82 Questions For Being The Artist-In-Residence At A University Art Department
Produced as part of Artist in Residence at UMass Dartmouth College of Visual & Performing Arts 2019-20
A document inspired by the methodology of working in the social sphere as well as by some of my specific experiences, including the projects I undertook, fleeting conversations I had, unrealised project ideas, and questions I never got the chance to ask or have answered.
Thanks to Spencer Byrne-Seres, Roz Crews, Amanda Leigh Evans and Shoshana Gugenheim
82 Questions For Being The Artist-In-Residence At A University Art Department
A document inspired by the methodology of working in the social sphere as well as by some of my specific experiences, including the projects I undertook, fleeting conversations I had, unrealised project ideas, and questions I never got the chance to ask or have answered.
Thanks to Spencer Byrne-Seres, Roz Crews, Amanda Leigh Evans and Shoshana Gugenheim
82 Questions For Being The Artist-In-Residence At A University Art Department
- Who cleans the bathrooms?
- What do security staff do on the job?
- What hobbies do the technicians have?
- What is the faculty lounge like?
- Are there snacks at faculty meetings?
- Where do people get lunch?
- Where do people hang out in between classes?
- How is critique given, received and reflected upon?
- What jobs do students have outside school?
- What do students want from attending school?
- What forms of art are celebrated in this school?
- What forms of art are overlooked in this school?
- Where is the dirtiest studio?
- What accidents have taken place here?
- What’s the password to sign in to the media lab computers?
- Can you tell me about the time the sculpture department’s outdoor kiln was used for a pizza party?
- Can we do a show that features the enigmatic local bookstore owner who has been figure modelling for this department for 34 years?
- Can we repaint the walls and doors to suit Paul Rudolph’s ideal colors for a Brutalist campus?
- What art gets to be put up around the building?
- What gets shown in the art department galleries?
- What food do the department galleries serve at openings?
- What are the tenure standards like?
- How many adjuncts versus tenured teachers are there?
- How many people cried in the building today?
- Does the dean take the stairs or the elevator?
- What’s in the pantry fridge?
- Where are people commuting from to get to campus?
- What are the concerns of first generation students?
- Where can I see the artwork of immigrant students?
- How many students will keep in touch with faculty when they leave?
- How many students have experienced oppression in classrooms?
- What do you want the artist in residence to do?
- Can we cast a school wide vote for the next artist in residence?
- What can I bring to this environment?
- How disruptive of a trickster can I be?
- Who are the other tricksters?
- How much permission should I get for what I do, given I am paid a salary?
- Am I supposed to achieve a set of community bonding goals?
- For how long more will I be an awkward outsider?
- If I offer poems to tired faculty members who’ve been here forever, what will they say?
- Will you show me your favorite trail?
- Do you want to know where I’m from?
- Is there a gender neutral bathroom in the building?
- What relationships does the art department have with other faculties?
- What relationships does the art department have with local organisations?
- What work are faculty making outside of teaching?
- Do faculty want to share their work with each other over tea, cookies, and favorite playlists, and maybe end with some dancing where everyone screams and shakes (or maybe not)?
- Are students told that the experience of boredom is important to creativity?
- Can I put up copies of Bread and Puppet Theater’s Cheap Art Manifesto?
- Do students care about abortion rights?
- Do faculty care about ArtReview?
- Will teachers allow students to come late so they can go vote?
- How many students are having an existential crisis about their art?
- How many teachers are having an existential crisis about their art?
- What’s it like being a student over 50 years old in art school?
- Is everyone an artist?
- What kind of art does the dean put up in his office?
- What kind of art does the janitor like?
- What happens if you put the dean, the janitor, and a first year student in a room together to talk about art?
- What conversations are happening between first year students and seniors?
- What is the demographic breakdown of faculty and students?
- How does this art school address systemic inequality?
- How many languages total are spoken by everyone in this school?
- Are you nervous about your artist bio?
- Are you trying to get your work into a gallery?
- Are people okay with nude performances here?
- How many people have fallen in love in this school?
- What is my relationship with the institution of art?
- What should I do with the privilege of being paid to make art projects for an academic year?
- What is the relationship between art school and being in your body?
- Are your backs getting curved from bending over your sculptures and prints and metalwork and looms?
- What would it look like if everyone in the building stood still for a minute?
- What would it look like if thoughts from security and maintenance staff became quotes on the walls?
- What would happen if the security staff got to join Midterm Critiques?
- Can non teaching staff take art classes after work?
- What messages are the antique letterpresses printing out for the world?
- Can I contribute a lock of my hair for your loom weaving assignment?
- Do the people in half finished portraits observe the security staff on their late night lone patrols?
- Will you miss me when I’m gone?
- Please tell me there’s a nursing room?
- Can art really be graded?
- When is the charcoal running out?