Mirror/Window
The 2013 collaboration with the Film Academy photo school titled: Mirror / Window has been arranged with our students and BFA students in Beijing. Students will envision and interpret the theme taking into consideration their individual or collective understanding. Paul Shambroom, our newest hire in photography, will be taking an active role coordinating in this collaboration and will be leading the program for next years entry in the International Photography Festival in Ping Yao. We are enjoying a continued favored status with the Academy, and as I believe I mentioned earlier, the single longest collaborative partner with the BFA School of photography and the Fine arts/program.
Participating Faculty and students in 2013
Paul Shambroom
Thomas Rose
Students:
Lorena Molina Araujo
Katayoun Amjadi
Yang Yang
Rebecca Rejeena Hoffman
Qian Liu
Beth Ann Dow
Joseph Schur
We leave for Beijing on the 23rd of May arriving on the 24th and return to Minneapolis on the 5th of June. During this stay students will present their work in an exhibition at the Beijing Film Academy and have the opportunity to discuss their work and ideas in a form on the topic of Mirror/Window.
Photo credit: Rick Sferra
Collaborative Program Structure
University of Minnesota and The Beijing Film Academy
Program goals:
• Fostering cultural and intellectual exchange between the United States and China
• Creating scholarly engagement to improve understanding of China in the United States
Program Objectives:
• Creation of new artistic and scholarly research between the University of Minnesota and our partners in Beijing
• Prepare young artists, and scholars for the 21st century with a global view
Focus Areas:
1. Faculty Developed Projects
2. Beijing Now: Collaborative Engagement
3. Work/Travel
Recent accomplishments and current projects
• Northern Spark collaboration in New media 2011 and 2012 River of Dreams"
• "Transitions", a collaboration with student from the BFA and U of M in photography
• "Great Celestial Abstraction: New Chinese Painting" and the symposium
• "Lament", an exhibition and choral work by Guo Gai at the Soap Factory
• "China Insights held at the Nash
Current Projects: 2012 - 2013
• "Transition"
Collaborative exchange with the students of the Beijing Film Academy and Students from the department of Art and the department of Asian Languages and literatures at the University of Minnesota.
• "Scent of Fresh Ink"
This is a collaborative public program with the MIA
• "Photography of Place" Wang Youshen
Continuing to build on the collaboration with the Soap factory Art Space
Goal of the Collaboration
This collaborative partnership exchange pursues two interrelated goals: fostering cultural and intellectual exchange between the United States and the countries of East Asia. The second is creating scholarly and public engagement to improved understanding of Asia in the United States. To that end a consortium of departments and programs in the arts and humanities at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis has linked with other schools and resources in the Twin Cities and with schools in China (P.R.C.) that provides opportunities for scholarship and development in the arts and humanities. The current program is an institutional and private partnership that encourages planning, development and implementation of artistic exhibitions, performances, and scholarly research pertaining to aspects of the transitioning US / China relationship.
Awaken -- Awareness
Inspire -- Create
Goal
The creation of new artistic and scholarly research to benefit greater understanding of China, to re-focus education strategies in the arts and humanities, to offer Chinese scholars, artists and students opportunities to come to the University of Minnesota, and to provide research opportunities for scholars from the University of Minnesota to conduct research in China.
Areas of interest:
• Research and creative collaborations
• Visiting artists and scholars
• Travel for students
• Curriculum development for collaborative classes
• Topical forums
The Consortium looks to the future, it engages and inspires.
Theme for the Photo Collaboration 2013
Mirror/Window
The new collaboration with the Film Academy photo school titled: Mirror / Window has been arranged between and our students and BFA students in Beijing. Students will invasion and interpret the theme taking into consideration their individual or collective understanding. Paul Schambroom, our newest hire in photography, will be taking an active role coordinating in this collaboration and will be leading the program for next years entry in the International Photography Festival in Ping Yao.
We are enjoying a continued favored status with the Academy, and as I believe I mentioned earlier, the single longest collaborative partner with the BFA school of photography and the Fine arts/program.
Student comments
China Experience Statement
Bart Vargas
As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota I was fortunate enough to work with one of its China studies programs. My experience was at an artist residency coordinated between the Department of Art and the Shang Yuan Art Museum north of Beijing. For six weeks, I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to live and work with thirty artists in the Chinese countryside. The exchange of ideas, art, culture, and experiences was invaluable, as well as the personal friendships and professional connections I made there. As an emerging artist concluding my graduate studies and beginning my professional practice, this experience had a profound influence on my life and art in ways that I am still discovering. I am forever grateful to the faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota who make these experiences possible. I wholeheartedly encourage current students to take advantage of these exchanges as much as possible.
Dear Tom Rose,
I would like to thank you for this opportunity of joining you and Diane Willow on a trip
to the Beijing Film Academy. This trip was beneficial not only to my personal
development but also to the emerging relationship exchange between students and
instructors of China and the USA. Having this intense exposure to people sharing mutual
interests was inspiring and focusing the growing understanding of how important and
relevant international exchange is. I was not only engaged in interesting deep
conversations about the differences and similarities between art practices in China, the
United States and Israel but I have also developed personal and professional relationships
with future Chinese colleagues. Through your connections in the Film Academy I
arranged for other meetings with faculty and students in the Beijing Central Fine Arts
Academy with the intention of developing this relationship even more. I have met with
the head of the international program and we discussed future opportunities for
collaboration. Visiting "The Artists Community" outside of Beijing with Diane was
mind-opening and fascinating. Helped by our translator, I was able to communicate with
the artists in residency and exchange ideas on art practices outside of academy settings.
My work is dealing with questions of displacement and cultural influences. The extent of
this trip's inspiration and influence is more than valuable.
Best,
Avigail Manneberg
"To say that my experiences in China changed my life sounds like a cliché, but that is exactly what happened. It changed my perspective on not only art, but life as well. I have a deeper understanding of my own art, and it's direction, from being able to work and exhibit in an environment that was previously foreign to me. As a direct result of these experiences I have begun my study of the Chinese language and will no doubt continue to learn."
David Dobbs
Being able to see the techniques and concepts of how the Chinese students interpreted Crisis=Opportunity was very intriguing. Seeing the work of students from a completely different culture has highlighted not only some of the differences we face, but also some of the surprising similarities that aren't always apparent. This program has given me the opportunity for an experience that I never thought I would have.
Kara Tacheny
Theme for 2012 collaborative Exchange
Transition
The theme of last year 2011-12 in the Exchange with the School of photography at the Beijing Film Academy was the concept of "Transition". Transition can mean the space between here and there or as in the political and public sphere might mean changing times. Students from the Department of Art collaborated with students from the BFA and produced work in still or video media for the May 2012 exhibition in Beijing and August in Minneapolis at the Minneapolis Center for Photography.
