Title: School of Architecture Geographer and Author Wins Louisiana Writer Award
Sep 26, 2019
Tulane University geography professor Richard Campanella, author of 11 books on the geography, history, architecture and culture of Louisiana, is the recipient of the 2019 Louisiana Writer Award. The award is presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book of the State Library of Louisiana.
Campanella will receive the award Nov. 2 at the opening ceremony of the Louisiana Book Festival at the State Capitol in recognition of his outstanding contribution to documenting Louisiana’s history, culture and people.
“The historical geography of New Orleans and Louisiana is really the story of millions of people creating cityscapes and landscapes over hundreds of years,” said Campanella, a senior professor of practice in the Tulane School of Architecture. “I am humbled by the task of trying to understand all this complex place-making, and I feel deeply honored to be recognized by the state for the effort.”
Campanella’s works includes “Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans,” described by the New York Review of Books as the “single best history of the city…masterful.” He is also the author of “Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm” (University of Louisiana Press, 2006), which came out just after Hurricane Katrina. That book also won rave reviews, with The Times-Picayune calling it “a powerful (and) dazzling book, unparalleled in its scope, precision, clarity and detail.”
His book “Bourbon Street: A History,” was declared by the New York Review of Books as “absorbing…persuasive…gleefully subversive. There may be no one better qualified to write such a history than Campanella.”
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Campanella is the only two-time winner of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year Award. He has also won the Louisiana Literary Award, the Williams Prize, the Malcolm Heard Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Hannah Arendt Prize for Public Scholarship and the Tulane Honors Professor of the Year. In 2016, the Government of France named Campanella as Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
Campanella lives with his wife Marina and their son Jason in uptown New Orleans. His next book, “The West Bank of Greater New Orleans: A Historical Geography,” will be released by Louisiana State University Press in 2020.
To read the full story from Tulane University, click here.
Title: Rudy Bruner Award Winner Has Tulane School of Architecture Connections Jul 2, 2019 The 2019 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence Gold Medalist has been named, and several Tulane School of Architecture alumni and faculty were involved in the winning project: Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee.
Architecture faculty Emilie Taylor Welty and Seth Welty designed the Crosstown’s French Truck Memphis coffee bar, one of several food establishments in the building. Additionally, Tulane alumni Lee Askew III, FAIA, (Architecture ’66) was the architect of the charter high school inside the building; and Tony Bologna, FAIA, (Architecture ’64) was an instrumental force as one of five architects leading the concept and development for the overall project.
Completed in 2017, Crosstown Concourse is a $210 million rehabilitation project, transforming a historic Sears, Roebuck & Company distribution center into a mixed-use vertical village. The biggest adaptive reuse project in Tennessee and the largest LEED Platinum Certified historic adaptive reuse project in the world, the 16-acre development integrates housing, offices, restaurants, and retail along with nonprofit arts and culture, health and wellness, and educational organizations.
Once home to the city’s largest employer, the 1.5-million-square-foot structure was abandoned in 1993 and stood vacant for more than 20 years. In 2010, Crosstown Arts was founded as a nonprofit arts organization to create a vision for its redevelopment that would cultivate the city’s creative community through “an open and inclusive place designed to dissolve barriers to access.”
Designed by Memphis-based Looney Ricks Kiss in association with DIALOG (Vancouver) and Spatial Affairs Bureau (UK), among others, Crosstown Concourse is now home to 40 diverse tenants and 265 apartments housing over 400 residents.
Title: Foundation Awards Grant to Rework Waterfront in Argentinian City Jun 2, 2019The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has approved a $75,000 grant to Tulane School of Architecture and The Water Institute of the Gulf to support their work in developing a plan to remake the waterfront in Quilmes, Argentina.The Tulane School of Architecture team on the grant includes Dean Iñaki Alday, serving as principal investigator, and Associate Professor Margarita Jover, along with student research assistants, all of whom will work with scientists and engineers at The Water Institute.
