THE SHIFTING TRAJECTORY OF A SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART GRADUATE PROGRAM IN THE TIME OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
SARA KLEINERT, MFA CHELSEY WEBBER-BRANDIS, MFA CAMILLE O’CONNOR, MA
@2020
Moore College of Art and Design
Sara Kleinert, MFA Chelsey Webber-Brandis, MFA Camille O’Connor, MA
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS 4
Introduction by Daniel Tucker
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Student Biographies
6-7 Timeline
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Sara Kleinert, MFA 2020 ARRIVAL / DEPARTURE
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Chelsey Webber-Brandis, MFA 2020 THE FRACTURING: ON ART, TRAUMA,& PANDEMICS
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Camille O’Connor, MA 2020 ETHICS & COLLABORATION
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Introduction by Jacque Liu
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A TRULY LIVED THESIS written by Camille O’Connor
36 Acknowledgments
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Student biographies introduction by daniel tucker Daniel Intro
The work you hold in your hands and see here represents a two-year journey for Moore’s Socially Engaged Art MFA candidates, and for the MA it has been an intensive 10 months—but both have resulted in thoughtful, urgent and beautiful
Sara Kleinert
is a suburb-based artist making audio, machine building, and sculptural work stimulated by daily commutes to the city of Philadelphia. To some, SEPTA travel is burdensome, loud, and indirect, never quite close enough to one’s desired location. For her it is a container of exploration, filling the 17.3-mile trek with daily intentional actions. Compelled to spaces bordering on public and private and the economy of a place. Sara recently completed an MFA in Socially Engaged Studio Art at Moore College of Art and Design, while also obtaining dual-BFA degrees in Studio Art and Scene Design in 2017 from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Instagram: Email: Website:
sara_kleinert_works sara.kleinert.design@gmail.com https://sarakleinertdesign.wixsite.com/creator
artworks, ideas, and research. There have been crucial relationships forged along the way, with one another as peers in a cohort, with our esteemed faculty over individual or multiple courses, with external critics and thesis readers, and the many guests who come for a lecture, a classroom talk or a studio visit. This network of people represents the intentionality and richness of our curriculum and they all make substantial efforts to engage one another where they are in terms of their
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concerns and interests. These students—Sara Kleinert, Chelsey Webber-Brandis and Camille O’Connor, —have demonstrated a generosity with one another and an openness to experiences and conversations that is remarkable. They have crafted, considered, edited, mulled-over, spoken about, researched, and tested their ideas about how to make and facilitate art experiences that can be transformative comments on and interventions in society. I can confidently say that everyone at
Chelsey Webber-Brandis is an artist, writer, educator, and community organizer with a passion for mental health and a penchant for irreverence. She works in both the visual and performing arts, often intermixing forms of performance, video, and installation. Raised in Southern California, she began her career studying dance in Los Angeles. While there, she worked with a variety of performers and art spaces including Lita Albuquerque, Ry X, and Machine Project. She earned her BA in Fine Arts from Arcadia University where she received the Spruance-Daumier Award for creative excellence. Since then, she has worked on a number of public art projects in the Philadelphia area, including mural work with David Guinn and Mural Arts Philadelphia. More recently, she has focused her efforts on trauma representation in art. She has shown artwork
influenced by this topic at Arcadia University, Moore College of Art and Design, and Deja 42. She has also undergone trauma-informed training through Jefferson University’s Trauma Education Network as well as Jefferson’s Trauma-Informed Training Conference. Her organization efforts have manifested in a variety of public programs including Balanc(ed), a wellness skills workshop, and Trigger(ed): Ethics of Witnessing, which was presented at the Common Field Convening 2020. Currently, Chelsey
Moore expects great things and strong impacts from them all.
is based on the East Coast where she misses palm trees and sunny forecasts.
There are significant thank yous in the acknowledgements page of this publication,
Instagram: Email: Website:
but special thanks are due to Moore faculty members Anna Drozdowski and Jacque Liu, who were particularly supportive of these three students as they pivoted their thesis projects and public programs amidst a public health pandemic. The rest of the credit is due to Camille, Chelsey, and Sara,who worked tirelessly. — DANIEL TUCKER GRADUATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
@chelsey.brandis thechelseycreative@gmail.com thechelseycreative3.wixsite.com/website
camille o’connor
Originally from Pasadena, California, Camille received her BA in Fine Art from UCLA, with an Art History minor. She currently lives in the Greater Philadelphia area and has just received her MA in Socially Engaged Art from Moore College of Art & Design. During her four-year stint at the Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, she learned archival and registrar work, and has found a passion for art administration in her professional life. She has recently branched out into managerial work through working at People’s Light Theatre. She is a facilitator and an organizer of people. She believes in the art of making things happen, and is happy to be the person who forms creative spaces. Website: Email:
camilleaoconnor.wixsite.com/coconnor camilleaoconnor@gmail.com
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9/2016 Philadelphia.
2016
Chelsey
Sara
2017
Camille
t.
Mid 8/2018 aduate classes. job to begin gr Sara leaves her
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ore Even 2/20/2017 nversation@Mo Moore after a Co Sara applies to
2018
Moore College & the World at Large 9/5/2017 , begins working to Pennsylvania Camille moves titutions in PA. ins ral ltu cu veral part time at se
2019
COVID-19 4/13/2020 4/14/2020 to wear masks or . ers rid e uir req ilizing Art Press -19 Ut VID CO of d SEPTA begins to rea t. to prevent the sp Release goes ou 4/16/2020 facial coverings 50 er ov th wi t e Webinar Even cipating. Lived Thesis Liv attendees parti We execute the 4/21/2020 esis is due. th en itt wr e th of Final iteration 5/2020 .com/ sis he ret oo .m /www tually at https:/ vir e liv es go n 5/7/2020 Thesis Exhibitio eses second year th of se fen De al Or 5/11-5/15/2020 oject. er joins in the pr Amy Scheidegg aphic designer, 6/2020 gr 5/1 e th d an s n begin h Zoom. rture publicatio n occurs throug Fractured Depa Virtual graduatio 5/26/2020 (even surpassing in Pennsylvania recorded levels st ere Sara resides. he wh hig ty un the Co es are tion rate reach suburbs of Delaw 6/15/2020 the in ia) The COVID infec lph de Phila publisher. to nt se ok bo Final draft of
2020
5/22/2020 e’s blog website iewed on Moor Camille is interv e time of COVID-19. life in th about student
tancing, and 5/2020 order, social dis The stay at home ess shutdown put in place sin nonessential bu indefinitely.
