Practicum Projects
CPMFA Practicum is a two-part studio course for first-year CPMFA students who collectively research, propose, plan, and execute a solo or thematic exhibition (or a suite of curatorial projects) featuring local, national, and/or international artists and/or cultural producers. The exhibition’s concept and format is driven by a cooperative, flexible system of decision-making.
Everyday, Everyday, Everyday, Everyday Freedoms
Co-Curated by the CPMFA Class of 2020
February 1-March 17, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1 (5-7pm)
Meyerhoff Gallery | 1300 W Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201
Featured Artists:
Devin Allen
Aram Han Sifuentes
Kirsten Leenaars
Erick Medel
Maria Paula Moreno
Alessandra Plaza Saravia
Bilphena Yahwon
The Maryland Institute College of Art and the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative present Everyday, Everyday, Everyday, Everyday Freedoms. an exhibition that reimagines civic engagement beyond voting in elections. This group exhibition considers how a democracy could be free from disenfranchisement; forming a critique of the frayed political climate from a multiplicity of perspectives. Featuring local, national, and international artists at all stages of their careers, their artwork frames participation and activism through photography, video, game design, sculpture, installation, data visualization, text, and textiles.
Citizenship, race, gender, age, and socioeconomic class exacerbate the inability of some to survive, let alone to engage civically. Beyond critiquing these systemic barriers, the curators prioritize art’s ability to change per- spectives through dialogue, collaboration, and social engagement. They imagine freedom as a release from partisan ideology and encourage the viewer to consider civic engagement as an ongoing daily practice—one that is malleable and ripe for redefinition.
Public Programs:
Identity Flag Workshop
with Maria Paula Moreno
January 28 | 5-7pm
Making Good: Big Questions in Art and Design
with Coco Fusco and Kirsten Leenaars
March 7 | 7pm
Monday-Freedoms
Featuring Devin Allen, Hank Willis Thomas, and Bilphena Yahwon
Moderated by Tiffany Ward
March 13 | 7pm
Devin Allen Photography Workshop
March 12-14 | 4:30-6pm
About the 50 State Initiative:
Since 2016, For Freedoms has produced special exhibitions, town hall meetings, billboards, and lawn sign installations to spur greater participation in civic life. In 2018, For Freedoms launched its 50 State Initiative, a new phase of programming to encourage broad participation and inspire conversation around the recent midterm elections. Building off of the existing artistic infrastructure in the United States, For Freedoms has developed a network of over 300 artists and 200 institutional partners who will produce nationwide public art installations, exhibitions and local community dialogues in order to inject nuanced, artistic thinking into public discourse. Centered around the vital work of artists, For Freedoms hopes that these exhibitions and related projects will model how arts institutions can become civic forums for action and discussion of values, place, and patriotism.
Everyday, Everyday, Everyday, Everyday Freedoms is the first-year Practicum exhibition co-curated by the Curatorial Practice MFA Class of 2020—Andre Bradley, Rodrigo Carazas Portal, Hannah Davis, Ashley He, Imani Haynes, Sung-ah Kang, Eva Sailly, Nathalie von Veh, Minwen Wang, Tiffany Ward, and Aden Weisel; under the direction of José Ruiz, Director of Curatorial Practice, and Gerald Ross, Director of Exhibitions.
EVERYTHING MUST GO
Co-Curated by the CPMFA Class of 2019
May 7 - 27, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, May 11 (6-9pm)
SpaceCamp | 16 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201
Store Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm
Everything Must Go — an advertising slogan, a call to action.
Everything Must Go invites audiences to rethink established systems of exchange and the elements of creation, production, consumption, possession, waste, and value(s) functioning within them. Where do the things we consume come from? Who makes them?
How do we determine the value of a thing? How do we decide that it no longer has value? What do we exchange in order to obtain it? And who decides how this is done?
