Thesis Proposal

Maryland Institute College of Art

Curatorial Practice ‘14

Qianfei Wang

March 12th, 2013

Introduction:

Language+ will use art as a medium to interact between different academic classes and

daily experiences at the Park School of Baltimore, and it will encourage new and

broadening ways for students to think about art and exhibitions. Based on Park’s

academic classes, such as language, art, music, etc, Language+ will provide a series of

workshops that focus on different ages students. Professional artists will work closely

with students to make artwork together, and both of them will exhibit their work at the

Richman Gallery in January 2014.

Language+

Communication beyond Languages

Language+ is an exhibition at the Richman Gallery of the Park School of Baltimore

exploring multiple media, such as sculpture, painting, drawing, and installation, through

languages used in contemporary society. In comparing various spoken languages with

other ways of expressions, like sign language, body language, dance, song or fine art,

audiences will think beyond spoken languages to better understand their relationship

with other community and themselves.

Mission:

FOR PARK:

• This exhibition provides a broad vision for students at the Park School to explore

various methods of understanding and creating art.

• It will benefit the students’ parents and surrounding communities by welcoming

them into their child’s daily academic life and artistic interests.

FOR MYSELF:

• This exhibition will help me to join a community that I am interested in, learn their

needs, explore their interests, and communicate with them in various forms.

• In addition, this exhibition offers me an opportunity to continue my previous

studies about using different materials and languages to explain one idea.

Partner(s):

The Park School of Baltimore

Founded in 1912, Park School is a non-sectarian, independent, coeducational day school

with 850 students from age four through grade twelve. Park has a progressive curriculum

and a solid foundation that support their academic courses. For their Chinese language

class, they participate in an exchange program every two years with China, and offer a

history class to students to learn about the Middle Ages in China. For art classes, they

have design class, painting class, wood making studio, and the gallery space. As a

students and curator, partnering with the Park School is a wonderful opportunity and I

am privileged to work with their students and use their valuable resources to support my

thesis exhibition.

• Using Park’s courses as a foundation, artists will work with students and help

them to develop more ideas and methods for understanding art. This exhibition

will serve as a tool to let Park students to rethink the relationship between

academic artistic inquiry and art in their daily life.

• Park has diverse art and language classes. This exhibition will engage the two

departments to interact with each other, and find more ways to benefit their

studies and teaching methods.

Westside Elementary School:

Westside Elementary School is a public elementary school located in 2235 N. Fulton

Avenue. Westside Elementary School is a potential partner of Park School for 2013. Park

wants to develop this new relationship to help the students at Westside Elementary

School have more opportunities to communicate with other students and to join more

activities, so they could have a more colorful school life and learning experience.

Park School and Westside Elementary:

Most students who go to Park are from Upper-Middle class families, but the students

from Westside Elementary are typically from low-income families and the school is

subsidized by state and federal funds. It is very important to offer different opportunities

to students from Westside Elementary to experience various classes, activities, and to

make new friends.

Goals:

• Offer a chance for artists to show their work in a different community

• Explore non-traditional ways to exhibit

• Create interdisciplinary interactions between different departments at Park

Artists:

Artists are interested in using their own methods to create art as another form of language,

and will be selected as my thesis artists and programming participants.

• Lower School:

Full Circle Dance Company

Photo by Erica Feriozzi

Full Circle Dance Company will lead workshops for lower school students. The

curriculum for lower school is learning how to express them. Encourage them consider

dance as a language, which can help them communicate with each other.

• Middle School:

Julia Kim Smith

Anonymous Rage

Smith’s Anonymous Rage is full of claim and voice. It will be a great format for upper

school students to have a taste. Smith’s workshops will let students think about using art

to deliver information in their lives.

• Upper School:

Ruby Fulton

http://www.rubyfulton.com/portfolio/closer-to-mona-2008/ Closer to Mona

2008

Duration: 23:00

Instrumentation: 1 soprano, 1 percussionist, laptop

Fulton has a successful exploration of translating 2-D visual art to music and sings. Her

ideas will encourage middle school students to begin recognize interaction between

different format of arts.

Programming:

• Artwork Making Workshop

Time: September – December 2013 (before exhibition opens)

Three Artists will lead three one-month workshops with Park school students (lower

school, middle school and upper school) to introduce different working methods, and

meaning of their artwork. Students and artists will create new artworks that will show in

the hallway space and Richman Gallery when the exhibition opens.

• Art tour

Time: January 2014 (when exhibition opens)

Students will lead a gallery tour at the opening about their artworks and the making

process.

• Gallery Talk

Time: January/February 2014 (after exhibition opens)

Artists will give gallery talk about their artworks and how they interacted with both Park

and Westside students.

