Project: A multi-faceted process of building community that included the collaborative development of 18 large-scale public works made by students, faculty and staff from Amherst College, integrating the creative processes of Wendy Ewald and Brett Cook. Participants explored building community through a number of contemplative, educational, and creative exercises that focused on learning. The project was anchored in Wendy Ewald’s fall semester class Collaborative Art: Theory and Practice of Working with a Community. Both the campus community collaboration project and the Practice of Collaborative Art Class culminated with large-scale public works mounted across the Amherst College Community and an exhibition at the Mead Art Museum. The exhibition includes a catalogue highlighting the complete semester long experience. Theme: By collaboratively creating an atmosphere of communication for students, staff, and faculty to dialogue about learning in our lives, there was an increased understanding of each other that manifests as a loving community. Concept: The first aspirations of the Building Community Through Learning collaboration were informed by classes on collaborative art with Wendy Ewald, public dialogues by Brett Cook with members of the Amherst College community, a meet and greet dinner at the Valentine center, group phone meetings, and regular email dialogue. A synthesis of preliminary educational, social, and logistical realities became the inspiration for the two-week interview and art making process, public collaborative celebration, Mead Art Museum exhibition, and the final 18 collaborative works. All of the activities for fun and growth in the process of creating the Building Community through Learning Collaborative Project were occasions for collaboration. Social collaboration transcends individual privileges where separate expectations are replaced with equality, and collective self-interest. By creating experiences of dynamic demographics, with exercises that everyone can create in, there is a collective unification, a support of new community that is inclusive in its being. At the center of these exercises for positive shared experience was an artistic representation of learning. Method: This project was based in The Practice of Collaborative Art course that examined the work of artists working in various media, including Ewald’s methods for working with children in photography and Cook’s practice of working with painting in communities. Weekly class discussions provided students the opportunity to reflect upon their own experiences and observations as artists.  They also read about and discussed collaboration, social issues, and pedagogy as it related to the people they worked with. Each student arranged to work with a faculty, staff member and a student on an art project in the medium of their choosing throughout the semester. The project included a web page also created by the students. At the end of the semester students presented a finished public collaborative project and documentation of the semester long process.  Eighteen people determined in conjunction with the students from the practice of Collaborative Art class were the focus of a project led by Ewald and Cook. Starting on the third meeting of the Practice of Collaboration Course, six different students, six faculty and six staff of Amherst College were photographed by Wendy on the Amherst Campus. Throughout the subsequent three days of this collaborative photographic process, each student, faculty and staff was asked to generate a question about learning. The question could have been a prompt for something that the participants would like to answer, or an inquiry about pieces of information that they are curious about. The questions from each of the eighteen participants were combined into an interview sheet. Wendy and Brett Cook, using the combined questions as the questionnaire, then interviewed the eighteen models. By combining everyone’s questions, the participants democratically defined the parameters of the dialogue. All of the people had the equal freedom to answer the questions of their own creation as broadly or specifically as they wished. The interviewees were then invited to classroom 101 in Fayerweather Hall to be further integrated into the art-making process. Starting on the fourth day of Wendy Ewald’s Practice of Collaboration class, students, models of the drawings, and anyone they’d like to invite, were invited to sketch projections using original drawings made by Brett from Wendy’s photographs. This initial transfer of smaller drawings to the large-scale vinyl banners was a unifying experience that helped connect participants deeply to the project as well as serve as an engine for interpersonal connection, healing, and joy. Community Celebration: On Friday September 28 the Building Community Through Learning Collaborative Project crescendoed with a celebratory session of coloring, personal dialogue, and community building. In the Fayerweather/Valentine grass fields, students, staff, and faculty from the Amherst community collaboratively colored drawings on vinyl sheets that have been generated and projected the previous days. The coloring exercise was a social event, where locally grown food and music supplemented a session of creative expression, opportunity for personal dialogue, and community connection. During the coloring there was an additional series of stations where participants could also reflect upon community and learning. These creative settings expanded the possibility of looking deeply by providing materials attractive to alternative learning styles, varied creative sensibilities, and artists of all ages. The Community Stations included: Community Monuments In this station, participants were asked to create monuments in modeling clay that represent their vision of community. These sculptures in both process and product were opportunities to express the inter connection/inter-being of the Amherst Community. The completed Community Monuments were displayed in their own viewing area for reflection and inspiration. Learning Encyclopedia A wide assortment of visual art supplies accompanied sketchbooks that were the material focus of this station/installation. Collaborators were free to express themselves in the sketchbooks regarding their own ideas of learning and community. Afterwards the books continued to be drawn/written in and kept as a document of the project and experience. The nine