Events, Objects, and Actions: Making an Arts Festival

Catalog description

This arts workshop is a practical and theoretical investigation into curating, producing, and presenting an arts festival and will culminate in the Gallatin Arts Festival, the annual community-wide celebration of the unique artistry and interdisciplinary scholarship of students at the Gallatin School each spring. Course participants will be selected as curators, producers, or community engagement managers who serve as the student leadership team. Throughout the course, the leadership team will also engage in a deeper investigation into questions concerning art and cultural production, alongside practical concerns of direction, selection, and implementation. Students will be assigned readings meant to contextualize contemporary practices, discourses and methods. While the three areas of practice within the team (curation, producing, and communications) are divided, the roles often overlap and are seen as tools for expanding definitions of the possible and blurring lines between disciplines. The festival is envisioned above all as a tool to foster a sense of community within Gallatin, and to share and celebrate the richness of the Gallatin graduate and undergraduate creative output.