Teaching
Socio-ecological relationships and contemporary artists’ practice
This course focuses on understanding socio-ecological relationships and how that might inform different ways in making artwork. From conducting archival research to nature observations, students learn to use research as a tool for developing projects and how research can strengthen one’s studio practice. We focus on various themes such as waste, land, water, food, plants, forests, and biodiversity, engaging with the contemporary art practices in these themes. How are today’s artists responding to the environmental transformation?
We will discuss readings on these topics and how colonialism past and present impacts the environment and ecosystems, societies, economies, and all living creatures on earth. Students will engage in critique and will be encouraged to experiment in studio making to create independent projects.
MFA Summer Residency Program at Lesley University College of Art + Design, Cambridge, MA. 2024
Smith College: Five College Advanced Studio Art Seminar, Northampton, MA. Fall 2024
Photo: In collaboration with the Botanic Garden of Smith College, students picked plant samples and prepared to make dried plants for anthotype photography and papermaking.
Our collaboration was featured in the annual magazine, Leaflet, published by the Botanic Garden, 2025.
Listen to the radio interview with my students from the Five College Advanced Studio Art Seminar on New England Public Media’s Fabulous 413: Reframed, November 19, 2024.
Monte Belmonte and Kaliis Smith spoke with three of my students about their experience in this class and mounting the exhibit, “Signs of Solastalgia,” as a part of the course which addresses our relationships to climate grief and ecological transformation.