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​

1. Who cleans the bathrooms?
2. What do security staff do on the job?
3. What hobbies do the technicians have?
4. What is the faculty lounge like?
5. Are there snacks at faculty meetings?
6. Where do people get lunch?
7. Where do people hang out in between classes?
8. How is critique given, received and reflected upon?
9. What jobs do students have outside school?
10. What do students want from attending school?
11. What forms of art are celebrated in this school?
12. What forms of art are overlooked in this school?
13.  Where is the dirtiest studio?
14. What accidents have taken place here?
15.  What’s the password to sign in to the media lab computers?
16. Can you tell me about the time the sculpture department’s outdoor kiln was used for a pizza party?
17. Can we do a show that features the enigmatic local bookstore owner who has been figure modelling for this department for 34 years?
18. Can we repaint the walls and doors to suit Paul Rudolph’s ideal colors for a Brutalist campus?
19. What art gets to be put up around the building?
20. What gets shown in the art department galleries?
21. What food do the department galleries serve at openings?
22. What are the tenure standards like?
23. How many adjuncts versus tenured teachers are there?
24. How many people cried in the building today?
25. Does the dean take the stairs or the elevator?
26.  What’s in the pantry fridge?
27. Where are people commuting from to get to campus?
28. What are the concerns of first generation students?
29. Where can I see the artwork of immigrant students?
30. How many students will keep in touch with faculty when they leave?
31. How many students have experienced oppression in classrooms? 
32. What do you want the artist in residence to do?
33. Can we cast a school wide vote for the next artist in residence?
34. What can I bring to this environment?
35. How disruptive of a trickster can I be?
36. Who are the other tricksters?
37. How much permission should I get for what I do, given I am paid a salary?
38. Am I supposed to achieve a set of community bonding goals?
39. For how long more will I be an awkward outsider?
40. If I offer poems to tired faculty members who’ve been here forever, what will they say?
41. Will you show me your favorite trail?
42. Do you want to know where I’m from?
43. Is there a gender neutral bathroom in the building?
44. What relationships does the art department have with other faculties?
45. What relationships does the art department have with local organisations?
46. What work are faculty making outside of teaching?
47. 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)?
48.  Are students told that the experience of boredom is important to creativity?
49. Can I put up copies of Bread and Puppet Theater’s Cheap Art Manifesto?
50. Do students care about abortion rights?
51. Do faculty care about ArtReview?
52. Will teachers allow students to come late so they can go vote?
53. How many students are having an existential crisis about their art?
54. How many teachers are having an existential crisis about their art?
55. What’s it like being a student over 50 years old in art school?
56. Is everyone an artist?
57. What kind of art does the dean put up in his office?
58. What kind of art does the janitor like?
59. What happens if you put the dean, the janitor, and a first year student in a room together to talk about art?
60. What conversations are happening between first year students and seniors?
61. What is the demographic breakdown of faculty and students?
62. How does this art school address systemic inequality?
63. How many languages total are spoken by everyone in this school?
64. Are you nervous about your artist bio?
65. Are you trying to get your work into a gallery?
66. Are people okay with nude performances here?
67. How many people have fallen in love in this school?
68. What is my relationship with the institution of art?
69. What should I do with the privilege of being paid to make art projects for an academic year?
70. What is the relationship between art school and being in your body?
71. Are your backs getting curved from bending over your sculptures and prints and metalwork and looms?
72. What would it look like if everyone in the building stood still for a minute?
73. What would it look like if thoughts from security and maintenance staff became quotes on the walls?
74. What would happen if the security staff got to join Midterm Critiques?
75.  Can non teaching staff take art classes after work?
76. What messages are the antique letterpresses printing out for the world?
77. Can I contribute a lock of my hair for your loom weaving assignment?
78. Do the people in half finished portraits observe the security staff on their late night lone patrols?
79. Will you miss me when I’m gone?
80. Please tell me there’s a nursing room?
81. Can art really be graded?
82. When is the charcoal running out?