4/13/2020 four to three lists drops from Number of pane s. nd ma de rk wo lated due to COVID-re some sources] 20 according to ns to wear 4/19 [or 4/3/20 orders all citize a are ia lph de ila The greater Ph tside. masks when ou
ore Blog. 1/17/2020 actice for the Mo 1/21/2020 ed about her pr Sara is interview ra, and Chelsey’s Sa , lle mi Ca ng r begins, marki programs. Spring Semeste their respective final semester of 2/11/2020 the US. Late 2/2020 ft is due. y spreading in dra sis the t firs e Th 19 begins rapidl DVI CO 20 3/5/20 vices” on her Late 2/2020 3/2020 “mark-making de s to the begins carrying mille send invite rformances ra Ca pe d Sa c 3/11/2020 an , bli ey s. pu els ute els Ch ssion. mm ra, cu Whe co Sa e dis in nounces its first th is t tra nt es ou ve Th me ith ati ed ce W rm 3/11/2020 Liv pla re: rfo dis the Ca pe Philadelphia an re to for s su ers list clo rri l ne Ba ita pa 0 sp lle 02 Ho mi 3/2 20 . The greater n Ca se 3/1 an /20 y ca da em 3/5 20 3/9 19 st hn Chelsey begins /20 DLa 3/5 ia for ng COVI the Ha ge l into Philadelph us which explore lle ve a begins restricti mp es Co tra are ca rat A ia the n to PT at lph tio es k SE ec de go st ea ila inf La g Br . ces, as growing scheduled Sprin g out. Ph s. ce an ly vin rs cti ng lar rm 0 ke mo eri gu pra rfo 02 th loo re Re pe art 0/2 fo ga on s l re 3/2 be ra’ to Sa socia n 3/16 Barriers to Ca t distressing her final in perso 0 Chelsey ceases g the work eerily relevant, ye ve out of their y Sara completes 3/16 - 3/20/202 ds spring break tship working da instructed to mo t & Design exten extra week. tan Ar are sis s of increase, makin nt As ge te de lle ua stu Co l ad Al Gr an Moore by ly. s. ote dio rem on-campus stu before moving 3/17/2020 3/17/2020 eatre m director gra pro the ople’s Light Th th , ng wi All shows at Pe nceled until June tre. extended in-person meeti ca al sis are fin ) r the of ou rks d ft wo en dra e thea ns. Second d Camille att (where Camille nsibilities to th po to this week. res Sara, Chesley, an to pivot our end of semester pla r he g tin ulty greatly affec 3/23 - 3/27/2020 and graduate fac y-at-home 3/22/20 s a two-week sta elsey, and Ch ra, Sa d. lphia area issue ele o an online nc de int ca ila ns 0 ek Ph itio 02 we l ns t 7/2 tal tra en 3/2 ins tly vernm 3/23 ge abrup Exhibition line event. City go emann 3/2020-4/2020 order. The Colle MFA Thesis Art tantship work Thesis into an on hn ng format. to secure the Ha e Graduate Assis lle pivot the Lived rni PTA begins in sit mi lea SE ma on Ca do of s nt y ck da ine t em man blo es her las and 4/2020 attempts to use ward. Joel Freed ux of altering routes Chelsey complet siness shut down for a COVID-19 the Nonessential bu ders are extended until braces for an infl Hospital building ia lph and modifying de ila Ph or of at local rvice these attempts. The City shelter-in-place nth. frequency of se shift care facilities mo opening up make eets of Center City. the end of the throughout the str COVID-19 cases, the on ts ten in d the an s at 20 tie /20 mb 20 rsi co /20 4/6 unive 4/7 ainder of their City to cancels the rem -19. ar for People’s Light bin spread of COVID we om zo . ce a practi h August) season (throug d Camille facilitate instructors Jacque Liu Sara, Chelsey, an event, along with ministrative staff is es Th ed Liv the ad wski, and Moore and Anna Drozdo d Chuck Duquesne who helped Shaun Flanly an hnical aspects. with Zoom’s tec
Late 8/2018 Assistant in te ua ad working as a Gr s at Moore. ive ch Chelsey begins Ar t y and Ar ann for a Connelly Librar em hn Ha at treatment ical and log ho Chelsey begins yc ps m ns resulting fro ich, if series of conditio She receives diagnostics wh a. t spinal en ev pr st physical traum lea d life, at the very not saving her on for mental an lidifies her passi public health. surgery. This so 9/2018 ath, rk exploring de wo ng ati cre s often Chelsey begin e explorations es Th h. alt he e ntal ll continue for th trauma, and me ance art and wi . next two years involve perform
Late 8/2018 uate Assistant rking as a Grad Late 8/2018 e. Sara begins wo rtment at Moor pa De n tio ica s at Moore. gin be r ste me for the 3D Fabr Se ing Fall ularly commut shared studio eir th o int Sara begins reg ve ey mo train and it Sara and Chels culate into the into the city by d Chelsey matri actice. spaces. Sara an ged Studio Art ga En lly cia envelops her pr So ed tching discharg uate program. ad gr ve Sara begins sti ati use, where ring her perform udies Open Ho 12/2018 train tickets du 18 e’s Graduate St /20 or 12 Mo its vis . lle Cami cker. train commutes ds. ey and Daniel Tu , Fall semester en ia train stations she meets Chels 9/2018 tre as Front in the Philadelph e space. This les 9 sti 01 rn 4/2 tu ls 1/1 le’s Light Thea SEPTA instal full time at Peop previously part time). blic access to th pu ed d hir an is s lle nt mi me s Ca wa altering move s practice. ger (where she tigation in Sara’ of House Mana propels an inves Late 1/2019 9 01 2/2 r begins. Late 1/2019 to Moore. ed skills Spring semeste Camille applies to build advanc Moore. program. Sara continues e at th b La of r n ste tio ica me 9 Fabr 4/201 ents Day and eir second se working in the Accepted Stud ey move into th 6/8-7/20/19 Camille attends ore Event. Sara and Chels Mo ition. Conversation@ Progress Exhib for the MFA In7/24/2019 d Chesley show an ra Sa 9 01 6-7/2 r new hour” event fo Health summer “happy eting as a cohort. t erican Academic end the end of lly Engaged Ar me 8/21/2019 att Am e e, lle tim as mi st rch Ca fir n’s d pu an es into the Socia eman 8/21/2019 ars after its Sara, Chelsey, graduate program mille matriculat ruptcy on Hahn e nk Ca th ba in s Just over two ye for nt ng y de fili Cit r gins. ore. ces it will be and current stu intact. The Cente se. Fall semester be Program at Mo System announ h System stays ram. tcy ca n Academic Healt year of the prog 19 ed in the bankrup al lud fin d inc t an no behalf. America nd is 19 co 8/23/20 8/23/20 ann building ey begin their se based Hahnem Sara and Chels kstarts her tships, Kristen 9/30/2019 Crane and it kic aching Assistan th collaborator Te wi s te rie ua se ad re Gr res tu ore. ve interviews Emily lec plo cti Mo t lle ex pe es at mi t ich gu res Ca en a wh s eir , rtm g th gin pa essin De ey begin Chelsey be y art. ): Ethics of Witn the Foundations Sara and Chels thesis topic. titled Trigger(Ed tion of trauma in contemporar Year students in Shahverdian en rking with First 19 wo /20 9/6/2019 the depic 11 19 20 9/ can udios Sara begins ervention, Ameri s. A Curatorial St government int nt nt ng with two BF ed tie pt pa t em las att n’s d an machine building and Chelsey, alo k of Happenings and subseque ts an em ra es hn ot Sa Ha pr s ite fer sp l ns . ita De e tra ee the largest hosp nts, create a W of Care: Micro, Medium, Macro h discharges or and testing thes de alt ng ati stu He ic cre em er, ad rev Ac fo vels U.S. history. e hospital close 11/15-16/2019 publication Le experiments in displacement in The doors of th w 10/2019 performative e Summit in Ne . end Creative Tim uate students. while train commutes and Camille att ad s she received , gr ck ey so els low d Ch fel an th ra, wn wi Sa gins lle’s the hospital go 12/2019 York City along protest and be 12/5/2019 ng Review. Cami Chelsey wears ital to school as mille’s Qualifyi closure. r. hnemann Hosp research on the Critiques and Ca lidified, marking the halfway d of Fall semeste En last seen at Ha is so 11/2019 12/31/19 research topic program. of her graduate e Moore Blog. respiratory int th ry po r fo ste rk my a wo s r he ifie nt on e ide ed ) th . iew 19 HO on lf Derv (W VI rse Chelsey is int h Organization ronavirus or CO s a blog post he project. The World Healt virus, named Co She also author Levels of Care
11/2017 to Moore. es pli ap ey els Ch
to Chelsey moves
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TIMELINE
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SARA KLEINERT, MFA 2020
ARRIVAL/ DEPARTURE
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Largely working in theatrical design and deal of time. The commute contains a special stage painting before graduate school, I have character that is significantly abstracted from previously understood my studio art practice the concrete spaces in which we work and as being separate from my scenic design praclive. It is a space in which time is experienced tice. My objective upon entering into a graddifferently. uate program was to better understand my practices living outside of solely the studio, Operating on timelines stage, or written word. Exploring the interthat are not one’s sections of form, theme, and function of my own: the act of waitwork was critical to my growth as an artist. The ing is not uncommon to overarching motivation behind my work is the the commuter. investigation of delineations and what the blurring between boundaries can reveal about conThe travel non-space has served as the temporary realities. These investigations have place of investigation between the blurring taken multiple visual forms and span across a of work and non-work, action and rest, and range of subject matters. A multitude of seemprivate and public in my growing practice ingly disparate curiosities propelled me toward throughout my time in graduate school. a graduate program. I sought a curriculum that The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transporwould encourage intense exploration of these intation Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rails tersections through critical conversations, theoserved as the site-specific position for ry, practical application, social engagement, and these explorations during my daily comstudio exploration. I found this in the graduate mutes to and from Philadelphia. program at Moore College of Art & Design.
