Andrea Price and her artwork, “Not My Art History,” 2019.

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Artist Andrea Price, BFA ’19, resists an accepted Eurocentric perspective of art and beauty that represents people of color in positions of oppression. In her opinion, historical images of slaves that are considered beautiful are nothing more than the representations of black people created by those who colonized and enslaved them. Seeing these images in an art history class awakened a passion in Price to contribute to a new vision. “My heart literally broke, and I got angry because,” she asked, “why is the esteem that we hold in art attached to European views of what art should look like? That really began my journey to decolonize, to think … how can we create art that involves everyone; where I see myself in a piece of art; where other people of color can see themselves and know that they’re beautiful; and it’s not through the perspective of our white comforts?” Price told SHELOVES Magazine.

“Get You Some Sensitivity, Thanks” 2019, Andrea Price

Price creates art that denies those representations and introduces a different perspective that celebrates artistic diversity. Using drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and fiber art, Price weaves a new image of the African American experience through these media, focusing her work on social justice in relationship to people of color.

SHELOVES Magazine’s interview with Price features her art piece, “Not My Art History,” a powerful fiber-based work that reimagines history’s views of black art and black beauty.

“I hope that you can search your heart and see this piece and think: Huh, is art history really completely Eurocentric? Is what I’ve been taught from a very young age very Eurocentric, and why is that? Why are we not talking about all of the indigenous cultures that create beautiful things that we like to label as savage, as lesser-than, but not understanding the level of intelligence it takes to create something because they’re doing it with meaning?” Price says.

“Rug of Equality,” hand crocheted 4’m 2020, Andrea Price

Price advocates for the recognition of black artists, such as one of her favorite artists, Carrie Mae Weems. “Even throughout my whole educational experience, I think one thing that gets brought up so often is Kehinde Wiley. And I love Kehinde Wiley, but he is not the only person of color that is creating art about people of color,” Price told SHELOVES Magazine. She says that it’s necessary to backtrack through decades of the works of other artists and cultures that are “equally beautiful.” She says the writers of our history books are not telling the full story.

SHELOVES Magazine video interview.

Instagram: @andreaandherart

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Alicia Disantis, BA ’08, combines a set of artistic and entrepreneurial skills that have led her to establish a successful design and marketing firm, 38th & Kip, in Denver, Colorado. She also serves as brand manager at Aux in Lakewood, Colorado, where she develops and executes brand strategies that drive company recognition and profitability.

Her writing, graphic design and marketing expertise come together in marketing campaigns that include website design, print collateral, videos and trade show materials. Disantis’ own company provides creative pieces in various industries that include professional services, manufacturing, non-profit, technology and more. In the non-profit sector, Disantis has volunteered pro bono design services, including developing a targeted infographic for the Feline Foundation of Greater Washington, an animal welfare organization.

She founded 38th & Kip in 2010 with a mission to provide “exceptional, fairly priced marketing and design services to improve people’s lives.” Disantis’ business philosophy aligns with living in a just world, where fairness and equality are the norm, and the injustices of racism and bigotry are not tolerated. She says on the 38th & Kip website that her company is “committed to a better tomorrow.”

Disantis, who earned her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art, New Media, at UToledo, said about her professor, Deb Davis, “You know, I think of your classes often. You were challenging but your principles and passion for art stuck with me.” Alicia also earned a master’s degree in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management at Columbia College in Chicago. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from both colleges. She notes that she is inspired by retro design, Scandinavian minimalism, street art and bold colors. As an avid backpacker, she has traveled through many countries, stopping to visit as many museums as possible.

Product Promo Illustration Client: CU Service Network

Illustrations and type are hand-drawn, then scanned and colored.

Create concept and illustrations for product ads and a series of educational events that focus on specific services.

Aux Rebrand Client: CU Service Network

All rights 38th and Kip.

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Caroline Jardine, BFA ’17, BA Education ’16, identifies with art on a variety of levels — her personal artwork, the community-driven, public mural projects she leads and the creative expressions of her young students.

