FEATURED: ANTOINE WILLIAMS

You can work a 9 to 5 and be a practicing artist — it doesn't have to happen in the first year.

Antoine Williams

Photo by Jenna Schad

Transitioning the Thesis: Guilford is Preparing Artists of the Future

By Sommer Fanney ’18

In mid-March, plans for 2020’s Art Thesis Exhibition were heavily underway in Assistant Professor of Art Antoine Williams’ senior art class, cotaught by curator Terry Hammond. But amidst the growing threat of COVID-19, students who left for spring break were soon told not to return to campus.

Antoine’s students were scattered from their studio, their printmaking blocks, their throwing wheels and other supplies needed for their work, and it was soon clear that the Thesis Exhibition couldn’t happen.

“That threw them for a loop because this one thing you’ve been working on for a fourth of your career in college is not going to happen,” says Antoine, who noticed that this period where students were suddenly without the school’s resources was similar to the moment they’d normally face as new graduates.

“We decided to help students focus on transitioning from the thesis to their professional practice,” he says. “I told them to find whatever resources they had around them. Not everyone had a wheel to throw clay. I had one student making six-foot oil paintings, but they can’t do that in a small apartment...We had conversations on how to shift their practice.”

Instead of the exhibition, students uploaded videos of themselves displaying and discussing their work to simulate an “artist talk.” Faculty gathered over Zoom to discuss and critique these talks.

Students rounded out the studio thesis class with a 3-week course also co-taught by Terry, which equippedthem with practical knowledge like how to write grant proposals, compensate yourself fairly, navigate graduate school and more.

But COVID-19 has made the future of these artists uncertain, as many galleries and exhibitions are now closed and students are unsure where to find a foothold for their professional career.

“It’s worse because of COVID, but we’re letting them know [that] you can work a 9 to 5 and be a practicing artist — it doesn’t have to happen in the first year.[We’ve done] one, three and five-year goal setting. So just making it, acclimating it to the realities that they may face whenthey get out of school” is a big part of the class, Antoine explains.

Sophie McDowell ’20, a printmaker, says the class has been rewarding during uncertainty. “I’m grateful to havehad Antoine as a professor; he’s been really supportive of all of us.”