SARA KLEINERT, MFA 2020
ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE Entering into the Master of Fine Arts in Socially Engaged Studio Art program at Moore, commuting by train from the suburbs was a necessity for me to access the city of Philadelphia and quickly became an integral part of my life and my art practice. I began my graduate career with a detailed investigation of the repetition that served as the background for my childhood. Throughout my life the train was a familiar sound, but once I began my studies at Moore, it became a space in which I spent a great
To some people the SEPTA travel is burdensome, loud, and indirect—never quite close enough to one’s desired location. For me it is a container of exploration, filling my 17.3-mile trek with daily intentional actions and questions. Commuting from the suburbs each day, the train quickly became a large allocation of my time, spending
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Investigation of Philadelphia Travel Moments, photography collage, 2020
a 40-minute commute each way on the rails, this space is one of experimentation and reflection for me. I was engrossed by this space, as I saw parallels between the train station and the theatrical stage. Bodies moving through a transitory space, the light, chattering of noise, and smells of the place coming together to form an environment. I began collecting and arranging immaterial and material fragments from these travel spaces. I am an analyzer by nature: how do fragments morph together to form a whole? This question grew and adapted over the course of my time in the program and unlocked a deeper critical lens in my practice of the systems I engaged and participated within. Quickly attracted to dissecting these new commutes, I crafted registrations of routes, conversations, sounds, and ephemera from this space into maps that took shape in many forms throughout my time in the program. My inquiries have encouraged me to use the critical discourse of art to reflect upon what this blurring reveals about contemporary reality, ultimately leading my studio work and thesis paper focus.
atic structures for this position to be possible. Unknown to me, this same year the world would be struck with something that would forever change the course of history. In my second year as an MFA canDuring the final two months of my graduate studies and didate, these studio developments adin the processes of streamlining my thesis paper, COVID-19 vanced alongside the writing of a rich spread to the United States as well as a multitude of other thesis paper. The selected artist case studcountries on every continent. In a matter of a few days ies in my thesis paper focus on Mierle Laderlife felt different than ever before. The second week of man Ukeles, Tehching Hsieh, and the research March, mirroring the world, the trajectory of Moore collective Precarias a la Deriva. Through my shifted. As travel, businesses, and person-to-perresearch and thesis writing, I critically examine son interaction halted, a new vocabulary of “sohow artists respond to the social relations that cial distancing” engulfed media outlets, the capitalism produces during their respective time of College closed for an indeterminate amount making. The thesis is grounded in examining art as a of time. This occurred one-week before the critical practice to investigate particular milestone ininstallation of our MFA Thesis Exhibition stabilities under capitalism that dictate contemporary and four weeks before our collaborative marginalized labor. Lived Thesis panel discussion the gradI use my research and and selected selectedartist artistcase casestudies studiesso sothat that uate cohort planned and implementmy reader will will further furtherconsider considerthe theprecarity precarityofoflabor, labor,social social ed with Philadelphia-based artists flexibilities, and advancements advancements in in technology technologythat thathave havecatecateand thought leaders. gorically altered the ways ways in in which whichcontemporary contemporarymarginalized marginalized labor is performed. performed.This Thiswork workexpanded expandedupon uponexisting existinginquiries inquiries in my studio studio practice practiceof ofthe theblurring blurringdelineation delineationbetween betweenwork work and non-work spaces that that are are made made visual visual inin the thecommute commute space. In my thesis, II investigate investigate how how and and why why this thisblurring blurring occurs due to to the theincreasing increasingprecarity precarityofoflabor laborand andimmateimmaThe indeterminacy of the situation rial labor requirements of contemporary work and life. terial labor requirements of contemporary work and life. grew as we quickly learned the remainAs precarious contemporary labor intensifies, the der of our graduate requirements would side-hustle or gig economy perpetuate the constant not be possible in the ways we prepared. push of labor in which humans are required to embody This was a devastating blow as we scramdaily. This has catastrophic consequences to the wellbled to continue conversations and figured being of the public who are working to find secure out how we would showcase our works in income within an insecure labor market to sustain new and meaningful ways. The uncertainty themselves within capitalist structures. When deof the pandemic loomed in the background of veloping my thesis, I became invested in what a fueach of our conversations and personal lives. ture could look like if these certainties were able Through spending virtual time together to discuss to shift in a way that cared for the needs of the how other artists, educators, social practitioners, public. It was clear that considerable changes would have to be made in overarching system-
EXTRACTION
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DISTANCE/ SEPARATION
and city officials are navigating access within their professional practice, we collectively explored possible answers to the issues that we are currently facing. Remarkably, each of us were already pursuing issues that are present in the pandemic—public and private space, health, alienation, transportation, and civic responsibility. The malleability of the Socially Engaged Art graduate program as well as our individual research interests allowed the cohort to pivot our understanding in order to speak directly toward the pandemic and how its effects altered the themes we already work within.
