even know I needed a computer. I went through the first semester doing everything at Kinko’s. “Most design teachers tell you to begin by coming up with an idea to solve the given problem,” continues Sueda. “Conceptualizing, drawing thumbnail sketches, then finally making the design. Whereas Martin doesn’t believe in coming up with a big concept. He investigates an assignment by first making a lot of stuff—execution before conception. It’s a totally legitimate approach, but it’s unconventional in the design field, and not commonly taught. But to someone coming from an arts background, as I do, it makes sense. It starts with material exploration, playing with

Galvanized by Venezky’s guidance and a steadily developing belief in his own talent, Sueda eventually left school in 1997 to work with his mentor full-time at Venezky’s design studio, Appetite Engineers. “Martin had only graduated from Cranbrook in 1993, not too many years before. It was his first studio, and I was his first employee. He didn’t really know what to expect, and I didn’t either. In that way we grew up together.” “We worked on projects like Speak magazine,” says Venezky. “Jon was as meticulous as me. He was smart, and he was making great stuff. We were working side by side, with feedback going both ways. I absolutely trusted his sensibility. We became friends.” The first student that Martin Venezky “saved” was himself. “I was in my 30s, working as a hack at an Oakland marketing firm, designing coupons and trade brochures. I hated it. I was embarrassed to tell people what I did. I could see other design work that I liked, for instance Rudy VanderLans’s Emigre magazine, which featured designers like Ed Fella and Allen Hori. I realized that I had to go back to school. I wanted design to be part of my life, rather than just what I did for a living. Cranbrook Academy of Art seemed like the place where the most difficult design work was happening. I applied in 1990, didn’t get in, then went to night school at UC Santa Cruz to build up my portfolio. The following year, I applied again and was accepted. “When I came back to the Bay Area in 1993, my goal was to simply get a position at an interesting design firm. I had no intention or desire to work independently. Lucille Tenazas helped me get a job teaching undergraduate design at CCA. I wasn’t good at public speaking or being up in front of a group, but Kathy McCoy, the head of the 2D program at Cranbrook, had encouraged all her students to practice it. So, over

the mexican suitcase, a publication designed by Martin Venezky that accompanied the International Center for Photography’s major traveling exhibition

time it became enjoyable, in part because it forced me to articulate what I was doing. I really felt for the older students who were changing careers. One of the ways I got trapped as a designer in my 20s and 30s was by people telling me I was doing good work when I wasn’t. So I always make sure my critiques are honest, but in a caring way.”

“One of my CalArts assignments was to identify an interesting contemporary text and write a response to it. I chose the Dogme 95 manifesto—the code of a group of avant-garde filmmakers. It is about avoiding the artifice of the ordinary ‘Hollywood blockbuster’ by using handheld cameras and never overdubbing commentary or music. The idea of enforcing restrictions upon one’s work—stripping a thing down to its essence—became a big thing for me. “Martin and I were still keeping in touch through all this. He’d give me advice, and was always very supportive and willing to discuss design. In 2003 I took an internship at the same studio in the Hague where he had interned 10 years before. At Studio Dumbar, I really reacted against the vogue of experimentation for its own sake. Although everything designed there was extremely seductive aesthetically, I began to question whether that was always the best solution. Was an avant-garde graphic identity the right thing for a client like a bank or an employment agency? It drove me in the opposite direction. This also helped me find my own identity as a designer.” Both Sueda and Venezky continued to roam the world, seeking different challenges. Venezky taught at Rhode Island School of Design, and Sueda undertook a design residency at North Carolina State University. In 2004 they paired up again as faculty colleagues teaching at CalArts, and by this time, the dynamic had visibly shifted. “Jon’s style had changed,” says Venezky. “He’d

developed a way of talking about his own work, with his own sensibility and strategies. He’d founded his company, Stripe. We quickly cemented our new way of working together in an academic environment. We nearly always agreed in critiques on how to push students to work harder and better. It was great.” When they both decided (independently) to return to the Bay Area, they rented a studio together and reprised their CalArts rapport at CCA. From Hawaii to Holland, New York to North Carolina, the Motor City to the City of Angels, Venezky and Sueda have taken very different paths. They are of different generations, and their processes, practices, and portfolios are totally distinct. Yet they share a similar value system. In an era when mobile devices have made design more immaterial than ever, they both venerate the physical object. “Martin is one of the most talented form makers and graphic storytellers I’ve ever seen,” says Sueda. “He works really hard to make what he makes.” “Jon’s a throwback,” says Venezky, “in his emphasis on the physical object. We’re both fighting for the object. Jon is always considering how a design will play out in terms of material, print, and typography. He thinks architecturally, structurally, materially. Jon is one of the ‘resisters’ out there. He will sometimes suggest that his students silkscreen a poster rather than outputting it digitally, and for him that is more of a political stance than a generational one. Whereas if I resist, people will just say I’m being cranky.”

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Sueda took to heart Venezky’s example of selfreinvention. “You learn as much as you can from others, but the day comes when you have to do your own thing. I definitely viewed Martin as a model of how to go about it. So I went back home and taught graphic design at the University of Hawaii for a year. Then between 2000 and 2002, I completed my MFA coursework at California Institute of the Arts, which was like a Californian offshoot of Cranbrook. By that time Martin had become something of a star. He was doing really important work and emerging as one of the important designers of the era. All the instructors knew his work, and that I’d worked for him. My portfolio was mainly stuff I’d done with him, so I struggled to express my own voice. If I did anything that looked like his style, they’d give me a hard time. It was tough.

ENTREPRENEURIAL AESTHETICS: 16

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Transforming oa k l a n d i n to a n a rt d e st i n at i o n by jim norrena

Come on over to downtown Oakland—specifically 23rd, 25th, and 26th Streets between Broadway and Telegraph Avenue—and you will discover numerous inspired entrepreneurs making and selling craft-based work that incorporates sustainability at every level. This bustle of free-spirited and responsible creativity is exciting to witness, and one thing that many of the practitioners have in common is an affiliation with CCA. This eclectic scene is home to dozens of commercial and nonprofit art galleries and mixed-use spaces specializing in everything from fashion design to sculpture, painting, illustration, ceramics, jewelry, and more. Oakland actually placed fifth in a recent New

York Times list of the top 45 international cities to visit—further evidence of its growing reputation as a cultural (and art shopping!) destination. “There is a palpable sense of enthusiasm and energy surrounding the art scene here,” observes Ch andra C err i to (MFA 1994), director of Chandra Cerrito Contemporary at 480 23rd Street. She views Oakland’s transformation as evidence of increased professionalism and local economic viability. “The immediate community as well as the City of Oakland seems to have a real appreciation for what the galleries and the arts are contributing.” Cerrito has exhibited (at her current gallery and elsewhere) work by zac h ary Roy er S c h olz (MFA 2006, MA Visual and Critical Studies

this year), which has involved correspondingly revitalized contemporary programming such as the Oakland Standard project series. There are now about 30 arts festivals that take place in Oakland, up from two in the mid-1980s, and about 50 art galleries where there were only a handful a decade ago. Industrial-arts organizations such as the Crucible, founded in 1999, have deep connections to the Burning Man festival and put on events year-round that attract an edgy, arty crowd.

2009), Ann Weber (MFA 1987), Lynne- Rach el Altman (MFA 1994), Mie Preckler (First Year faculty), B ruce McAll ister (MFA 1995), Claud i a Tennyson (MFA 1994), Tarra Lyons (MFA 1991), and Col in Stinson (MFA 1997). Oakland Art Murmur is a free first-Friday-of-themonth art crawl through these blocks that has garnered national media attention. In a 2010 article titled “Oakland’s Journey from Seedy to Sizzling,” the New York Times called it “a bazaar of cultural activity” and reported that “what began as a predominantly hipster local crowd now includes visitors from around the Bay and beyond. Serious art buyers from as far away as New York, Miami, and Rio de Janeiro have also been turning up.” Art Murmur includes more than two dozen participating art workspaces and galleries and attracts upward of 3,000 art lovers each time it takes place. Its humble origins trace back to 2003, when it was just a small neighborhood art walk on Telegraph Avenue. By 2006 it had grown into a regular event that included six different galleries. Today it has become so popular that the street is closed to traffic for the evening, and the organizers have introduced a slower-paced Saturday Art Crawl the next day geared toward families and the wine-and-cheese demographic. What makes these particular few blocks so appealing to artists? Well, there’s the abundance of brick-andmortar buildings, whose rugged, bare-bones interiors are the stuff artists’ dreams are made of. This used to be an industrial neighborhood, but the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequent economic downturns led to a general exodus of the old businesses and brought rents down enough to allow artists to rent, lease, or buy huge spaces that are perfect for their purposes and would otherwise remain unoccupied. These changes are part of a larger evolution in the city’s cultural landscape. The refurbishment and reopening of the Fox Theater in 2009 was a major game-changer in this neighborhood. And of course the Oakland Museum of California is still undergoing its amazing renovation (the last phase is scheduled for completion

In 2010, Jerry Brown (previously mayor of Oakland and soon to be governor of California) told the magazine art ltd.: “A great city is really an aggregation of people. A successful city depends on its people, their creativity, their vitality. We are seeing that vital creativity flourish here. It’s dynamic, it’s exciting, and I think it really defines Oakland as an important metropolis.” FM Ga l l e ry: A C o o p e r at i v e B u s i n e s s M o d e l i n th e M a k i n g At FM Gallery, a studio collective and gallery at 483 25th Street, each of the artists in the collective has in-progress projects on display, making transparent the processes that usually stay behind the scenes in most creative practices. FM was cofounded in 2010 by the ceramicist and self-described “kiln doctor” Joe Kowalc zy k (Individualized Major 2006) and the artist, designer, and floral design company owner Peter St. L awrence (Ceramics 2001).

