Rashayla Marie Brown: On Her Intersectionality Critique Initiative

 

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Harper

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Harper

Rashayla Marie Brown is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and curator who also leads the Multicultural Affairs department at the School of the Art Institute in her role as Assistant Director. Her work, both as an artist and administrator, primarily negotiates race, sexuality, spirituality, politics, and popular culture in the formation of subversive narratives. She has been awarded numerous fellowships and grants, including the Anna Louise Raymond BFA Fellowship, Chicago Artist Coalition’s BOLT Residency, SAIC’s Archibald Motley Grant, and the Propeller Fund. She holds a BA in Sociology and African-American Studies from Yale University and a BFA in Photography and Video from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

La Keisha Leek: What is an Intersectionality Critique and where did the idea to create this at SAIC come from?

Rashayla Marie Brown: An Intersectionality Critique is a safe, open, and engaging environment for discussing art across disciplines, identities, and with students and alumni from several universities and departments. Students are encouraged to share works in progress and consider how cultural topics such as race, class, gender, and politics intersect with each other and are inseparable from art. The term “Intersectionality” is used in tribute to black feminist writers such as Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins who proposed how various categories of identity interact on multiple and simultaneous levels. By talking with students of differing disciplines and schools that they might never normally interact with, students learn to integrate concepts of inclusion and awareness into their broader educational experience and post-graduate lives.  I designed this program with social practice techniques of community outreach and collaboration to enhance the development of academic success and skills of cultural competency.

SAIC is an interdisciplinary school in that there are no majors; however, students still need formal outlets for having their work critiqued by those who may have additional knowledge in other fields outside the 2-3 departments where they focus their work. Opening the notion of diversity to interdisciplinary education fosters equity and inclusion of differing voices. I think it’s important for students to discover significant ideas such as critical race theory, feminism, and queer theory in practice and in dialogue on appropriation, collectivism, surrealism, and the like. Through this model of an educational social practice, students are invited to have productive conversations around identity and difference through a creative lens they have an interest in as artists and scholars.

 LL: Why do you feel that now was the right moment for this initiative to exist?

RMB: There is no prevailing method of critical arts engagement conducive to the building of inclusion and awareness of diversity issues. In the past few years, SAIC has implemented a diversity initiative, and through student forums I’ve found that even students who focus in several disciplines sometimes become siloed in their departments and seek alternative means to have their work critiqued and in consideration of both their identity and the work’s formal qualities. A design critique is different from a photography critique which is different from a painting critique, yet all these fields are intimately linked to each other, just as race, class and gender operate in tandem. The MFA students at our school get this type of critique during inter-departmental “Critique Weeks” at SAIC, but those environments are at times combative or non-productive for the artist because there is no sense of community or support. Also, the same students tend to gravitate towards diversity-themed courses, which leaves a large population of our students unexposed to them and the powerful ideas they put forth. I personally saw quite a bit of work produced by advanced level students that had clearly not considered how society functions in relation to art, so the need was there.

LL: Who have you engaged in the initiative so far?

RMB: I have engaged D. Denenge Akpem, Delinda Collier, Lisa Vinebaum, Daniel Tucker, Cheryl Pope, Maria Gaspar, and Nicole Marroquin, Theaster Gates and Hamza Walker. We are also looking for faculty and artists who work with gender, sexuality and faith to lead as well. We have had students from UIC, Columbia College, and even visitors from University of Iowa and RISD participate along with our students at SAIC from almost every department, from the first-year undergrad to the grad level.

Rashayla Maria Brown with Theaster Gates and Hamza Walker at Critique on the theme of Sustainability.

Rashayla Maria Brown with Theaster Gates and Hamza Walker at Critique on the theme of Sustainability.

 LL: What has been the response from those who have been a part of the Critiques in some capacity?

RMB: The most powerful response was that this was the first time some students have discussed work and felt like it was not a defense, but more like sharing in that they didn’t feel afraid to share some very heavy and in-progress ideas. They felt freer to explore and have a dialogue, because a sense of respect and collaboration was there. Also, they met people that they would have never encountered otherwise and made new connections that they hope will grow into artistic partnerships. Lastly, they learned about a topic that they were interested in but afraid to explore due to lack of knowledge or fear.

N68A0990

LL: As a practicing artist why did you feel it was important to work within education?

RMB: When I started as an artist, I felt very alone and unsure that my type of art, the kind that critically engaged my identity and cultural theory, was valued and appreciated. That feeling often directly relates to one’s success – if you don’t have role models or peers to safely share ideas with, you might take much too long to explore and articulate your ideas. As a student at SAIC, I re-started the group Black at SAIC to fill this gap for myself. After participating in open critiques and shows with friends from this group, I realized that if it weren’t for them I probably would not have thrived the way I did. I wanted no one to have to go through that experience on their own, for them to know there is strength in community. The canonized art world is immensely segregated and tends to gravitate towards safe artworks that don’t challenge existing paradigms of power. Since art schools are where the art fair, the museum, and the gallery often go to look for new talent, I thought that real change could start in the realm of education and the art students themselves.

