EDUCATION DAYS SELF-GUIDED TOUR

EDUCATION DAYS

SELF-GUIDED TOUR

ARTPRIZE EDUCATION DAYS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Education Days Curriculum Underwriters:

AMDG Architects Aquinas College BDO USA, LLP Calvin College Clark Hill Hope College Macatawa Bank Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Education Days Venues:

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Grand Rapids Art Museum Grand Rapids Public Museum Grand Valley State University Kendall College of Art and Design St. Cecilia Music Center Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts

Media Partner

INTRODUCTION

ARTPRIZE 2012 EDUCATION DAYS SELF-GUIDED TOUR

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

Chaperones ? Chaperones must supervise and accompany their

students at all times. Classroom teachers and chaperones are responsible for ensuring the students behave appropriately during their field trip. We require one chaperone for every 10 participating students.

Venue Etiquette ? Food and drink CANNOT be brought into the venues. ? School backpacks are NOT allowed. Please leave them

at school or on the bus. ? Please silence all cell phones inside venues. ? Flash photography is NOT permitted inside venues. ? DO NOT TOUCH the artwork (both inside AND outside).

Audio Guides ? Each artist that has recorded an interpretive

statement about her/his work, has this graphic next to their name, along with the phone and stop numbers. Educators and students can use their cell phones to dial into the audio guide and listen directly to the artist's statement. We encourage you to take advantage of this interpretive resource.

If you have any questions, please contact our Education Consultant ? Angela De Luca-Placencia by email angela@ or by phone 616.214.7924.

Lunch ? Participating venues do not have the space to

accommodate your school during lunchtime. Please feel free to bring a sack lunch and eat outside. Don't forget to pick up your trash!

Car/Van Parking ? There are a variety of parking structures located in

downtown Grand Rapids. In addition, there is metered parking on the street (most metered parking is limited to 1 ? 3 hours, and is strictly enforced). The parking garage on Louis St. and Ionia St. offers one hour of free parking before 6pm.

Accessibility ? All of the participating venues are fully accessible and

meet the Americans for Disabilities Act guidelines.

Videotaping and Photography ? Videotaping will take place at some venues. ? There will be professional photographers at each

program venue. ? If you or your students do not wish to be recorded,

please avoid these areas. They will be clearly marked.

Weather ? You will spend some of the day outside, so be

prepared for inclement weather. ? Don't forget your umbrellas if it looks like rain!

ARTPRIZE LOOKING GUIDE

ARTPRIZE 2012 EDUCATION DAYS SELF-GUIDED TOUR

ALL ARTISTS MAKE CHOICES...

Today's artists are knowledgeable about how art has been made throughout history, but they have access to a limitless variety of materials. Contemporary artists make choices such as whether to work with traditional media, use industrial processes, create images with the help of new technologies, or invent hybrid art forms by combining techniques and styles. In this process, conventional rules for creating art are often broken and the nature of art itself is called into question. Today's artists strive to interpret their world, while defining and then re-defining what art can be.

Keep this in mind as you and your students discover the wide array of art that has been submitted to ArtPrize. Spend a longer time looking at entries that intrigue your group.

Use these guidelines to help structure your class's exploration of ArtPrize works. Discuss the choices that artists have made and how students have arrived at their interpretations.

GETTING TO KNOW AN INDIVIDUAL WORK... LOOKING CAREFULLY

? How was this work of art made? ? What materials were used? How were they assembled? ? Using your senses, what can you learn about this work? ? Describe what you see... colors, shapes, size/scale ? Is there a smell? ? How do you think it would feel? ? How is the work organized? Is the composition

balanced and harmonious or not? ? How does the art interact with its setting?

CREATING AN INTERPRETATION... WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

? What is the subject of this work? ? What is the feeling or mood that it expresses? ? Do you think that what the art represents conceptually

is more important than what you can see? ? Does this work express a new concept or challenge

you to think about something you normally would not? How? ? What do you think inspired this artist? ? If the artist were standing next to the work what questions would you ask?

FINDING A PLACE... WHERE DO YOU THINK THIS WORK FITS?

? Compare this work to others that you have seen at ArtPrize: Are there similarities in technique? Does it connect thematically?

? What does this work say about today's world? How does it relate to... Community Politics Gender or Race relations Economics Or, any other issue that you can think of

? Could this work only have been made today?

This looking guide was adapted from interruptive materials created by the Grand Rapids Art Museum Education Department

UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY ART

ARTPRIZE 2012 EDUCATION DAYS SELF-GUIDED TOUR

WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY ART?

TIME

? It is art that is created in the 21st century ? It reflects a globally infused and culturally diverse world ? It is an evolving set of relationships between materials,

concepts, subjects and methods that consistently challenge traditional notions of what art is ? It lacks a uniform organizing principle or ideology ? It requires viewers to play an active role in finding meaning within the artwork

Some works of art are time-based, meaning the viewer must invest some time to fully experience the work such as listening to a piece of music, watching a video or performance, or walking through and around an installation. Other works of art use technological tools to manipulate time. For example, a video artist may rewind footage, repeat it or slow it down to express their ideas of time.

THE CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE OF ART

Contemporary art takes time to understand. Asking whether a work of art is beautiful or not is no longer the seminal point of inquiry. Viewers must invest some time and consideration when engaging with contemporary art. Openness and curiosity are important points of departure when viewers begin their inquirybased approach to finding meaning within the work.

Traditional Elements and Principles of Design will always be relevant when looking at and discussing all kinds of artwork. Words like shape, line, color, texture, size, balance, unity and movement, can be applied to a painting, performance, film, sculpture or an installation. However, there are some newer principles of art that need to be understood when contemplating and engaging with today's artwork.

