SI’s multigenerational class, Contemporary Art Topics (CAT), began in 2018 in partnership with the Educational Alliance Sirovich Center, a nearby center for older adults in the East Village. During the pandemic, SI embarked upon a new opportunity to engage adults of all ages, and connect the older adult students from Sirovich to a wider community through multigenerational classes.
Open to adults of all ages (18+), SI’s Contemporary Art Topics program is a unique discussion-based course designed to investigate current themes and issues being explored by living artists today. Thematically-based and artist-led, these two-hour classes introduce concepts and ideas in contemporary art through lectures, guest artist talks, class discussions, “slow looking” at art, individual and group activities, as well as opportunities to share student artwork.
Past program topics have included: the four elements in contemporary art, contemporary artists creating urban space interventions, regenerative life cycles in art making, materials and processes, use of color in contemporary art practice, history of color materiality, wandering as art, craft and folk arts, ritual in art, the intersection of art and ecology, and art as food/food as art.
Fall 2024 Contemporary Art Topics Class | The Color Blue: A Material, An Energy, A Feeling
The color blue implies multitudes of meaning: From ‘blue sky’ optimism, to a healing and spiritual energy, to, as filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman describes, “The blue of the landscape of liberty.” Blue is the most common choice for a favorite color all over the world. It is a color that is both highly evocative and elusive, yet also tangible and tactile in its material manifestations – such as with the indigo plant or the lapis lazuli stone. In this iteration of Swiss Institute’s Contemporary Art Topics series, The Color Blue: A Material, and Energy, a Feeling, we will investigate the color blue by learning about blue material histories, as well as by looking at both historic and contemporary artists that either work with a physical blue material, or address a significance tied to the color through its unique qualities and/or spiritual and emotional implications.
We will look at contemporary artists such as Lita Albuquerque, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Derek Jarman, Abdoulaye Konaté, Otobong Nkanga, Lorna Simpson, and Clarissa Tossin, among many others.
This course aims to center BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and multigenerational artists from various backgrounds and mediums. It includes lectures, guest artist talks, class discussions, “slow looking” at art, individual and group activities, as well as opportunities to share student artwork.
Classes will meet between October 17 and December 12, 2024 for 8 virtual sessions, plus 2 in-person trip days in NYC for local students.
CAT is always free!
Registration is now open. To register, fill out this form!
This class is facilitated by artist and SI Lead Educator, Julia Norton.
If you have any questions, please email education@swissinstitute.net.