ALWAYS IN FORWARD MOTION, laser cut train schedule, 2020
RECALIBRATION This global event, taking place in conjunction with my research and art practice, has allowed me to hypothesize alternatives to the current conceptual and social relations of labor. Over the course of the past 12 weeks in self-quarantine, I reimagine what it means to make art and cultivate conversations within these uncertain shared moments. It has allowed me to create and preserve something concrete from this altered reality, as does the collaborative creation of this publication, Fractured Departure. In a constantly shifting time, I lean into these tensions of borhood, March 5, 2020 was my last train comunmapped territory. There is something incredibly mute to the city. I began understanding “comsynchronistic about the anticipated MFA Themuting” as an act detached exclusively from the sis Exhibition and Lived Thesis and the current physical and metal laboring body. I began to invesworld. The paradox of this situation is not lost, tigate what it means to move through memory and as the swiftly evolving realities of life redirect formative moments that make up my life. I continmy focus. ue to be deeply invested in constructing identity by Commuting is exhausting yet it is also a the ways in which we move through space and time. connection between people and places that During these uncertain months, it became important for I desperately miss during these times. Due me to playfully pivot my investigations as to how I have to the COVID-19 shutdowns in my neighconstructed my own identity based upon my life trajectory; an idea I have not consciously sat with. This, in combi-
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nation with the need to slightly distance myself from these the Master of Fine Art in Socialweighty topics, I continuously Engaged Studio Art program, ly returned to my favorite or as I have acquired further skills of painful childhood memories, how to navigate the world during people, and places that make times of unknown. It is my belief up my life. This investigation that artists have the capability to has come with many chalreimagine and reconstruct world lenges. Beginning to open up systems, which is desperately this side of myself in my art needed at this time. practice feels like new terPrior to the pandemic, I thought ritory that is necessary for often about theories related to lamy processing and growth, bor, and I have noticed a considerespecially during this time. able acceleration in these conversaChanneling my energy into tions in current discussions because something that is deeply of COVID. What will life look like after connected to my previous this virus has been eradicated? How inquiries, but is somewhat will work continue? Is there a possible removed has been posifuture that will ever feel regular again? tive for me during these These are questions that pique my ingreat times of change. terest from a theoretical and conceptuI would be remiss to al level; however, these ideas were not omit the influence the something I imagined the world would current pandemic has be forced to confront in my lifetime— had on the public. Or its particularly as a 25-year-old and on the influence on me—my cusp of completing my graduate studmind for composing ies. These moments in history are both this text, my body for simultaneously extraordinary and comcontinuing to work in pletely ordinary. Repeatedly spinning in self-isolation, and my my brain the past three months are these Outside, Inside - Delineation spirit for looking toof Spaces, photography contradictions. This event has further ward an uncertain future collage, 2020 illuminated what we already know of precarious labor and about the realities of labor and the economic unrest. This notion conditions under which we live. is terrifying, as the Masters deOperating in a world, specifically speaking toward the Unitgree commencement is upon us ed States of America as that is my experience: inequity as and moving forward is necessary. it relates to race, gender, socioeconomic status, public I am thankful for my experiences in health, labor wages and requirements are the reasons why society cannot continue to function under the
failing structures within American society, further generating an uncertain future of precarious labor and economic unrest to an persistent capitalist overworked public. conditions. In order Feeling lost in these moments, I am to heal the world and also imagining what the possibilities and its people the needs implications are of what we make – the and requirements of past, the present, and in the future – the public must be met has in marking these current moments before corporate and nain time. The ability to preserve sometional capital relations are thing concrete from this experience, priority. This unprecedentas it is filled with unknowns and coned event has forced the nastant shifting, feels insurmounttion, and the greater world, able yet necessary. The creative to confront not only why this thought process turned into virevent occurred but also to adtual events or material during mit why the nation was remarkthis time is shaping the history ably unprepared to appropriately of how artists navigated these control this situation. Approachnew terrains. I am proud to be ing this event from a conceptual a part of this moment. To say perspective, I knew that something that my final semester of of this magnitude was very much graduate school was differpossible, but experiencing and seeing ent than I had imagined it these moments feels far from reality would be an understateat this time. ment, but I am unsure if I would change it if I could. Labor is synched Propelled by the growth to a clock that of my investigations, and despite the vast uncertainty is not determined ahead I remain focused and by the self. excited for post-MFA experiences. There is still much work to be As I continued to write my thesis paper about the predone. I am terrified yet determined cariousness of marginalized human labor, I could not to lean into these unknowns. turn away from the global conversations surrounding “essential” and “non-essential” work and subsequently which marginalized classes and identities of the public were further exploited for their labor and health. The advent of COVID-19 exposed the
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CHELSEY WEBBER-BRANDIS, MFA 2020
THE FRACTURING ON ART,TRAUMA,& PANDEMICS
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CHELSEY WEBBER-BRANDIS, MFA 2020 CONTENT WARNING: CONTAINS CONTENT DEPICTING VIOLENCE
THE FRACTURING: ON ART,TRAUMA, & PANDEMICS THE SELF SPLITS: BILOCATION
The self splits I came to Pennsylvania not knowing much about the East Coast or the city into/ of Philadelphia itself. I had never been here nor did I know anyone else living /fragments within its boundaries. I had never seen snowfall and winter was a concept I Between future potenonly knew from learning about it and the other seasons in grade school or tial/ by watching news footage of winter storms on television. Rather, I came & from a place of sunshine, palm trees, and year round abundance of fruits /past and vegetables that are only available seasonally elsewhere. I grew up trauma in Southern California, a place which I hold dear to me as a paradise and From concrete/ heaven. But when I speak of heaven I speak of it terrestrially — The land to was divine to me. My life, however, felt far from it. /abstract A survivor of childhood trauma, I knew all too well the isolation and West/ frustration of having lived an experience feeling entirely alone and unto seen, situations which are now reflected by the global world at large /East in the time of Covid19. I understood feeling the pressure to externally Life/ mask what was happening secretly on the inside. When deciding to atto tend graduate school, I wanted to enact the opposite of that pattern. I /death wanted to turn my inability to verbalize my experiences or convey the Dissociation/ sheer depths of my pain to others inside out and upside down. It beto came increasingly important to use my art practice to do so, a visual /presence tell-all, confession style. //Oscillating// Winter/ to /Spring Immediately, that manifested as visual inquiry on the subject of Endings/ death. I had lost my fiancé less than nine months prior to matricto ulating at Moore, a wound which was extremely fresh and emo/beginnings tionally consuming. Inspired by project prompts in the Technology The constant change which was of Arts 1 course, which dealt with “analogue” technologies of art //Once jarring// such as cyanotype printmaking, woodworking, and cast making, 33 years later, the pivotal year I began exploring death as a series of visual symbols. I was also I am becoming more experiencing the changing of the seasons from summer temperacomfortable with this tures to winter winds and chills— a transition I absolutely dread//The fracturing// ed. However, it became clear to me that these visual symbols
BECOMING DEAD
INTO FRAGMENTS,/ ENTANGLEMENT This line of inquiry carried me into spring semester, which began right after the oneyear anniversary of my partner’s passing. Transitioning into the spring semester, I began working on more performance pieces, including a video that I entitled 47 Years Extinguished (Your Ex-Lover is Dead)1 in which I lit matches consecutively, letting the flame burn them down until the skin on my fingertips of death that I had been put them out. Again, I was looking at the visual symbols of death and exploring were no differgrief. At that point, it became evident that the traumatic grief that I ent than the act of seasons had experienced could not be isolated or compartmentalized from changing. I began working other past traumas I had experienced. I began imagining trauma like with natural materials which a knot in yarn or jewelry, as much as I loosened the knot on one end it reflected this change: fallbecame clear that the knot also had many more points of entangleen leaves, branches which ment, and that I needed to keep alternating between my past had been trimmed from the traumas, processing in sections to eventually find release. I city’s trees in anticipation of 19 started a new line of work, this time exploring my autobithe upcoming snowfalls, and ographical experiences with violence and assault. Specifiash from burned wood. I used cally, I was thinking of the word victim and the way in which these materials to tell the stosociety often uses the term for one of two connotations: one that ry of my grief. The ash was used strips the individual of all power or pushes all responsibility back to do casts of my hands wearing onto the individual, their situation of their own making. I created both my partner’s and my own two pieces for this series, which I entitled The Very Violent Body. engagement rings. The leaves For the first, I filmed a performance entitled Self Preservation in and branches formed a bed which which I used a projector to superimpose documentation of a doencapsulated the changing of mestic violence altercation on top of myself as I sat in a corner in leaves in color as the winter grew a dissociated state. closer. A wooden frame attempted to hold these leaves in place, which 1 Second half of title Your Ex-Lover is Dead is taken from a song by the band Stars. stubbornly spewed out from underneath or up and over its edges. I supplemented these works with performance videos of me carrying the branches, large, awkward to hold, and heavy, as well as cyanotypes which held fragments of faded photographs. All these works expressed the burden of grief and the inevitability of loss.