Tulane’s School of Architecture and the Institute will provide the needed coastal science and urban repair advice that policymakers, scientists and designers in the Quilmes-Rio de la Plata region of Argentina need to reinvent their coastline. Tulane and The Water Institute will advise on the leading projects currently under consideration by Quilmes and its more than half-million inhabitants.
Quilmes wants to transform an area of slaughterhouses and heavy industries along the coast into communities that include a diverse mix of incomes. The new waterfront is envisioned to include affordable housing and public places, such as parks and plazas.
Scientists and land planners from Tulane and The Water Institute will review the current conditions and the impact of potential interventions to develop scenarios for the city and its residents to consider. These scenarios may include changes to existing land-use plans and working to develop a unified vision for the entire waterfront to achieve the long-term vibrancy of the city.
“This grant continues our belief that the best water science in the world is coming from Louisiana, and the solutions should be shared to benefit the thee billion people who live on shifting coasts around the world,” said John G. Davies, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. “The grant also supports the researchers and urbanists from Tulane and The Water Institute as they build their young partnership.”
The Foundation started the Institute to provide independent science for implementing the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan. Now a stand-alone science institute, it has expanded its work around the planet, offering solutions to rising seas and vanishing wetlands in Fiji, Vietnam, Chile, with more recent collaborations with science organizations in Israel, Netherlands, France and Samoa.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Dongsei Kim, an award-winning architect, urbanist and educator, will kick off the Stuckeman School’s 2019-20 Lecture and Exhibit Series on Sept. 25 with a talk on mapping and design projects that use the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as a proving ground to rethink the commonly exclusionary nation-state border spaces as inclusionary spaces. The lecture, which is hosted by the Department of Architecture, will begin at 6 p.m. in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space.
Based in New York, Kim is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Design at the New York Institute of Technology and the founder of axu studio. Both his research and practice examine architecture and urbanism’s relationship to nation-state borders across multiple scales.
Kim’s research on the Korean DMZ has been recognized through notable international publications and exhibitions such as the Golden Lion Award-winning “Crow’s Eye View” exhibition at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale; “Real DMZ Project” in Seoul, Korea; “Over the Boundary” in Brisbane, Australia; and “(im)positions” at the Melbourne School of Design in Melbourne, Australia.
He was named the Sherman Family Emerging Scholar by the Korea Society in New York City in 2018 and was awarded the Gapado Artist in Residency in 2019.
Kim’s writings have been published in journals such as Toops, Volume, Inflection, Landscape Architecture Frontiers, Kerb, The Site Magazine, and in books such as The North Korean Atlas, Critical Landscapes, Crow’s Eye View: The Korean Peninsula and Chandigarh Rethink. His work has also been cited in such publications as Domus, The New York Times and Dwell Magazine.
Kim holds a master of design studies with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a master of science in architecture and urban design from Columbia University and a professional bachelor of architecture from Victoria University of Wellington.
Architecture faculty member awarded American Academy in Rome Fellowship UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Christine Gorby, associate professor of architecture at Penn State, has been named a winner of an American Academy in Rome Fellowship in Architecture for 2019-20.
The prestigious fellowships have been awarded annually by the academy for more than a century in an effort to support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities.
Gorby was one of six fellowship winners chosen from a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants. While in Rome, Gorby will conduct research at the academy’s 11-acre campus, where she will focus on American architect Robert Venturi while collaborating with esteemed American and Italian artists and scholars.
The fellowship will support the reevaluation of Venturi’s early design work by placing it into dynamic, new interrelation with his Rome, Italy, and other American Academy-based studies; valued collaborations; and influential book “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.”
“I’m very honored to receive a 2019-20 Fellowship in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome, an esteemed institution that supports a creative and intellectual environment where decades of artists, historians and others have been inspired to develop meaningful and consequential work,” Gorby said. “This recognition is also significant because it enables concentrated time for research and for sharing and engaging with the work of others.”