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cups by Julie Ann Travis at FM Gallery

installation by Charlie Milgrim at Mercury Twenty

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“Since I’ve been in this neighborhood,” St. Lawrence relates, “I have watched this vibrant gallery community spring up out of nothing and start to gain national attention. All of us are networking with other local small businesses. And in a way, each artist at FM is their own small business.” And while making and selling art is a terrific gig, St. Lawrence is quick to point out that success requires training. “No one can magically make you into a successful artist or businessperson; they can only provide the community, facilities, and opportunities. This is why you go to CCA. Then, when you graduate, hopefully you’ve come to love the Bay Area and decide to remain here and maintain your connections. CCA really seems to produce motivated artists who stay active and thrive.” FM also functions as a gallery with rotating monthly exhibitions. It has featured Alex is Aurora B abayan (Painting/Drawing 2004), M ike L ees (Illustration 2010), Juan Santiago (Ceramics 2000 and current faculty member), jul ie ann travi s (MFA 2007), Jessie Rose Vala (Individualized Major 1999), and Ch ristoph er Vogel (Printmaking 2007). St. Lawrence feels good about the curatorial role he’s playing at FM: “If there is a theme emerging among the

FM artists, it is craftsmanship. We all make things by hand and appreciate hard-working artists who show attention to detail.” The Moon: R i s i n g Ov e r Oa k l a n d Sustainable fashion designers Cory Gunter Brown (Pre-College Program alumna) and C ass i dy Hope Wr i g h t (former Textiles student) are the founders of The Moon at 447 25th Street. They describe it as a “slow fashion” boutique and design studio, making and selling creative ready-to-wear and custom garments, jewelry, and novelties. Their products are all one-of-a-kind and make responsible use of society’s excesses—meaning, for instance, that they only use natural dyes, and that the materials, if they weren’t sustainably produced in the first place, were scavenged, repurposed, or donated. Brown cannot imagine having established The Moon anywhere other than Oakland. “Cassidy and I both grew up in Oakland. It’s our home. The people of Oakland are deeply passionate and creative, and it’s beautiful to be in the midst of so much creativity. You can’t ignore the world here; being here makes you think deeply about what you do and why.”

installation by Pam Dernham at Vessel foot traffic at the 25th Street Collective, a group of Bay Area slow-food and slow-fashion artisans practicing local, ethical manufacturing, and innovative resourcefulness

bodies of work year after year. Personally I am a tinkerer and like to experiment, so this is a perfect venue for me. The Oakland Art Murmur scene and our gallery have collector clients, so I figure I have a fighting chance of making it here in my new ‘hometown.’” 19

M e r cu ry T w e n t y: C C A A rt i sts K e e p A d d i n g U p Mercury Twenty (M20) at 475 25th Street is a contemporary art gallery founded, supported, and operated by 20 emerging and established East Bay artists. They all express a deep sense of purpose in, and dedication to, their craft. M20 artist and CCA alumna joann biagini (MFA 1993) says, “Craft and handwork have always inspired me. I did so much sewing as a kid! My multilayered pieces have their beginnings in discarded books. I reconfigure the pages and play off their images and meanings using drawing, painting, image transfer, collage, and sanding.” Ch arlene “Ch arlie ” Milgrim (Interdisciplinary Crafts / Sculpture 1974) also begins her pieces with found objects. “I repurpose materials that would otherwise become landfill, such as discarded bowling balls, to function as conceptual reminders of delicately balanced or potentially destructive forces, both natural and political. “Art Murmur and especially Mercury Twenty,” Milgrim continues, “are really amazing. Commercial galleries often encourage artists to crank out related

Lonnie Lee, curator of Vessel Gallery at 471 25th Street, describes what she’s witnessed in Oakland since she moved here two years ago: “When I arrived, there wasn’t much else besides The Moon and Oakopolis, but still it was clear that a transformation was under way. Artists and other visionaries were seeking out spaces.” Today Lee recognizes the prevalence of CCA artists in Oakland, and the value of that strength in numbers. “Inevitably, artists network with their peers, meaning artists and galleries with whom they have connections. As a gallerist, I network with and befriend local artists, as I take a real interest in what is happening regionally. There is a dialogue, and it definitely includes a strong CCA presence.” Among the artists she’s exhibited at Vessel are Elisa Bongfeldt (Jewelry / Metal Arts 1994), Juan Santi ago (Ceramics 2000), and Natal i e C artwr i g h t (Photography 2001). “Oakland is rich in possibilities and rich in artists who are committed to experimentation and the putting into practice of ideals and goals such as sustainability, the power of the hand in creation, and political visions,” affirms Vessel artist and CCA alumna Pamela D ernh am (MFA 1998). “A big part of why I chose CCA was that I wanted to be in the Bay Area. There is a lot of every kind of culture here, and much of it is at the forefront of contemporary thinking.”

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V e s s e l Ga l l e ry H o l d s th e C C A Sp i r i t

CCA on Facebook: wh at 's not t o li ke?

m ost - ta l ked-about p osts of 20 11

You asked for more old photos. Here’s the SF campus before it all began.

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Apparently squirrels aren’t the only wildlife on the Oakland campus.

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What do you think about this graphic design project?

F AVORITE CONVERS ATIONs O F 2 011

What do you think of the improvements to A2 Café in Oakland?

“SO much nicer than what it used to be. Love the coffee here!” “A big improvement to the café, but the coffee still needs help. Somehow they’re killing the taste of Peet’s.” “You should have seen it in the ’70s. It had a big sign over the door ‘MASH 4077th.’ There were no couches, the tables were all different, and only one kind of coffee. You had to bring your own cup. We all went to Simon’s Café across the street on the corner. Those were truly the good old days.”

First day of school! What advice would you give to get through the first week? Month?

“Mind your Dada!!!” “First find the food—then the coolest place to sit and be seen— THEN learn who your instructors are. And finally: Ask yourself why you’re here . . . and believe that you’re in the right place.” “You go in with a gift. The instructors develop that gift over a period of time. Listen to them and become a sponge. Take in everything around you—it’s yours for the taking. When it’s time to leave this place of dreams you will wonder where the time went. Relax, enjoy.”

Want more? Join the conversation with the CCA community at

Rapid-Type wins Spring 2011 Jury Exhibition! Congratulations!

facebook.com/ CaliforniaCollegeoftheArts

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Architecture faculty Andrew Kudless created this installation.

Flashback 1965! Student Geoff Bishop on top of Macky Hall.

“Was there 1967–71, missed Geoff Bishop but Michael McClure was in full bloom, and those fortunate enough to be in his class saw and heard James Morrison read his own poetry, shaking like a leaf in front of all 18 of us! Also, in the era of when CCAC closed all classes and converted into a round-the-clock antiwar poster print shop! Those were the days!”

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Words of wisdom from a true visionary: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to love what you do.” —Steve Jobs

Happy 11/11/11 from 1111 Eighth Street!

“Otherwise known as ‘CCA’s ugly sister lot’ or ‘hoboville’ or ‘hopefully parking.’” “Can’t some student Photoshop grass onto the empty lot?”

“Or actually plant some grass? If only the sidewalk area around it were a little cleaner it could be a CCA sculpture “Yes, those were awesome, awesome days. Gave Tony Bennett a tour, garden!” gave George Moscone a tour. Wish I had seen Morrison. McClure was there also. Bobby Seale was running for mayor. Patty Hearst was “Guys, this is a beautiful picture!!! Not for what it is now, kidnapped down the street from my apartment.” but for all the potential it has!!!”

CCA WATTIS AT THE INSTITUTE

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In spring 2012, the Wattis Institute’s John Baldessari: Class Assignments, (optional) exhibition featured works by 64 MFA students in the Graduate Program in Fine Arts. The works were responses to a series of notes/instructions provided by John Baldessari asking them to, for instance, “Imitate Baldessari in actions and speech. Video,” “Disguise an object to look like another object,” or “Develop a visual code. Give it to another student to crack.” Baldessari, a pioneer of Conceptual art, has long been interested in pedagogical and conceptual approaches to art making. Many of his most important works of the 1970s, such as Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts), were produced using strategies similar to the ones the students used to make their new works for this show. 22

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leora Lutz h e i d i lub i n

#48: develop a visual code. Give it to another student to crack. #59: Make up art parables.

#45: punishment. Write “I will not make any more art” “I will not make any more boring art” “I will make good art” (or something similar) 1,000 times on wall.

O peni ng S e p tember 1 3 , 2 0 1 2 : When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes

The legendary exhibition Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form (Works, Concepts, Processes, Situations, Information), presented in 1969 at Kunsthalle Bern, Germany, has been exhaustively discussed, researched, and examined. It has inspired essays, books, conferences . . . and now, at the CCA Wattis Institute, another exhibition. In September 2012, Wattis director Jens Hoffmann will tackle the history and the myths surrounding When Attitudes Become Form with a new “sequel” exhibition, When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes.

The exhibition will take place in the Wattis’s new gallery space on Kansas Street, at 16th Street.

fall 2 012 : capp street project The fall 2012 Capp Street Project residents are the artist duo Claire Fontaine. During their time in San Francisco they will research the political and protest movements that emerged in the Bay Area circa 1968—the Free Speech movement, anti–Vietnam War protests, the feminist movement, the Black Panthers—and situate them in connection with the Occupy movement. An exhibition of the results of this investigation is tentatively scheduled for fall 2013.

#27: wet and dry. i.e., how does wet gravel in a parking lot look next to another dry area. Perhaps as actual situation, where something would be constantly wetted. #67: Document change, decay, metamorphosis, changes occurring in time.

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n i cole markoff

The original show, curated by Harald Szeemann, featured 69 conceptual artists working in fields known today as post-Minimalism, Arte Povera, Land art, and beyond. The Wattis exhibition will also feature 69 artists, all working within the legacy of Conceptual art: Zarouhie Abdalian, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Mario Garcia Torres, Tino Sehgal, Tim Lee, Renata Lucas, Jonathan Monk, Claire Fontaine, Hank Willis Thomas, and dozens more. The show will also bring together archival material, floor plans, installation images, and ephemera from the 1969 show.

BOOKSHELF Th is Is th e Game Harper Collins , 2 0 1 1 Hardcover , 32 pages , $1 6.99 In this picture-book celebration of baseball, aspects of the game are described in verse and illustrated with bold double-page spreads by Owen Smith (Illustration faculty). The illustrations, set in the 1920s and 1930s, capture the excitement of the sport as it played out in American streets and stadiums.

These are a select few of the many books written, designed, illustrated, and/or published by CCA faculty and alumni in the past year. Get the full scoop on these and more at cca.edu/news/bookshelf. If you are a CCA affiliate and have published (or designed, illustrated, etc.) a book in the last 12 months, we want to hear about it! Send details to lwestbrook@cca.edu.