It was important for me to choose a documentation video which did not implicate any one individual and so the video that I chose did not show faces or disclose names. Instead, it consisted of audio and shaky footage of an apartment exterior. I paired this with a series of documentation photographs of myself after a domestic altercation, a staging which I entitled Playing the Victim. In respect to my audience, I utilized content or trigger warnings for the work and provided my classmates with contact information for the school’s staff counselors.
should a viewer feel adversely affected by the work. Next, my audience encountered an artist book on triggers, trigger warnings, and trauma-informed practices. At this point, the viewer was greeted with the more visceral work of the installation. They came upon the Self Preservation video, which was only audible to those who one at a time walked up and put headphones on, a visual cue alongside the trigger warning that the subject matter was graphic and therefore potentially difficult to witness. I knew that I wanted to pair this work with the Playing As soon as I started this work, an existential crisis took the Victim photographs, however I knew hold. I began to worry about the fact that my work, althat I did not want to hang them on the wall. though helpful for my own processing, might be traumatizInstead, I opted to construct a display case ing or retraumatizing for my audience, particularly individwhich would house them in such a way that uals who had previous experiences with trauma. As such, I the viewer could not accidentally enter into began to experiment with modes of display that not the work or pass them every day in the atrionly used trigger or content warnings, but served 20 um. This display case consisted of a podium as visual cues for informed consent. This became on which the photographs were placed as well the lens through which I restaged the Very Violent as a wooden barrier which shielded viewers Body work and expanded upon it with a series from the photos without walking up and lookof new pieces for the “MFA in Progress” exhibition ing down upon them. I used two red stepping during Summer of 2019. It was extremely important for
( FUTURE ) POTENTIAL ( PAST) TRAUMA
me to enact care for the viewer by considering the way in which they moved through the space. I utilized trigger or content warnings for the work and paired this disclaimer with resources for local organization and national mental health hotlines
stools as further visual cues that the audience needed to opt into the experience in order to view it. As an artistic pallet cleanser of sorts, I placed a community forum which I titled Trigger(Ed). Here individuals could choose to fill out an anonymous survey on the installa-
tion or vote if art should come with trigger warnings or not by placing a magnet upon a black board.
the hospital closed forever. The largest hospital displacement in U.S. history, over 45,000 Hahnemann patients, over 2,500 staff members, and over 470 residents and fellows were affected by the closure. This happened just months before the Covid-19 pandemic would rapidly spread across the globe. During this same summer, I felt called to Being one of the patients displaced by this event, I attend trauma-informed training, which spent most of fall 2019 scrambling to find care for my I saw as the next step to ethically creatvery serious chronic medical condition. This disastrous ing and displaying this new body of work. event kindled a desire for community outreach, espeWith the support of the program at Moore, cially mental health and wellness support. Coupled I gained over 24 contact hours at Jefferson with the trauma-informed training that I had done University’s Trauma-Training Conference. As and my visual experiments with trauma as a subject the summer faded away and the hours got matter, I worked to co-create a guest lecture and shorter, I prepared to enter into my second workshop series with fellow Moore graduate Krisyear of the program, in which I would create ten Shahverdian entitled Trigger(Ed): Ethics of Witboth a written thesis as well as an MFA thenessing. A fellow dancer who works with trauma as sis exhibition. I fully assumed that this would a subject matter in her own practice, Kristen and take the form of trauma as a subject matter for I utilized our passion for performance, trauboth components of the thesis. On some level ma awareness, and wellness to formulate this ended up being the case, but the trauma 21 this series which informed Moore underthat would become the crux of the exhibition graduate students, faculty, and staff on was outside the realm of what anyone could trauma and the application of trauma-inhave anticipated. Two specific events would culformed practices in contemporary art. We minate into a disastrous public health crisis that also held a support workshop which was open would test the city and expose the cracks in the to the community outside of Moore entitled American health system. Balance(Ed), in which we taught wellness and By the end of the summer, local Philadelphia self-care skills with Moore staff counselors. hospital, Hahnemann University Hospital, had This workshop also marked the beginning declared bankruptcy. This Center City facility had of a project for our Curatorial Studio class, become a care safety net for those in need, largea course which looked at curatorial acts as ly serving patients living below the poverty line, on art within themselves. The week-long series Medicaid, or uninsured, myself included. The once of happenings became known as Levels of nonprofit hospital had been purchased just two years Care: Micro, Medium, Macro, and investigatprior by for-profit company American Academic ed the systems of care that we experienced Health System, who had decided to shut Hahnemann as students, as Phildadelphians, and as indown, despite protests and attempted government dividuals. We all brought our own investiintervention. There are many speculations as to why gation to this work, Sara Kleinert, underAmerican Academic Health allowed this situation to graduate students Deanna Emmons and transpire. Murmurs of Center City real estate as a moCourtney Warren, and I held space for tivating factor grew when it was realized that the propconversations about how we feel cared erty was not included in the bankruptcy case. On Sepfor or where we feel a lack of care withtember 6 2019, after 171 years of practice, the doors to in our community. All the while, as we
TRAUMA-IN-FORM
the pandemic, with rising cases being reported around the area. At this point, it felt like walking around dressed in a hospital gown was becoming distressing to onlookers. That being the case, as a proponent of trauma-informed practices, I decided to stop the performances as of March 7th, just days before the city began restricting public gatherings. Suddenly, the work became more relevant, eerily relevant in fact. In the coming weeks, restrictions increased and eventually a stay at home order was announced. Alongside Spring semester came with some whispers of a vithese events, the school abruptly was forced to rus, but it was not yet considered to be an imminent transition to e-learning and the in-person thethreat. Being in my last semester of grad school and sis show was canceled. Students were asked to facing my upcoming thesis work, I admittedly was not completely move out of their studios and lost very aware of events happening outside Moore and my access to facilities. While this rendered much own personal practice. Papers were written and perforof my work unshowable, complaining about it mances continued. From February to March of 2020, I felt useless and insensitive amidst what was did a series of performance pieces entitled Barriers happening across the globe. to Care: Without the Wheels. In these pieces, I embodied the Hahnemann Hospital displace22 ment by wearing the hospital gown and socks that I had received during my last hospital visit there, attaching myself to an IV stand, and taking various forms of transportation from the former Hahnemann building to other local hospitals. This gesture explored the burden that patients face while lacking resources to care such as transportation. This work was complemented by a series of other pieces, including zines which covered the events of the closure, as well a sculptural installation of 45,000 pieces of paper which symbolized the transportation of not just patients, but their medical The closure of Hahnemann hung over files elsewhere. The treatment of these pieces took abstract me as it did the city. The loss of this 475+ numerical data and embodied them in tangible and digestbed facility further taxed the city’s abiliible ways. ty to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. City As the semester continued, the world began growing government attempted to use eminent tense, a sense of high alert fell over the eastern seaboard domain to secure the Hahnemann Hosand most of the U.S. As the Barriers to Care performances pital building for a Covid-19 ward, but were public, they began eliciting more responses from peoowner Joel Freedman blocked these ple walking around the streets and riding buses alongside attempts. Philadelphians are outraged, me. In mid-March the City of Philadelphia was pulled into were meeting and meditating, a mysterious respiratory virus began to spread, the intensity of which would completely overwhelm the already fragile U.S. healthcare system.