Gorby has been a member of the Stuckeman School faculty for nearly 20 years, where she has taught second-year undergraduate studio, fifth-year thesis design studio, design communication media, research methodologies and architectural theory with an emphasis on urban theory. Her research interests have focused mainly on design, history and theory in the built environment.
Stuckeman School hosts Bauhaus symposium to Penn State in centennial celebration
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – More than a dozen international scholars will converge on the arts district at Penn State University Park this month to celebrate the teachings of the Bauhaus and to reflect on the immense impact the famous German art school has had on modern design, art and architecture over the past 100 years.
The Bauhaus Transfers international symposium will be held Sept. 19-21 at the Palmer Museum of Art and the Stuckeman Family Building. The event has been organized by Ute Poerschke, Stuckeman Professor of Advanced Design Studies in the Department of Architecture, and Daniel Purdy, professor of German studies in the Department of German and Slavic Studies and Literature at Penn State.
Founded in Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus was designed to be an inclusive creative school that brought all forms of the arts together – design, architecture and the applied arts. The school, which operated in three German cities, aimed to reunite fine art and functional design to reach the masses, not just the elite.
Forced to close in 1933 under pressure from the Nazi regime, the Bauhaus became renowned for its faculty members, who subsequently led the development of modern art – and modern thought – to different areas of the world after the school’s doors were shuttered.
According to Poerschke and Purdy, the Bauhaus approach to teaching and understanding art’s relationship to society and technology continues to have a major impact in Europe, the United States, Mexico, Russia, China, Australia and around the world.
“If you want to understand what it means to be modern and forward thinking, then the papers presented in this conference should appeal to you,” said Purdy. “We will also have some discussions about gender, sexuality and queerness at the Bauhaus.”
Poerschke said that the event would be well suited for anyone interested in a wide variety of topics including painting, theater, graphic design, music, architecture, textile arts, philosophy, politics, industrial design and fabrication, and much more.
The organizers hope that attendees will take away from the interdisciplinary event the ability to recognize the liveliness and diversity inherent in the Bauhaus and its visible influence around the world.
“There is, of course, an established history of the Bauhaus architecture, which is well known,” said Purdy. “But this conference will reveal all sorts of overlooked and forgotten aspects to the Bauhaus legend.”
Also important is the recognition of celebrating 100 years of Bauhaus achievements, said Poerschke.
“I hope that people will recognize the many ways in which the Bauhaus is in our everyday lives,” she said. “The artists, along with their personal aspirations, political convictions, social ambitions and pedagogical strategies, developed artifacts and ideas in art, design and architecture as they transferred to new physical and virtual places. These transfers and modifications are part of the Bauhaus history.”
For more information regarding details about the Bauhaus Transfers symposium, which is free and open to the public, please visit the Stuckeman School website.
AASL Column, September 2019 Lucy Campbell and Barbara Opar, column editors
Column by David Eifler, Librarian, Environmental Design Library, UC Berkeley and Maya Gervits, Director, Littman Architecture Library, NJIT
(Re)Claiming Space: Two Subject Libraries at the Heart of the Academic Enterprise
The development of digital technology has led to predictions that the library as a physical space will cease to exist. However, the physical world of libraries has not been replaced by a digital one, rather they are developing in parallel. Architect Geoffrey Freeman acknowledges that “Whereas the Internet has tended to isolate people, the library, as a physical place, has done just the opposite.” Library scholar Michael Gorman notes that among other things, libraries are valued for being a focal point of a community, the heart of the university, the collective memory of a research institution, a place in which all are welcome and a source of power through knowledge.
University art and architecture libraries are no different and often serve as the physical intersection between theory and practice. Like theory and practice they need to undergo periodic transformations to address development in their communities. Libraries are increasingly viewed as trusted partners in research, teaching, and learning, as important counterparts of the classroom, and as meeting places and social centers with multiple and often overlapping activities, where people communicate and work collaboratively. Architects and educators alike agree that the quality of space is critical for the experience of its users.
UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library and the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Littman Architecture and Design Library have recently implemented a number of physical and programmatic renovations to better serve as intellectual hubs for their academic communities.
Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library is one of 20 campus libraries, serves the departments of architecture, landscape architecture and city and regional planning, and is open to all of the campus’ 42,500 undergrad and grad students. With an onsite collection of over 100,000 volumes and highly used study areas for 150 the Berkeley staff undertook a series of incremental changes to address changing needs.
First, the underutilized microform room was repurposed into a group conference room with seating for 10, a monitor and whiteboard. This relatively inexpensive modification resulted in a highly functional space that serves up to 100 patrons daily.
Some years later an empty office was transformed into the “recording room” by adding sound proof panels and a monitor. Students quickly began using this new space-to hold remote job interviews and online conference calls, record podcasts, practice presentations, and hold small group study sessions.
When a student initiative identified a campus-wide demand for “rest zones” and secured funding for select libraries to create them, the library purchased three Placentero chairs and one faux Le Corbusier chaise lounge. This year some periodical shelving was replaced with three additional Corbusier lounge chairs which are now widely used.
In addition to these physical transformations, the library also began using the space for community events. The library’s atrium provides an opportunity to hold faculty book talks and other events without disrupting study in other areas. David Eilfer and the Berkeley staff have held over 20 book talks with numerous university and local authors attracting between 20 and 60 attendees.
This space is also used to hold periodic Friday afternoon wine and cheese “Hands On Artists’ Book” events to allow artists, students, faculty and the broader community to gather, interact with our significant artists’ book collection.
The artists’ book events have, lead to requests to incorporate artists books into instruction as well as community service events.
NJIT Hillier College of Architecture and Design’s Littman Library is the campus’ sole branch library housing more than 33,000 volumes with seating for 120. Although primarily serving the college population it is open to the entire university community of 12,000 students. The library’s recent renovation created a variety of functional zones to address emerging needs and accommodate various activities. They include spaces to study, work collaboratively, relax, review new acquisitions, and hold discussions.
Littman’s“Skills Exchange” program is centered in the recently established Digital Scholarship Lab which replaced the slide room. This specially equipped facility allows for programming of diverse workshops on virtual reality, ArcGIS, preparation for the Architect Registration Examination, writing labs, and instruction on Omeka,Scalar, OpenRefine, and other digital tools for closer engagement with new scholarly and creative practices.
The conversion of an adjacent studio into a material samples “library” supplements a subscription to the MaterialConnexion database and helps students get acquainted with a multitude of materials.
The new reading room increased seating capacity and created a welcoming multifunctional space for hosting events as varied as faculty book presentations (author book talks),seminars, information literacy sessions, Tea for PhD students and recently introduced Tea with Alumni. Equipped with a new exhibition mounting system, a 10-foot long table, and several monitors, the reading room also allows faculty and students to present analog and digital work alongside library materials. Such exhibitions as “Art+Science”, “Solar Decathlon”, “Architects Travel”, “Photographs from Life”, “History a la carte”, “Field notes: Chicago”, and ”Women in Architecture and Design” supported curriculum and promoted collaboration within the college and across the campus.
Louis Kahn once noted that an architecture school’s library should be different from other libraries in that it serves as a classroom with “broad tables and plenty of room to sit, and the books cleverly placed by a librarian in the middle so the students can sit around with pencils and pads”. Every book, wrote Kahn, “is really a very, very personal kind of contact, a relationship”. Quarterly “Tea in the Library” events reflect Kahn’s vision, creating a welcoming environment and displaying new acquisitions on a large table in the center of the library. Open to all members of the college community they promote library resources, encourage informal conversations, and create an inviting environment.
The library space can also be readily transformed into an auditorium to host panels, presentations, and concerts. The “Music in the Library” program featuring the Littman Quartet — a chamber orchestra in residence — is open to the university and the City of Newark communities. These concerts accompanied by both books displays and online presentations related to the theme of a performance, provide context as well as background information, contribute to students’ personal and academic development, improve their exposure to music, alleviate stress, and offer a broader view of the history and culture.
UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design and NJIT’s Littman libraries demonstrate dynamic spatial and programmatic transformations intended to foster increased collaboration, exposure to nontraditional activities, and support of learning as a social process in which students collaborate and construct knowledge as they interact with information and peers.
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) seeks a dynamic executive editor for the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), the leading scholarly publication about architectural education. Founded in 1947, JAE is the oldest, continuously operating journal of its kind.
The executive editor will have the opportunity to shape architectural scholarship, education, and practice in the twenty-first century, with the support of an energetic editorial board, an established professional association, and a major academic publisher.
The journal is published two times each academic year. Each issue features double-blind peer-reviewed contributions currently presented under three general categories: Scholarship of Design, Design as Scholarship, and Micro-Narrative. Additional published content presently includes solicited opinion essays, translations, interviews, and reviews.
During his tenure, Executive Editor Marc Neveu and the JAE Editorial Board have implemented a new design for the journal, streamlined the production process, and introduced resources such as the Editorial Board Guide and Author Guide. The journal has also seen the development of an online presence at www.jaeonline.org, including the launch of online reviews. ACSA seeks an executive editor to continue this trajectory and momentum, further increasing the journal’s impact and contribution to the scholarly community.
The executive editor has final responsibility for JAE’s editorial and graphic content, oversees production with ACSA and the publishers, and leads the editorial board, whose members provide counsel regarding manuscript review, article selection, and editorial direction. The executive editor nominates members of the editorial board for appointment by the ACSA Board of Directors and is expected to work effectively with the editorial board and the ACSA board. ACSA provides the executive editor with financial support and editorial assistance.
Qualifications for the executive editor include: a strong vision for the journal; a recognized research record; significant editorial experience; active involvement in architectural education; and a keen insight into the broad issues affecting architectural education, culture, and practice now and in the future.
The executive editor serves for an initial term of up to four years, with the possibility of a renewal. The new editor will assume responsibilities as executive editor–designate beginning July 1, 2020, assuming full editorship July 1, 2021. During this transition year, the executive editor–designate will begin to work with the editorial board and be responsible for content beginning with Volume 76, Issue 1 (March 2022).
A search committee, whose members are drawn from the ACSA Board of Directors and JAE Editorial Board, will review and evaluate all candidates, and send its final recommendation to the ACSA Board of Directors for approval. The executive editor is appointed by the ACSA Board of Directors and reports to the board through its Executive Committee.
Candidates should submit, no later than January 6, 2020, the following materials: a curriculum vitae, statement of interest that begins to address the desired qualifications outlined above, and the names of three references. Send all materials to jae.search@acsa-arch.org. Additional materials may be requested as part of the screening process. Interviews to be conducted March 12-13, 2020.
For more information about the journal’s current policies and practices, please visit www.jaeonline.org. Questions regarding the search, editorial duties, or terms of this position can be directed to Michael Monti, Executive Director, ACSA, mmonti@acsa-arch.org, 202.785.2324.
Leach named Stuckeman School Professor in Interdisciplinary Design
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Andrew Leach, a prolific author and international leader in architectural design, theory and history, has been named the 2019-20 Professor of Interdisciplinary Design by the Stuckeman School.
Leach has been a professor in the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning at the University of Sydney since 2016 where he was the research director of architectural theory and history. He has since been named associate dean for research.
Leach is the author or co-author of 13 books and more than 60 essays, and has led dozens of international conferences, symposia, roundtables and workshops on architectural history and theory. He is the editor of the Architectural Theory Reviewand is perhaps best known among his peers as the leading English-language scholar of the 20th century Italian architectural historian and theorist Manfredo Tafuri.
