IN-PERSON New Schools of Thought
Abstract
The proposed abstract seeks to contextualize the pedagogy of teaching an interdisciplinary online class of artists and curators across borders, resulting in co-creating an augmented reality art exhibition. The US Museum Studies Minor students curated the show, while the Portrait Painting students in Canada created the artwork to be displayed on the digital walls. This critical research into experiential curricula investigates the potential of such collaboration and online exhibitions as a tool for accessibility and increased diversity. The virtual curation tool and community-based process provided an exciting way of investigating the adjacent disciplines and practices in a safe and accessible environment. The project’s main goal was to create authentic and personal communication between the studio and art history practitioners by producing the augmented online exhibition. While art historians and artists are often considered to be one discipline from the outside, internally, there is frequently a disconnect in students’ educational experience; this course aimed to bridge that gap. Conversations included the challenges of being new immigrants and the economic class issues that plagued different communities as they experienced the pandemic. This resulted in shared empathy, exposure to new viewpoints and an in-depth understanding of one’s positionality concerning site and place.
Alla Myzelev is an Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at SUNY at Geneseo. Her research interests span feminism, activism, material culture, and the DIY movement in North America and Eastern Europe. Her teaching innovations span from creating digital humanities archives with students to curating student online exhibitions. Her most recent edited volume, Contemporary Art Across Political Divides: Difficult Conversations, was published in 2023. In response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Myzelev is editing a book titled Challenging Imperial Narratives Through Visual Art.
Ilene Sova is an Associate professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University. Sova identifies as a mixed-race person with white settler and Afro-Caribbean ancestry. She holds an Honours BFA in Painting from the University of Ottawa and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Windsor. Her area of pedagogical research lies in transforming art studio curricula for decolonization and diversity and equity. With extensive solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad, Sova’s work has most notably been shown at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Mutuo Centro de Arte in Barcelona.
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Thursday 9th January, 2025