'Contemporary Ceramics Installations,' the brainchild of Brittany Sievers, '13, allows students to explore both the methods of getting their hands dirty with clay, as well as the influences behind the art.
In its first year as an on-campus offering, the Winter Term class 'Contemporary Ceramics Installations' has proved to be a formidable undertaking for Sievers, who designed and pitched the course in the months following her graduation in May.
By the start of the course, the original 15-student enrollment limit of the class had been pushed to 18, a challenge that Sievers readily accepted. However, according to Sievers, the course has been unfolding quite smoothly.
Students are required to research and develop a presentation about a single contemporary studio artist of their choosing, which they then showcase to peers over the course of the class. Following this, students mimic selective attributes of their chosen artist to create an installation of work based around the traits they find most attractive.
"It's more about the concept that you have behind your art than what you have in front of you," Sievers said.
The focus of the class is structured more around the underlying thought processes and understanding of contemporary studio art, which makes the course all the more inviting for students with little to no experience in the field.Quinton Miller, a sophomore without any prior exposure to studio art, describes his experience in the course as the perfect median between a lecture-style setting and a development of expression.
"We don't come in and play with clay all morning. Everyone in the class is creating a presentation on an artist they like, and everyone is learning from one another throughout the course," Miller said. "It's really cool to see why everyone's doing what they're doing."