• Voiceless Conversation

Time: January/February 2014 (after exhibition opens)

This workshop invites participants to communicate without talking. Instead, participants

can use writing, eye contact, body language, singing, performing, or other ways to

express their ideas and thoughts. It is a significant way for people to develop a new

language without the use of speaking language.

Anticipated Audiences:

Students, faculties, parents, alumni,

Neighbors of the Park School,

Westside Elementary School

MICA community

Community Engagement:

Programming workshops are designed for students, faculties, parents, alumni, and

neighbors of the Park. Also the exhibition will use Facebook, website (both Park and

thesis), posters, postcard, PR to advertise and engage people.

Accessibility:

• This exhibition will have multi-language (depends on which language class

participates) for wall labels and one bilingual publication with the help of the

students from each language classes. It is a win-win method that invites a wider

audience to participate in the show, and it offers a chance for students to practice

their languages.

• Park School has the facilities and hallway for people who have specific needs

• There are bathrooms on the same floor as the gallery to use during the exhibition

and programming

Marketing:

• Park website

• MICA website

• Exhibition own website

• Flyers

• Poster

• Park newspaper/publication

• MICA Juxtapositions

• Baltimore local school publication

• Baltimore youth/children publication

Publication:

• Postcards: mail to invite parents, local community, and MICA faculties and

students

• Catalog

• Brochure

• Button

• Sticker

• Souvenir: for children to interactive and collect/play

Sustainability:

My thesis intends to create a new way to exhibit artwork in the Richman Gallery at Park

School, through linking closely to Park’s curriculum and students’ activities and interests.

With this new working method, more artists can show their multimedia work at Park. My

thesis will help Park build her new relationship with Westside Elementary School by

creating weekly workshop and monthly field trip.

Assessment /Evaluation:

Thesis committee:

• George Ciscle (MICA)

• Carolyn Sutton (Park)

• Carole Poppleton

• A person from Westside

Front-end evaluation:

• Open conversation with students and faculties

• Classes visit

• Collect demographic information

• Surveys about theme and exhibition title

• Artists visit

Formative:

• Test different workshops’ affection

• Conversation and feedback from artists, faculties, students, and parents

Summative:

• Survey about the results for the exhibition

• Discussion with faculties and students individually for future plan and

improvement

Timeline:

Jan. - Feb. 2013:

General research at Park School

Mar. - Apr. 2013:

Make a decision for potential students, and do more research with them

May 2013:

Make decision for artists, bring them to park, begin to understand the students and

space

June - Aug. 2013:

Proposal from artists, search for grant and marketing

Sep. - Oct. 2013:

Artist A begins to work with students, website build, branding create, list for all deadline

for marketing

Oct. - Nov. 2013:

Artist B begins to work with students, make sure the time and place for advertising and

marketing, postcards and brochure

Nov. - Dec. 2013:

Artist C begins to work with students, catalog design and print

Jan. - Feb.2014:

Exhibition opens, after exhibition program happens

March 2014:

After exhibition evaluation at Park, Westside, and MICA

Budget:

See attach

Research:

Past:

Research online about potential artists, field trip and meeting with faculties at Park

Current:

One day every week to research at Park, visit different classes and meet students

Future:

Bring artists to Park, talk with more people from Park: employees, students, alumni, and

the community surrounding

Curator Bio:

Qianfei Wang is a curator and graphic designer, who hold a BA from the China Central

Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and a Post-Baccalaureate certificate in Graphic Design at

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, MD. Now Wang is a candidate of

MFA in Curatorial Practice at MICA. Wang’s academic career has focused on curating, art

and design, and she is interested in promoting the visual language of art to a wider

audience, especially to persons who have never studied art. Wang is also passionate

about community involvement and has used her skills in curating, art, and design to help

different communities understand art and each other.

Curator Resume:

See attach

Curatorial Practice MFA Summary

MICA's new MFA in Curatorial Practice will prepare students to take a responsible

approach to the expanding role curators play in creating a vibrant cultural life in the 21st

century's global society. Designed to forge connections among art, artists, and the

community, the program's collaborative and individual curatorial projects allow students

to explore new methods of exhibition presentation-thinking outside of traditional

models and training to create relevant, timely and accessible exhibitions for their

audiences. New models will include considering the surrounding community or history

of the venue as inspiration when organizing exhibitions. This innovative graduate

program is the first MFA in Curatorial Practice in the United States.

Combining intensive liberal arts seminars with ongoing discourse between mentors and

peers, the curriculum will complement the program's contemporary vision of exhibition

practice and audience engagement with active hands-on experience. Graduates of the

program will be creative thinkers committed to working in an interactive, collaborative

process, and will emerge with an understanding of the complex and evolving role

curators can play within cultural institutions, galleries, the marketplace, and their

communities.