“It wasn’t till I got to art school that I really understood how art can connect you through human history and the type of reservoir that it could be.” (Jeff Koons)
Art21 is proud to announce the launch of Open Enrollment, the newest column on this site. Open Enrollment chronicles the experience of graduate school via the perspective of current students. As MA and MFA degrees become ever more the norm for the professional training of artists, educators, and administrators alike, Open Enrollment functions as a time-sensitive journal, offering readers a birds-eye-view of the challenges, rewards, puzzles, and ontological questioning that a graduate education engenders.
Each semester, a selective and diverse group of students from accredited graduate programs, as well as students studying at non-traditional institutions (temporary schools, artist’s educational projects, intensive residency programs, etc.), will take up residence on the blog. The roster of contributors will grow over time, providing a cross-section of international venues and pedagogical approaches. Open Enrollment intends to portray, through both personal examples and larger inquiries about the pursuit of higher education, the diversity of studio and critical academic experiences in art school today.
This column, written by nine students in the US and Europe, will publish each Wednesday, alongside Joe Fusaro’s Teaching with Contemporary Art column. After an extensive search, which yielded lots of impressive applications, we’ve narrowed down the authors to this fantastic group. Welcome to our inaugural class!
Mike Brenner attended the Bauhaus-Universität, holds a B.F.A. from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and is finishing an M.B.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Previously, he ran the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (2000-9) and Hotcakes Gallery (2003-8). Brenner is also working to open a brewery providing local artists with employment and affordable studio space.
Daniel Ingroff is an artist and the director of workspace, a project space in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ingroff’s work has been in exhibitions in Los Angeles, NYC, Nashville and Seattle. He is a graduate of the Claremont Colleges, and is currently attending the Mountain School of Arts.
Carrie McGath holds an MFA in Poetry from Western Michigan University. Carrie’s first collection of poems, Small Murders, was released in 2006. She self-published two chapbooks of poems in 2007-8. Carrie attends The School of the Art Institute of Chicago‘s New Arts Journalism Masters program. She is a contributor to Chicago Art Magazine and SAIC’s F News Magazine.
Matthew Newton is an artist and attends Hunter College’s Studio Art MFA program in Manhattan. His work includes painting, photography, writing, video, sculpture, and installation. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.
Corina Reynolds is an artist based in Detroit, Michigan. She holds a B.F.A. from San Diego State University and is pursuing her M.F.A. in Fiber at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work explores the different ways individuals process their surroundings through the use of interactive objects and performances.
Lily Rossebo is a visual artist and art researcher. She holds a B.F.A. in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduating, she worked on public art projects in New York and Mexico City. She is now a postgraduate student in the Art, Space + Nature course at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland.
Jeffrey Augustine Songco is a first-year M.F.A. candidate in New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute. Born and raised in New Jersey, he spent his childhood dancing with New Jersey Ballet and performing at Paper Mill Playhouse. In 2005, he received his B.F.A. in Art from Carnegie Mellon University.
Oliver Wunsch is a student in the History of Art graduate program at Williams College. He is a co-founder of The Temporary Department for Academic Research and a faculty member at The Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study. His research includes 18th-century French painting and style’s role in art history. Oliver holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Haverford College.
Vency Yun is a neurotic, artist, foodie, and writer who grew up in Toronto and Hong Kong. She is completing her M.F.A in Sculpture at Concordia University, Montreal. Her work often involves food allergies, narration, and language. Currently she is in Marseille, France, working on the bouillabaisse project, an existential philosophical inquiry into fish soup!