M aking Race : M oderni sm and “Rac i al A rt ” i n A meri ca University of Was h i ngton Press , 2 0 1 1 Paperback , 2 56 pages , $4 0 Jacqueline Franc i s (Visual and Critical Studies and Painting / Drawing faculty) explores the flowering of racial art rhetoric in criticism and history published in the 1920s and 1930s, looking at the cases of the New York artists Malvin Gray Johnson, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Max Weber, whose work was popularly assigned to the category of “racial art.”

th e last of t h e moh i cans folio societ y, 2 0 1 1 h ardcover , 4 0 8 pages , $ 67.95 James Fenimore Cooper’s novel, first published in 1826, is a breathtaking tale of captures, escapes, betrayal, and revenge, played out against the spectacular lakes and forests of the Hudson River Valley. Robert Hunt (Illustration faculty) illustrates the story in a series of 10 atmospheric oil paintings.

Setting the Scene: The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout Ch ronicle Books, 2 0 1 1 Hardcover , 2 70 pages , $ 60 The art of animation layout takes center stage for the first time in this volume designed by Graphic Design faculty B rett M ac Fadden and Scott Th or pe of MacFadden and Thorpe. Take a behind-the-scenes peek at the process by which artists plot scenes and stitch together animated works, from the genre’s earliest pioneers to the digital world of contemporary cinema. The book features previously unpublished art from major studios’ archives and interviews with big names in animation.

Th e Reeducat i on of Ch erry T ruong : A Novel St. M artin’ s Press, 2 0 1 2 Hardcover , 3 68 pages , $ 2 5.99 This novel by Writing and Literature chair A i mee P h an is about reverse migration, the new American immigrant story. As main character Cherry Truong attempts to reconnect to her mother’s family, her journey ultimately reaches around the world, from the United States to Vietnam to France. It is a story of loyalties, histories, and identities, exploring multiple generations.

One More for th e People Perfect Day Publish ing, 201 1 Pap erback , 22 4 pages, $1 6 Eight years in the making, One More for the People is the first collection from M arth a G rover ’s (MFA Writing 2010) zine Somnambulist. Playful, wry, and conversational, it chronicles three generations in the life of the Grover family. Named among the best of 2011 by the Portland Mercury!

Fifty Years of Bay Area Art: Th e SECA Awards San Franc isco M useum of M odern Art, 2 0 1 1 Hardcov er , 168 pages, $29.95 Tan ya Zimbardo (MA Curatorial Practice 2005), SFMOMA’s assistant curator of media arts, coauthored this book chronicling and illustrating more than 100 SECA Award recipients from the late 1960s to the present, including CCA alumni S q ueak C arnwat h , D es i r ée Holman, Mitzi Pederson, Leslie Sh ows, and K ath ry n VanDy ke, and current and former faculty Sh aun O’ Dell , M aria Porges , and M ary S nowden .

T est ify Coffee House Press, 201 1 Pap erback , 63 pages, $1 6 With grace and musicality, the accomplished poems in Testify summon the voices of a divided country. With a storyteller’s rhythm, Jose ph Lease (Writing chair) braids together humor, political bite, psychological intensity, and lyric beauty, taking readers to a place of warning, critique, and elegy.

s i g h tl ines cal i forn ia College of th e Arts, 201 1 pa perback , 4 14 pages, free Sightlines is the annual thesis publication of CCA’s Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies. The 2011 volume features investigations of politics, identity theory, the meaning of site, and beyond. The essays range from Jacqueline Clay’s “Black Monochrome: Vanessa Beecroft, Race and the Other” to Leanna Oen’s “Under the Microscope: Pop Culture Visualizations of DNA.” Contact kmoore@cca.edu for a copy. M ore A merican Photograph s CC A Wattis Inst itute, 201 2 Pap erback , 106 pages, $28 With this exhibition and publication, the CCA Wattis Institute reexamined the well-known photography of the Farm Security Administration and commissioned 12 contemporary photographers—Walead Beshty, Larry Clark, Roe Ethridge, Katy Grannan, William E. Jones, Sharon Lockhart, Catherine Opie, Martha Rosler, Collier Schorr, Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, and Hank Willis Thomas—to travel the United States, documenting its land and people. Wattis director Jens Hoffmann contributes an essay; book design by Graphic Design faculty j on sueda . Pai nti ng B etween th e Lines CC A Watt is Inst itute, 201 2 Hardcov er , 7 2 pages, $25 The CCA Wattis Institute investigated the relationship between writing and painting by commissioning 14 contemporary artists to create new works based on descriptions of paintings in iconic novels. The pairings include Fred Tomaselli on Samuel Beckett’s Watt, Marcel Dzama on Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, and Raqib Shaw on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The exhibition was curated by Wattis director Jens Hoffmann, and the book was designed by Jon S ueda (Graphic Design faculty).

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NEW TRUSTEES VINITHA J. WATSON

vinitha j. watson is an artist, design consultant, and advisor to small businesses and nonprofits. In 2007 she cofounded Zoo Studios, a music incubator located in west Oakland, and she is currently its CEO. In 2005 she founded Kaaya Inc., which focused on selling environmentally friendly home decor, and today she is the principal and strategy consultant for \/\/\/, which provides strategic growth planning and innovation to nonprofits in the public health sector. She is a board member of I-Mak (Initiatives for Medicines Access and Knowledge). Her artwork involves building dioramas and wire sculptures that inspire her photography and systems thinking. She was a member of the first cohort in CCA’s MBA in Design Strategy program, graduating in 2010. She also holds two bachelor’s degrees from UC Santa Barbara, in sociology and communications.

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Emm a J. G o lt z

emma j. Goltz is a former manager of the San Francisco office of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and has worked in finance in Dublin and London. She has been involved in numerous art and education organizations. She serves on the boards of the San Francisco Symphony; Schools, Mentoring and Resource Team (SMART) in San Francisco; the Bay Area division of the March of Dimes; and Schools of the Sacred Heart in Atherton, California. She holds a dual bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Trinity College and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. She has been a lifelong collector of art with a particular interest in sculpture.

Joyce B. Linke r

joyce b. linke r is a senior vice president of wealth management with Robert Baird & Co., serving the investment needs of high-net-worth individuals and family groups, business entities, and nonprofit organizations. She began her advising career at Montgomery Securities in San Francisco 25 years ago working with private clients and nonprofit organizations. She joined CCA’s Curator’s Forum in 2010. She is also a trustee of the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Fromm Institute, and serves on the investment committees of several nonprofit organizations. She has a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA from Stanford University, and an MBA from Golden Gate University. She has a particular interest in art education and actively collects photography.

VIDEO AND PHOTO: A NEW TRADITION

jesse geller, “Home Street Home,” a 2010 R.A.W. Video winner

bryant sita, “Paris R,” a 2011 R.A.W. Photo winner

chris swoszowski, “Bike Seats,” a 2011 R.A.W. Photo winner

The R.A.W. (Real Artists at Work) competitions are video and photography challenges posed to the CCA student body each fall, with vast fame and fortune (well, actually, make that website promotion and modest cash prizes!) awarded to the top entries. In addition to demonstrating strong technical skills, participants must in some way address a designated theme. Past themes have included life in and out of the studio, bike culture, residential life, and the culture of critique. The winners are definitely not all Photography and Film majors, either; brilliant entries have been submitted over the years by students in all programs. Case in point: the cover of this very issue of Glance, which was shot in the CCA shops by santiago p ortilla, an Industrial Design major. Sometimes the submissions are collective efforts by multiple students, offering a terrific display of interdisciplinary exploration. Response to the R.A.W. competitions has been remarkable and continues to grow each year. R.A.W. Photo will be held for the third time, and R.A.W. Video for the fifth time, in fall 2012.

l ea r n m o r e about R.A.W. at cca.edu/raw. Do you have a suggestion for a theme for this year’s competitions? Email cwalsh@cca.edu with your idea!

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MORE CCA NEWS h ung ry fo r m o re news a b o ut CCA a nd i ts a m a zi ng Alum ni , st ud ents , a nd facult y ? Go to cca.edu/subscribe and sign up for CCA’s e-newsletter, a once-a-month broadcast featuring new, original stories about students and alumni, the top 10 most interesting CCA-related stories in the media, and a rundown of all the major public events happening on campus in the upcoming weeks. Still wanting more? Check out inthemake.net. This beautiful blog, with fantastic photography and great stories, is a collaborative project by the photographer K L EA M C K ENNA (MFA 2009) and the writer Nikki Grattan. The focus is on visiting artists and designers in their studios. (At left are excerpts from the photo essay on Christina Empedocles.) Recent features have spotlighted: m o ni c a c a ni l ao (Illustration 2005) pa b lo cri st i (MFA 2009) ch ri st i na emp ed o cl es (MFA 2008) ch ri st i ne k es l er (MFA 2009) l i nda g ea ry (Painting/Drawing faculty) j ul i a g o o d m a n (MFA 2009) va nes sa m a rs h (MFA 2004) y vo nne m o us er (Wood/Furniture 2006) l ea h ro s enb erg (MFA 2008) m a rc i wa s h i ngto n (MFA 2008, Painting/Drawing 2002) i m i n y eh (MFA 2009)

CCA Des ig n Alum and Faculty M e mbe r Receive Hig h Honor from AIGA In March, CCA alumnus patrick coyne (Graphic Design 1983) and Design faculty member mari a g iu d ice were named San Francisco Fellows of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). Also receiving the award that night was karin Hibm a , wife of designer Michael Cronan (a CCA alum) and mother of two CCA alumni, Shawn HibmaCronan (Sculpture and Furniture 2009) and Nick Cronan (Industrial Design 2002). The AIGA Fellow program recognizes mature designers who have made a significant contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within the design community

and their local AIGA chapter. Patrick Coyne is editor and designer of Communication Arts, the leading professional journal for designers, art directors, design firms, agencies, and corporate communications departments. Maria Giudice is CEO and founder of the San Francisco–based Hot Studio. Several other CCA faculty and alumni have been honored with this award over the years. Last spring it was given to Dugald Stermer, then chair of Illustration (Stermer died in December 2011; read his obituary in the “In Memoriam” section of this issue). Doug Akagi, Leslie Becker, Michael Cronan, Mark Fox, Tom Ingalls, Michael Mabry, Jennifer Morla, Steve Reoutt, and Michael Vanderbyl have also received it in past years.

