2020 June 1-July 3, Online Only

Image and Text Sequence for Photo-Bookworks with Tate Shaw

Paying attention to how you are binding images and texts together is critical to making a photo-bookwork. Binding, in the conceptual sense, is how the images and texts mentally form a connection to one another. This cognitive process works in tandem with sequence, which puts images and texts in a specific order to create a context for meaning to be inferred between them. The focus of this workshop will be the combination of images and texts to create juxtapositions and extended sequences. We will study a variety of image and text sequences along a spectrum from purely textual to purely visual sequences, as well as other conceptual structures in art forms like poetry, music, and moving images, to support the creation of image and text sequences of our own. Throughout the month, students will make several sequence booklets as well as begin to develop an extended project. Everyone will take away from the workshop multiple experiments with forms of image and text sequence in dummy layouts in InDesign that can be printed using on-demand, online printers.

Many digital images from personal archives and/or found images as well as some texts to work with are required. You will need access to an internet connection and computer with CS Photoshop and InDesign software and ideally a flatbed scanner for the month. No previous InDesign knowledge is required; having some Photoshop experience is ideal but not necessary. Writings on sequence and image and text in bookworks will be provided.

2020 July 6-August 7, Online only

Teaching and Working with Marginalized Communities with Ann Rosen

In this workshop, you will train with Ann Rosen to develop your abilities, skills, and gain direct experience working with societally marginalized communities on creative projects. Ann Rosen has photographed and taught photography to women living in shelters for several years. Creativity has been proven to be an effective way to benefit those who have been marginalized due to their gender, citizenship status, economic status, or a physical or mental disability (as defined by society). For this class, students will be working with Rosen to provide creativity workshops for refugee women living in Rochester, NY, supported by programs of Catholic Charities. Together they will look at images and share stories and make photographs and artworks inspired by what they’ve seen as well as being reflective of their private lives. What they create will be exhibited at VSW and made into a small book for the women to keep. Students will be supporting the entire process and will also be required to photograph a community group of their own choosing as part of their training in the workshop.

2020 July 13-17, Online only

Writing Arts & Cultural Criticism in the Digital Age with Michael J. Kramer

Interested in writing more effectively about the arts and culture in multiple modes, from traditional reviews to audio podcasting, videographic essays, social media approaches, multimedia formats, and other forms of critical engagement? In this workshop, we survey the history of arts and cultural criticism in America, with particular attention to diverse critical traditions and perspectives. Students will develop projects through collaborative workshops, ongoing dialogue, and videoconferences with established critics and editors for music, dance/theater, visual art, and film. Each student will leave the workshop with a webpage of experimental work that can serve as the start of a portfolio of new modes of arts and cultural criticism.

2020 September 12, 26, & October 3, 9:30am-5pm with additional online classes

Making Art with Electronics and Microcontrollers with Andrew Salamone

Microcontrollers, like Arduino, have made it possible to create practically any electronic device all by ourselves. By using programming code to digitally control electronic components, we can make things move, talk, or light-up with just a few lines of text, but these overwhelming possibilities are also why getting started with microcontrollers and electronics can be so intimidating!

Starting with the basics of writing code, wiring, and circuit design, Arduino for Artists will introduce techniques for incorporating electronics and microcontrollers into art projects. We’ll go over electronic components, like DC motors, servos, and LEDs. And after learning how to add lights, motion, and interactive sensors to your work, we’ll combine them into a finished art project!

This month-long hybrid in-person and online class will meet in person on September 12, 26, and October 3 from 9:30am-5:30pm with online components and check-ins in-between the sessions.

2020 October 10-11 and 16-18, 9:30am-5:30pm

Bookbinding for Artists and Photographers with Scott McCarney

Far from being marginalized, the book has become a viable part of contemporary art’s multi-disciplinary practices. Book form, however, is not well understood in this context — the decisions we make when binding a book can be part of the overall art-making process.  The desire to make books with photographic content is as old as photography itself.  The accessibility of digital printing, from the inkjet in your studio to the Indigo of online publishers, is fulfilling this desire for contemporary artists and photographers. But how to make a unique product tailored to the physical and conceptual needs of your work?

This workshop employs the basic tools and techniques of hand bookbinding to answer that question. All aspects of the material book will be considered through a series of unique structures that accommodate single sheets, folded folios, and gathered sections while exploring the materials of traditional book making. Binding and finishing strategies that subvert the limitations presented by print-on-demand books will be introduced.

The class will focus primarily on physical considerations of book structure, but participants are welcome to bring work in progress or ideas for books. Some time will be devoted to discussing how binding structures and layout strategies literally as well as figuratively support image display.

2020 November 12-16, Thu-Mon 9:30am-5:30pm

Pop-Up Books with Colette Fu

Pop-up books aren’t just for children! Pop-up structures can be used to make engaging works of art for any age, from greeting cards to animations to kinetic sculptures. Complex and engaging pop-up works are created from a combination of basic mechanisms enhanced by your art, playfulness and imagination. In this workshop, participants will learn the basic elements of pop-up paper engineering, including multi-level platforms and pull-tabs, as well as how to combine them to create more complex structures. Participants learn how to incorporate their own art into their structures effectively to create unique pop-up books, cards, and works of art. All levels of experience are welcome.