TO HAHNEMANN, WITH LOVE / A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
and multiple cases of vandalism to Freedman’s Philadelphia home are reported, including the spray painted lament “Joel Kills”. The city of Philadelphia braced for an influx of Covid-19 cases, opening up makeshift care facilities at local universities and in tents on the streets of Center City to help address the sick and dying. And while Philadelphia was not as gripped with the virus as nearby cities, such as New York, which would quickly become the epicenter, affected individuals grew quickly. Graduating students were tasked with not just their thesis and school work, but handling daily updates on death tolls, infection numbers, and an ever-changing landscape of CDC regulations. In late April, it was announced that all individuals should wear masks while outside and the temporary non-essential shut down and stay at home orders, which had been extended over and over again, were put in place indefinitely. From inside my apartment, where I lived alone and did not
leave for days on end, I wrote my thesis paper. Entitled Trigger(Ed): Trauma-in-Form, this 60+ page paper explored trauma as a subject matter, delineating various public performances and visual art pieces which depicted collective traumas. It was not lost on me that my work predominantly deals with trauma, death, and public health crises and that making this work during a time of collective trauma and pub-
lic health crisis which was killing thousands was ironic to say the least. Two years ago, when starting this program, no one, myself included could have understood how relevant it would become. As it is only mid-May when this publication began, many of these distressing conditions are continuous or still felt. This time is but a season, yet it is a stubborn and harsh season, a season which has marked us and changed us forever. While the world continues as best it can, schools created online thesis exhibitions, Moore included, and students graduated virtually. We are still inside. And while some counties are announcing a slow reopening, many wonder the ethics or safety of going back to work or back out in public. In a recent commencement speech, Oprah Winfrey quoted the late Dr. Martin Luther King who said, “It really boils down to this: that all life 23 is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Never in our lifetime has this been more evident than now, living in the time of Covid-19. It is unclear as to how this situation will end or when. It is unsure what that means for the world, or for us as recent graduates. This is not the first crisis that we millennials have faced. Living through forgein wars, violent protests, economic crashes, and global pandemics, we are forced to face disillusionment at the nature of our economic, political, and healthcare systems. It is not clear what is to be done, but now, more than ever, it is clear that something must be done. As a society, we are only as healthy as the sickest of us. But, as they say, when we replace I with we, even illness turns to wellness.
Camille O’Connor, MA 2020
Ethics & Collaboration
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Photograph taken by Daniel Tucker during a presentation of my research to an undergraduate writing class, February 25th.
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I consider myself a facilitator, a writer, and a leader, as well as an artist. Although I found art through photography, my professional practice revolves around arts management and coordination. I view the acts of planning, coordinating, and arranging people in space to be a form of art. I am interested in the social composition of individuals within an environment, I believe in a “good work environment,” and I strive to create that for my employees and volunteers. I view this as part of my artistic practice. On the cover of this book and throughout the graphic imagery between our sections, you have seen the images of Sara and Chelsey’s work overlap and fracture with some of my landscape photography from my personal artistic practice. While not created as part of my graduate program work, art is the thing that grounds me. Photography taught me how to frame. It taught me how to organize my experiences, and to create output that is legible and digestible. I think that in a lot of ways, I see all of my work—my writing and my administration—through the eyes of a photographer. As a photographer, I consider my work both analytical and emotional. I think that to be a good researcher, and a good manager, you have to be both. As a person who professionally plays many roles throughout the day, art is the thing that binds them, and when I am feeling uncentered, it is the thing I come back to. Having an artistic practice is the thing that makes me a better artistic manager/administrator/leader/writer. I find in my photographs a sense of calm and wonderment that is a sort of fantasy—a dichotomy to the life of a busy art professional. I invite you to and thank you for indulging in this fantasy with me as we these navigate uncharted, murky territories—this unceasingly fractured departure.
My Work I am originally from Pasadena, California, a city within Los Angeles County. I have always been interested in art administration, and worked in the gallery circuit in Los Angeles during and after my undergraduate experience. However, when I moved to Pennsylvania in 2017, I knew I wanted something different professionally, because I wasn’t satisfied with working in a space where art played the role of commodity. I broadened my professional scope and became a manager at a local theater outside of Philadelphia, which is how I gained experience with and a love for people and project management, as well as administration. When I decided it was time to return to graduate school, I turned to the Socially Engaged Art program at Moore because it seemed to be everything I had been missing artistically from both my undergraduate and professional careers. I was very drawn to the idea of social engagement, even though I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Early in the fall semester, I quickly became engrossed with participatory art programming—art projects and programs that work directly within communities, utilizing art as a way to positively impact people within those communities. During Shira Walinksy’s Case Studies class in the fall, we visited the Mural Arts Philadelphia Same Day Work & Pay program, further igniting this interest. However, in thinking and researching more about these programs, I realized that the question of ethics is extremely important when working collaboratively within communities that might not be your own. As a manager who often works with a large team, as well as with the public, I am always striving to be ethical in my collaboration with others. In looking at participatory programs that collaborate with the public at a deeper level than the traditional maker/audience relationship, the
Camille O’Connor, MA 2020
question of ethics becomes even more relevant. Philadelphia in particular has a proliferation of art programming like this (one of the things that draws me to this city), making the question even more relevant. Because of this, I decided to focus my research on exploring the role of ethics within a socially engaged art practice, particularly community based collaborative art projects. My thesis asked this question:
Ethics & Collaboration
In looking at public art projects and programs in Philadelphia that seek to enact social change, what does it mean to have an ethical practice, and how does collaborative participation function in such a practice? Often, these types of programs blur the lines of art with these other practices, either to act as a form of activism or to provide a social service. I believe that art has the potential to change lives in a myriad of ways, and so these hybrid programs are especially interesting and important when done in an ethical manner. When an artist or art organization enters into a community with the intent of providing social services, ethics can become a sticky situation unless done very carefully and respectfully. Without being too prescriptive, I sought to find out what it means to truly work ethically in this manner, if such a definition could be found.
My Research To gain better insight into this topic, I turned to experts in the field. I became engrossed with the ongoing dialogue between art historians Claire Bishop and Grant Kester, as well as several other texts of differing opinions about the relationship between ethics and socially engaged art. I examined Claire
Bishop’s theory of “Relational Antagonism,” which says that socially engaged art needs to cause or exhibit conflict 27 in order to be meaningful, otherwise it is superficial and cannot be judged as “good” art. I compared this to Grant Kester’s theory of a “Dialogical Aesthetic,” where he champions the exchange that takes place between the participants, and favors that process over the finished product because that is where the true impact happens. I determined that an ethically sound participatory art program actually lies at the intersection between these supposedly oppositional ideas. While revealing conflict is important because it is truthful to the world around us, and the thing that will spark the need for change, I believe that a stronger ethical code needs to be considered when collaborating directly with the community you are seeking to impact. It needs to have an element of dialogical aesthetic in order to truly serve the participants, while also maintaining an element of antagonism in order to effectively call for greater awareness of the social justice issues at hand. Most
importantly, I discover that the key element holding these programs and projects together as ethically sound practices is their use of partnerships with outside activist or social work organizations. This allows the art to engage at the level of art, while not taking the place of vital social services, and ensures that the work will live on past the life of the project or program. I hope to put these theories and ideas into practice in my own professional career after graduate school.
