PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAM

Ox-Bow’s Pre-College program is a one-week skill-building class designed for advanced high school juniors, seniors and recent graduates who are considering pursuing a degree in the visual arts. The pre-college program was founded by the late E.W. Ross, who served Ox-Bow for over 35 years as Faculty, Program Director, and later Board Member. Enrolled students are given the opportunity to evaluate and strengthen their commitment to the study of art, receive college level instruction, and receive 1.5 college credits through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ox-Bow’s core academic program runs concurrently with these courses, providing Pre-College students with a sense of community as they interact with other artists taking classes.

In 2023, the Pre-College program returns reimagined with a new curriculum. Under the guidance of Campus Director, Claire Arctander, students will be challenged and encouraged to understand art-making as a holistic, ongoing practice for both career and life fulfillment. SESSION FIVE - July 23 - 29 (1 week)

WHY WE ART: COLLABORATIVE CONCEPT EXPANSION FOR ADVANCED HIGH SCHOOL ARTISTS

with Claire Arctander

PAINTING | 402 001 | 1.5 CREDITS | $50 LAB FEE

This pre-college class will encourage individual and collective explorations in developing an art practice. We will identify methods of concept-building by playfully addressing our own interior lives, the immediate environment of Ox-Bow, and broader societal contexts. We will establish a community in which we draw from observation, make found object & soft sculptures, and site-specific installations to investigate our current situation. We will glean inspiration from the works of artists such as Theaster Gates and Yayoi Kusama and readings and screenings will include Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown, The Artist As Collector by Lydia Yee and Mika Rottenberg’s Cosmic Generator. Students will gain formal skills in organizing marks and objects into coherent artworks, conceptual skills in honing strong reasons behind their art-making practice, and collaborative skills of idea exchange. Students will decide upon a central question and present a collaborative group show of works responding to that theme. The students’ interests and priorities will help dictate the direction of the course and the resulting exhibition.

CLAIRE ARCTANDER is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and administrator whose making practice plays in the aesthetics of desire, physicality, conflicted feminisms, craft traditions, material transformations, and collaboration. As Ox-Bow's Campus Director, Arctander oversees on-campus operations; tends to the experience of students, residents, and staff; and programs the Art on the Meadow community-facing workshop series. She teaches and leads from a participatory and inquiry-based premise. Arctander has previously worked in the field of art education at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Weinberg/Newton Gallery, the University of Illinois Chicago, the City Colleges of Chicago, and Northwestern University. Her work has been exhibited at Ruschman Gallery in Chicago; the Terrain Biennial in Oak Park, IL; Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; Lula Café in Chicago; Franklin Street Works in Stamford, CT; nGbK in Berlin; Thalia Hall in Chicago; The Cell in New York; The Nightingale in Chicago; UnionDocs in New York; Artists’ Television Access in San Francisco; Omni Commons in Oakland; Spektrum in Berlin; University of Southern California’s 3001 Gallery; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and other locations.