The University of Utah College of Fine Arts and its Department of Art & Art History are honored to welcome renowned contemporary artist J. Morgan Puett to campus for the Spring 2014 semester. Puett was selected as the department’s third resident as part of the Marva and John Warnock Art Residency Program, which the family started in 2008 to assist the department in establishing an extended residency for a diverse range of artists from across the country and around the world. And, diversity of art Puett will absolutely bring.
Puett’s art, unlike other methods, is less about creating something tangible or audible, and more about the experience of being and coexisting. She specializes in creating spaces where people thoughtfully engage, together, in the daily practices of life: workstyles, she calls them. Her art form is based in a practice called relational aesthetics where the art is the doing of activities—often domestic activities like dining—with others.
In addition to delivering a public lecture, Puett will hold a special topics course entitled The Emergent Event that will fully engage all disciplines through a mode of doing-making-researching-thinking. It will cover a broad range of topics and conceptual issues of 21st century socially engaged life, work, comportment, environmental practice—happiness.
The studio project will function as a Mildred’s Lane storefront think-tank around concerns in art and education. Participating students will become part of an emergent collective, collaborative and celebrated team that will feature in, work on part of a larger-scale project that will continue at Mildred’s Lane and will be exhibited in Chicago fall 2014.
The Warnock biennial residency has quickly become an important catalyst for dialogue encompassing contemporary issues of art making, pedagogy, interdisciplinary and collaborative work, art in the community and art as activism. Students have the opportunity to work with these artists through workshops, master classes, lectures, panel discussions and studio visits. Previous artists in residence have been Ernesto Pujol (2010) and Andrea Bowers (2012).
J. Morgan Puett public lecture
February 6, 2014
4:30–5:30pm
Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) Katherine W. and Ezekiel R. Dumke Jr. Auditorium.
Free and open to the public
About the University of Utah Department of Art & Art History | The dynamic environment created within the department is fertile ground for those serious about art making, research, critical discourse and teaching. Our faculty is dedicated to excellence and provides an open, respectful center for diversity and creative expression. The department mentors students in innovation, exploration and critical thinking to create conceptually-driven, skill-based work. This creates exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations. The Department of Art & Art History is an outstanding place for students interested in creating a life in the arts.
– MFA | The Master of Fine Arts program is comprehensive and focused on professional development of visual artists. Through seminar courses, interaction with visiting artists and faculty, the program provides a context for independent artistic exploration at a research-intensive university. The University of Utah offers various tuition fellowships to recognize diversity and merit of applicants. Teaching assistantships are offered to all qualified incoming students. For more info, visit art.utah.edu or contact [email protected] 801-581-6513.
– Art History MA | The MA in Art History and Visual Studies is a competitive two-year program of study that prepares students to be broadly knowledgeable about the fields of art, art history, and visual studies, to develop a specific scholarly focus, and to acquire research and communication skills. The University of Utah offers a focused graduate degree path with a rigorously interdisciplinary emphasis, which draws on a variety of contemporary and critical theories of art. With an MA degree in Art History, students should be prepared for a range of positions in the public, private, or nonprofit sectors, or to undertake further graduate study in an academic or professional program.