At Everything Must Go we’re slashing prices. Visitors are consumers are laborers are artists. Your money is no good here. Creative labor can be exchanged for anything in this store that is deemed to be of equal value. Our entire inventory is your palette. Anything altered and produced within this space becomes a work of art as well as a product. All art objects are free to be disassembled, reassembled, disregarded, or destroyed.
At Everything Must Go —
collaboration > competition
shared responsibility > control
diversity > uniformity
justice > profit
the commons > the privatized
Don’t let this hot, hot deal get away. Enjoy this exclusive, limited time offer today.
Check out the EMG Reader HERE!
Everything Must Go is the first-year Practicum exhibition co-curated by the Curatorial Practice MFA Class of 2019 - Joan Cen, Jared Christensen, Rhonda Dallas, Maria Emilia Duno, Josh Gamma, Tracey Jen, Minzi Li, Allie Linn, Joseph Orzal & Jiayi Zhong - under the direction of José Ruiz, Director of the MFA in Curatorial Practice, and Gerald Ross, Director of Exhibitions at MICA. This project is made possible by The Stanley Mazaroff & Nancy Dorman Endowed Fund for Curatorial Practice—First Year Practicum.
LAND/TRUST
Co-Curated by the CPMFA Class of 2019
January 19 - February 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, January 19 (6-8pm)
Closing Reception: February 22, 2018 (6-8pm)
Meyerhoff Gallery | 1305 W Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217
Featured Artists:
Margaret Boozer
Demian Dinéyazhí
Maren Hassinger
Mary Mattingly
Nadia Myre
Glenn Ross
The Maryland Institute College of Art and its MFA in Curatorial Practice program present LAND/TRUST, an exhibition exploring contemporary relationships to the land and the ways in which artists are navigating and negotiating their positions as caretakers, advocates, investigators, and researchers of the earth during this time of ecological crisis and changing landscape. In forging intimate relationships with the land, the participating artists illuminate systematically neglected spaces, question imposed political and social boundaries, and facilitate conversations on issues of ownership and usage of the ground we travel every day.
Public Programs:
Demian DinéYazhi´ Poetry Reading
January 25, 2018 | 6:00–7:00 PM | Meyerhoff Gallery/Fox Building
1305 W. Mount Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217
Selected readings from his new poetry book.
Fieldwork: Relationships and Responsibilities to the Land
January 26, 2018 | 6:00–8:00 PM | Kramer House
121 Mosher St, Baltimore, MD 21217
A dinner and roundtable discussion with local and national artists, designers, and social practitioners Margaret Boozer, Courtney Goode, Phaan Howng, Raina Martens, Dominic Nell, Hugh Pocock, Glenn Ross, and James Tyree. Screening to follow: Plastic China (2016)
Soil Lab with Margaret Boozer/Raina Martens + UnInc.
February 02, 2018 | 10:30 AM–12:00 PM | Meyerhoff Gallery
1305 W Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217
Participating artist Margaret Boozer will lead a workshop and talk on her Soil Lab project.
Screening and discussion to follow: Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra (1987)
East Baltimore Toxic Tour
February 6, 2018 | 11:00 AM–12:30 PM | Bus leaves from Fox Building
1305 W Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217
Participating artist Glenn Ross will lead a Toxic Tour of East Baltimore by bus, exposing the strategic neglect and construction of neighborhoods that he states were “designed to decay.”
Manufactured Landscapes (2006) Screening
February 14, 2018 | 7:00 PM | The Parkway Theatre
5 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201
A film screening event in collaboration with MICA’s Filmmaking MFA program.
LAND/TRUST was curated by Jingyao (Joan) Cen, Jared Christensen, Rhonda Dallas, Maria Emilia Duno, Joshua Gamma, Tracey Jen, Minzi Li, Allie Linn, Joseph Orzal, and Jiayi Zhong under the direction of José Ruiz, Director of the MFA in Curatorial Practice program, and Gerald Ross, Director of Exhibitions.
