"Sommerakademie" is a monthlong course of art research and practice designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate art students, as well as recent BFA recipients. Students receive three graduate course credits or three undergraduate studio elective credits for taking part in this course of study, which explores several modes of creative practice in relation to the material, social, and political conditions in Berlin, one of the world's most important contemporary art centers.
The program focuses on questions of "place," emphasizing how art can create and activate critical discourse in the public sphere. Berlin offers fertile ground for such investigations, with its numerous architecture and art sites that display both the city's contemporary international cultural significance and its traumatic past during the Third Reich and Cold War division. Through lectures, site visits, discussions, readings, and intensive studio practice, students gain understanding of the critical, historical, and social dimensions of art in Berlin, but the continuing value of the course lies in how participants will apply the lessons of their experience to wherever they may later practice art. The program culminates with a group show featuring works that are informed by "place."
Students have their own studios at Kulturprojekte, a not-for-profit organization in Berlin that works for the promotion, networking, and mediation of art and culture. "Sommerakademie" is led by Sam Fox School faculty Patricia Olynyk (director of the Graduate School of Art) and Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D. (William T. Kemper Director of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum).
For more information, contact:
Patricia Olynyk, Director
Graduate School of Art
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Washington University in St. Louis
Campus Box 1031
One Brookings Drive
St Louis, MO 63130-4899
olynyk@samfox.wustl.edu
Phone: 314.935.8423
Fax: 314.935.4862