In January 2012, CCA became one of the first arts colleges to register an official video in the national It Gets Better Project youth suicide prevention campaign. The six-minute video was filmed and directed by Photography student yoni kle in, with visual effects by Graphic Design student nich olas navarro . It features alumni, faculty, staff, and students sharing encouraging personal messages about living today as an openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered person. (Watch the video on CCA’s YouTube channel.)

The video features as its conclusion the making of the photograph A Great Day in San Francisco, a tribute to Art Kane’s famous 1958 photograph A Great Day in Harlem. The original photograph captured 57 important jazz musicians of the era, standing together in front of a brownstone in Harlem. For the new photo, shot by Photography studio manager c h ri s ni ck el , Painting/Drawing chair k i m a nno called upon CCA’s LGBT community to gather in front of the main San Francisco campus building and create their own new vision of hope and respect.

l i t t l e pa p er pl a nes Little Paper Planes is the brainchild of the Oaklandbased artist and curator k elly lynn j o nes (MFA 2010). She founded the company in 2004 after getting her BFA, desiring to create an online platform where she and her friends could sell their work and support their art careers. Community is the driving force behind the company, which today sells art by more than 70 emerging artists around the world, about a third of whom are CCA alumni (half of its staff are CCA alumni, too!). Little Paper Planes was one of the first online stores offering artist editions, and today its activities extend to prints, publishing, curatorial projects, and licensing. It has been featured in numerous publications and blogs, including Cool Hunting, Nylon magazine, Lucky magazine, Design*Sponge, Apartment Therapy, the New York Times, Daily Candy, and more. Check out the blog and a new TV/ interview section at blog.littlepaperplanes.com and littlepaperplanes.com/lpptv.

29 29 college news

It Gets Bet ter / A Gre at Day in SF

Spotlight P H IL A N THROPY

CCA Wat t i s I nst i t ut e R ec ep t i o n:

Painting Between the Lines a nd More American Photographs, O cto b er 4 , 2 0 1 1 Christie’s sponsored a preview tour of both 01 exhibitions exclusive to Curator’s Forum members. At right are Christie’s representatives Sara Friedlander and Laura Nagle

Painting Between the Lines artists Maaike Schoorel, Cecilia Edefalk, and Jordan Kantor

02 01

More American Photographs artist 03 Hank Willis Thomas (MFA and MA Visual Criticism 2004) with Jacqueline Clay (MA Curatorial Practice and Visual and Critical Studies 2011) 02

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Fraenkel Gallery’s 04 Frish Brandt (center) (Printmaking 1979), Darius Himes (left), and Peter Colon (right) with More American Photographs artist Katy Grannan (center right) and her husband John McNeil (center left) Stacy Christen, chair of 05 CCA’s Board of Trustees F. Noel Perry, and trustee Emma Goltz

1 3 th An n ua l Wornick Awa r d s , Octob er 18, 201 1

Ronald and Anita Wornick, Wornick 06 Award winner Nicholas Morris, and Nicholas’s parents Barbara and Stephen Morris

CCA President Stephen Beal, 07 Wornick Award winner Peter Joseph L’Abbe, and Susan Koret of the Koret Foundation

Fall Sch olars h i p D i nner , Nove mbe r 4, 2 0 1 1 08 Guerda Mezidor (center), recipient of the Ellamae Simmons MD Endowed Scholarship, with Sarajane Miller-Wheeler and Dr. Calvin B. Wheeler

08 09 Scholarship donors Kate Scott and Teresa Ferguson with Rob Fatal, recipient of the Ginny Kleker Commitment to Art Award

Student speaker Lionel Ramazzini, recipient of the Bernard Osher Foundation Scholarship and the Reuben and Muriel Savin Foundation Scholarship

10 11 Trustee Diane Christensen (center) with Carmen M. Christensen Endowed Scholarship recipients Lukaza BranfmanVerissimo, Kathleen Moynahan, Kelly Fadem, Laima Klavina, and Marieca Tye

11 13 Lucas McCabe, recipient of the Patricia Walsh Emeritus Endowed Scholarship, with Patricia Walsh

12 Victor Carrasco Scholarship recipient Kadi Franson (center) with donors Kate Jeffrey and Elizabeth McMillan

31 31 philanthropy

honor roll of donors New gifts and pledges from the following donors were recorded between January 1 and December 31, 2011. Alumni are identified by actual or expected year of graduation, when the date is known. Donors to CCA’s 2012 gala An Evening with David Sedaris, benefiting student scholarships, will be acknowledged in a special article in the fall 2012 issue of Glance magazine. in d iv id ua l Donors $10,000+

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Kimberly and Simon Blattner Tecoah Bruce (1974, 1979) and Thomas Bruce C. Diane Christensen and Jean M. Pierret Richard and Jean Coyne Family Foundation Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein The Ferguson-Scott Family Randi and Bob Fisher Patricia W. Fitzpatrick Nancy and Pat Forster Gensler Family Foundation Emma and Fred Goltz Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe The Hellman Family Foundation Leo and Florence Helzel Timothy Howes and Nancy Howes (2005) Brenda and George F. Jewett III (1996) Byron D. Kuth, FAIA LEED AP and Elizabeth Ranieri Laureen Landau* Trust (1961, 1962) Ms. Joyce Linker Miranda Leonard Helyn MacLean and Asher Waldfogel The S. Livingston Mather* Charitable Trust Mellor Family Trust Lorna Meyer Calas and Dennis Calas Ms. Ann Morhauser (1979) Nancy and Steven Oliver F. Noel Perry Roger and Victoria Sant Gene Savin and Susan Enzle Estate of Norma Schlesinger Barclay and Sharon Simpson Judy and Bill Timken The Toby Fund Jack and Susy Wadsworth Angie Wang (1995) and Mark Fox Dr. Thomas J. White Ms. Carlie Wilmans Ronald and Anita Wornick Mary and Harold Zlot

$5,000– $9,999 Mr. and Mrs. Gary Borman Dr. Thomas and Janice Boyce

Ms. Frish R. Brandt (1979) and Mr. Jeffrey Fraenkel Lauren and Jamie Ford Mrs. Charles H. Hine Ellen Klutznick Mac and Leslie McQuown Byron R. Meyer Mrs. Sarajane Miller-Wheeler and Dr. Calvin B. Wheeler Edna Reichmuth* Trust (1939) C. Ross Sappenfield and Laura Brugger Peter F. and Betty Shoemaker* Living Trust Laura and Joe Sweeney

$1,000–$4 ,999 Doug Akagi Susan Avila and Stephen Gong Ms. Una Baker Neil and Gene Barth Stephen Beal and Elizabeth Hoover Mr. Robert Bechtle (1954, 1958) and Ms. Whitney Chadwick Amanda A. Bryan (1984) John and Florence Bryan Penny and Peter Chen Zheng Chongbin Rose Anne Critchfield (2005) and Steve Cohn Mr. Tad J. Freese Mark Freund and Trice Koopman Douglas R. Gordon (1964) Tracy and Maie Herrick Carol and Richard Hyman Timothy and Anne Kahn Steve and Maria Kahng Ms. Susan Landor Keegin Ms. Renuka Kher (2010) Chong-Moon Lee Mr. and Mrs. Philip H. Li Eric Madsen Dr. and Mrs. John M. Manoyan Nena and David Marsh Sheri S. McKenzie and Mark S. Bernstein John L. Milner (1972) Carmen J. Moore Charitable Trust Stephen and Barbara Morris Dr. Thomas L. Nelson and Dr. Wylda H. Nelson Shepard Pollack and Paulette Long Rotasa Foundation

Dorothy Saxe and George Saxe* George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske Roula Seikaly and Tim Connor Büldan Seka Mary Jo and Arthur Shartsis Ms. Allison Smith Kenneth W. and Cherie N. Swenson Corinna Tsai and William Chen Ms. Suzy Vogler (1982) Brandt and Amy Williams Mr. Vincent R. Worms Robin Wright and Ian Reeves Anonymous (2)

$ 50 0 –$ 999 Christine Bliss and David Nitz Lisa Campos Don Crewell Mr. Leroy Dutro (1941) Ms. Britta Erickson, PhD Lori and Peter J. Feibelman Ms. Mikae Hara (1986) Mark Jensen Kurt Kiefer (1992) and Mary L. Williamson Sandra Greenberg Kosinski (1974) Ms. Sarah Lowenthal, MD Margaret Menrath Alan W. Myers Sally and Robert Nicholson, parents of Bobby Nicholson (2008) Samuel Perry (1986, 1990) and Marianna Stark Bettyann Plishker (1978) Mr. and Mrs. Luc Schlumberger Ms. Catherine S. Stricklin and Mr. John L. Manferdelli Heidi Timken, Max and Jackson Perkins Todd Werby and Noni Greene Anonymous (5)

$ 2 50 –$ 4 99 Mia S. Alexander (1979) Mr. Dean Artis and Ms. Vivien Williamson Nancy Clark and Bill Broach Sally and Philip Chapman Nina Chiappa (1976) Linda A. Cicero (1980) and Robert Kennedy Mr. Burton Edwards (2003)

$5 0– $24 9 Alla Agafonov Ms. Mary H. Ahern (1974, 1976) Dr. Edward A. Aiken (1972) William R. Alschuler Mr. Gregory Andreas and Ms. Judith A. Rosenberg Mr. and Mrs. Peter P. Appert Tanuja and Dinesh Bahal Jacob Belsky (1965) Mary Bender (1984) and Charley Hoyt Mary C. Bendix (1975) Don Berk (1975) and Nina DeLynn Berk (1974) Mr. Brian Blue Phyllis Brown (1956, 1982) Kenneth L. Bryant (1976) Rosemary Clark (1967) Mr. and Mrs. Paul Crowder Jose Cruz Ovalle Mr. Barry Culbertson Mr. and Ms. Chitrabhanu Dasgupta Armen and Nelly Der Kiureghian Anjali Desai Mr. Andrew Dhuey and Ms. Bridget Clarke Gale and Louie Diangelo, Don and Dina Golden Mark and Barbara Dorn Mr. Thomas Dufurrena and Ms. Hilda S. West Bernard Faber Mr. Leon A. T. Farley Mr. Brian Ferrall and Ms. Laurie Poston Dr. Janina J. Fisher Daniel H. Fitch (1960) Mr. and Mrs. Sean Fitts James M. Fowler (1969) and Sui Hen Fung Fowler Ms. Katherine Simon Frank (1965) Ms. Annie L. Frykholm (2010) Ms. Sharon Gadberry Ms. Christina M. Gearin (2000) and Mr. Andrew Mayo

