Grad Ex 106: DRPT Student Exhibitions
Resilience - The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
A year ago, one could not comprehend the new educational landscape that the students and faculty are manoeuvring today to continue learning and creating art together.
We are extraordinarily inspired by the Drawing and Painting class of OCADU 106, who espoused the spirit of resilience throughout their final year during the Covid 19 stay-at-home measures. Despite being apart, and separated in their homes across the world, they found new and rich ways of connecting and building community through the new online Drawing and Painting digital studio space. Amazingly, students were able to tune in and learn from Korea, Mexico, China, Taiwan and all across Turtle Island.
In the summer of 2020, we met these students in a large online town hall to discuss their thoughts and determine how they could continue collaborate, connect and build the invaluable community that would have existed in person in the studios on the fourth floor. To our great surprise, they were the first to create solutions by mobilizing student-led online platforms to post ideas, share in-process work and foster support networks through live video exchange.
These crucial conversations worked to build a sense of connectedness and community that was so necessary during the surreal times we are all living through during the Global Pandemic. Classes met with their faculty on live on video, used online chats to discuss work and went into web-based breakout rooms to critique and give in process feedback.
In the online learning management system, Canvas, readings, links and message boards exploded with discussions and knowledge sharing. DRPT alumni dropped in remotely from their studios to give live feedback and offer career advice. Visiting faculty spent hours meeting students remotely in their homes to critique final projects. The catalogue committee launched an online auction to raise the money needed to print this catalogue and devised a complex mailing system to deliver the artwork to collectors.
As you will see when viewing the work in this catalogue, these new ways of working resulted in a focus on sustainable art materials, experimental approaches to studio practice and a newfound creative energy in the face of adversity.
Thus, it is not a surprise that this constellation of collisions became the theme that reverberates throughout the work in this catalogue. As new emerging artists and creators of the future, the resiliency skills that the Class of 106 acquired to thrive and succeed during this challenging year will only work to enhance the potential of their future artmaking and community building.
As educators, this class and their resilience were transformative and inspiring to witness. We want to congratulate the new Graduating Class of the DRPT 2021 for their perseverance in completing this unforgettable journey with their faculty and classmates.
Ilene Sova – Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Drawing & Painting Julius Poncelet Manapul – Associate Chair of Contemporary Drawing & Painting
A year ago, one could not comprehend the new educational landscape that the students and faculty are manoeuvring today to continue learning and creating art together.
We are extraordinarily inspired by the Drawing and Painting class of OCADU 106, who espoused the spirit of resilience throughout their final year during the Covid 19 stay-at-home measures. Despite being apart, and separated in their homes across the world, they found new and rich ways of connecting and building community through the new online Drawing and Painting digital studio space. Amazingly, students were able to tune in and learn from Korea, Mexico, China, Taiwan and all across Turtle Island.
In the summer of 2020, we met these students in a large online town hall to discuss their thoughts and determine how they could continue collaborate, connect and build the invaluable community that would have existed in person in the studios on the fourth floor. To our great surprise, they were the first to create solutions by mobilizing student-led online platforms to post ideas, share in-process work and foster support networks through live video exchange.
These crucial conversations worked to build a sense of connectedness and community that was so necessary during the surreal times we are all living through during the Global Pandemic. Classes met with their faculty on live on video, used online chats to discuss work and went into web-based breakout rooms to critique and give in process feedback.
In the online learning management system, Canvas, readings, links and message boards exploded with discussions and knowledge sharing. DRPT alumni dropped in remotely from their studios to give live feedback and offer career advice. Visiting faculty spent hours meeting students remotely in their homes to critique final projects. The catalogue committee launched an online auction to raise the money needed to print this catalogue and devised a complex mailing system to deliver the artwork to collectors.
As you will see when viewing the work in this catalogue, these new ways of working resulted in a focus on sustainable art materials, experimental approaches to studio practice and a newfound creative energy in the face of adversity.
Thus, it is not a surprise that this constellation of collisions became the theme that reverberates throughout the work in this catalogue. As new emerging artists and creators of the future, the resiliency skills that the Class of 106 acquired to thrive and succeed during this challenging year will only work to enhance the potential of their future artmaking and community building.
As educators, this class and their resilience were transformative and inspiring to witness. We want to congratulate the new Graduating Class of the DRPT 2021 for their perseverance in completing this unforgettable journey with their faculty and classmates.
Ilene Sova – Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Drawing & Painting Julius Poncelet Manapul – Associate Chair of Contemporary Drawing & Painting