 LL: What exhibitions or programs going on during CAA would you recommend to conference attendees?

RMB: I would recommend seeing Strange Bedfellows at Columbia College’s A+D Gallery, The Ladydrawers Comics Collective at Uri-Eichen Gallery, Heidi Norton at Monique Meloche Gallery, SOFT DRUGS at DfbrL8r and the Chicago Artists Coalition’s current exhibit of works from their residency programs.

Rashayla Marie Brown: On Her Intersectionality Critique Initiative

  Rashayla Marie Brown is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and curator who also leads the Multicultural Affairs department at the School of the Art Institute in her role as Assistant …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

A Conversation with CAA Keynote Jessica Stockholder

stockholder_large

Day one of CAA is finally here! I am sure we are all somewhere between hunting down our first cup of coffee and making our way to the Hilton for our first sessions of the day. I am eager to attend several opening sessions this morning but am finding myself even more excited to hear from our keynote this evening.

Leading up to CAA I sat down with Jessica Stockholder, artist and Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. Attending my first CAA conference, I was interested to learn from Jessica about CAA and her life as an artist in academia.

La Keisha Leek: As a first time attendee at CAA what are some of the things that I should expect from the conference?

Jessica Stockholder: CAA is a way for people to say hello to each other, people who teach particularly in art history but also in studio art. It’s also a job fair and networking tool. I haven’t experienced a lot of the papers but that part is a real treat!

LL: As an emerging art historian, who sometimes thinks like an artist, so it’s really interesting for me to not only see art historians deliver papers but see how artists are talking about their work alongside the presentations of art historians.

JS: Definitely some of the panels and events bring art historians, artists and critics together so you get an overlapping way of thinking about things

LL: How long have you been in arts education and what made you decide that education was something that you wanted to pursue?

JS: I think I was 35 and I was showing in New York a little bit and somebody from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) said, “you would be a good teacher” during a studio visit. So, she offered me a job and I taught in the undergraduate department. And then David Shirey in the graduate program offered me a job. I had just had a baby and I said, “well maybe in a year”, and he said, “you have to do it now!”, so I took the job. I was doing a little teaching at SVA and New York University (NYU). Jack Risley who was a classmate of mine at Yale, offered me the first job I had teaching a course at NYU and then I was wanting to leave New York. Somebody called and told me there was a job at Yale so I applied for that job because I was looking for a way not to be in New York – I didn’t want to be there my whole life.  That was the first job I had that was a real job with a commitment to a place.

So I guess I didn’t decide I wanted to be an educator. I was and am an artist. Teaching is a more predictable way for an artist to earn money, but also its nice to have a foot in the education world and foot in the commercial world because the two encompass different sets of values and ways of thinking and talking. I took the Yale job when I turned 40. I think at that age if I hadn’t taken that job I would have gotten more set in my ways. I wouldn’t have needed to be looking at other people’s work as much and gotten more self-involved. Teaching is a really nice way to stay involved and see what younger people are doing, how the world is changing and what questions are being asked as time moves along. So, I really appreciate my students in that way and I learn a lot.

LL: That’s also something I learned for my instructors, which is that we teach them quite a bit. That makes me feel like I can do this and go in to education!

JS: It’s a nice place to explore things- whether you’re teaching or studenting!

LL: I agree! You’re giving the Keynote for CAA, are you excited?  Do you have anything special planned?

JS: I definitely have something planned. I’m excited! It’s an honor and also daunting. But I’m going to talk about being an artist in academia and what my experiences have been.

LL: Awesome, I can’t wait! One last questions- are there any exhibitions up during CAA that you would recommend to conference attendees?

JS: Dieter Roelstraete’s show at the MCA The Way of the Shovel.

A Conversation with CAA Keynote Jessica Stockholder

Day one of CAA is finally here! I am sure we are all somewhere between hunting down our first cup of coffee and making our way to the Hilton for our …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Meet the Bloggers: La Keisha Leek

La Keisha Leek is a writer, arts administrator and curator who will be graduating with a BA in Art History from Columbia College Chicago this May. Her interests within art history are architecture, race, performance, and site-specific projects that investigate the ways bodies and objects offer up themselves, adapt to and negotiate their presence within spaces. She has used exhibitions as a way to negotiate the presence of language in space contributing texts to The Fifth Dimension at the Reva and David Logan Center, and groun(d) at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park.

Through her matriculation at Columbia La Keisha has adopted a collaborative spirit. Her thesis project Afros & Ceramic Fruit documents a conversation series with Chicago-based artists and curators who’s work connects to spaces for contemporary antiquities in art and visual culture, through art making, place making and idea making, and in real-time offers recordings of these conversations as a satellite program to WSTS Radio, an online radio station founded by two former graduates of Columbia College’s Arts, Entertainment and Media Management department. She is also a member of several Chicago-based artist collectives including Hyde Park Dacha and Potluck: Chicago and works at Theaster Gates Studio and Rebuild Foundation.

Meet the Bloggers: La Keisha Leek

La Keisha Leek is a writer, arts administrator and curator who will be graduating with a BA in Art History from Columbia College Chicago this May. Her interests within art …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605