Semester 3

During this semester I gained a wide breadth of knowledge related to the ways that art can foster an understanding of the experiences and culture between communities. Exposure to art creates an opportunity to be informed about topics unfamiliar to them. The ability to change perceptions through music, plays, or paintings are just a few examples of the methods through which art functions to reshape society. Learning about the importance of public art even when the art is temporal from Maz Paz caused me to think about public art as a vessel to spark conversations that reshape understanding because of the wide audience it can reach.The value of brainstorming is critical in initiating the creative process. Expecting an idea to be summoned on command can inhibit the creative process because it places pressure on the first idea to be the best idea and only idea. The reality that your first idea might simply be the jumping-off point that leads you to the real idea reaffirms the importance of the brainstorming process. Sometimes the process of brainstorming can be frustrating if it doesn’t seem like you are not making linear progress or if your idea in the middle of brainstorming seems more muddled and unclear than it did at the beginning of the process. Trusting the journey that the preparation stage is important because you might find that the discoveries you made while exploring one idea unexpectedly connects with the finalized idea that is completely different from the original idea. Through working on my own capstone project I learned that allowing yourself to backtrack while brainstorming was also a means of forward progress. Examining feedback in relation to our ideas is essential in understanding the audience’s perspective. Through understanding how the audience perceives your ideas by receiving feedback, creators can measure if their intended impact is being communicated. I think that clearly outlining the goal of your idea and then comparing this intention to the response given through feedback is an effective way to incorporate feedback by examining how effective the idea is in achieving your goal. The direct comparison of what you want to happen with what is actually happening can identify specific areas that need to be revised and refined. Incorporating the feedback for my capstone project aided me in discovering the true intent of my project by refining my original purpose into something more concrete.  

The coverage of Black Lives Matter Plaza with the bold yellow letters featured on almost every channel during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests captured my attention this semester. The contrast of the bright yellow against the dark pavement made it impossible to ignore and reminded me of the potential that art has to make a statement that resonates with people around the world. To see other areas outside of Washington, DC paint this same mantra on their streets demonstrated art’s ability to inspire. The discussion during the Art and Activism panel related to how the viewer and artist are in dialogue within public art was especially provocative given the knowledge that murals related to the Black Lives Matter movement have been seen by people all around the world. Through Arts Scholars I was exposed to people who were able to articulate their opinions and beliefs in a way I had never been able to. In this way, my beliefs were not challenged, but they were instead clarified because even though I had strong opinions I struggled to express them cohesively. For instance, the Art and Activism Panel was very interesting to listen to because it had panelists that could convey the connection between various forms of art and current social issues. Discovering how to articulate my opinions is crucial because using art as a platform for expression through which you communicate your beliefs and opinions is a method of articulation. I took AASP202 as one of my supporting courses which was very intriguing to me because even though I have connections to Black culture, this course showed me how much I didn’t know about Black culture. Due to the fact that I was raised by my mother, who is a Jamaican immigrant, there was a lot of American Black culture that I was not aware of because it was not an integral part of her culture. There were many films that we analyzed in this course including classics directed by Spike Lee, such as the film School Daze, and it was interesting to watch how issues within the Black community that are still relevant today were being questioned thirty years ago. Watching these films taught me more I could have imagined because at the beginning of the course I thought it would be a familiar topic for me as a Black person living in America. Taking this class turned out to be a very transformative experience as I learned about the history of HBCU’s, the criminalization of emancipated slaves, and the resounding impacts of colorism in Black communities. This course taught me about a historic background that I had been unaware of and instilled a feeling of pride in this community which was an influential factor in the development of my photo series centered around the theme of Black hair. 

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The virtual field trips that we participated in this semester were very engaging and reminded me of how connected the Arts Scholars community is. I participated in the Sundance Short Films field trip and it was organized in a way that felt like we were all watching the films in the same room even though everyone was in different places. The combination of a live chat and starting the films at the same time was a really unique way of virtually interacting. I liked that it was obvious that all of the participants were engaged in the films from the chat that constantly had a new comment which sparked further discussion. I think that I contributed to the Arts Scholars program by staying constantly engaged in the virtual setting. During colloquium, I kept my camera on and actively participated in the activities and for the larger Scholars community, I organized events as a part of the Peer Mentor program. I think that the unfamiliarity of the virtual setting made it more difficult to stay consistently engaged, but doing small things like turning on my camera was important because when more people in colloquium turned on their cameras the class became very engaging. Next semester my goal is to organize events that involve a larger group of people by advertising events to both the freshmen and sophomores that are a part of Arts Scholars. I hope that by contributing in this way the community will become closer even when we are physically distanced.