? When looking at artwork consider how the element of time affects your interaction with the piece.

? How much time are you willing to invest when looking at artwork?

? How much time do you spend in front of a painting or sculpture versus an installation or video?

? If you could express an idea or feeling about the passing of time what art genre would you choose and why?

SPACE

Today the idea of space encompasses much more that creating an illusion of space on a 2-dimensional surface. Contemporary artists use real space ? outside/ inside, urban/natural and very little/limitless in order to express something about how humans move and live in space today.

Consider how the element of space is present in several different genres of art like:

? Public sculptures ? Performance art ? Multi-sensory installations ? Artwork dependent on viewer participation

PERFORMANCE

Performance art can include public, private or video recordings, which often include the artist performing a compelling series of actions. There are many styles within the genre of performance art from large-scale multimedia productions to solo autobiographical performances.

? Have you seen any performance art during ArtPrize? ? How is creating a performance different from creating

a sculpture? ? If you could create a performance-based artwork,

what would it be about?

UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY ART

ARTPRIZE 2012 EDUCATION DAYS SELF-GUIDED TOUR

APPROPRIATION

When artists appropriate imagery, video or film footage they are taking existing material and transforming it into a new artwork or adding and combining it with other imagery, video or film footage. Artists appropriate from a variety of personal, historical, social or political sources in order to put those references in a new context.

Consider how the element of appropriation may or may not be present in:

? Two-dimensional work, especially collage or photomontage work.

? Have you seen video based art that appropriates footage from other sources?

? Have you ever appropriated imagery from other sources in your own artwork?

HYBRIDITY

Contemporary artists create hybrid art forms all the time when they bring the better of two different art forms together to create a new one. By combining genres like painting, dance, and poetry with new media such as digital photography, video feeds and sound recordings, artists create new hybrid art forms.

? Is any of the artwork you've seen a hybrid? ? Can you identify each genre of art within that

specific piece? ? Why do you think artists like to create new art forms

like hybrids?

"Understanding Contemporary Art" courtesy of the UICA

GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC MUSEUM SELF-GUIDED TOUR

272 PEARL ST NW

JOAN WATERS Joan Waters earned her BFA from The Maryland Institute, College of Art, where she studied African art with Prof. James E. Lewis. She is originally from England, and grew up on the east coast of the U.S. In her childhood she travelled to the Caribbean many times with her family, where she developed the love of saturated tropical colors which are seen in her art. These travels exposed her to foreign cultures, and helped her cultivate the habit of looking at the world from different perspectives. This is reflected in her art in the use positive/negative shapes which play with shifting figure/ ground relationships.

Waters' paintings and metal sculptures suggest the energies and forms of nature without directly depicting natural scenes. By concentrating her will and energy into the materials, the work attains a visceral power and vibration of its own.

of an antique model, and lacks the sleek facade of modern electronic devices. The controls, which are made with pipe, create additional portals that offer cropped views of reality. The rusted steel is constructed to look heavy and layered, with exposed welds and a sense of physicality that draws attention to the vulnerability of this relic. One of the questions the sculpture asks us to consider is how our perceptions of life are created or altered by viewing two-dimensional images on TV and the other electronic screens on which we rely.

QUESTIONS/ACTIONS ? Ask students to look through the television and draw

or write their observations. ? Then have them go to the other side and compare

what they see from this new perspective. ? Discuss how our ideas and visions change when our

perspective changes.

TITLE Ultimate Reality Show

MEDIUM Sculpture/ oxidized steel

An over-sized welded steel television set creates a viewing frame for the public to observe daily life--the "ultimate reality show." The sculpture isolates a view of the world, and challenges the viewer to consider it in a new way. This iconic television set is based on the design

GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC MUSEUM SELF-GUIDED TOUR

272 PEARL ST NW

JULIE CHRISTENSEN Julie Christensen is an accomplished artist originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 1993, She relocated to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in the visual arts. As Julie began to launch her career in Los Angeles, she partnered with production directors to design and create sets for theatrical, film and corporate events. As a result of her achievements in California, opportunities surfaced across the country. In 1999, Julie decided to call Arizona home, where she collaborated with interior designers, architects, and custom home builders to develop eccentric wall finishes and ornate murals for commercial and residential clients. While in Arizona Julie began to incorporate stained glass into her art. In a twist of fate during the summer of 2011 Julie returned to Kalamazoo, MI and married her long lost love. Currently Julie lives in Kalamazoo, MI where she continues to pursue her love of art.

Compassion, She hears the cries of all beings. Quan Yin enjoys a strong resonance with the Christian Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Tibetan goddess Tara. Quan Yin, vowed to remain in the earthly realms and not enter the heavenly worlds until all other living things have completed their own enlightenment and thus become liberated from the pain-filled cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. In the creation of Quan Yin I hand-cut each individual piece of stained glass and then laminated the glass onto a sheet of tempered glass using an ultraviolet lamp. I then adorned her with Swarovski crystals and gold leaf. After all of the elements were in place I grouted her and put her in a custom made light box that uses an LED lighting system.

QUESTIONS/ACTIONS ? Discuss with students the use of a deity as subject

material for art. Site examples from famous artists and compare Julie's piece. ? Discuss how the use of technology, LED lighting, changes the nature of stained glass.

TITLE Quan Yin

MEDIUM

Stained Glass

Quan Yin is one of the most universally beloved of deities in the Buddhist tradition. She is the embodiment of compassionate loving kindness. As the Bodhisattva of

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