As a teenager, Jardine was introduced to place-making while she apprenticed for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. Through her passion for community-based art, Jardine became further engaged with local residents and arts practitioners, creating and leading mural projects, installations and other collaborative projects for organizations, businesses, schools and community events.

Caroline Jardine working on a mural in downtown Toledo with muralist Maya Hayuk.

Her 2020 work includes a collaboration with fellow muralist Maya Hayuk, whom Jardine assisted on a mural highlighting the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “Maya Hayuk has been my favorite muralist for years, so this was so meaningful to

me to be able to not just meet her, but work with her,” says Jardine. The year also saw Jardine working on a project for local business owners of the Stubborn Brother pizza restaurant, a project in which she hand-lettered all of the text.

Two additional Toledo projects from 2020 include a board-up mural at 1105 and 1109 N. Huron, and an interactive spray chalk mural on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art. Caroline was also the lead designer for the first Community Collaborative artwork for the Arts Commission Momentum ’20. The “art-by-number” pieces that were broken into smaller 6″ X 6″ squares completed by the community and placed within a larger installation on Adams Street.

Images: Caroline Jardine

Jardine, who teaches 6- 12th-grade art at St. Ursula Academy, blends Ukrainian symbolism into her personal, mixed media artworks to represent themes of identity, connection and history. “When working on personal artwork, I allow my own voice to guide the process,” says Jardine.

Voice is a significant distinction between her personal and public artworks, she says. “I believe that when leading a community mural, the mural must be informed by the members of the community; my voice should not be the loudest in the room. In creative place-making, community members lead the direction of the artwork. My role is to listen, ask questions, and facilitate the creation of an artwork that is representative and reflective of the voices of the community.”

BCAN video features the community mural work of artist/educator/muralist, Caroline Jardine.

University of Toledo Art Department faculty Eric Zeigler (assistant professor of art, Art Print Center coordinator) and Brian Carpenter (assistant professor of art, gallery director) received international recognition for a course they designed for the department. Their paper “Engaging Tools” was published this week by the international research organization, Architecture_Media_Politics_Society (AMPS) in its conference publication, “AMPS Proceedings Series 17.1. Education, Design and Practice – Understanding skills in a Complex World.”

Students working with tools in the Foundations of Art Studio Technologies at UToledo

Zeigler and Carpenter’s paper covers the development and implementation of a course they designed for The University of Toledo Department of Art – Foundations of Art Studio Technologies (FAST). The purpose of the course is to enhance a student’s understanding of themselves as “tool-users” and to reinforce the importance of agency that is developed through the process of “making.”

Brian Carpenter, Gallery Director and Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Toledo

The paper’s introduction states, “The paper examines…our approach for creating an environment where students understand the physical, historical, and philosophical relationships between tools; can operate and discern the components of tools, and begin to create a foundation to become a manually competent knowledge worker.”

Eric Zeigler, UToledo Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of the Art Print Center

“I would add that the course is a foundational component in a college career where an understanding of the components of the systems we live within needs more scrutiny and analysis than ever before,” Zeigler said.

The FAST course has been offered at UToledo since 2016 and is greatly appreciated by the students who have taken it. One remarked anonymously in a course evaluation, “I love that we are able to learn something conceptually, and then immediately apply it hands-on. This isn’t common in most classes, and I really appreciate this.”

The paper was presented last June at the AMPS conference. A compilation of all the papers presented was published this week and back dated to the date of the conference. https://architecturemps.com/proceedings/

Citation:
Zeigler, Eric; Carpenter, Brian. “Engaging Tools.” In: Ellyn Lester (ed.), AMPS Proceedings Series 17.1. Education, Design and Practice – Understanding skills in a Complex World. Stevens Institute of Technology, USA. 17 – 19 June (2019). pp. 160-165

A few years ago, The University of Toledo’s Carlson Library took delivery of a special piece of campus history — a set of hands from the University Hall clock tower.

Now those brass hands are the focal point of a two-sided mural being painted near the library’s circulation desk by two students in UT’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Program as part of the library’s experiential learning initiative.

“We always wanted to display…” (Click link to read more.)

