Chautauqua School of Art

June 22–August 10, 2019

2019 applications are open now.

About Chautauqua School of Art

The School of Art is a centerpiece of Visual Arts at Chautauqua (known as VACI –pronounced VAH-chee). The School is an incubator of inclusive and expansive programming in the visual arts composed of classes, workshops and one-on-one time with mentors covering all media. The curriculum intentionally breaks apart the traditional methods that silo disciplines from each other and instead embraces a full range of studio and pragmatic studies including professional development for artists, the art of pedagogy, writing in the 21st century, and the relevance of art history today.

The 2019 artists-in-residence program at VACI welcomes students and emerging artists who have yet to receive wide recognition of their work, including artists as young as juniors in college. Artists who engage in all media are encouraged to apply. This is an environment that promotes collaboration, exchange, and an openness to other art forms at Chautauqua, which includes dance, theater, music and more. Download the VACI Poster.

The program has a base core-faculty along with visiting artists who will hold workshops and give lectures through the summer. All core-faculty will host weekly one-on-one conversations with students and emerging artists and will conduct classes of their specialties, which are described below:

Core Faculty

Hrag Vartanian
Hrag Vartanian is Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder of Hyperallergic, critic, curator, artist and photographer. He will be critic-in-residence, developing VACI’s first writing program for artists and critics that will look at arts writing and how it is evolving in the 21st century.
hragvartanian.com | instagram.com/hragv | twitter.com/hragv | hyperallergic.com | instagram.com/hyperallergic | twitter.com/hyperallergic

Alpesh Kantilal Patel is a contemporary art historian, critic, and curator based at Florida International University, Miami, where he directed the MFA program in Visual Arts from 2012-2017. Yasmeen Siddiqui is the founder of Minerva Projects and a curator, essayist, and lecturer committed to voicing unorthodox narratives about artists today. Alpesh and Yasmeen will share art movements and global exhibition histories through weekly lectures and discussions in the galleries; collaborate with the gallery director to consult and curate exhibitions within its galleries; explore topics such as whiteness and decolonization, both with an awareness of the weight of history and locating/identifying overlooked stories; and collaborate with students, emerging and visiting artists — all in the service of empowering artists to consider artistic practice as theory.
nyu.academia.edu/AlpeshKantilalPatel | minervaprojects.org/about-minerva | instagram.com/minervaprojects/

Wendy Red Star
Wendy Red Star is an artist who works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American ideologies and colonialist structures, both historically and in contemporary society, informed both by her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. As an artist and educator, Red Star will offer mentorship and guidance to students to expand their knowledge of Native American art with a focus on research and intergenerational collaboration. Wendy is believed to be the first Native woman artist to teach at Chautauqua Institution in its history.
wendyredstar.com | instagram.com/wendyredstar | twitter.com/WendyRedStar

Hasan Elahi
Hasan Elahi is an artist, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland and board member of Creative Capital. He will be working with participants at Chautauqua on developing new formal and informal academic curricula that respond to a changing creative economy while focusing on a balanced academic and artistic life.
elahi.umd.edu | facebook.com/hasanelahi | twitter.com/hasanmelahi

Jean Shin

Jean Shin is an artist whose large-scale installations speak to identity and community. Jean is on the faculty at Pratt Institute and a board member of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Jean will engage students in multi-faceted projects in the public realm, including site-specific installations and socially engaged works.
jeanshin.com | instagram.com/jean.shin

Tia-Simone Gardner

Tia-Simone Gardner is an interdisciplinary artist and Black feminist scholar who’s practice draws on ideas of geography, mobility, and stasis, particularly in relation to creating Black sense of place. While at Chautauqua she will do a series of guided readings on Black feminist theory and time-based practices.
tiasimonegardner.info | twitter.com/tbonesimone

Raheleh Filsoofi
Raheleh Filsoofi, a member of the faculty at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work incorporates ancient and contemporary media such as ceramics, poetry, ambient sound, and video to make commentaries on border, immigration, and inter-cultural communications. She will give students the opportunity to explore the ceramic medium in the wider context of contemporary art by focusing on specific projects that concern multiplicity in installation.
rahelehfilsoofi.com | instagram.com/rahafilsoofi | twitter.com/rahelehfilsoofi

Professional Development

Students and emerging artists will engage with the Artists Thrive self-assessment tools to help guide their professional development experience while at Chautauqua. Artists Thrive is meant to be customized, adapted, and applied to many situations to support your work. artiststhrive.org

Technical Workshops and Visiting Artists

Technical workshops in printmaking, drawing, sculpture and ceramics will be offered throughout the summer. Visiting artists will also come for short stints to provide unique experiences with students, emerging artists and the Chautauqua visiting public. Technicians will also be on-site for general assistance.

Bonnie Ashmore
Artist and Educator
Young Artists, Printmaking
bonnieashmore.com
instagram.com/bonniejashmore/

Brant Weiland
Kiln Master and Ceramics Studio Technician, Ceramics
Brant's Website | On Instagram

Sam Peck
Artist and Educator
Young Artists, Printmaking
instagram.com/speckx/

David Rogers
Artist and Educator
Life Drawing, Digital Media
davidrogersart.com
instagram.com/davidrogersblort/

The VACI Team

Sharon Louden
Sydelle Sonkin and Herb Siegel Artistic Director of the Visual Arts
Artist, Educator, Advocate for Artists, and Editor of the "Living and Sustaining a Creative Life" series of books
art@chq.org | sharonlouden.com | livesustain.org
instagram.com/sharonlouden | twitter.com/LoudenStudio