collaboratively colored works on vinyl were then sent to California immediately after the community celebration where Brett continued to paint them. The resulting works reflected the hand and input of the Amherst college community with the beauty and skill that Brett Cook’s paintings are known for. The final product of this project was 18 large public portrait installations with quotations regarding learning. Nine of the works were collaboratively colored drawings painted by Brett Cook and the other nine were large prints of Wendy Ewald co-created photographs. The works were displayed as six public triptychs, with each installation including an image of a student, faculty, and staff person, and quotes from each of them regarding learning. This project aimed to empower the entire school community by beautifying Amherst College, the Mead Art Museum, and The Amherst Community with art works that featured images of themselves, that they were directly involved in creating. The Mead Art Museum: Building Community Through Learning Exhibition The Mead Art Museum included work from the collaboration project in an exhibition from November 29, 2007 through January 20, 2008. Catalogue: Accompanying this project will be a catalogue documenting the process of making the Building Community Through Learning Collaborative Project. The catalogue may include miscellaneous photographs from the research process, the source photographs of Wendy Ewald, the drawings of residents by Brett Cook, copies of the participants’ transcribed interviews, documentation of the object-making process including the models involved in the creation of the works, miscellaneous pieces of important information about Amherst, a narrative of the project process, and documentation of the works outside. The catalogue will serve as a way for those who cannot experience the Building Community Through Learning collaboration in person to have a sense of the creation of the project. The catalogue will also be a timeless document of the learning community that is Amherst College, through the voices of its students, faculty, and staff. Schedule Wednesday September 5 Collaboration Class Meets first day Monday September 10 Collaboration Class Meets second day Sunday September 16 Brett Arrives in Amherst Monday September 17 Collaboration Class and Prep Tuesday September 18 Wendy photographs participants Wednesday September 19 Wendy photographs participants Wendy begins photographing participants Thursday September 20 Interviews by Wendy and Brett Friday September 21 Interviews by Wendy and Brett Meet with Scott and Janet about Web Site Detail/Design Saturday September 22 Interviews by Wendy and Brett Sunday September 23 Brett begins to draw polyester portraits Monday September 24 Draw polyester portraits Collaboration Class Meets Project drawings on Vinyl banners with class participants Tuesday September 25 Brett finishes drawing polyester drawings Finish projections to vinyl Wednesday September 26 Install public works Event Preparations Thursday September 27 Install Public Works Event Preparations Friday September 28 Public Celebration Collaborative coloring of images with pastels on nine vinyl banners. Community Stations Thursday November 29 Mead Exhibition Opens Web Site Launches December 10 Present completed collaborative projects from exhibition to the class. Building Community Through Learning Amherst College Collaborative Project Amherst Massachusetts Fall 2007
Project Pages: Complete Narrative Building Community Through Learning Collaborative Project Installation Details Google Map view of Triptychs on Amherst College and details Amherst College Portraits Home Page Amherst College web link with podcast to download and details Collaborative Art Course Information The Practice of Collaborative Art Class Fall 2007 Video INSIDE video Edited by Eric Gottesman OUTSIDE video Edited by Eric Gottesman Slide Narrative video Edited by Eric Gottesman Exhibition Mead Museum November 29, 2007 - January 20, 2008 Wendy Ewald Details Eighteen Black and White photographs with Model Quotations Brett Cook Drawings Eighteen prepared polyester & ink drawings Brett Cook Details Nine Collaborative Multi Media Power Objects Related Links Amherst College web site Mead MusuemSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%202007%20Complete%20Narrative.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%202007%20Complete%20Narrative.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%202007%20Complete%20Narrative.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%202007%20Complete%20Narrative.htmlhttp://www.amherst.edu/~ccsp11/collaborative_art/big_heads/main.phphttp://www.amherst.edu/~ccsp11/collaborative_art/big_heads/main.phphttp://www.amherst.edu/~ccsp11/collaborative_art/http://www.amherst.edu/~ccsp11/collaborative_art/Opening%20-%20Amherst%20Collaborative%20Practice%20Class%202007%20.htmlOpening%20-%20Amherst%20Collaborative%20Practice%20Class%202007%20.htmlOpening%20-%20Amherst%20Collaborative%20Practice%20Class%202007%20.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Inside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Inside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Inside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Inside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Outside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Outside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Outside%20iWeb%202007.htmlMovie%20-%20Amherst%20Outside%20iWeb%202007.htmlOpening%20-%20Amherst%20Portraits%20Exhibition%202007.htmlOpening%20-%20Amherst%20Portraits%20Exhibition%202007.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%20Brett%20Cook%20Drawings.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%20Brett%20Cook%20Drawings.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%20Brett%20Cook%20Paintings.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%20Brett%20Cook%20Paintings.htmlSlideshow%20-%20Amherst%20Brett%20Cook%20Paintings.htmlhttp://www.amherst.edu/http://www.amherst.edu/~ccsp11/collaborative_art/big_heads/main.phpshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_2shapeimage_4_link_3shapeimage_4_link_5shapeimage_4_link_7shapeimage_4_link_9shapeimage_4_link_10shapeimage_4_link_12shapeimage_4_link_13shapeimage_4_link_14shapeimage_4_link_16shapeimage_4_link_17shapeimage_4_link_18shapeimage_4_link_20shapeimage_4_link_22shapeimage_4_link_24shapeimage_4_link_25shapeimage_4_link_26shapeimage_4_link_27