Leach joined the University of Sydney in 2016 after six years ascending the faculty ranks at Griffith University, arriving as a postdoctoral fellow and senior lecturer in 2010 and leaving as a full professor. He previously held positions at the University of Queensland and the Wellington Institute of Technology. He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, competitive funding and prizes, including: a Wallace Fellowship at the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti (Italy), the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship, and fellowships from the Society of Architectural Historians and the Belgian Historical Institute at Rome.
A native of New Zealand, Leach holds a doctorate in architecture from Ghent University in Belgium and earned both his Master of Architecture and bachelor’s degree from Victoria University of Wellington.
The Interdisciplinary Design Professorship is awarded biennially to a visiting full professor or professor of practice who is nominated by a member of the Stuckeman School faculty. The visitor’s presence on campus is intended to enhance key aspects of the host faculty’s research/creative endeavors and/or an important element of the curriculum that will ultimately have far reaching impact for the host faculty, the department or program and the Stuckeman School.
Denise Costanzo, an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, first worked with Leach as part of a project that examined the multivalent links between baroque and modernist architectural historiography in 2012. They are currently collaborating on an exploration of the ideologically complex imprint of Italy’s historic legacy on 20th century architectural culture and will be cohosting an international symposium on the topic at Penn State in January. Costanzo and Leach will co-edit a volume that presents new studies generated by this symposium.
During his time at Penn State, Leach has the opportunity to contribute to a wide range of activities within the Stuckeman School, including design reviews, introductory and advanced theory and history courses, and discussions on fostering an interdisciplinary design culture within a major research university.
Bringing the spirit of a legendary artist and educator to a new generation
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. – Robert Reed, an influential artist best known for his use of geometric abstraction, dedicated most of his life to art and teaching. He spent more than half a century as an educator in higher learning, holding positions at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Skidmore College before joining the Yale School of Art in 1962, which is where he remained on the faculty for 45 years until his death in 2014.
Reed was the first – and remains the only – African American professor tenured by the Yale School of Art, and he was the recipient of the 2004 College Art Association Distinguished Teaching of Art Award.
When he wasn’t working on his own artwork, which he kept under wraps so his students wouldn’t feel influenced, Reed was a busy man. He curated exhibits, hosted drawing workshops and lectured at other colleges and universities around the world, all the while encouraging thousands of students to think beyond their preconceived notions about art and drawing.
Reed was relentless in both his passion for educating students and his belief that foundation studies were the basis for artistic development. According to many of his former students and associates, he believed the creative process is founded on observation and discipline, and that anyone who was given the time and encouragement could create something wonderful, no matter their chosen discipline of study.
“He wanted his students to check what they thought they knew about art at the door when they came in his classroom,” said Clint Jukkala, dean of the School of Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a former teaching assistant and colleague of Reed’s at Yale. “He was interested in really immersing students into a creative exploration rather than focusing on the end result.”
One of the ways he did that, explained Jukkala, was to have students get their whole bodies involved when creating a drawing. The physicality of his approach pushed students beyond the boundaries of their comfort zones but also allowed them to focus on the process and less on the product they created at the end of the exercise.
Another student who was inspired by Reed’s unique approach to teaching is Cathy Braasch, assistant professor of architecture in the Stuckeman School at Penn State. The impact of Reed’s courses has guided Braasch in both her work as an architect and educator.
“He had a unique way of approaching drawing that translates across disciplines,” she said. “In my teaching, I am always thinking about his innovative assignments and the amazing studio culture he created. I wanted to bring that energy he had to others.”
Despite many of his former students crediting Reed for his influence and unique creative process, Braasch said that his teaching and pedagogy was undocumented. So, she set out to make sure Reed’s teachings and methods could be shared with a new generation of students.
Thanks to funding and services provided by organizations at Penn State (Africana Research Center, Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design, College of Arts and Architecture, Palmer Museum of Art, President’s Fund for Research in Undergraduate Education, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, School of Visual Arts and Stuckeman School) and external sources (Blick Art Materials, Hunter College Department of Art and Art History, the Estate of Robert Reed, Whitney Museum of American Art, Wkshps, Yale Alumni Association of Central Pennsylvania and an anonymous donor), Braasch was able to organize the Robert Reed Drawing Workshops earlier this year at Penn State and in New York City.
