Art21 Blog is pleased to announce our newest column, Praxis Makes Perfect, written by Jacquelyn Gleisner and Jeffrey Augustine Songco. While pursuing MFA degrees at Cranbrook Academy of Art and San Francisco Art Institute, respectively, Gleisner and Songco were regular contributors to Open Enrollment, where they blogged about the ups and downs of graduate school life and mused on their futures. Now, both artists have their MFAs firmly in hand–so what comes next? That’s the big question facing all recent art school grads, and one that everyone must answer for themselves. Jeffrey remains in San Francisco for now, while Jacquelyn has moved to New York, where she works as an administrative assistant in a field unrelated to art. Praxis Makes Perfect will follow both artists through the next stage in their lives and careers–that strange, liberating, and occasionally lonely period immediately following grad school, when an artist’s identity is no longer defined by the pursuit of a fine arts degree.
Over the coming months, Jacquelyn and Jeffrey will alternate posts, interweaving personal accounts of post-grad life with interviews of other artists who are charting new courses. They’ll look at day jobs versus “art jobs,” explore the ins and outs of grants and juried art competitions, and offer advice on how to get a teaching job while maintaining a studio practice. In short, Praxis Makes Perfect will continue the conversations that Open Enrollment started. We hope you’ll check in often!
Jacquelyn Gleisner is a visual artist and writer who lives and works in New York City. She holds a BFA in studio art from Boston University and an MFA in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has also studied abroad at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy and at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland as a Fulbright scholar. Gleisner’s writings have been published on the Open Enrollment column for Art21, the United States Embassy of Finland’s blog, Beat of America, and in the exhibition catalog Funeral Notice for the Finnish artist Jani Leinonen. She has exhibited her paintings and installations in the United States and Europe.
Jeffrey Augustine Songco (b. 1983) is a multi-media artist. He was born and raised in New Jersey to Filipino parents. He is classically trained in ballet and voice and was a cast member of the original American production of Children of Eden. He has appeared on stage with such performers as Betty Buckley and Deborah Gibson and has studied and worked with such artists as Tony Labat, Allan deSouza, Tim Sullivan, Ayanah Moor, and the House of Diehl. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Jeffrey would like to be the US representative to the 2023 Venice Biennale.
Praxis Makes Perfect publishes on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. We wish to thank Santtu Mustonen for designing the column’s logo. You can view more of Santtu’s graphic design work here.