Ms. Sandra Green Mr. Noah P. Greer (2010) Ms. Claudia Herrera Hall (1976) Ms. Judith Hamill (1974) Jean Hansen (1979) and David Maglaty Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Harding (1957) Mr. and Mrs. William Hartel Mr. and Mrs. Larry Hatfield J. R. Heinzkill Janene J. Hilliard (1973) Ms. Holly Holmquist (1999) Ms. Rita Hsu Ms. Valerie Huaco (1990) and Mr. Martin Lewallen Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ippolito Ms. Andrea K. Johnson (1979) Ms. Barbara P. Jones Adam Katz Barry M. Katz and Deborah Trilling Mr. David D. Kennedy (1974) Mr. Christopher W. Kent Ms. Julie T. Kiene (1975) Mr. Sung Su Kim and Ms. Susan Oh-Kim Ms. Vesta Ann Kirby Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Klingbeil Derek Knudsen Mr. Norman Kondy Mrs. Katherine Koelsch Kriken and Mr. John L. Kriken Carolina Lau Ms. Roccena B. Lawatch (1978) Gregory D. Lee (1967) Mr. and Mrs. David C. Lemon (1979) Mr. and Mrs. Vincent J. Lemos, Sr. Mr. James Leritz Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Levy Kelly L. Malec-Kosak (1996) Dr. Janice Marcin (1984) Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Martin Nancy R. Marzi (1954) Charles Dennis McDevitt (1966) Margreta McKeown Mary W. Mead Christina Meyer (1994) Mr. Tom Miller Richard T. Murray (1949) and Marjorie Krehe Murray (1949) Richard and Marcy Murray Mr. Steve Nunnally Stanley and Lynne Ogi Miyako Overturf (1961) Jeff Padilla (1983) Sushil C. Pal (1978) Wendy J. Paull-David (1972) Charmaine M. Pearson TTEE (1991) Joe Perez-Green (2010) John and Margaret Pillsbury Rosalie Price (1961) and John Price Mr. Ronald R. Ramirez and Mrs. Lola Quan-Ramirez Sharon O’ Brien Rayner (1965) Mr. Michael R. Reardon and Ms. Jill Lawrence

Ms. Pearl T. Renaker (2010) Harry Reom (1950) and Carol Reom Samuel Richardson (1956, 1960) and Adrienne Richardson Ruth Rippon (1949, 1951) Mr. Donald P. Roberts (1953) Ms. Deb Ruben (1983) Ms. Eleanor Salazar Michelle Mucker Santos (2010) Barbara and Jerry Schauffler Ms. Sharyn Schneider and Mr. Chris Meinke Mr. Tom Schrag and Ms. Susan Marinoff Rachel Schreiber and David Gissen Mr. and Mrs. Toby C. Schwartzburg (1985) Dan Shafer (2005) and Alicia Shafer Adrienne A. Sharp (1975) Sallie Shawl Ms. Susan W. Sheldon (1968) Peter Silen, Ph.D. Robert Simms (1962) Ms. Ann Slater Robert P. Smith III (1962) Mr. Jerrold E. Stabley and Ms. Evelyn M. Casuga Megan and Grace Stermer Mr. Norman Sugimoto Mark Takiguchi Ms. Asako Takusagawa (1942) Mr. Kenneth Tanzer James Terman (1982) Martin and Elizabeth Terplan Joel and Patricia Tomei Constance Treadwell Jaime Valenzuela Ms. Mary Rita Vasquez (1988) Ms. Kristina Veaco Lauree Villarreal (1973) and Gerald Villarreal Elsa Waller (1968) and Julian A. Waller Ms. Christine Walter Frederick Wasser (1960) and Linda Wasser Mr. and Mrs. David Wiener Dorothy Wilbanks (1961) and Robert Wilbanks Sharon Wilcox (1965) Mr. Jeffrey B. Wilson (1974) Mr. John F. Wong (1964) Dr. Ruth Worthington George T. Wray (1969) Ms. Mari Wright (1965) Isabelle Wyatt (1984) Mr. Duncan R. Young (2010) Neysa Young Christina and Philip Zimbardo Anonymous (7)

33 33 philanthropy

M. Shane Hernandez (1999) Glenn and Gabriella Isaacson Mr. David G. Kolonay (1990) and Ms. Melissa A. O’ Connor Ms. Julie P. Lee Jacqueline P. Little (1992) Ashley R. Lomery and Kevin J. Lisewski Carl and Janet Martin Patricia Marcus Curtis Mr. and Mrs. Norman Schultz Mr. and Mrs. Norman J. Stein, Sr. (1970) Ms. Karen R. Weber Laurellee Westaway Suzanne Westaway Stefanie Young (1995) and Peter Young

Or ga n izational Donors $10,000+

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Adobe Foundation Autodesk Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation Fiorucci Art Trust Fong & Chan Architects The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund Walter & Elise Haas Fund Hedge Gallery Steven Volpe Design Intel Corporation Kadist Art Foundation Koret Foundation Live Oak Foundation MF Foundation/Tim Mott The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation The Bernard Osher Foundation Osterweis Capital Management The Pilara Foundation RMW architecture & interiors / Architectural Foundation of San Francisco Skirball Foundation SonicRim The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation Anonymous

$5,000– $9,999 The Black Dog Private Foundation Christie’ s FOR-SITE Foundation The Ken and Judith Joy Family Foundation Levi Strauss & Co.

$1,000– $4 ,999 Abercrombie & Fitch American Institute of Architects, San Francisco Chapter Gallery Paule Anglim Artsource British Council Frey Norris Gallery Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in San Francisco Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Inc. Hosfelt Gallery JANUS et Cie Jensen Architects John Marx / Form4 McCall Design Group The Netherlands Cultural Services Perkins + Will

Recology Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP SmithGroup Tishman Speyer Properties, LP VIP Art Fair WRNS Studio WSP Flack + Kurtz

$500–$9 99 ARCH Art and Drafting Supply Berkeley Art Museum BraytonHughes Design Studios Center for Asian American Media FME Architecture + Design Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects Long & Levit LLP San Francisco Art Institute San Jose Museum of Art SRG Partnership Taipei Design Center San Francisco Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

$250–$499 Auerbach Pollock Friedlander | Auerbach Glasow French BAR Architects cafepress.com Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture J. H. Fitzmaurice Construction Dome Construction Corporation Donald MacDonald Architects ProPM Inc. San Francisco Chamber of Commerce / ChinaSF TANNERHECHT Architecture Tom Eliot Fisch, Inc. Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects

Gif ts In K i nd Doug Akagi (1995) Mrs. Shell Byrnes (1965) Canterbury Media Services, Inc Mr. Dale Chihuly Mr. Josef Chytry Dick Blick Retail, Inc. Dress Ms. Andrea Duflon Mr. Jason Fulford Ms. Judith Goldsmith The Estate of David Holbrook Hotel Carlton InterContinental San Francisco Ms. Wendy Ju Ms. Carolyn Kendall Mr. Jim Kushera (1995) Ms. Christine Miller Kelly (2007) Ms. Molly B. Mitchell (2009) Mr. Michael C. Muscardini (1972) Ms. Amalia Nelson-Croner

Mr. and Ms. David Newton One & Co Mr. Paul Salisbury Raymond Saunders (1962) Mrs. Dorothy Saxe Mr. Robert Sommer, PhD Ms. Laurel Sprigg Ms. Charlotte Sproul Mr. Donald Stillman Ms. Rachel Strickland Utrecht Art Supplies Thomas Wojak (1992) and Misty Leigh Youmans (1996) Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art

Fo und ers L egacy S o ci et y Mia S. Alexander (1979) Cal Anderson (1946) Carole A. Austin (1978) Kimberly and Simon Blattner Audrey Brown (1976) Claudia L. Bubeck (1979) Robert J. and Nancy R. Cole Mrs. Mary L. Correia (1967) Mr. Doug Cover Gladys M. Eaton Mrs. Phoebe Fisher-Wolters Koko Fujita (1970) and Thomas E. Flowers Kenneth A. Goss, in memory of Armando Rocha (1980) Estate of David R. Holbrook (1972) Marian D. Keeler (1990) Mr. Jim Kidder Roxanne Kupfer Laureen Landau* Trust (1961, 1962) Mr. Robert P. Levenson (1974) and Ms. Diane M. Kinnane Michael Lopez* (1963) and Jeannette Lopez Richard M. Lowenthal, M.D. Dr. Thomas L. Nelson and Dr. Wylda H. Nelson Gerald M. Ober (1956) Diane Oles (1984) Nancy and Steven Oliver Shepard Pollack and Paulette Long Edna Reichmuth* Trust Dorothy Saxe and George Saxe* Estate of Norma Schlesinger Estate of Betty J. Shoemaker Eve Steccati-Tanovitz (1969) and Ron Tanovitz (1969) Margi Sullivan (1973) and Bill Van Dyk Kern Toy (1985) Sheila L. Wells (1955) Dr. Thomas J. White Anonymous (6)

G if ts In Honor Donor

Emily and Ron Axelrod Tom and Johanna Baruch Susan Cummins Vanessa Gorman Betty Hine Hillary Keegin and Aaron Ross Olivia Martinez Matthew Wyatt Martin Tara Rech Charity Romano Miranda and Mark Salkind Noki Seekao Susan Sobeloff (2002) Ruth and Alan Stein Madeleine S. Sugimoto Jeannine Szamreta Judy Timken Michael Vanderbyl (1968) Kayoko Wakamatsu Ronald and Anita Wornick Mary Zlot

