CORRESPONDENCE ART: MAKING WORK IN DIALOGUE
Ages 16-29
Fall 2024, Online
This distance-learning workshop will consider art-making as a socially communicative act. Building on personal storytelling, student fellows will not only share their experiences through their creative work, but also respond to the experiences and work of their peers, and further, to the responses of their peers to their own art, creating an evolving "dialogue" that reflects both the individual artists and their mutual interaction. In discussion, they'll analyze examples of “correspondence art” (also known as “mail art”) — bodies of work created in the form of letters or other work shared through the post. And they'll listen closely to one another, reacting authentically to each other's stories with recognition, surprise, laughter, questions, or sympathy; allowing these reactions to inspire their creative responses. They'll explore narrative and experimental writing and image-making, and reimagine the possibilities of texting, email, and even a shared Zoom screen for meaningful correspondence. Fellows will ultimately draw their work together into short videos, comprising writing and still or moving images. These may be personal essay films, experimental “letter” films, collaborative films, or a combination of approaches. Work will be shared on the program website and through a public exhibition. Limited to 12 student fellows.
Caroline Preziosi is a poet, artist, and educator living in Baltimore, MD and Callicoon, NY. She works in language, sound, drawing, and film. She holds a BA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and serves as a board member with ENGN Civic Creative Center, a 501(c)3 educational non-profit in NY.