Timeless art: Pair of UT fine arts students incorporate old clock tower hands into mural at Carlson Library

From the desk of the Arts Commission Director, Marc Folk:

April 2018 Newsletter

Community Collaborations

High school artist Lynwood Fisher (Rogers High School) with University of Toledo Professor of Art Thomas Lingeman. Lynwood
was recognized with the University of Toledo Department of Art Award during the 35th annual Ninth Congressional District
Invitational Art Exhibition. Photo credit: Tom Whalen

The Arts Commission values our continued and deepening partnership with the University of Toledo. We have collaborated with our UT neighbors on youth education programming, Art in Public Places conservation projects with Professor of Art Thomas Lingeman, Student Art League involvement in Momentum led by Associate Professor of Art Arturo Rodriguez, and many more examples. Our board of trustees also benefits from the inclusion of UT Department of Art Assistant Professor Dan Hernandez, currently serving as co-chair of the Art in Public Places committee.

Beginning in 2010, the Art Department has generously hosted the worksite of our Young Artists At Work (YAAW) program in their state of the art studio facilities. The YAAW apprentices benefit from their exposure to university studios, expert faculty and positive interactions with undergraduate art students. Access to digital technologies, printmaking presses and a professional gallery space provide opportunities for the YAAW apprentices to explore new visual art media and gain marketable job skills during their six-week summer employment with The Arts Commission.

Since 2007, The University of Toledo has annually sponsored monetary awards for The Ninth Congressional District Invitational Art Exhibition. Presented by Congresswoman Kaptur and The Arts Commission, this program invites high school artists who live in the Ninth Congressional District to showcase their talent in the form of two-dimensional visual artwork. Starting in 2016, The University of Toledo deepened their involvement with the program by integrating the exhibition design and installation of the Toledo portion of the Congressional exhibition into their Gallery Practice course curriculum.

The Arts Commission’s staff are thankful to work alongside many talented University of Toledo student interns. We applaud the university faculty for the contributions they have made in the lives of their students as they consider careers in the arts and culture sector.

We thank the University of Toledo Art Department for their many contributions to our community, continued partnership in supporting talented youth artists, and leadership in advocating for arts, culture and education.

A one-day public program that began in Detroit and finished in Toledo explored the impact of the African-American Great Migration on literary and musical expression in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

The program, “I Got a Lust for Life: The Unique Words and Sounds of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan,” included panel discussions, poetry readings and musical performances on Saturday, Jan. 20, in Detroit at Wayne State University and in Toledo at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and Toledo Museum of Art.

The program began in Detroit with panel discussion at Wayne State University’s Schaver Music Recital Hall. The panel included Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Records and official archivist for the White Stripes; John Gibbs Rockwood, Toledo author of the 2014 book “Can I Get a Witness” that features his photographs of iconic rock, pop, blues and folk musicians performing in the region during the early 1970s through the 2000s; Ramona Collins, Toledo-based popular jazz singer; and Oliver Ragsdale Jr., president of the Carr Center, a community hub for African-American artistic expression in Detroit.

Detroit morning event (Schaver Music Recital Hall, Old Main, Wayne State University)

“I Got a Lust for Life” then moved to Toledo, where Tyehimba Jess performed a poetry reading and held a book signing at the McMaster Center of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. Jess is a 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet from Detroit whose work has focused on music, biography and African-American history. He read read from “Olio,” his award-winning collection of poetry that weaves together sonnet, song and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded, African-American performers from the Civil War to World War I.

McMaster Center, Main Library, Toledo Lucas County Public Library

The program  concluded with a panel discussion in the Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art with Jess; M.L. Liebler, a Detroit-based, award-winning poet and editor of the anthology “Heaven Was Detroit: From Jazz to Hip-Hop and Beyond”; Frances Brockington, associate professor of voice at Wayne State University; and Dr. Lee Ellen Martin, jazz vocalist and Jon Hendricks scholar.  Mack and Duchan moderated the discussion, which was followed by a musical performance  by UT Jazz students an alumni.