Ms. Susan Landor Keegin Ms. Ellen Becker and Mr. Howard Hamburger Sandy Donnell and Justin Faggioli George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske Dr. and Mrs. John M. Manoyan Ms. Susan Landor Keegin George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske Ms. Susan Landor Keegin George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske Stuart and Lee Pollak Stanley and Lynne Ogi Mr. Norman Sugimoto George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske Heidi Timken, Max and Jackson Perkins JANUS et Cie George Luis Sedano and Eric Fiske Ellen Magnin Newman and Walter Newman Jay and Susan Mall

Gif ts In me mory

h onore e

Charles William â&#x20AC;&#x153;Billâ&#x20AC;? Bird Peter B. Bogardus Glora Brown Brobeck (1958) Herbert Ow-Wing (1970) Viola Frey Ginny Kleker (2005) James C. Leong (1952, 1953) Mary G. Mellor (1979) Sibyl Ann Otter Steve Reoutt George Saxe Hugo Steccati (1938) Dugald Stermer

Donor Sally and Philip Chapman Sally and Philip Chapman Ms. Mary Elizabeth Bent-Rooney Gale and Louie Diangelo, Don and Dina Golden Ms. Marilyn Fountain Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Levy Ashley R. Lomery and Kevin J. Lisewski Richard and Marcy Murray Mrs. Joan A. Studabaker Sharon D. Ow-Wing Samuel Perry (1986, 1990) and Marianna Stark The Ferguson-Scott Family Ms. Ann Slater Mellor Family Trust Sally and Philip Chapman Ms. Holly Holmquist (1999) Mrs. Dorothy Saxe Mr. and Mrs. Norman Schultz Pat and Pekka Sinervo Ashley R. Lomery and Kevin J. Lisewski Stephen Beal and Elizabeth Hoover Mr. Brian Blue Lisa Campos Mr. Leon A. T. Farley Ms. Sandra Green Carolina Lau Mr. and Mrs. Vincent J. Lemos, Sr. Eric Madsen Mr. Tom Miller Mr. Steve Nunnally Megan and Grace Stermer Todd Werby and Noni Greene

*deceased

35 35 philanthropy

Honore e

Gifts & Grants CCA donors invest in the education of talented young artists and designers. We thank everyone who made gifts from October 15, 2011, to March 31, 2012. Following are the highlights of these generous donations. Donors to An Evening with David Sedaris will be acknowledged in the fall 2012 issue of Glance.

Scholarship s To educate and train promising young curators who will help shape cultural life in Turkey, CCA and vehbi ko c fou n dation have partnered in creating the Koc Scholarship. CCA will award one Koc Scholarship each year to an outstanding Curatorial Practice student from Turkey. The Koc Scholarship funds the full cost of CCA graduate tuition. 36

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More than $27,000 was given by 74 donors to create an endowed scholarship in memory of faculty member Steven Leiber. CCA is grateful to arle ne and paul leib er for their $10,000 leadership gift to the Steven Leiber Scholarship, which will support students in the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice. leo a n d flo re nce h e lz e l gave $25,000 to their Helzel Scholarship Fund endowment. rich ard a nd jean coyne family foundation continued their annual support for the Coyne Family Foundation Illustration Scholarship with a gift of $20,000. The g en sler family foundation gave $15,000 to the Gensler Scholarship endowment. fong & ch a n a r chitects added $10,000 to their Fong & Chan Scholarship endowment. aca d emic and Public Programs ka d ist art foundation gave $142,500 to be spent over three years on a new curatorial residency and fellowship, and a Curatorial Practice course. The wa lter a n d e lise h a as fund gave $50,000 to support the Community Student Fellows program at the Center for Art and Public Life. e mirat es fou n dat ion gave $42,500 for the Museum Professionals Foundation Course and Workshop, an online Curatorial Practice course developed by CCA for students in the United Arab Emirates. The phyllis c. wat tis foundation awarded $40,000 to support CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

programming in 2012. m ay b ell i ne new yo rk joined as a new $25,000 presenting sponsor of the 2012 Annual Fashion Show, and l evi st raus s & co. doubled their Fashion Show sponsorship to $10,000. auto d es k gave $12,250 for a graduate architecture course. w i l s o na rt i nt ernat i o na l made a gift of $11,000 to support a design competition and CCA student participation in the 2012 International Contemporary Furniture Fair. F und fo r CCA Unrestricted donations given through the Fund for CCA provide crucial support for core academic and extracurricular programs at the college. Many generous gifts were given for this purpose, including $15,000 from m i ra nda l eo na rd , and $10,000 each from the following donors: K i m b erly a nd S i m o n Bl at t ner , T ecoa h a nd T h o m a s B ruc e, Lo rna M ey er C a l a s a nd D enni s C a l a s , Pat ri ci a F i t zpat ri c k , N a ncy a nd Pat Fo rst er , Emm a a nd F red G o lt z, A nn H atch a nd Paul D i s co e, H ellma n Fa m i ly Fo undat i o n, N a ncy a nd T i m H ow es , By ro n Kut h a nd L i z R a ni eri , J oyc e B . L i nk er , H elyn M ac L ea n a nd A s h er Wa l d fo g el , M ello r Fa m i ly T rust, M F Fo undat i o n / T i m M ot t, F. N o el Perry, R ota sa Fo undat i o n, G ene Savin and Susan Enzle, Judy and Bill Timken, K ay K i mp to n Wa lk er a nd Sa ndy Wa lk er , Carlie Wilmans, and Mary and Harold Zlot.

M irror M irror: Gump ’ s 15 0th Anniversary Gala to Benefit CCA Honor Roll of Donors lead sp onsor

Gump’s

The Ko r et Fo undation In v ests in CCA Stude nts CCA is pleased to announce a grant of $400,000 from the ko r et fo undation to establish a scholarship fund in honor of foundation founder Joseph Koret. The new Joseph Koret Scholarship will provide critical financial aid over the next four years to Bay Area students who would not otherwise have the means to pursue and complete their education in art, architecture, design, or writing at CCA. “Funding for scholarships is essential to our ability to attract and retain the most promising students,” says CCA President Stephen Beal. “We are sincerely honored to have the Koret Foundation as a distinguished partner in these important efforts.” The Koret Foundation’s exemplary support carries benefits beyond direct assistance to talented students. This generous grant highlights the importance of investing in art and design education, and it will be an inspiration to other potential donors from the local community and across the country. Investments of this kind are essential to CCA’s continued strategic growth.

supp orter’ s Circle ARC Johanna & Tom Baruch Stephen Beal & Elizabeth Hoover Tecoah & Thomas Bruce City National Bank Alexsis de Raadt-St. James & Mark Hoffman Douglas Durkin Design Patricia C. Dunn & William W. Jahnke Carla Emil & Rich Silverstein Julie Erwin Nancy & Pat Forster Ken Fulk Drue & Art Gensler Kate Harbin & Adam Clammer Ann Hatch & Paul Discoe Brenda & George Jewett John & Tina Keker Kay Kimpton Walker & Sandy Walker Northern Trust of California Nancy & Steven H. Oliver Ruth & Alan Stein Jack & Susy Wadsworth Anita & Ronald Wornick

37 37 philanthropy

susan koret, Koret Foundation board chair

Patron’ s Circle Lorna Meyer Calas & Dennis Calas Diane Christensen & Jean Pierret Patricia W. Fitzpatrick Emma & Fred Goltz Anthony & Celeste Meier Tim Mott F. Noel Perry Rotasa Foundation Barclay & Sharon Simpson Judy & Bill Timken Carlie Wilmans Mary & Harold Zlot

ADRIENNE SKYE ROBERTS

alu m ni s to r i e s

T races Her Rad ical Roots

By Simon Hodgson & Lindse y Westbrook

alumni stories

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In summer 2011, Adr ienne Skye Roberts (MA Visual and Critical Studies 2009) did a six-week residency at the hip new Philadelphia Art Hotel, tracing her radical roots. “My grandfather, Joseph Roberts, was a Ukranian Jewish immigrant, a chairperson of the Communist Party, and general manager at the Communist newspaper the Daily Worker. He was prosecuted in 1953 under the Smith Act, wartime legislation passed to stop alien residents from trying to overthrow the U.S. by force.” In Philadelphia she visited locations that were important for him: his family home on North Douglas Street, the Shubert Theatre at 250 South Broad Street that housed the Communist Party offices, the courthouse, and Holmesburg Prison where he was held. “It was a radical city—whole city blocks were the residences of Communist families.” The culmination of the project was a newspaper inspired by the Daily Worker and a performative, illustrated lecture called Swimming Lessons and the Red Scare that combined her grandfather’s story with her own recollections of learning how to swim; the swimming lessons were happening at the same time she was doing her research. “I think of the project as my whole summer, in a sense. It folds my research together with memories, interviews, and imaginings, as well as acknowledging the gaps—the things that I don’t have access to and will never know for sure.” Roberts presented the lecture in New York and Philadelphia, and hopes to do it again in San Francisco. In Philadelphia the venues included art spaces and an

anarchist bookstore—a vivid illustration of the project’s melding of art and radical politics. In New York the venue was the actual spot where she’d had her swimming lessons: Constance Hockaday’s Boggsville Boatel and Boat-In Theater. Hockaday is her friend and swimming teacher, and the “boatel” was Hockaday’s own summer project in Jamaica Bay, Far Rockaway, in which she fashioned a hotel and theater out of abandoned and reclaimed boats. It was covered in the New York Times. “I went to Philadelphia to answer questions about my inheritance, political and otherwise. I wanted to identify what was passed down to me and what was left behind. I was raised in a feminist household where I learned how to be political, how to be an activist, but not how to swim. The fear of the McCarthy era meant my family wasn’t able to speak freely about their politics. This silence is also part of my inheritance. By researching my grandfather, I got a better sense of myself, where my values come from, and how I learned to move in the world. I only met him once, and the more I learn about his life, the more I understand that the foundation of both of our work is the ability to imagine a different system, a different world.” Roberts came home to San Francisco wondering when, if ever, her generation would directly confront the economic system the way her grandfather had . . . and then within days, the Occupy movement took off in cities around the country. “Occupy was an immediate, gigantic answer to my question of whether we

bottom: Roberts presents Swimming Lessons and the Red Scare at Constance Hockaday’s Boggsville Boatel and Boat-In Theater

would resume the fight for economic justice. After it began, the demographic shifted from the initial protesters, mostly middle-class young folks, to become an intergenerational, multiracial, cross-class movement. A friend recently reminded me that there has never been a movement for social justice without the arts. To me this means that there is absolutely a connection between culture and movement building, despite the tendency to separate the two.” Thus Roberts’s undertakings in Philadelphia have segued very naturally for her into numerous new projects related to Occupy, such as Artists of the 99 Percent and the anti-oppression working group Occupy 4 Prisoners. “I am a member of California Coalition for Women Prisoners, where I do support and advocacy for women in California prisons and co-facilitate a self-empowerment group at the San Francisco County Jail. I was doing this work before my residency in Philadelphia, but the significance of it was amplified after researching the historical context of my grandfather’s story. All of this organizing work and my work in Philadelphia has led me to begin a collaboration with the artist Mabel Negrete researching the country’s first jail, the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia.” Roberts is also continuing her teaching career at UC Santa Cruz and working on projects related to gentrification in San Francisco. She occasionally writes for SFMOMA’s Open Space blog and Make/ Shift: Feminisms in Motion. In 2009 she curated Home is something I carry with me, transforming three Mission District homes into exhibition spaces for 40 Bay Area artists. In 2010 she co-curated the exhibition Suggestions of a Life Being Lived at SF Camerawork.