In Practice 28
When COVID-19 hit, my theoretical paper turned practical as the need for basic resources drastically grew, and organizations doing this type of work were kicked into high gear. I couldn’t ignore, as I sat at home and wrote the majority of my thesis, that outside there was (and is) a worldwide health crisis affecting all of our lives. The participants of the programs I wrote about in my thesis—immigrant and detained families, housing-insecure individuals, and school children from low-income neighborhoods—are some of the communities disproportionately affected by this crisis. These programs will probably change as a result, as we all will. Some of the socioeconomic problems that lie at the undercurrent of our society are also being brought to severely unfortunate light during this time of collective scarcity. Issues we as artists, and specifically socially engaged artists, often make work about, are much more urgently apparent as problems during this time. I did not envision a fourth of my graduate experience being online; I definitely wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Moore’s campus. My professional life was changed as well—working at a theater, everything was canceled, and so I was suddenly faced with a new reality of what
the foreseeable future would look like, intimately feeling the changes everyone was facing in the moment. However, after a little bit of sulking, a couple days of panic, and a couple weeks of adjustment, I began to see the time as preparation for action. Realizing my own privileged situation, I could see that for those who are able, we can strategize. We can make some changes to the programs that we run, or teach, or design, not only for the sake of “social distancing,” but ones that will last. I started to see how the theories and tactics I had been researching could immediately be put into practice as a response to the changing needs of our society at this time. As artists, we are resilient individuals and creative problem solvers, both reflective and reflexive in our engagement with the outside world. The strength of public, participatory, collaborative art programs is in the partnerships they have with others throughout the city, also seeking to enact positive social My “new normal”: my make-shift work from change. In the home space. wake of a pandemic, these partnerships are even more crucial. As the world becomes more complicated, collaboration is an absolutely key element of problem solving and self-improvement, and so artists, projects, and programs that practice it are ideally set to make sure that our “new normal” is a hefty improvement from the old. Now that I have graduated, I am anxious but excited to work collaboratively with artists and programmers to hopefully turn these thoughts into reality. As we remember and give aid to those most in need during this crisis, let us try to imagine, as artists and creative thinkers, what afterwards will look like as well.
Utilizing Art to Navigate Public Access: A Panel Discussion Screenshot from Utilizing Art to Navigate Public Access: A Panel Discussion, which took place on April 16th over the web application Zoom.
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Screenshot with the panelists’ headshots from the panel discussion.
Screenshot from the follow-up interview, conducted by Sara, Chelsey, and Camille on April 21st, with artist Linda Fernandez on the subject of art and access also over Zoom.
A Truly Lived Thesis
introduction by JACQUE LIU
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Early into the Coronavirus pandemic, we realized that if there was to be a thesis exhibition or accompanying public program, it wouldn’t look familiar. Remarkably, our MFA and MA candidates, Sara, Chelsey, and Camille, were already dealing with issues present in the pandemic—public and private space, health, alienation, systemic challenges, transportation, and civic responsibility. The students decided to collaborate on a panel discussion, Utilizing Art to Navigate Public Access. They planned and implemented every aspect. It was a lot of work, both stressful and rewarding, but through our Zoom classes, I could see them reveling in it—crafting invitations, questions, even the tech minutia. The panel went long and there was a sense of satisfaction. There were a lot of unknowns—but the groundwork for success was already there, laid by Program Director Daniel Tucker and Dean Patti Phillips. The program was set up to be nimble and generative for moments like these, as artists need to be. The class I teach, Lived Thesis, is dedicated to the planning and installation of student MFA exhibitions and the creation of an accompanying public program. This year, because of the pandemic, my class was conducted collaboratively with the Studio Projects class taught by fellow adjunct, Anna Drozdowski, who brought a sense of calm, thoughtfulness and dedication. Utilizing Art was the practical application of what the class was meant to teach. I found it to be magical in the way it unfolded. I’m sure that this is the first of many public programs that the students will conduct. —JACQUE LIU, ADJUNCT FACULTY IN MFA AND MA SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART
Written by Camille O’Connor
This idea of collaboration was put into practice during the last semester’s “lived thesis” event. As part of our thesis research, Sara, Chelsey, and I collaborated to create a panel presentation at the nexus of our practices. Because our work and interests uniquely intersect with each other, we decided that a collaborative event would be fruitful for the three of us. We chose to focus on barriers to access in Philadelphia to public services, focusing specifically on public transportation and healthcare. We were interested in art programs, projects, and artists who were bridging these gaps, striving to overcome these barriers, utilizing art to do so. In addition, we were interested in access to the arts. Realizing that accessible resources are such a huge issue within this city, we realized that includes access to the arts as well. With Sara’s focus on public transportation and labor, Chelsey’s work on trauma and access to health services, and my research on art programming that incorporates public services in the work, this conversation seemed fruitful to all of our research, as well as important to the arts community of Philadelphia. As the semester drew on, with the guidance of our instructor Jacque Liu, we made plans for the panel discussion. As the event formed, our momentum grew and brainstorming sessions became more frequent and energized, despite the heavy workload that comes with the last semester of grad school and writing a thesis. The week before spring break, we sent the invites out to our panelists (a nerve-wracking experience for me), and amazingly received “yes’s” from all of them. It looked like plans were being put in place and solidifying, and an exciting event was taking form.
Then, the pandemic hit Philadelphia. A million and one things changed, as I’m sure is relatable to all at this moment. In the midst of attempting to complete the second drafts of our theses, the three of us were tasked with not only unexpected changes to our personal and professional lives, but also with suddenly moving out of our studios, and saying premature goodbyes to our campus. It was an emotional time, at least for me, and writing was near impossible. Lived Thesis wasn’t exactly at the front of my mind, but there was that fading glimmer of excitement and momentum, and I knew I didn’t want to fully let that go. And as the news changed daily, and decisions were scrambling to be made, there was a gnawing question in the back of my mind… what’s going to happen with the panel? In addition to our other plans, one thing we were particularly excited about was our title: Utilizing Art to Navigate Public Access: A Panel Discussion. We realized that amidst all of the chaos, our topic became even more relevant. As things were canceled left and right, we all agreed that we still wanted to do this. It seemed like an important question and topic that should be talked about now more than ever, and that to push it to the side, would be the antithesis of the thing we were all striving for: literally, utilizing art to navigate public access. I realized that, during this time of social distancing and limited resources, it was especially important to call attention to societal barriers, which are only augmented during this crisis. And so we pivoted our focus, and incorporated a conversation which we knew would happen anyway, to ask a second question: what happens at the nexus of art and public access during a global pandemic? Things shifted a little, due to new demands on our panelists, created by COVID-19, and we were happy to host the following speakers:
Emily Crane, Porch Light Program Administrator, Mural Arts Program Charlie Miller, Director of ACCESS, Art-Reach Beth Feldman Brandt, Executive Director, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation We also conducted a follow-up interview with Linda Fernandez, artist and co-founder of the artist collective Amber Art and Design, on the same topic. As host of the panel, I felt a lot of pressure leading up to and during the event, but also felt support from various faculty and staff throughout the process. It was truly a collaborative effort as we all learned from these uncharted territories. Despite nerves that come from public speaking, and keeping up with the technical aspect of the event, during the panel I was continuously pulled in by the content of the conversations, reminding me why we were doing this. After the panelists’ presentations, conversations at first revolved around each organization’s tactics to provide access both normally and during COVID-19. But towards the second half of the Q&A section, Charlie Miller stated what we had all been dancing around:
