Yale Norfolk School of ArtSummer 2024 Lecture Series: Making Light
May 18– June 29, 2024
February 5, 2024: Faculty deadline to nominate up to 3 current juniors
February 20, 2024: Student deadline to submit application materials
Norfolk, CT
For summer 2024 the Yale Norfolk School of Art will offer a thematic program called “Making Light” that will include a series of lectures. The roster of speakers will influence the students’ summer dialogue in a structured way, culminating in an online video archive of these lectures. Yale Norfolk seeks to engage with Norfolk residents through the newly inaugurated Community Art Project and also with a broader public to build the audience during the summer period.
Like the last three YNSA themes, “The Shape of Empathy,” “The Ethics of Color” and “Freedom to Form,” “Making Light,” is both a provocation and a metaphor, open to translation. Five artists and scholars will be invited to address a range of perspectives; which address light as the genesis of color, an element in art making, a form of openness, optimism or levity in a world that can feel very heavy. Of course, with light there is always shadow. The theme of light in the exhibition Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, presently at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC explores the contemporary tension between wanting to be seen and the desire to be hidden from sight. In Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Millennium the essay on lightness is especially vivid with literary examples of escape, not into dreams or the irrational, but as a means to look at the world with fresh methods of cognition and verification. At Yale Norfolk in 2024 we look forward to exploring lightness in our art practices and in community with one another.
The resident faculty for 2024 will be Byron Kim, Lisa Sigal and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and four Teaching Fellows, selected from graduates of Yale’s esteemed MFA program. This summer Yale Norfolk School of Art plans to accommodate 25 students. Students follow a curriculum of Yale College art courses including Critical Studies, Advanced Image Making and Senior Studio. Students will work in individual studio spaces and have access to digital printers, computers, along with some traditional printmaking facilities.
Public Lectures
Making Light, May 18- June 29, 2024
The summer 2024 opening lecture will be May 23. All lectures take place in the Art Barn at 7:00 PM with the exception of Steve Melville, wine reception to follow all lectures
May 23, Paul Pfeiffer is a brilliant manipulator of popular media and image technology. His films, photos and installations illuminate the individual from a crowd, often within the context of sports events, religious congregations and political gatherings.
May 30, Julianne Swartz’s sonic and optical installations use utilitarian materials (e.g., tubes, mirrors, lenses, magnets) to warp, reshape or deepen perception, generating unexpected, ephemeral and participatory experiences out of common situations.
June 6, Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s installation art grows out of her political, personal story and background in teaching. With her multimedia approach she explores conflicting cultural histories, perception and memory.
June 8, Steve Melville will present a lecture titled Light and Lucidity, 4:00 PM in the Art Barn.
June 13, Ayham Ghraowi is a filmmaker, designer, and sometimes writer whose films grapple with the insoluble in the politics of war.
His latest film, Abjectly Yours, is about the espionage of Harpo Marx.
June 20, Mika Rottenberg is a video artist whose work often investigates the link between the female body and production mechanisms. Remote, Mika Rottenberg & Mahyad Tousi’s latest surreal film teleports the female body in time and space uncovering phenomena with universe altering consequences.
Community Drawing is a live model drawing session open to the public and will happen Tuesday evenings at 7:00-9:00 PM and Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM. The first session will be Saturday May 25 in the Art Barn.
Open Studios and The Community Art Projects reception are scheduled for June 23 from 1:00-6:00pm. We invite the public to witness the vitality of Yale Norfolk’s studio program.