Priority application deadline: February 15 (for summer 2017)
Sierra Nevada College
Holman Arts & Media Center (HAMC)
1008 Tahoe Blvd
Incline Village, NV 89451
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” –Inscription found on the General Post Office in New York City
13 students and nine visiting artists and faculty came together in the mountains of Lake Tahoe on the cusp of record breaking winter storms for the most recent gathering of Sierra Nevada College’s Low-Residency MFA-IA program. Here are just a few of the things students were up to in the blizzard:
–Shot and screened experimental video in a digital projection dome with Fleischmann Planetarium Director and conceptual artist Dan Ruby
–Installed midway exhibitions at Camp Campus, a temporary setup of three canvas wall tents on raised platforms tucked into the trees
–After a roaring sound performance by visiting artist Gabie Strong, we unpacked the politics of noise in a public conversation led by faculty Jared Stanley. Strong’s exhibition, Overhead, a raven, is up at the Garage Door Gallery through February 17
–Discussed the poetics and politics of landscape with guest lecturer Bill Fox, director of NMA’s Center for Art + Environment
–Braved the stormy lake shores to document a collaborative student performance
–Workshopped engagement strategies for their local communities with visiting faculty Maria Sykes of Epicenter. Her co-curated exhibition, This Place: Selections from the Frontier is up in the Tahoe Gallery through March 3
–Enjoyed rigorous, ongoing conversations day and night with visiting faculty Rob Reynolds and Julie Weitz, and the rest of the program team
About the program
Sierra Nevada College is a small, liberal arts college, located three blocks from Lake Tahoe, within a national forest, on an easily accessible campus in Incline Village, NV. The low-residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts is a locus for creative problem solving, fostered by creative thinking with an emphasis on community. The experience and exploration of embodied place is a central element of this distinctive program, encouraging students’ multi-dimensional relationship with their environment both in the Tahoe Basin and within their own communities.
The program consists of two intensive ten-day, on-campus residencies during summer and winter sessions over the course of two and a half years. During the fall and spring semesters, students will work in their home studios and continue relationships with faculty mentors and fellow colleagues remotely through online seminars and other points of contact.
Previous visiting faculty
Beth Campbell / Roman DeSalvo / Sameer Farooq / Matt Freedman / Christine Heindl / Ayana Moor / Rob Reynolds / Peter Rostovsky / Jared Stanley / Maria Sykes / Julie Weitz
For more information about the program, please see: sierranevada.edu/mfaia
Questions? Contact Julia Schwadron—[email protected]