Read more at adrienneskyeroberts.wordpress.com

39 39 alumni stories

below: Adrienne Skye Roberts’s grandfather, Joseph Roberts, at his desk at the Daily Worker newspaper, circa 1950

LUCAS AINSWORTH Industrial Strengt h

By Samant h a B raman

alumni stories

40 40 What do Delphi Optics (special wilderness goggles that use satellite info to provide specific information about your surroundings), Jungle Walkers (100 percent sustainable cardboard puzzle animals), and the Snowkite (a kite that pulls you across snowy slopes) have in common? They’re all the brainchildren of alumnus Lucas A inswort h (Industrial Design 2010), and they’re all in one way or another expressions of Ainsworth’s passion for the outdoors. Before he came to CCA’s Industrial Design Program, Ainsworth studied environmental science at UC Davis. “I always intrinsically loved design, but I was never exposed to it growing up. I thought products were designed by mechanical engineers. Then, during my time at UC Davis I was a whitewater guide in their outdoor program on weekends. The guy who runs the program was a designer at Black Diamond, and he used to tell stories about designing and testing outdoor gear. After graduating and working for a few years, I called him up and asked what it takes to be a designer at Black Diamond. He introduced me to the field of industrial design and said, basically, ‘Your only chance is to get into a top-notch design school and rock it.’” While at CCA, Ainsworth developed and marketed all kinds of products, from toys to high-end electronic devices. It was in jay baldwin’s Industrial Design I

course that he conceived the Jungle Walker, an environmentally conscious toy elephant made of cardboard that, when assembled, walks and moves its head with surprising realism. “The assignment was to design a toy from cardboard that could be cheaply made with a rule-die press— basically a big steel cookie cutter. I was inspired by the complicated linkages in Theo Jansen’s walking sculptures, like the Strandbeest. I started with a hand-folded paper concept, and from there moved into numerous iterations on the laser cutter, constantly taking notes on things that didn’t fit right. My challenge was to make each animal from a single sheet of cardboard with just tabs and slots—no glue, no tools. I pitched the elephant toy to University Games. At our second meeting, University Games said they would be interested in a line of three animals. So I modified the original design into a giraffe and a rhino to complete the set.” This story has a sad ending, though. “I sold the rights to University Games, and we had orders from Calendar Club stores, and FAO Schwarz was going to put a display in their New York store. It was one of the company’s first real attempts at making a completely sustainable product. Then because of some last-minute problems printing the box with soy ink, they missed

the Christmas season, and then the person in charge of the line went on personal leave, and the whole project just fizzled. So now I’m back in control of the rights, and planning one day to start up a small production line myself.” Also during his years at CCA, Ainsworth designed the Capture180 Camera, which led to an introduction to his current employer, Intel. “Our assignment for that class was simply: Design for the future of digital photography. At the end of the class, matty martin , sam staar, and I were selected to develop our ideas further over the summer in a sponsored course with Intel. Of all the concepts I sketched up, the hemispheric camera was one of the simplest, but it had the strongest narrative, the best story. At the end we presented our work at the Intel Developer Forum, and I was invited to give a solo presentation to the vice president of handheld devices at Intel in Santa Clara. “Later, when Intel’s Interaction and Experience Research lab was founded, my contact from the CCA Intel sponsored studio hand-delivered my résumé and portfolio to the hiring manager. His good words got me that first interview for a highly competitive position.” And the rest is history. His situation at Intel couldn’t be more up his alley, he reports. He is based in Portland, Oregon, and designs conceptual electronics, specifically the future of photo and video capture. “It’s great. I’m currently building an experience prototyping lab, complete with hacked Kinects, Arduinos, a 3D printer, and soon some projectors. We’re setting up quick environmental interactions using Processing and Scratch. The latter is an MIT program for helping kids learn to program, but it’s also great for hacking together basic interactions and gesture controls with a Kinect.” Many

lucas ainsworth’s Delphi Optics wilderness goggles use satellite info to provide specific information about the wearer’s surroundings

of Ainsworth’s designs are motivated by his fascination with the mechanical aesthetics of kinetics. That is, in each of his products, he aims to create immersive experiences through objects and interactions. Ainsworth cites CCA as very important in his rapid climb to success in his chosen field. “I’ve been very fortunate. After graduation, I worked freelance for a year before getting hired at Intel, and every one of my jobs came through a CCA contact—either an instructor or a studio sponsor. I had a few unique opportunities that were extremely beneficial, for example working with MBA students at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. It was a challenging environment, and my first ‘outside the design bubble’ experience. All in all, my time at CCA could not have been more important in building experience, professional contacts, and an extremely valuable skill set.”

QUESTION BRIDGE D EB UTS AT THE S UNDANCE FILM FE STIVAL N E W FRO N T IER STORY LAB

by all ison byers

On any given day we encounter dozens, even hundreds, of people who are different from us: a different race, a different gender, a different class, a different age. We intellectually understand that our own identity is multifaceted, yet sometimes we cannot help grouping people into stereotypes, even within what others would consider a diverse demographic.

alumni stories

42 42

A team of four artists, including CCA Photography faculty member Chris Jo h nson and two CCA alumni, Hank Willis Th omas (MFA and MA Visual Criticism 2004) and Bayeté Ross Smith (MFA 2004) (the fourth team member is Kamal Sinclair), have begun a far-reaching conversation on this topic, engaging a diverse group of African American males in a question-and-answer exchange and recording the proceedings on video. Their innovative trans-media project, Question Bridge: Black Males, seeks to represent and redefine black male identity in America. The project has grown tremendously since its original incarnation in the mid-1990s, and it will reach a vast viewership via film festivals, museums, and the Internet, inspiring its audiences to rethink how they understand not only black men, but also our society as a whole, and themselves. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier Story Lab in January and is on view as a video installation exhibition through July 8, 2012, at the Oakland Museum of California, and through June 3 at the Brooklyn Museum. It is also appearing at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and numerous other international venues. This ambitious project began almost 20 years ago, when Chris Johnson partnered with suzanne lacy, a renowned performance artist and at that time CCA’s dean of fine arts. The two began reaching out to public high schools in Oakland for a major project, finished in 1994, entitled The Roof Is on Fire, in which hundreds of students took part in unscripted, unedited conversations about family, sex, drugs, music, their

neighborhoods, and the future. “Through our work with teachers and students, we realized the importance of identity for inner-city youths, and the importance of their voices,” says Johnson. “That experience introduced me to the power of creative engagement in dealing with social issues.” The one-hour documentary aired on KRON, the Bay Area’s local NBC affiliate, and it was discussed in the national media. Two years later Johnson was commissioned to do a multimedia project on race at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. His concept concerned

Fast forward a decade or so, when Hank Willis Thomas stumbled upon the Question Bridge tapes.

The project resonated strongly with him, and sparked an idea. “Around the same time, a lot of my own work had been about deconstructing black male identity; I was struggling with the narrow perception of what it meant to be black and a man,” says Thomas. “I was invited to apply for a new-media fellowship for the Tribeca Film Institute, and I kept thinking of Question Bridge as offering an amazing opportunity.” He and Johnson applied together and won the fellowship. Viewers of Question Bridge: Black Males see a black man, on camera, asking a question that he feels to be of significance to some unknown, other black man. Cut to another black man, who offers an answer. The second person is always different somehow—in a different city, or of a different socioeconomic class, for instance—and has been selected by the filmmakers for his ability to speak to the first person’s question. The dialogues are edited together to flow like a conversation, facilitating the viewer’s capacity to process the diverse views and perspectives coming from what they might have previously thought to be the same demographic. The artists recorded 160 men from across the country and amassed more than 1,600 thought-provoking question-and-answer exchanges. An accompanying interactive website is in development; the artists anticipate that that will be the primary distribution channel for the work. A key collaborator throughout was the multimedia artist, photographer, and arts educator Bayeté Ross Smith. Smith is Thomas’s former CCA classmate and Johnson’s former student. The fourth partner, Kamal Sinclair, is an artist, director, and producer, adept at balancing the creation of art and the business of art; she was instrumental in the development of Question Bridge: Black Males as an educational curriculum, with community “bridge” events and a dynamic online learning community that the artists hope will reach audiences far beyond museums and film festivals. The

43 43 alumni stories

the divisions that social class, economic opportunity, and cultural values have created within the greater community of African Americans. Question Bridge (1996), an hour-long installation at the museum and the nearby Malcolm X Library, used questions as a way to establish connections among people. The seemingly simple idea of having individuals from the same ethnic group—but diverse backgrounds—ask one another questions turned out to be very powerful. It enabled the subjects to speak honestly and examine the familiar concept of race from unfamiliar standpoints.

website will feature at least 600 participant-generated exchanges, and also offer the Question Bridge curriculum, at no cost, in a high school and university framework. Johnson stresses that they are working on adapting the curriculum for middle school students as well. “Middle school is where we lose a lot of these African American boys.” Smith reports that the very vastness of the project’s potential has been one of its greatest challenges. “The thing keeps growing! There always seems to be a new opportunity to do something effective and meaningful with this content. It is so important to us that we can take this project out of the gallery and make it relevant to a mass community of people. We want to create a familiarity among black males—to overcome notions

question bridge installed at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition will continue there through June 3, 2012, and at the Oakland Museum of California through July 8, 2012.

