Open Studio: Artist-Designed Classroom Activities

Overview

 
Mark Bradford explains the motivations behind Open Studio.

A continuation of the Open Studio project Mark Bradford initiated at the J. Paul Getty Museum, these activities aim to connect high school teachers and students with the ideas and inspirations of leading contemporary artists. The Aspen Art Museum has also extended this project with more artist-designed activities.

The assignments below were designed by John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Janet Cardiff, Alejandro Cartagena, Kota Ezawa, Amy Franceschini, Robert Gober, Ben Kinmont, Andrew Kudless, and Yvonne Venegas. Check back for more in the coming months! Each activity can be viewed online and is also accessible for download as a Word or PDF document.

Activities

John Baldessari: List of Ideas (If they had no ideas of their own from which to make a piece)

John Baldessari: List of Ideas (If they had no ideas of their own from which to make a piece)

In this activity students will explore several classroom art-making ideas.
Mark Bradford: RE-RE-Process: Re-creating the familiar

Mark Bradford: RE-RE-Process: Re-creating the familiar

In this three-part assignment, Bradford encourages students to explore their relationships with the world around them.
Janet Cardiff: Portraits of Sound

Janet Cardiff: Portraits of Sound

This assignment asks you to focus on the sounds around you, consider how they make you feel, and explore ways of using art to represent them.
Alejandro Cartagena: We are the space we live in

Alejandro Cartagena: We are the space we live in

This series of assignments brings students to visually understand how architectural space informs a culture.
Kota Ezawa: The Burghers of Calais — a video sculpture

Kota Ezawa: The Burghers of Calais — a video sculpture

In this activity students re-create a well-known artwork by Auguste Rodin as a performance and video sculpture.
Amy Franceschini: Superhero

Amy Franceschini: Superhero

In this activity students will create individual superheroes who will work together to achieve a common good.
Robert Gober: What Is That?

Robert Gober: What Is That?

In this project students create sculptures based on everyday objects.
Ben Kinmont: On becoming something else (a multiple)

Ben Kinmont: On becoming something else (a multiple)

In this project students will create a box of multiples about the idea of becoming something else.
Andrew Kudless: Abstract Ecologies

Andrew Kudless: Abstract Ecologies

For this assignment students will study nature and create an artwork inspired by abstracting the patterns, processes, and materials of a natural object of their choice.
Yvonne Venegas: Seeing, Not Seeing, and Talking About Pictures

Yvonne Venegas: Seeing, Not Seeing, and Talking About Pictures

This exercise involves will as much as it involves photography (there is more need for will in photography than we sometimes imagine). It is also an exercise in looking at photographs.