“I Got a Lust for Life” in the TMA Glass Pavilion.

“I Got a Lust for Life: The Unique Words and Sounds of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan” was sponsored by the Roger Ray Institute for the Humanities at The University of Toledo, which advocates for and supports the study of human culture — from a great variety of fields — at all levels of learning and scholarship. Additional support for the program was provided by UT, WSU, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Toledo.com and the Toledo Museum of Art.

A recent review from the  exhibition,

“Heterogeneous: States of American,” Josh Byers, David Cuatlacuatl, and Faith Goodman @ River House Arts

 curated by Brian Carpenter and the Contemporary Art Toledo exhibition that is currently up at River House Arts (featuring UT Art Department alumna Faith Goodman).

https://loranitude.wordpress.com/tag/toledo-contemporary-art/

Just wanted to share the release of the Nat.Brut article featuring Beryl Satter’s essay and art work from the CVA’s gallery exhibition Piece it Together.

http://www.natbrut.com

© Mysoon Rizk, PhD / November 2016

On November 3, 2016, a colleague and I drove six students for an hour and a half to Oberlin, Ohio, to hear African-American artist Fred Wilson (b.1954) speak about his work on the occasion of two exhibitions he installed this past year at Oberlin College’s Allen Memorial Art Museum in this small college town (my alma mater). We were already familiar with the artist, each one of us having often admired his black glass sculpture Iago’s Mirror (2009), acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) in 2010 — and currently on view in the TMA’s Gallery 6 for the temporary exhibition Shakespeare’s Characters: Playing the Part. Listening to a talk by the 1999 recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant was inspiring and exciting. Getting to see his work in both a solo exhibition (Fred Wilson: Black to the Powers of Ten) and in the site-specific installation Wildfire Test Pit was amazing.

As a generous, instructive, insightful orator, Fred Wilson was spectacular, sharing slides as he described an artistic trajectory and longtime interest in understanding museums through their collections (“what’s there, what’s not there”). Starting out by invitation from the Maryland Historical Society, his attention began training on the Atlantic slave trade, the Indian slave trade, and movements of oil — or as he came to call such dynamics, Movement of Blackness. Giving form to institutional memory by “mining” museum collections, Wilson would feature decommissioned possessions, like slave shackles or a public whipping post, side by side with an institution’s finest silver and furniture. He spoke about installing over 50 portraits of Daniel Webster at the Hood Museum, in Dartmouth College, at the same time as a series of plaster cast busts identifying human specimens from around the world. In the case of the latter, Wilson hid racial inscriptions with sashes of mourning, to encourage viewers to see them as people, including a cast of Ota Benga, the Congolese youth exhibited at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 who would end up committing suicide in Virginia 12 years later.

In mining the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin, Mr. Wilson found himself magnetized by Edmonia Lewis whose story “remains obscured by rumor and mystery” as one scholar puts it. An orphan of African-American and Native-American heritage from New York, Lewis began to study art at Oberlin College in 1859. A few months after the Civil War had begun, she was accused of poisoning two (white) friends, beaten by a mob, arrested, and tried. Although acquitted, she remained a target and eventually left without graduating. Heading to Boston, she secured further artistic training, before taking up residency in Rome, Italy for a few years, where Lewis enjoyed success for her marble statuary. After returning to the States she disappears from the historical record. Wilson called the nineteenth-century sculptor a “guiding light” for his site-specific installation at the Oberlin museum, which he entitled Wildfire Test Pit for the Indian name given to Edmonia Lewis and the “archaeological term for a site you dig to see what’s there.”

Our field trip to Oberlin proved intensely rewarding, inspiring reflection long afterward: on the creative process, erasure and exclusion, the construct of race as well as concepts of time or memory, the roles of museums in compressing histories, individuals recorded and those forgotten, objects acknowledged and those to be buried. In the coming weeks, students will be sharing their own thoughts about the opportunity to hear from a practicing contemporary artist and to experience the work firsthand. Please stay tuned! Fred Wilson’s work remains on view at the Allen Memorial Art Museum until June 2017.