WHITE LIES
May 6 - 14, 2017
Featuring: Lek Borja, Hoesy Corona, Chuxi Guo, Christopher K. Ho, Kim Loper, Ti-Rock Moore, Ada Pinkston, Dread Scott
Curated by Ian Chen, Alexis Dixon, Fang Yu Lee, Becky Li, Rebecca Lu, Ash Lynch, Mark Zhang
White Lies extends itself to highlight the reign of whiteness in U.S. history. The participating artists and their works do not mince words about whiteness and white supremacy or their implications. These eight artists stare directly into the eyes of racism, Islamophobia, discrimination, xenophobia, and imperialism. Together, their works demand onlookers to bear witness to the horrors of white supremacy—to confront it, carry its burden, and, most importantly, cease complacency.
White Lies does not allow an opportunity to opt out of having the uncomfortable conversation with relatives at the dinner table. It does not allow the opportunity to unabashedly utter “Black Lives Matter” without asking how one is supporting the claim. It does not allow the opportunity to use phrases like “institutionalized racism,” “systemic racism,” “diversity,” and “inclusion” without questioning the socio-political and economic barriers engineered by policy-makers and sustained by apathy. These terms have been distorted and simplified in the discourse on race relations in America, often reduced to mere soundbites. There is no space in White Lies to utter these words and not question their complicity in white supremacist obstruction.
Under the gaze of a predominately white institution and as the American government threatens its citizens’ civil liberties, seven curators of color have united to create an exhibition that draws attention to white supremacy and its multiple symptoms and sorrows. Like our forefathers and foremothers, who endured chattel slavery or traveled across oceans to grab hold of the American dream, we do what people of color in the United States of America have done since its inception: We remain steadfast despite the lies, and we speak truth to power.
PROGRAM: Confederate Monuments Tour
with students from the Mount Royal Middle School | April 28, 2017
American school systems rarely if at all create space for dialogue on white supremacy and its implications on American history.The MICA Practicum class invited Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School students to tour Confederate monuments within Baltimore City. Students were given the space to reimagine these monuments, their placement, and ultimately what they envision their world would look like in a post-racial America. The students’ responses are enlightening and give a forthright account of how our youth perceive America today, and what they hope for in their society tomorrow.
The annual Practicum exhibition is made possible by The Stanley Mazaroff & Nancy Dorman Endowed Fund for Curatorial Practice—First Year Practicum. Additional support for White Lies and its programming is provided by MICA's Office of Community Engagement and by Friends of Curatorial Practice.
FATHERS, BROTHERS, SONS
May 6 - 15, 2016
Featuring: Aileen Bassis, Christopher Batten, Mike Bennion, Mike Benevena, Gordon Fearey, Jerrell Gibbs, Alexander Hernandez, Meghan Keane, Tracy Kerdman, Paul Loughney, Laren R. Lyde, Jeanette May, Richard Munaba, J. Noland, Midori Okuyama, Alexander Pergament, Justin Zachary
Curated by Carol Dyson, Liz Faust, Betty Gonzales, Dasol Kim, Sheena Morrison & Fitsum Shebeshe
Fathers, Brothers, Sons is an all-media exhibition that explores twenty-first century male identity from youth to adulthood. Eighteen artists look beyond conventional male gender roles in contemporary society to consider questions on sex, intimacy, domesticity, race, and privilege.
The exhibition will be held at Space Camp located in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, home to several culturally diverse communities. Fathers, Brothers, Sons creates a space where members of these communities can come together in an open forum to exchange ideas and views on contemporary male experiences.
PROGRAM: Men in the Mirror Community Resource Fair
April 30, 2016 | 12pm - 6 pm
The fair will be held at, 4 West North Avenue, the Ynot lot with performances, discussion, games and music focusing on men and their personal and professional development. Social and community organizations will be available as well as food vendors. Entertainment is geared for general audiences.
PARTNERS: Kevin Brown/SNAC and The Living Well
The annual Practicum exhibition is made possible by The Stanley Mazaroff & Nancy Dorman Endowed Fund for Curatorial Practice—First Year Practicum. Additional support was provided by Friends of Curatorial Practice.
