Tulip & Arabesque Online Exhibit
http://www.d.umn.edu/art/tulip

Tweed Museum of Art Exhibit (Fall 2007)
http://www.d.umn.edu/tma/exhibitions/tap.html

Conference + Exhibition in Ankara (Spring 2008)
http://kulturmiras2008.baskent.edu.tr/projects_eng.html

http://kulturmiras2008.baskent.edu.tr/exhibition_eng.html

I am not in Ankara, attending the Symposium of The Preservation of Cultural Heritage; New Methods and Applications, but I'm looking forward to a report from my colleagues who are presenting projects there and participating in the academic dialogue about cultural heritage. I knew my student's work would be traveling to be part of an exhibit, but I was uninformed about the potential link between our art + design projects and the more complex content of this symposium.

Since the symposium website links to this blog... I do have a few thoughts, perhaps worth including here...

Over the past few years, I have integrated several large assignments into my teaching which address cultural complexity in design, specifically related to the Turkish American Exchange projects. My goal has been to introduce students to aspects of global culture, identifying traditional formal roots in contemporary design. I have created projects that are appropriate to our digital design curriculum and integrated Turkish design influences into foundations courses. More advanced students have been asked to delve a bit deeper into contemporary Turkish design and to draw off of traditional literature. In each case, students benefit by expanding their their awareness of how culture travels across borders. Students begin to make connections between the visual culture they live in and the traditions and cross-fertilizations that feed it. This global and historical sensitization is crucial for any artist or designer today. I have long believed that design is a richly diverse activity that springs from all corners of culture and a vital tool for building bridges between diverse groups. My creative approach to teaching is more concerned with the evolution and re-integration of traditional culture, than with the preservation or conservation of it.

That said, I think it's important to point out that though one goal of my teaching has been the integration of influences from global culture into art foundations curriculum, it's primary focus is on design principles and digital techniques. Ours has been a creative process... introducing students to other ( and "othered") cultural artifacts as a first step in stimulating curiosity and formal invention.

-Joellyn Rock

http://www.d.umn.edu/art/tulip/

This website showcases the work of several hundred art and design students who have participated in the Turkish American Projects at the University of Minnesota Duluth in collaboration with students and faculty at Baskent University in Ankara Turkey.

It's great to have the chance to share what happens in an evolving international educational exchange like
this... Enjoy the Online show!

Alison Aune, Associate Professor of Art Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth
Joellyn Rock, Assistant Professor of Art + Design at the University of Minnesota Duluth

This collaboration has included:
Art Education and Digital Design students and faculty from the University of Minnesota Duluth
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program grantees, Natalie Patrick and Amber Szerpicki
Elementary and Middle School age children from Duluth Minnesota

Graphic Design students and faculty from BaÅŸkent University, Ankara, Turkey

Special Thanks to our Turkish colleagues, professors Halime Fişenk and Murat Devrim Atilgan, and Dean Dr. Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu of BaÅŸkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

This project was made possible with support from:
The Turkish American Alliance of the School of Fine Arts (SFA), University of Minnesota Duluth, Dean Jack Bowman and Julia Gillett, grant writer; SFA funding of two faculty Small Chancellor’s Grants and an American-Turkish Alliance Exchange Research Grant; SFA Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program grants to art and design students Natalie Patrick and Amber Szerpicki; Funding from The Office of International Programs (OIP) Interdisciplinary International Institutional Partnership Grants; The Department of Art + Design Head Virginia Jenkins; Professor Ron Marchese, Sociology and Anthropology, University of Minnesota Duluth and with donations from UMD Stores Art Supplies.

The traditional Turkish motifs of the Tulip and Arabesque have had multiple meanings throughout history. For this project, we traced the Tulip, where it was a heraldic motif used throughout the Ottoman Empire, and we followed the Islamic arabesque with its interlacing and continuous vines found in ceramic tiles and carpets. Inspired by these original sources, we created artworks as a way to understand, and celebrate, these ancient patterns of peace.

Links to Symmetry and Pattern Resources on the web >>>

Halime and Murat, Professors from Ankara Turkey were visiting our class as we worked on this project. We discussed the use of poetry as subject matter for expressive typographic and image works. Students exchanged personal interpretations of the text of the poem, and we discovered similarities and differences in how the poem may be experienced by readers from different cultures.