At Penn State, almost 200 students from different colleges and universities and 25 instructors attended three days of lectures, panel discussions and, of course, drawing workshops that centered around Reed’s work and pedagogy. In New York, another 100 students and 23 instructors attended workshops and panels at Hunter College and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Braasch also organized exhibitions of Reed’s work and pedagogy at both the Palmer Museum of Art and the Rouse Gallery at Penn State, and at Hunter College in New York.
Workshop topics varied – from sensory material to drawing in three dimensions and negative space to drawing on the page versus drawing on the floor – but the energy and spirit of the events were “very Robert Reed-esque,” said Jukkala, who served as an instructor and moderator at the Penn State events.
“There was very much a celebratory feel throughout the workshops and discussions but yet students were there to work, and they worked hard, often times far outside of their comfort zones. That is exactly how Reed workshops were run,” he said.
Reed, explained Braasch, referred to class assignments as investigations, which allowed students down a path of exploration and discovery in their drawing. He was very demanding of his students, she said, but he was also very nurturing of their individual ideas and thought processes.
“He had very high expectations of his students, but he was much more interested in the effort and care they put into their work than their raw talent,” commented Jukkala.
Like Jukkala and Braasch, most of the workshop instructors, panelists and moderators were either Reed’s pupils or his teaching assistants, including Dylan DeWitt, a former graduate student of Reed’s at Yale who is now a clinical assistant professor of drawing at the University of Arkansas School of Art. DeWitt led workshops both at Penn State and in New York and said the spirit of Reed’s pedagogy was carried throughout all of the events.
“What stands out to me most [about Reed], and what I’m always trying to achieve in my teaching, is his way of balancing rigor and flexibility in the classroom,” DeWitt said. “He had a series of steps students had to take in his drawing classes, but it wasn’t a formulaic process and he ultimately let us reconsider the direction we would take our drawings. I felt that approach in these workshops and it was really great to see students trust the process and really create some amazing pieces along the way.”
Jukkala agreed that Reed’s touch was felt throughout the workshops but was happy to see the presenters offer their own spin on their topics.
“There was a fun, energetic, almost think tank-like environment throughout the workshops and it was so great to see how instructors drew inspiration from Reed and all had different approaches to leading their exercises,” he said.
Alec Spangler, assistant professor of landscape architecture at Penn State, said that while he hadn’t specifically heard of Reed before Braasch put out a call for workshop proposals, he recognized what may have been some of Reed’s influence from his days in art school. Spangler earned a bachelor’s degree in visual arts, a master’s in fine arts and a master’s in landscape architecture.
“A practice of Reed’s that I think is important, particularly when I am teaching introduction and skills courses, is his idea that drawing is a form of calisthenics,” continued Spangler. “It’s about rigorously and repetitively training not only the muscles in your hands and arms, but also training your brain and your creative muscles to think about drawing as a process. I think it allows students to focus less on the end product and more on the creative process.”
Elizabeth Rothrock, a master’s degree student in architecture at Penn State, participated in the events on campus because, she says, there aren’t many academic options in her studies that focus exclusively on drawing.
“It was great to engage my mind in an architectural way without some of the same constraints I’ve been so accustomed to,” she said. “I think I learned a lot about my personal ways of expressing my ideas as well as seeing so many other views.”
Braasch says that while she is “absolutely thrilled” by the reception of the Robert Reed Drawing Workshops, she has set her sights even higher and will be writing a book to help educate even more people on Reed’s influence, work and pedagogy.
The book, she says, will be an opportunity to document his influence on teaching art and design in higher education and to share his teaching with new audiences.
“I’m just one of his many students who has been forever transformed by his teaching.” Braasch explained. “I feel grateful that I have had the opportunity to share his work with a larger audience and to make his legacy more visible.”
— For more information on Pennsylvania State University, visit their profile page.
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