Month: January 2014

AAH and Creative Writing Establish Counterproof Press

Counterproof Press is an exciting new collaboration between the Creative Writing Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and programs in Printmaking, Communication Design and Illustration, as well as the Design Center Studio, in the Department of Art + Art History at the School of Fine Arts.

Counterproof Press will facilitate collaborative studio projects whereby students, faculty, and visiting artists/scholars from various disciplines collaborate to produce limited edition art objects, artifacts, and publications.

We will develop a collection of yearly projects, events, and collaborations that will be documented and published by Counterproof Press.

Counterproof Press also plans to initiate internships, courses, donor subscription programs, membership programs, fundraising events, and operate on a regional, national, and international level by leveraging internal and external funding support.

This initiative will have high visibility via its online presence with a dedicated identity, website and associated exhibition, print, social media marketing, PR and promotion.

FACULTY MEMBERS 
For upcoming projects in 2014 and 2015
Penelope Pelizzon: Creative Writing Program, English Department
Mary Banas: Communication Design, Art + Art History Department
Cora Lynn Deibler: Illustration, Art + Art History Department
Alison Paul: Illustration, Art + Art History Department
Laurie Sloan: Printmaking, Art + Art History Department
Edvin Yegir: Communication Design & Design Center, Art + Art History Department
Mark Zurolo: Communication Design, Art + Art History Department

VISITING / CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS for 2014
Paul Muldoon: The 51st Wallace Stevens Poet, English Department
Sharon Butler: Visiting Artist in Residence; Art+Art History Department

UPCOMING INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS / PUBLICATIONS in 2014

PROJECT 01 
PAUL MULDOON / WALLACE STEVENS POEM PROJECT
Widely considered to be the greatest English-language poet of his generation, Paul Muldoon was born in Ireland in 1951. He has published over a dozen collections and has been honored with the Pulitzer Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He will visit UConn on April 10 as the 51st Wallace Stevens Poetry Program guest. His visit is sponsored by The Hartford, the UConn Humanities Institute, and the English Department Speaker’s Fund in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Muldoon will generously allow students to print one of his new poems as a limited-edition letterpress booklet created by Design Center and hand-printed by student artists in the Printmaking studio. This will be the inauguration of what we plan as an annual project to coincide with each year’s visiting Wallace Stevens Poet.

PROJECT 02
HAPPENSTANCE CHARRETTE
Happenstance involves a collaboration/encounter between a group of student poets, artists, and designers. Happenstance is an improvisational and experimental creative charrette to be held at the Printmaking facilities in Bishop to facilitate dialogue between poets and visual artists; this encounter will result in a collaborative product in the form of a limited edition publications and an exhibition.

PROJECT 03
SHARON BUTLER PRINT SERIES
Sharon L. Butler, an artist and writer, maintains an award-winning art blog, Two Coats of Paint, blogs for The Huffington Post. Her art work is included in private collections in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, Tampa, Philadelphia, Providence, Berlin, London and Kyoto.

Sharon Butler will be in residence throughout this semester to create a series of prints. Students will benefit by learning to professionally edition the works and by observing Sharon’s art and process.

Current Students: Undergraduate Research Awards, Deadline Feb. 3

SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fund) Awards provide students with up to $4,000 to undertake summer research or creative projects under the supervision of UConn faculty members. The application deadline is February 3, 2014.  More information about SURF can be found at http://ugradresearch.uconn.edu/surf/. The Office of Undergraduate Research is holding an information session on Thursday, January 23 from 12:30-1:30 pm in Laurel Hall 305 and students are also welcome to email the Office of Undergraduate Research at our@uconn.edu.

Current Students: Study Abroad in Copenhagen, Summer 2014

If you are interested in studying abroad in Copenhagen during Summer 2014, applications (including references) are due on February 1.

 

ARTH 3993 Copenhagen Architecture and Cityscape is a 3-credit course that runs from May 25 to June 14. The course is open to all upper-level students with an interest in art, architecture, urban and open-space planning, and architecture –from the Middle Ages up to and including exciting, new projects currently underway to make Copenhagen a terrific place to live.

 

This is the fourth time Professor Givens has offered the class, and it attracts an interesting mix of students from different fields.  It’s an enjoyable way to meet a major requirement and to introduce yourself to travel abroad.

 

Copenhagen’s many museums are outstanding, and the local art scene in nearby Malmo Sweden has proved appealing for Art and Art History majors, too.

 

 

 

Please contact Professor Jean Givens (jean.givens@uconn.edu) with  questions. And  apply ASAP if you are interested in the course, since space is limited.

  

 

 

Communication Design Students Embark on a Semester of Study in London

Communication Design students will spend the Spring Semester 2014 in London studying at Central St. Martins under the guidance of Art & Art History Professor Mark Zurolo.  The students are writing a blog, full of great stories and images, to document their experience: http://ucdesignuk.tumblr.com.

The Central Saint Martins BA (Honours) in Graphic Design is structured around small group tutorials, workshops and critiques and emphasizes solving visual communication problems through experimentation beyond the commercially driven constraints of contemporary design practice. UConn students will be distributed across tutorial groups and engage with project briefs and other required and extra-curricular activities as faciliated by CSM BAGD faculty alongside regular CSM degree students. UConn students will concurrently enroll in Communication Design 3 and Design Survey that will be taught on-site by UConn Associate Professor of Design, Mark Zurolo.

Students will live in the Central Saint Martins student housing where they will share kitchen and living facilities with a range of other UK students. By living in the center of London, students will have the opportunity to visit studios, museums, and historical sites, and attend a wide variety of cultural events. The goal of the program is to produce designers with a global perspective who are prepared to develop their interests cultivated upon this trip into their professional and academic lives. Each student will return with an understanding of the international design community, a network of designers whom they can contact in the future, and a skill set honed at the premier art school in the UK.