Art

Thank you for your continued support of the Department of Art.

Your contribution to this unrestricted fund plays a pivotal role in empowering our department to excel in academic pursuits, foster innovation, and provide unparalleled opportunities for our students, faculty, and staff. With your support, we can continue to make a lasting impact on education, research, and the overall experience of everyone within our community.

Thank you once again for your belief in our mission and for being an essential part of our journey towards excellence. Below are just a few examples of the work our excellence fund accomplished last year. We look forward to keeping you informed about the positive outcomes and achievements that your generosity helps us realize.

With sincere appreciation, GO COUGS!

• Excellence funds were used to support Professor Io Palmer’s participation in the Public Art Bootcamp Workshop through the City of Seattle Public Art Office. As a participant, she went to Seattle to conduct research at the University of Washington Medicinal Botanical Gardens and participated in networking meetings at the City of Seattle Public Art Office, downtown Seattle. This will culminate in a temporary public art piece installed at Seattle Center, Fall of 2023. By doing this, she further developed Concept Clay, a public art initiative that aims to disseminate public art processes across the state. This initiative engages students in learning about public art through collaboration with Professor Palmer; further revealing career paths in public art for students.
• Funds also supported Reza Safavi to participate in the Arctic Circle Expedition/Residency in Longyearbyen. This voyage allowed Reza to collect information, images, 3D scans and videos. It is his intention to show the glaciers frozen in their current state in virtual space. Thus far, our team has 3D printed a small replica of one of these forms. The experience impacted students in several ways, with Reza sharing these experiences and the process of developing approaches to these new technologies. He has also used his finding from this trip to connect with others on campus interested in art and ecology in what is now a Eco Art certificate.
• We utilized excellence funds to support both undergraduate and graduate trips to The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference again this year. Coupled with efforts of our clay club sales student’s attendance at NCECA allows them contact with leaders across the country working in the ceramics industry. At this conference students attend lectures, workshops and exhibitions centered on making in clay. Here they also get to begin relationships with industry partners that supply equipment and materials to the practice.