INTERSECTION
September 1 - 20, 2015
Featuring: Reuben "Dubscience" Greene, Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib, Ada Pinkston, Olu Butterfly Woods,
Curated by Kibibi Ajanku, Nada Alaradi, Rhea Beckett, Yvonne Hardy-Phillips, Margaret MacDonald & Jie Yu
INTERSECTION is an exhibition celebrating 100 years of history at the crossing of North Avenue and Charles Street. In Baltimore, the intersection of North and Charles marks the overlapping of cultures,classes, and identities. This exhibition highlights pivotal moments in the city’s history and how those moments have transformed the area.
This exhibition is the culmination of the year-long Practicum course in the Curatorial Practice MFA program at MICA. Students collaborate with artists and community partners to develop timely projects that connect with diverse audiences in the Station North neighborhood.
PROGRAMS
Distance Presence | Imminent Past at Ynot Lot
Griot's Eye/Media Arts & Youth Advocacy Program
PERFORMANCES by Olu Butterfly and Ada Pinkston: From No Names to no names to God's Names to no name.
PARTNER: Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc.
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Tiffany Smalls
Additional support for this exhibition was provided by MICA Office of Community Engagement and Friends of Curatorial Practice.
THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS: Nick Bubash
June 5 - 14, 2015
Curated by Ashley DeHoyos, Jen Melvin, Chrissie A. Miller & Nick Petr
The Natural Order of Things, curated by Ashley DeHoyos, Jen Melvin, Chrissie A. Miller, and Nick Petr, showcases mixed media artist Nick Bubash’s creative use of everyday found objects in an interactive one-person show. The exhibition features the Pittsburgh, PA-based artist’s assemblage work alongside a selection of his 2D collages and drawings. Bubash studied tattooing under legendary New York artist Thom DeVita for many years before attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia; there, he trained as a traditional fine artist. As a result of his extensive academic experiences working in printmaking, figurative sculpture, and tattoo art, Bubash moves easily between many different styles of art making, and utilizes many different mediums, including sculpture, assemblage, drawing, collage, and watercolor.
Bubash’s work provides a fascinating and accessible model for art making. When viewers realize that the bits and pieces that make up his intricate assemblages are essentially upcycled trash—feathers, bits of plastic toys, bent silverware—they are able to both recognize the artist’s keenly developed aesthetic sensibility and understand that his methods and materials are available to anyone. Together, these artworks demonstrate that selecting and arranging what exists around us is an inherently creative act. The Natural Order of Things aims to eliminate the barrier between artists and non-makers by offering Bubash’s work as a point of departure into the mysterious act of creation.
PROGRAMS
Artist Lecture | June 5, 2015
Interactive Program led by artist educator Dave English | June 13, 2015
Additional support for this exhibition was provided by MICA Graduate Studies, The Mixed Media Speaker Series, and Friends of Curatorial Practice.
LOCALLY SOURCED
September 2 - 22, 2014
Featuring: Wendel Patrick & Aaron Henkin, Jason Hoylman, NETHER, Paula Whaley
Curated by Gloria Azuceña, Yeim (Amy) Bae, Chris Beer, Marnie Benney, Melani Douglass, Jennifer Gray, Kelly Johnson, Kirsten Marie Walsh, Samantha Redles & Emily Russell
LOCALLY SOURCED explores how exchanges between local artists and their neighbors help a community thrive. For the exhibition, five artists based in central Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District--Aaron Henkin, Jason Hoylman, Nether, Wendel Patrick, and Paula Whaley—have produced newly commissioned works in a variety of media. Through sculpture, sound, photography, painting, and installation, these artists offer different perspectives on the vibrant and interconnected cultural landscape of Station North.
Curated by the Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) MFA in Curatorial Practice Class of 2015, LOCALLY SOURCED goes beyond looking at the artwork itself by examining local artists’ contributions to the neighborhoods they work within.
