The quad is the center of student life at Amherst College, with the Art and Art History building in the background.
In spring 2006 faculty, students, and staff were invited to suggest ideas for a possible collaborative project.
The project would be a synthesis of the collaborative practices of Wendy Ewald and Brett Cook.
Collaborative Art: Theory and Practice of Working with Community - Course 91.02 is the academic facet of the collaboration.
The third class included teaching a Freirean framework of reflection + action = dialogue, September 17, 2007.
There was a meet and greet with the 18 staff, students, and faculty who agreed to participate in the project.
Wendy and master photographer/printer Pete Mauney crafted original portraits as the foundation of the project.
Wendy had three days of back-to-back photo sessions, six portraits a day, involving three campus studio sites.
In each instance the models were involved in the process, reviewing their image and choosing their favorite self portrait.
While Wendy took photos Betsy Siersma, Jess Haines, and Brett administrated, networked, and labored to prepare.
The orchestration of the project was extensive; here planning temporary constructions and tenting for the celebration.
The visiting artist studio was set up with a drawing space, a computer station, and desks to act as a command center.
6 faculty, 6 students, and 6 staff were interviewed using 18 questions of their collaborative creation as a guide.
Wendy and Brett reviewed more than 165 photos after Pete made them into contact sheets in 2 days!
Here Wendy films the drawing of her photos. Deep into Sunday night, September 23, 2007.
For 3 days Brett made drawings late into the morning - with the next day’s class curriculum and Quad map in the mix.
And for three days the college gallery was prepared with Richard to project images made from the night before.
After contemplative exercises and dialogue, participants used drawing as a practice in “Looking to See”
Collaborative Art Course 91.02 and Bob Sweeney’s Drawing 1 class worked together with black Uni paint pens.
The projections were 12’H X 10’W, and were examples of reflection and action, dialogue and meditation.
Amherst College Gallery, projection day number 1, Monday September 24, 2007
Each day three drawings on vinyl would come down, and three more blank vinyl pieces would have to be hung.
And the second day, faculty, students, staff, and the visiting artist helped draw Andy Tew.
Derek drew himself, while Wendy and Photography Professor Justin Kimball checked out Gretchen’s portrait.
Amherst College Gallery, projection day number 2, Tuesday September 25, 2007
An array of participants came in on day number 3, during a free session where anyone was invited to draw.
Some participants had worked on previous days, and some were new to the experience.
Amherst College Gallery, projection day number 3, Wednesday September 25th, 2007
While the drawings were happening inside, the tent company and contractors were working outside with power tools.
An invitation was made and posted across the campus community.
On September 28, at 11AM, the celebration began.
Strangers became friends through oil pastels and inspiration.
Rick the dean of faculty got comfortable, and colored himself with other staff members.
The college food service worked with local farmers to make an original lunch menu for the entire campus.
A student jazz band, a world class jam trio, and DJ root kept the vibe in the pocket - and way out too.
Some folks really got down on the collaborative works.
Others stepped up and into the coloring.
As the day progressed, so did the 9 collaborative pieces, with people contributing their energy and creativity.
The entire quad was an installation where the physical, cultural, and psychological landscape was changed.
The collaborative investigation process was openly displayed as a major catalyst in this social transformation.
The work reflected the synthesis of Wendy and Brett’s collaborative art practices.
And from the football team came a contribution of great pride and strength.
Some of the classic collaborative community building experiences filled tents on the walkways of the Fayerweather quad.
All around became a space of comfort and ease.
Sam and Liz unknowingly recreated Botticelli’s painting the Birth of Venus on a camera phone.
Unlike the individual history of western “Art” as a noun, this celebration was a collective vision with “Art” being a verb.
People reflected in multiple media and multiple dimensions.
The symbols of individuals became embedded in the creation of everyone.
Multicolored bare feet and a purple halo testified to authentic participant involvement and real aesthetic contribution.
Thanks to countless collaborators, entire narratives grew out of the 9 portraits of faculty, students, and staff.
Multiple generations were involved in the work, each contributing expertise and energy of value.
Steve Blaney with his pastel colored portrait on vinyl, near the end of the day, September 30, 2007.
...A week later a box weighing more than 300lbs. arrived at Brett’s Oakland California Studio.
Late night Monday October 8, 2007, unrolling the tubes.
Materials for reflection and action in a variety of media were part of the dialogue.
And from nine different pastel colored portraits...
...came nine different spirits...
...the christening of a new practice center/studio with nine exercises of great challenge and power.
As each was different in color emphasis, narrative, and person, so each portrait developed a very different look.
Two weeks after arrival the portraits take shape, with at least a good full day of work on each.
Susan and I, October 22, 2007. Including the space over the electrical outlet, she is about 13' tall.
A beautifully Northern lit space in Oakland started getting crowded.
Here one of the great helpers Susu Attar helps paint the text on the banners as they continued to evolve...
...and Evan Bissell remains a priceless asset in the collaboration, sharing skills and stamina.
Spray paint from the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and the 21st Century was getting up like never before.
Then the nine vinyl works were shipped back to Amherst and matched with Wendy’s photos for the final installation.
We held a luncheon the week before the installation to celebrate all of the participants.
The collaboration Class met for a dinner, dialogue, and projection of the centerpiece for the Mead Museum Exhibition
Six different sites then became public collaborative documents of the Amherst Community.
Each triptych contained a student, faculty, and staff person from Amherst College with their hand written quotation.
Some triptychs were mounted in areas to inspire new traffic flows and perspectives...
...like Stacy, Justin, and Gretchen on the Water Chiller Plant intentionally facing into the campus.
Other triptychs required that new structures be built to face out of the campus.
The portraits were always an effort to honor and respect the individual models.
The installations immediately became prominent dialogues that included countless in their creation.
A poster was made to announce the Mead Museum exhibition of the collaboration.
The exhibition used an image from the community celebration, and poster as a centerpiece.
The Collaborative Art Class made books of their projects, as well as web sites - accessible from a computer.
Responses from the participants hung beside three different videos documenting the collaborative project.
The 18 questions generated by the participants were accompanied by their transcribed interviews.
Objects from the Community Celebration were shown with other work from Wendy and Brett.
...became the site of a triptych of Amherst at this moment...
...simultaneously reflecting a new museum, a new college, and new community for the future.
The day that the exhibition opened, there was a walking tour to visit each of the five public installations.
MP3 players accompany the exhibition and share audio interview segments tracked according to who is in each triptych.
The walk itself was another episode of reflection, action, and dialogue.
The exhibition was both a documentation and continuation of building community through learning.
And people really did get this into it!
After one day, the inside of Amherst College included the outside like never before.
And after one night the outside of Amherst College shows the inside like never before.
