Director's Message
This December, we mark the passing of a much-beloved member of our community, William Christenberry. Christenberry’s passing on November 28 at age 80, after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, hits the Corcoran community particularly hard. The photographer and painter, who unfailingly, critically and lovingly portrayed his native Alabama, taught at the Corcoran for 40 years, until becoming a professor emeritus in 2008. Christenberry’s passing and the recent presidential elections have me thinking about the relevance of this creative community in the context of broader socio-cultural shifts, both big and small.
I first saw Mr. Christenberry’s work at the Corcoran in 1995 and was struck not just by the rich, saturated structures he photographed, but also by the underlying presence of a darker, more traumatic history not to be ignored or dismissed.
I am reminded of how William Wilson Corcoran saw the Corcoran as a place “dedicated to art and used solely for the purpose of encouraging the American genius.” The preservation of American genius is an active process, not a passive one. It requires care, cultivation, the celebration of creativity, scholarship and diverse points of view—something Mr. Christenberry knew well and actively practiced in his classroom. “Bill had a fiercely dedicated following of students while he was teaching at the Corcoran,” says Fine Art Photography Professor Frank DiPerna. “He was one who spoke in plain English about his work, leaving the conceptual analysis to the critics.”
Mentoring artists and celebrating the production of scholarship and culture is only part of our broader responsibility. We, as a community of artists and scholars, are continually striving to deepen our connections to communities outside the walls of this institution. I am fortunate to have faculty members like Dean Kessmann, with his compellingly precise photographic investigations; Justin Plakas, with his otherworldly prints made to benefit a local nonprofit reuse center; and Janis Goodman, who has a continual drive to inspire deeper collaborations for her students with the sciences and nature. Through their work, they are keeping Christenberry’s legacy alive at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
Sanjit Sethi
Director, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design
|
|
|
Visiting Professor Mel Chin: Art Requires Empathy
Within much of Visiting Professor Mel Chin's work is a determination to respond to challenging subjects, from gun violence to global warming to childhood lead poisoning. However, raising awareness is just the beginning, Chin explained during a lecture at the Corcoran in October. “Here we are being artists, trying to do good work transparently, and yet things still go down,” he said. Read more.
|
|
|
|
|
Dean Kessmann, professor of Fine Arts, received a 2017 Arts and Humanities Fellowship from D.C.’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which provides support to artists contributing to the city’s cultural capital.
|
|
|
Fine Art Professor Justin Plakas collaborated with local nonprofit reuse center Community Forklift to create a series of graphic prints and photographs to benefit the group's public outreach programs.
|
|
|
|
Earlier this month, the Department of Music presented the D.C. premiere performance of Music Professor Douglas Boyce’s Tethys, performed by the Grammy-nominated INSCAPE Chamber Orchestra.
|
|
|
Theater Professor Jodi Kanter discussed presidential libraries and her new book Presidential Libraries as Performance with the American Library Association's Dewey Decibel Podcast.
|
|
Upcoming Exhibition Examines Alaskan Identity Through the Lens of Colonization
This February, the Corcoran will welcome Decolonizing Alaska, a multimedia visual art exhibit featuring contemporary artists exploring and responding to Alaska’s history of colonization and its emerging influence on sustainability, both environmental and cultural.
“As the world’s attention shifts to the shrinking polar ice cap and the future of our planet, Alaska’s place in the world has moved from the fringe to the center,” Curator Asia Freeman said. “Concerns about climate change and cultural survival resulting from colonization have pushed Alaska to the forefront of global conversations.” Decolonizing Alaska will run Feb. 3 through March 20. Read more.
(Image: Joel Isaak, "Łuqa’ ch’k’ezdelghayi Visions of Summer, digital loop of video behind fish skin screen, sound 5 minutes, 2016")
|
|
|
Fine Art Professor Janis Goodman spent two weeks this past summer teaching marine and environmental science students a different way to observe the world around them as part of an artist residency at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island.
|
|
|
|
How can we create an innovative and groundbreaking school of arts and design that promotes diversity of thought and experience, addresses critical social issues and educates the next generation of artists, designers and creative cultural leaders?
|
|
|
|
|