“This pandemic is showing the cracks in our society.” This is really the crux of the issue when it comes to barriers to access during this time, and what each organization is attempting to remedy. Each panelist touched on a key aspect that I think is paramount to combating this, and what is largely missing on a societal level, causing these problems in the first place: care. Although we’re artists and administrators working in artistic fields, socially engaged art has that unique characteristic of brushing up with other industries, providing other services, making that effort to bridge gaps in communities and fight for social change—in short, providing care. Care for those
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we’re serving, advocating for, for the work that we’re creating, or others’ work that we’re supporting. Each of our panelists showed it in their own way. Beth Feldman Brandt is the director of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, which supports community-based art education programs and teaching artists through grants, and also provides various teaching artist workshops, including a trauma informed training for teaching artists. Brandt focused one of her answers on what resources artists have during this time. As many of us know, during a time when so many of the arts are being canceled, and artists (as well as all “gig economy” workers) aren’t protected by things like salaries and employer-based health insurance, it is a scary and uncertain time for many in the field. At the Bartol Foundation, she outlined what they have been able to do to help artists during this time, such as waiving project requirements for current teaching artist grantees, saying that since those projects are probably not coming to fruition during this time, they can use the money for whatever it is they need for their creative practice right now. They also gave $1,000 to each of their current grantee organizations to pay their own teaching artists. I very much appreciated this example of how the arts community can at times show up for each other in ethical ways. The world of nonprofit funding can be a dicey one, and Foundations like Bartol, as Beth showed through the level of care that they have for their grantees and respect for the work that they do, show how it can be done ethically even in such murky waters as these. At the same time, she also said, “These are citizen issues as well as artist issues,” pointing out that while artists hurt particularly hard right now, it’s indicative of a larger issue about not properly caring for those in contracting work, letting them fall through the cracks when it comes to access to things like
healthcare and stable pay. Charlie Miller is the Director of ACCESS at Art Reach, a non-profit which focuses on providing access to the arts for low income communities, and people with disabilities. Through their ACCESS card, they are able to provide low cost of entry to many cultural sites in the Greater Philadelphia Area. I was familiar with ACCESS already through working with various cultural sites who partner with Art Reach to utilize this program. His dedication to accessibility showed through everything that he said, as well as through his insistence that our program be as accessible as possible. It was at Miller’s request that we partnered with DHI for ASL Interpretation, something we wouldn’t have even thought about had he not asked for accommodations. A testament to the advantage of having more and differing voices in the room, we are thankful not only for Charlie’s advocacy, but for his instruction on how we in turn can become better advocates. He explained the two mottos that inform all of his work: “nothing about us without us” (a phrase from disability activism which means that those being affected by a policy should be part of the decision-making process of forming said policy), and to always look out for “who is being left out.” Through this model he strives to create art programming, or advise cultural partners on how to make their programming more accessible to everyone. Right now, as in any time of great scarcity and lack of resources, those who are most vulnerable are most left out. The pandemic has revealed the holes in our programming and who we haven’t been able yet to reach— and he says that to come out on the other side of this as better art administrators, we need to take a close look at what’s happening right now. The truth is that folks with disabilities are too often left out. We can and should be better, truly show care and respect not only to our constituents, but to the art through making it accessible to everyone. Right now, while shortcomings have unfortunately come to light, at the same time administrators are taking the time to learn new tactics to remedy this issue—a silver lining. What needs to happen is for them, and us, to carry these tactics into a post-pandemic future. Emily Crane is the program ad-
ministrator of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Color Me Back, a Same Day Work and Pay program in Philadelphia, which partners with the City’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbilities Services (DBHIDS) to utilize a lottery every weekday morning in Center City’s Love Park to choose twenty individuals to provide with a day’s work and pay. In addition to payment, a licensed social worker is on site to help coach individuals through things like obtaining identification, finding housing, referrals to rehab facilities, and referrals to the organization First Step Staffing. Anecdotally, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Crane on a number of occasions, and the great level of care she has for her constituents truly shows through the way she speaks about her work. During the panel, she was very candid about the challenges she is facing in regards to her work in the time of COVID-19: How do you serve a largely housing-insecure population during a global pandemic, when the stay-at-home order both effectively shuts down your program, and puts those you serve at a particularly severe danger? How do you stay at home, when you don’t have one? I was appreciative of Emily’s honesty, openness, and nimbleness when it comes to her work. In addition to soliciting the crowd for suggestions, she outlined what Mural Arts has been doing in the wake of the pandemic: partnering with Broad Street Ministry and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to create floor decals, or “Space Pads” that lead folks to feeding hubs throughout the city. She talked about how she has striven to keep in contact with those who are most at risk—who don’t have anywhere to go—but that it has been a challenge. The truth is that it’s a larger societal problem, one where we as a society don’t show enough care to a population that is struggling. Just as Miller said, the pandemic is bringing to severely unfortunate light what many of us have known all along—the most severe injustices that exist in our society. During our follow up interview with artist Linda Fernandez, we talked less about COVID-19, but definitely centered the conversation around different aspects of care as an artist, particularly a collaborative artist. The artist collective that Fernandez co-founded, Amber Art and Design, focuses on en-
gaging collaboratively within different communities, particularly using public projects to elevate marginalized voices and create meaningful conversations. One thing that she focused on was transparency as being a crucial and ethical responsibility of an artist working within communities. Working collaboratively, it is crucial to start with what the participants actually say that they need or want out of the partnership, instead of prescribing something based on your own beliefs. Additionally, it is important to be completely transparent about your own intentions in order to build trust in the relationship. This is something that all three of the panelists not only touched on, but also exhibit in their own work. It is paramount to practicing care. Fernandez’s words and practice are an example of how we will need to work collaboratively in order to remedy the issues that have come to light during this pandemic. Right now, we have a choice. As I stated above, we as artists are aptly set to quickly react to these changing times with new and shifting solutions, which we have seen the past three months as things have progressed. Afterwards, we can return to the way things were, keeping those most socially disenfranchised left out and uncared for. Or, we can carry these tactics and what we have learned to create a new and improved normal. I think that we, as socially engaged artists and practitioners, because of the level of care we already exhibit in our work, are thankfully largely going to choose the latter. The greater challenge, I think, will be to take that care and influence others to apply it to the larger societal issues that have revealed themselves during this pandemic. While difficult, I believe that is the work that will be absolutely necessary.
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Acknowledgements Many thanks to these folks for their dedication to our success throughout our time at Moore: Hammam Aldouri, Mellany Armstrong, Grimaldi Baez, Asher Barkley, Damary Beltran, Carolyn Chernoff, Jane Golden, Leah Comiskey, Deaf Hearing Interface, Chuck Duquesne, Jess Garz, Asuka Goto, Ashley Gunter, Emily Elliott, Deanna Emmons, Cecelia Fitzgibbon, Shaun Flanly, CJ Fowlkes, Maia Hajj, Veronica Hanssens, Joanna Jenkins, Suzanne Kahn, Kim Lesley, Ernel Martinez, Lynn Palewicz, Patti Phillips, Kaitlin Pomerantz, Nicole Steinberg, Kristen Neville Taylor, Claudine Thomas, Melody Totten, 36
Amanda Newman-Godfrey, Qiaira Riley, Theresa Rose, Jennie Shanker, Ann Siriani, Gabrielle Lavin Suzenski, Shira Walinsky, Jonathan Wallis, Courtney Warren, Josh Wilkin, Wilmer Wilson IV, and Ashley York.
Exceptional gratitude to Anna Drozdowski, Daniel Tucker, and Jacque Liu for their expertise and flexibility in the development and execution of this publication and our thesis endeavors.
Special thank you to our Graphic Designer: Amy Scheidegger Ducos. Images for the cover and graphic elements are from the work of Sara Kleinert, Chelsey Webber-Brandis, and Camille O’Connor.
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