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Eva and Franco Mattes led a seminar in and around their studio.

At the end of our first week, we started at MoMA where we visited the Lygia Clark exhibition and MoMA Studio: Breathe With Me. Then we headed to Chelsea to talk with Ernest Larsen and Sherry Millner, and ended the day with a visit to Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety” at the Domino Sugar Factory, where we talked to Creative Time’s Project Manager Jean Cooney.

Applications are being accepted for the 2014 New York Arts Practicum, a summer arts institute where participants experientially learn to bridge their lives as art students into lives as artists in the world. The program is structured around apprenticeships with mentor artists, a critique seminar where participants produce work without access to their institutional facilities, and site visits to artist workspaces, galleries, and museums.

The intensive eight-week program offers participants a structured environment to experience the challenges of life as an artist and demystifies the many ways one can be an artist today. Mentees work in their mentor’s studio two to three days per week, meet Monday and Tuesday evenings for a critique seminar, and convene Fridays for site visits in artist studios, galleries, and museums. Past participants called the experience: demystifying, life changing, and an inspirational reality check.

By working with an artist on a day-to-day basis, participants gain a view of their near futures as artists, learning models for negotiating a creative life outside of school. Mentors for 2014 include: Pablo Helguera, David Horvitz, Jen Liu, Mary Mattingly, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Brad Troemel, Letha Wilson, Andrew Norman Wilson with several to be added prior to the March 15th application deadline.

Mentors lead critiques structured around developing strategies for creating work without institutional studio facilities. Practicum mentors lead seminars on their work, or related topic; these sessions are intimate views into their in-progress work, with a focus on process.

Program Director Michael Mandiberg facilitates critique seminar, and guides site visits to artist studios, galleries, and museums, many of which will include conversations with curators and gallerists.

Past Mentors and Site Visits:

Last year’s mentors and visitors included: Cory Arcangel, Chloe Bass, Alexander Benenson at Bitforms, Nova Benway at the Drawing Center, Sarah Butler, Nicole Caruth at Art21, Andrea Champlin, Sara Dierck, Brendan Fernandes, Courtenay Finn at Art in General, Carla Gannis, Claudia Hart, Pablo Helguera, David Horvitz, Marisa Jahn, Nina Katchadourian, Steve Lambert, Sherry Millner & Ernest Larsen, Simone Leigh, Matt Levy, Jen Liu, Kristin Lucas, Josh Macphee, Candice Madey and Courtney Childress at On Stellar Rays, Mary Mattingly, Joe McKay, Memefactory, Stephanie Pereira at Kickstarter, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Magda Sawon and Tomas Banovich at Postmasters, Brad Troemel, Penelope Umbrico, Andrew Norman Wilson, Dan Wilson, Letha Wilson, Sam Wilson at Klaus von Nichtssagend, Caroline Woolard, and Kevin Zucker.

Application Details

The 8 week New York Arts Practicum runs from June 9th to August 1st, 2014. The application deadline is March 15th, 2014.

Academic credit is earned through arrangements with participants’ home institutions.
For program description and application please see the website: http://ArtsPracticum.org. For questions, please see the FAQ: http://www.artspracticum.org/faq, or contact us at info@artspracticum.org

Final critique at Interference Archive with Josh Macphee.

Final critique with Brendan Fernandes.

Our last meeting of the summer was with Nina Katchadourian. She talked to the participants about her creative process, and in particular, her on-going project of making art during airplane flights.
Final picnic dinner.

David Horvitz joined us at his exhibition/residency at Recess in Soho for a critique. David showed us some of his work, including honey locust seedlings he grew from seeds he collected from the trees at Zuccotti park. He also took photos of us posing as “sad” as part of his “Sad, Depressed People” series.

Stephanie Pereira of Kickstarter talked to the participants about what it takes to create a successful campaign on their site, which is really a proxy for any kind of grant writing.
The secret: telling a good story.

Magda Sawon and Tamas Banovich of Postmasters showed us what will become their new space.

Penelope Umbrico speaks with the New York Arts Practicum about her work.

We visited Cory Archangel’s studio, which had a particularly strong impact on the participants. Adrian Barrientes, New York Arts Practicum participant of 2013 wrote:

It was Arcangel’s work that my sparked interest in the possibilities of exploiting the technology I grew up on. His work is much more than just working with technology though, as evidenced through this insightful studio visit. The inspiring thing from this studio visit was learning that he fails many times as he iterates his way to creating a finished, resolved work. We were able to see a sincere, humorous, and rather prominent artist in a way that was refreshing, and heartening.

We visited the galleries on the Lower East side, including talks with Candace Madey and Courtney Childress at On Stellar Rays, and Sam Wilson at Klaus von Nichtssagend.