Work from the 2018 Women's Art Institute Summer Studio Intensive
Saturday, July 14, 6 – 8 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Sunday, July 22, 2 p.m. – Join artists Shari Albers, Martha Bird, Colleen Cosgrove, Cyndi Kaye Meier and Terri Wentzka for a discussion of their work. T.A. Chris Cinque will also share her experiences working with the artists during this year's program.
Summer exhibition hours (July 14-28): open daily, 1 – 6 p.m.
All events are free and open to the public.
This exhibition showcases the work recent participants have made at the 2018 Women's Art Institute – a summer art course at St. Catherine University for contemporary women artists of all ages and disciplines. As a community that shares, reflects and creates, this culmination of four weeks of intensive studio work and study reveals the concerns of women artists today.
Artist Participants: Sharon Albers, Martha Bird, Lynette Black, Colleen Cosgrove, Kathy Daniels, Amanda Grove, Abbe McGray, Cyndi Kaye Meier, Julia Nellessen, Brenda Olson, Kristen Palm, Renee Santoro, Susan Skach-Bejarano, Terri Wentzka and Kathleen Yennie
Faculty: Patricia Olson & AK Garski
Teaching Assistants: Ashley Tyler Alex & Chris Cinque
About the Women's Art Institute
The Women’s Art Institute at St. Catherine University annually offers the fully accredited Summer Studio Intensive, a rigorous four-week program for advanced women artists and art students focusing on issues that arise through the combination of open studio work, inspiring conversation, and critique with guest artists, curators and art historians. Begun at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1999, the Institute moved to St. Catherine University in fall 2012.
Participants gain insights into the work of contemporary women artists; achieve philosophical, aesthetic, and historical knowledge that will help them define their goals as women artists; are given opportunities for intensive studio work and individual tutoring; and develop a body of work based on exploration of selected questions brought by the women and discussed during the Summer Studio Intensive.
The Women’s Art Institute is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History at St. Catherine University and co-sponsored by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
For more information about the Women’s Art Institute, visit www.stkate.edu/wai.
What does feminism mean to me as a woman artist? How do I fit into the historical and contemporary discourse? These were two of the questions established for consideration by the participants in the 2018 Women’s Art Institute Summer Studio Intensive in their just-completed four-week course. Each of the 15 women artists created a new portfolio of work from which this exhibition is curated by co-instructors Anna Garski and myself. Along the way, the artists shared their artwork and hopes, attended a seminar and critiques with visiting artist Linda Brooks, enjoyed a sumptuous banquet organized by our intrepid teaching assistants, and focused deeply in the triumphant final critiques with founder Elizabeth Erickson. Ranging in age from 24 to 68, the participants explored a wide range of new directions, often surprising themselves and asking: How can I develop a sustainable, intentional and authentic process in the studio?
- Patricia Olson, Director of the Women's Art Institute
about the faculty
Patricia Olson
Patricia Olson is the Institute director and professor emerita of the Department of Art and Art History at St. Catherine University. She has practiced painting and design for more than 30 years and is a founding member of the Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota (WARM). She received an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
A.K. Garski (they/them/theirs)
Co-instructor AK Garski is a painter who also creates installations and performance art. Garski has a long history of commitment to the Women’s Art Institute: they first attended as a student, and have served twice as a teaching assistant. Garski is a magna cum laude graduate of St. Catherine University with a double major in studio art and women’s studies, and earned their MFA and MA in History and Theory of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute.
Image Gallery
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