Faculty Relations
Poems, reflections, score, booklet
Produced as part of Artist in Residence at UMass Dartmouth College of Visual & Performing Arts 2019-20
Dartmouth & New Bedford MA, USA
A compassionate-trickster exploration of the social space shared by minted members of the academic institution of art
This is what the academic institution of art looks like sometimes.
#tenure #artprofessor #artacademia #artadmin #coworkers #covid #lockdown #homebasedlearning
Produced as part of Artist in Residence at UMass Dartmouth College of Visual & Performing Arts 2019-20
Dartmouth & New Bedford MA, USA
A compassionate-trickster exploration of the social space shared by minted members of the academic institution of art
This is what the academic institution of art looks like sometimes.
#tenure #artprofessor #artacademia #artadmin #coworkers #covid #lockdown #homebasedlearning
Includes preface by Salty, foreword by Associate Dean Thomas Stubblefield, Meeting Minutes poems, Exquisite Corpse poems, faculty reflections from Associate Professor Anthony Fisher and Gallery Director Viera Levitt, Score for an art faculty/staff hangout.
Download:
Download:
| Faculty Relations.pdf |
Originally, poems were printed and delivered into faculty mailboxes, which eventually received the finished booklet.
Launch at New Bedford AHA! Night, Sept 2021, with readings from faculty members:
P r e f a c e
This exploration began when I sat in on an impassioned faculty meeting (no meeting minutes were taken) and wrote down quotes that were emotional, personal, or referenced the social space. Using those quotes, I made a poem—the start of a series entitled Meeting Minutes that went naughtily into faculty mailboxes in printed slips. Positive responses received included someone delightfully sharing that someone else was guessing, through the poem-as-fragmented- record, who had said what during the meeting. Some other person said it felt like a mirror had been held up to the community. There were little smiles. Although I welcomed them, I suspect hesitant or averse reactions were not shared. Each Meeting Minute poem took courage to make by sitting in on meetings where I felt mildly intrusive and out of place, despite being encouraged by a few allies. I tried my best to make sure people were okay with being quoted anonymously. It was thrilling when someone would say, Salty better not write this down, or, let’s see what Salty makes of this.
I envisioned this project to end with a faculty/staff hangout where folks could curate music, share food, and I would perform with the poems (see Score for an art faculty/staff hangout, page 26). When the pandemic hit, this inquiry necessarily morphed—the Exquisite Corpse poems are a tender, Covid-timed foray into inner worlds; Associate Professor Anthony Fisher and Gallery Director Viera Levitt contribute reflections on their mesmerizing (and distracting?) creative practices during meetings, which function like imprints of a social space processed through members’ particular acts.
As the Artist-in-Residence of the art and design faculty, it felt important to create a project responding to the social context—in this case, the relational space shared by faculty and staff within the art academia universe they make their professional lives in. It was also my way of bringing those who provide and administer art education into the art itself, creating a reverse reflection that can hopefully create more questions about higher education and the real people in that sometimes distanced, elite circle.
Heartfelt thanks to all faculty and staff who gamely participated in, helped with and warmly supported this project, notably Thomas Stubblefield, Lawrence Jenkens, Andrea M Fernandes, Anthony Fisher, Viera Levitt, Stacy Latt Savage, and Laura Franz. Thank you CVPA for letting in an outsider.
This exploration began when I sat in on an impassioned faculty meeting (no meeting minutes were taken) and wrote down quotes that were emotional, personal, or referenced the social space. Using those quotes, I made a poem—the start of a series entitled Meeting Minutes that went naughtily into faculty mailboxes in printed slips. Positive responses received included someone delightfully sharing that someone else was guessing, through the poem-as-fragmented- record, who had said what during the meeting. Some other person said it felt like a mirror had been held up to the community. There were little smiles. Although I welcomed them, I suspect hesitant or averse reactions were not shared. Each Meeting Minute poem took courage to make by sitting in on meetings where I felt mildly intrusive and out of place, despite being encouraged by a few allies. I tried my best to make sure people were okay with being quoted anonymously. It was thrilling when someone would say, Salty better not write this down, or, let’s see what Salty makes of this.
I envisioned this project to end with a faculty/staff hangout where folks could curate music, share food, and I would perform with the poems (see Score for an art faculty/staff hangout, page 26). When the pandemic hit, this inquiry necessarily morphed—the Exquisite Corpse poems are a tender, Covid-timed foray into inner worlds; Associate Professor Anthony Fisher and Gallery Director Viera Levitt contribute reflections on their mesmerizing (and distracting?) creative practices during meetings, which function like imprints of a social space processed through members’ particular acts.
As the Artist-in-Residence of the art and design faculty, it felt important to create a project responding to the social context—in this case, the relational space shared by faculty and staff within the art academia universe they make their professional lives in. It was also my way of bringing those who provide and administer art education into the art itself, creating a reverse reflection that can hopefully create more questions about higher education and the real people in that sometimes distanced, elite circle.
Heartfelt thanks to all faculty and staff who gamely participated in, helped with and warmly supported this project, notably Thomas Stubblefield, Lawrence Jenkens, Andrea M Fernandes, Anthony Fisher, Viera Levitt, Stacy Latt Savage, and Laura Franz. Thank you CVPA for letting in an outsider.