of otherness, fear, and disconnection—through these universal questions.” “Black men in America have become imprisoned, literally, by the conceptual making of their identity,” says Thomas. “The idea that we all have the same values, look alike, care about the same things, and navigate the world the same way is undermining our individuality, our power, and our diversity. I hope this project serves to abolish monolithic notions of black male identity.” A significant strength of the project lies in its collaborators’ diverse perspectives. “We don’t agree among ourselves on what black male identity means,” says Thomas, “and that helped make the participants comfortable.” Johnson agrees: “We wanted to make it impossible to come in with one notion and leave with that same notion. This project has really been embraced by young black men who generally feel alienated from, or misunderstood by, older generations. It was so inspiring to us that every black man we encountered immediately understood why this was so important—why it was necessary for him to sit in front of a camera and voice existential questions about why he feels different. Pretty much every man had profound things to say. It was amazing to realize what an incredible resource of wisdom and passionate intelligence we’d tapped into and brought to the surface.”

e x tra ord inary:

kate pocrass’s

mundane j ourne ys by s i mon h odgson calls “quirkitude” is a strong entrepreneurial spirit and quiet ambition. This is partly due to nature—her instinctive gravitational attraction to challenges—and partly due to nurture, in particular the example of her mom, who gave up a career as a nurse to launch a chocolate company. Today, the artist’s ephemeral personal project that at first existed only as a 415 telephone number has evolved into permanent form: Thanks to two cultural equity grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Pocrass has been able to publish two book-format collections of Mundane Journeys.

“The hotline started in 2001, the year I graduated from CCA. It was in reaction to a show one of my advisors, ted p urv es , did at Southern Exposure called Sites and Expeditions. I changed the telephone message every Monday, figuring at first that it would end when the gallery show closed. I ended up continuing it for eight years, from 2001 to 2009.” Mundane Journeys led directly to a residency at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Allison Agsten, who curates the Hammer’s residencies, saw a Mundane Journeys poster created for the Orange County Museum of Art’s 2006 California Biennial and gave Pocrass a call. “During the residency, artists are encouraged to look at the Hammer in a different way. I put together an insert for its seasonal calendar that revealed hidden views of the museum, things rarely seen by visitors: staff etiquette in the break room, interviews with security guards, and a surreptitiously recorded soundtrack of the various kinds of footwear worn by visitors. What shoes were the most popular? Stylish sneakers!” Although Pocrass makes a clear distinction between her personal artistic projects and her work as a freelance textile designer, she says that the subject matter of the former does inform her approach to her day job, particularly with respect to how she looks for patterns or colors. Her clients include Pottery Barn and Gymboree; she worked for the latter full-time for five years. Underpinning Pocrass’s search for what she

She has also collaborated with Chronicle Books on two illustrated publications. “Chronicle approached me and said: ‘Can you do something like this that isn’t regional, something that people could use anywhere they go?’ The first book, entitled I Was Here, is a travel journal featuring my illustrations. The second, due out any minute, is a manual for exploring your own city called Side Walks. It’s kind of like Mad Libs, with prompts and fill-in-the-blank lists to help you create your own personal guidebook.” Her latest project is Average, a new magazine celebrating ordinary moments that we fail to properly contemplate while going about our daily lives. “Most magazines are full of things that are curated and purposeful. I get so overwhelmed by how ‘designed’ life is. And so Average was born, a publication created to mark the moments that get missed. “I applied for grants from the Fleishhacker Foundation and Alternative Exposure (Southern Exposure’s regranting program, with funding via the Andy Warhol Foundation) and received $28,000, which should fund two editions and contribute something toward the third. (I’m pretty frugal!) We’re working on the 2012 issue now. I’m not printing a zillion copies. If people enjoy it and I don’t have them sitting in my basement for years, it will be a success.”

45 45 alumni stories

The career of Kate Pocrass (MFA 2001), an artist who has made her name celebrating the everyday, has been anything but ordinary. Pocrass’s well-considered salute to normalcy began at CCA, when she launched Mundane Journeys, a community art project based around a telephone hotline. Art fans calling the line would hear a series of instructions directing them to a specific address where they might find intriguing graffiti, a charming storefront window, or an upholstered tree stump.

In Memoriam

Dugald St er me r Just making “art” was not of interest to me. I always wanted to use my craft to say something to people I could not speak to directly—large groups of people who I would never meet, but who I could address about issues that I thought important. —Dugald Stermer

in memoriam

46 46

Illustration Program chair Dugald Stermer died on December 2, 2011, at age 75. He started teaching at CCA in 1989, was appointed program chair in 1994, and was named a distinguished professor in 2003. Known for his beautiful, precise drawings, he worked as a successful freelance illustrator for more than 25 years. He designed the official medals for the 1984 Olympic Games; illustrated a wildlife series for the Los Angeles Times; worked on campaigns for numerous companies and organizations; and created editorial illustrations for major publications, including Time, Esquire, the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ, and Rolling Stone. In 1986 he had a solo exhibition at the California Academy of Sciences, where a portion of his San Francisco studio was reassembled and displayed. Stermer authored four books: The Art of Revolution (the first American book of Castro-era Cuban posters, a collaboration with Susan Sontag, in 1970), Vanishing Creatures: A Series of Portraits (1981), Vanishing Flora: Endangered Plants Around the World (1995), and Birds & Bees: A Sexual Study (1995). Stermer was the embodiment of the citizen/artist and used his prodigious talents for social good in his multiple roles as artist, illustrator, art director, educator, writer, and activist. In the 1960s he was art director for the highly influential counterculture magazine Ramparts. One antiwar cover, in December 1967, provoked the government’s ire by showing the hands of four men burning their draft cards (the hands belonged to Stermer and three fellow editors). They were subsequently called before a federal grand jury in New York, accused of encouraging civil disobedience.

Stermer had a deep concern for environmental, ecological, social, and civic issues. He was appointed to the San Francisco Arts Commission in 1997 and reappointed for a second term in 2003. He served for more than 30 years on the board of advisors of the Delancey Street Foundation, a residential selfhelp organization for former substance abusers and ex-convicts. Stermer was a significant voice for the design and illustration professions. He was a founding board member of both the Illustrators’ Partnership of America and the Illustrators Conference. In 2011 he was given the Fellow Award by the San Francisco chapter of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). The award “recognizes mature designers who have made a significant contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within their community.” When asked by the design critic Steven Heller about his quintessential pleasure and passion in his wealth of accomplishments, Stermer identified two things: his book Vanishing Flora and his job as chair of CCA’s Illustration Program.

alumni

Steven Leiber, a member of CCA’s faculty since 2000, died on January 28, 2012, from cancer. He was 54. He taught in the Graduate Programs in Curatorial Practice and Fine Arts, and was married to Curatorial Practice chair Leigh Markopoulos. In addition to his teaching, Leiber was a publisher and a private art and art book dealer. Since 1992 he produced more than 40 sales catalogues, each taking a unique form, from a baseball card pack (with bubble gum) to a series of postcards sent daily over the course of a month. His catalogues became collectibles in their own right and have been acquired by museums; a selection of them was exhibited in spring 2012 at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. In 2008, together with longtime CCA donor and friend Robin Wright, Leiber founded RITE Editions, which has so far published editions by Jonathan Monk, Andrew Witrak, and Mungo Thomson. Leiber was in much demand as an archive appraiser. He appraised the archives of General Idea, Art Metropole, Claes Oldenburg, the Oldenburg/van Bruggen largescale projects, Allan Kaprow, and Avalanche magazine. In 2001 he curated Extra Art: A Survey of Artists’ Ephemera, 1960–1999 for the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. The show featured some 500 objects and subsequently traveled to the London Institute of Contemporary Arts. In 2010 the online magazine Art Practical published an interview with Leiber that delved into the history of his ephemera collections. To find it, go to kqed.org and search for “Steven Lieber.”

Gi f ts i n memo ry can be directed to the Dugald Stermer Scholarship or the Steven Leiber Scholarship at CCA. To make a gift, contact Emma Sonduck at 510.594.3787 or go to cca.edu/give.

47 47 in memoriam

Steven Leib er

Ruth Breuner Printmaking 1974 Vallejo, California September 12, 2011 Joh n Casey MFA 1962 Salem, Oregon May 4, 2011 Warren Ch affey Art Education 1950 Los Angeles, California February 9, 2012 K arin Nel son Interior Architecture Albany, California July 22, 2011 Doris (D.J.) Snowden Interdisciplinary Design 1960 Benicia, California February 9, 2012 Clyde Souza Interdisciplinary Design 1958 Castro Valley, California July 13, 2011 L loyd Wasmuth MFA Art Education 1954 Santa Rosa, California September 3, 2011

BACKWARD GLANCE

“

Chr is Jo hn s on, P hotog r a phy faculty: I started teaching at CCA(C) in 1977. The path that led me here makes for a fascinating story that includes stints working as a nude model in Yosemite and running a Zone System workshop in Japan.

which was painted black on the inside and had a submersible window, through which he would photograph nude models. So, needless to say, that turned out to be a very popular course!

Anyway, on my first day as an instructor, I found myself on the Oakland campus in what is now the head librarian’s office, facing a bunch of students enrolled in my large-format photography course. In the early and mid-1970s I had taken many workshops from Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, and Imogen Cunningham; they were my friends as well as my mentors. So I called up Ansel Adams, and he invited us to take a field trip to his house in Carmel. We sat in his living room and had a crit. The next day we went to the home of Brett Weston, the famous son of Edward Weston. He showed us his swimming pool,

I haven’t done it in a while, but Beginning Photography is one of my favorite classes to teach. That’s what I’m teaching in this photograph, taken in 1997. I try to frame assignments so that each individual student can find a singular way to respond, as opposed to them all doing the same thing. Here I’m explaining John Szarkowski’s famous comment about how a photograph is like a finger pointing, saying, “Look at this!” When you look at the world, what do you notice? In this assignment the students are asked to look for meaning out there in the world, as opposed to projecting something onto the world.

”

LETTER from the PRESIDENT

glance

Spring 2012 Volume 20, No. 2

Stephen Beal President

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