The selected artists are not all activists, nor do they all create specifically community-based projects. But their awareness of and engagement with their communities are essential to their working methods. In their creative practices, all of these artists build networks of people around them, which in turn contribute to the success of their work.
From Whaley’s community sculpture workshops to Nether’s neighborhood-inspired murals, and from Hoylman’s tracing of neighbors’ paths to Henkin and Patrick’s community-sourced audio and visual narratives, each artist supports a different audience within Station North. The exhibition examines how the artists’ networks overlap—informing, contributing to, and impacting both arts and non-arts communities.
PROGRAMS
Sculpture Workshops with Paula Whaley | August 17, 2014
Artist Talk with NETHER | September 20, 2014
AKIMBO Performance | September 13, 2014
PARTNERS: Kevin Brown/SNAC, The Living Well, The Village Learning Place, AKIMBO
GRAPHIC DESIGNER: August Schwartz
Additional support for this exhibition was provided by MICA Office of Community Engagement and the Baltimore Community Fund.
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CONGREGATE art + faith + community
September 5 - 25, 2013
Featuring: Bashi Rose, Katherine Kavanaugh, Leo Hussey, Laure Drogoul, Tiffany Jones, Leigh Davis
Curated by Michelle Gomez, Ashley Molese, Victoria Timpo, Caitlin Tucker-Melvin, QianFei Wang & Xiaotian Yang
CONGREGATE art + faith + community is an exhibition and series of programs that creates shared experiences for faith-based congregations and artistic communities within the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Curated by the MFA in Curatorial Practice class of 2014, CONGREGATE establishes artist residencies within five places of worship and offers public programs in which members of each congregation can collaborate creatively. CONGREGATE creates a space in which artists and congregants can come together to develop a better understanding of one another—and allows spiritual sites to become active parts of the Station North arts community.
Beginning in the spring of 2013, participating local and regional artists met with representatives of Station North places of worship to plan the creation of new works of art. The resulting sculptures, installations, and participatory works are informed by three months of engagement between the artists and congregations.
CONGREGATE aims to help audiences investigate if there really is a disparity between contemporary artistic practices and communities of faith. CONGREGATE will initiate dialogue, open doorways, and create welcoming spaces, thereby contributing to a more inclusive arts district. In this project, different communities with different ideologies, relationships, and practices have an opportunity to connect and develop a better understanding of one another.
PROGRAMS
FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture presents Monument Picnic | September 29, 2013
Baltimore Performance Kitchen presents Closets | September 22, 2013
FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture presents Sew-A-Thon | September 7-8, 2013
AKIMBO Dance Festival | August 30, 2013
Baltimore Print Studios: Screenprinting & Letterpress Youth Workshops | September 6-25, 2013
PARTNERS: New Second Missionary Baptist Church, St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, Seventh Metro Church, Spiritual Empowerment Center, St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran
Additional support for this exhibition was provided by MICA Office of Student Affairs, MICA Office of Community Engagement, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Robinson, Kibebe Gizaw (MacMillan Stewart Foundation), Richard and Shelia Riggs, and Friends of Curatorial Practice.
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Curated by Catherine Akins, Jaimianne Amicucci, Gabrielle Buzgo, Emily Clemens, Allison Gulick, Deana Haggag, Chloe Helton-Gallagher, Hyejung Jang & Matt Spaulding
EXHIBITIONS
INVITED: Anniversary List | September 28 - November 11, 2012 | throughout 10 Station North Businesses
INVITED: Celebration Station | October 21 - November 1, 2012 | Riggs & Leidy Galleries
PROGRAMS
Matchmaking Contemporary Relationships: A Panel | October 29, 2012
New Public Sites: Station North Tour w/ Graham Coreil-Allen | November 3, 2012
Additional support for this exhibition was provided by MICA Office of Community Engagement, Station North Arts & Entertainment Inc., and Friends of Curatorial Practice.