Print Now: Rethinking Post-Pandemic Print Curriculum
Panel co-chaired by Jennifer Schmidt and Kate Conlon
Description
This panel reflects on the ways in which pandemic experience led to a radical redesign of the Print & Paper curriculum at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.
For the 2020-21 year, all classes were transitioned to an online format. In response to the geographic separation of our student population, new classes were designed to focus on community building, individual voice, responsive practice, and public communication.
We offered ‘Print Now’, ‘Fliers and Zines’, and ‘The Ephemeral Archive’ as a way to engage with current events in real time. These courses examined protest graphics, DIY signage, and institutional/individual collecting practices to question the role of graphic communication in historical narratives and record keeping.
In Fall 2021, in-person classes resumed and the department recognized an opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching and framing traditional print processes. Our curriculum was expanded to include timely thematic courses that emphasize print as practice. ’Collaborative Print’ demonstrated the community building and activist potential of print media while ‘Replicas and Reproductions’ asked students to examine the issues of authorship and authenticity that are central to working in multiple form. Experimental courses such as ‘Games and Strategies’ and ‘Multiples, Rituals, and Actions’ introduced new studio methodologies to explore the performative potential of print.
Modifications made in response to the pandemic were a catalyst for thinking about the future of print curriculum. As we continue to live in a hybrid world of in-person and virtual interactions, we recognize the importance of creating courses that harness the potential of physical exchange while preserving the candid and intimate experience of sharing observations and stories online. We seek to integrate both approaches to offer a dynamic platform for learning about multiples and the ability to make impressions.
About the co-chairs
Jennifer Schmidt is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, NY, who works with print media, graphic design, writing, and sound to create site-responsive installations, video, and performances that question the role of visual iconography and repetitive actions within a given environment. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and is Professor of the Practice at SMFA at Tufts University in Boston, MA.
Recent exhibitions and performances include: Miriam Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; 32. Biennial of Graphic Arts, International Centre for Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; International Print Center New York, NY; BRIC, Brooklyn, NY; EFA Project Space, New York, NY; SPACES, Cleveland, OH; and Boston Center for the Arts, MA. Recent artist residencies include: Frans Masereel Centre, Belgium; Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, MD; Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; Skaftfell Center for Visual Art, Iceland; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency on Governor's Island, NY; Nida Art Colony, Lithuania; and The Banff Centre, Canada.. Jennifer Schmidt is a two-time fellow in Printmaking /Drawing/Book Arts from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and is a grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kate Conlon is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the various ways that we make sense of the world. Conlon’s sculpture, print, and book works have been exhibited at venues including 68 Projects Berlin; OC OSAKA; Julius Caesar, Chicago; Goldfinch, Chicago; MANA Contemporary Chicago; and The Grand Rapids Art Museum. She has received grants and residencies from MASS MoCA, Kala Art Institute, ACRE, and the Chicago Artists Coalition. She was named the Chicago Public Libraries’ Artist in Residence for the 2020-2021 year. Conlon served as a founding director of Fernwey Gallery and Editions from 2014 to 2018 and she currently co-directs Limited Time Engagement Press with her partner, Boyang Hou. Conlon received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BA degree from Smith College. She is currently a Professor of the Practice in Print & Paper at SMFA @ Tufts University in Boston, MA.
Panelists
Be Oakley is an artist, writer and punisher based in Queens, NY. In 2015 they started, GenderFail is a publishing, programing and archiving platform run solely by Oakley. GenderFail is not non-for-profit but profit-for-survival or profit-to-continue-our-work-without-other-means-ofcapital and most importantly to make money for others they publish, to create profit-for-labor. With GenderFail, publishing is personal, it’s a means of my livelihood and a tool for the dissemination of imperfect, but powerful idea.
GenderFail has been apart of exhibitions, programs and events The Studio Museum in Harlem (Radical Reading Room, 2019), Williams College Museum of Art (Queer Zines, 2019), MoMA PS1 (Past and Future Fictions, 2018), The International Center of Photography (Queering the Collection, 2018), Excess and Refusal (Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, 2021), Imperfect Archiving, Archiving as Practice (Center for Book Arts, 2021) and many others. Our work has been featured in Italian Vogue (January 2020), The Baffler (No.56 The Counterpublic Option, March 2021), Eye on Design (Three Publishers Get Real About Independent Publishing), and many others. They are also a recipient of a 2022 Robert Rauchenburg Foundation Grant.
GenderFail publications can be found in the library collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum Library and over 50 others.
Mike Smoot currently lives in Southern Vermont and is a Professor of the Practice in Print and Paper at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. He completed Tamarind Institute’s Professional Printer Training Program in 2007 and has worked at several professional fine art print studios including Atelier Towson, The Experimental Print Institute, Tamarind Institute, and Landfall Press. He has taught or given lectures and demonstrations on printmaking at Towson University, Goucher College, East Carolina University, Southeast Missouri State University, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Georgia State University, Valdosta State University, UMass Amherst, Bennington College, Keene State College, and Smith College. In addition, he has worked with a number of art related community organizations and currently serves on the Executive Board of Southern Graphics International. He believes printmaking’s potentials for sustained collaborative effort, the negotiation of difference, and collective creative action make it a worthwhile pursuit.
Vin Caponigro. In their interdisciplinary practice, Vin Caponigro blends accessible and egalitarian concepts with ritual and performance to explore ideas of restriction and reproduction through writing, performance, and the creation of multiples. Caponigro’s research includes how those in power have used storytelling and reproducible media to control history, and how marginalized communities have used independent publishing to tell their own stories and fight back against oppressive systems. Caponigro has attended residencies in Estonia, Sicily, and the United States, including Zygote Press, ACRE, the Wassaic Project, and the Women’s Studio Workshop. In addition to solo exhibitions in Chicago and Baltimore, Caponigro’s work has been included in two-person and group exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Beverly Art Center, the Highland Park Art Center, the Nemeth Art Center, and the International Print Center NY. Caponigro currently lives and works on occupied Massachusett and Wampanoag land, where they operate Snake Hair, an independent publisher of zines and ritual multiples.
Time
3:45-5:15pm Friday
Location
Kent State University School of Art
Center for Visual Arts (CVA)
Room 251
Wearing face coverings and being up-to-date on Covid-19 vaccinations are strongly recommended at this location.