Otis Graduate public Practice Program
Otis MFA Public Practice Program Exhibit- Barrett Gallery
Open- Tuesday, May 12 to Friday, June 5
Reception- Saturday, May 9 (4 – 7pm)
Candida Ayala, Andy Manoushagian, Ofunne Obiamiwe, Jules Rochielle, & Tory Tepp
Come meet and mingle with the artists–the first students to graduate as part of the new MFA in Public Practices Program–at a group exhibit of works that are motivated, informed, and shaped by places, issues, and audiences, both internationally and locally. Opening reception on Saturday, May 9, from 4 to 7 pm.
Graduate Public Practice
The program, under the leadership of Suzanne Lacy, the renowned artist, educator, theorist of socially engaged public art and author of the influential Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, enriches an arts environment marked by a remarkable mix of art schools and a distinguished history of artistic innovation.
Participating graduate students explore new artistic strategies and practices based on observation, research, social commentary and activism, and visual and performance arts productions in the public realm. Students work in individual studios on a single significant project in collaboration with each other, community members, interdisciplinary scholars, and an internationally known faculty.
The program is housed at the 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica, a nonprofit residential arts institution for artists and organizations dedicated to issues of community and diversity in contemporary society. The College offers outstanding facilities in sculpture, painting, graphic arts, illustration, video, photography, computer-generated model-making and digital technology. An intimate class size supports mentorship, case-study learning, and production skills in installation, performance, process art, guerilla art and interdisciplinary projects. All students create a thesis integrating theory and practice in art, urbanism, civic life, or other subjects supporting a critical discourse on their work. Participants study with internationally known artists and theorists, do field internships with professional artists, and teach as assistants in Otis’s groundbreaking undergraduate Integrated Learning curriculum.
