A new program for students and graduates of local art and design colleges to network with peers and heads of area business associations and arts organizations as well as build relationships with other young professionals.
These lively evenings feature guest speakers, workshops and seminars designed to help Philadelphia artists and designers make creative contacts in our community.
Presented by The Galleries at Moore in cooperation with The Locks Career Center and Moore’s new Business Scholars in the Arts student leadership program.
2010-11 NET Nights at Moore are supported by Your Part-Time Controller and Moore College of Art & Design. 2009-10 NET Nights at Moore were supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Meet the BSA Students
Business Scholars in the Arts (BSA)
The Business Scholars in the Arts is a new program at Moore College of Art & Design that supports a select group of transfer students. The program supplements the students’ art and design training with business-related experiences outside of the classroom. Our group is particularly interested in entrepreneurship. We encompass a wide range of majors, from Graphic, Fashion, and Interior Design, to Illustration, Art History, and Art Education.
Our goal is to acquire the skills necessary to network within the professional art world, which will ultimately aid us in opening our own businesses or taking on leadership roles in a company or organization. The first year of the Business Scholars program stresses this networking process. To that end, we have established a collaborative relationship with the Galleries at Moore to provide support for NET Nights. These lively evenings feature guest speakers, workshops and seminars designed to help Philadelphia artists and designers make creative contacts in our community.
The purpose of this blog is to continue the conversations started at NET Nights and to provide resources that will enable emerging artists and designers to profit from the expertise of the speakers. Look to our blog for our interviews with speakers, our suggestions for interesting upcoming events and links to useful web-sites.
The BSA Students:
Laura Bonvini
Amber Callahan
Melissa Chancer
Amanda Corropolese
Samantha Edmonds
Christine Ferri
Chriztie Kaufmann
Sara Stanton
Haoren Yu
NET Nights Advisory Committee
The NET Nights Advisory Committee is comprised of local artists, designers, curators and arts administrators, business professionals, professors and students from various disciplines and backgrounds. NET Nights programs are the product of thoughtful discussions between these committee members, sharing ideas, insights and suggestions to stimulate new relationships and networking between emerging artists and designers and business and arts professionals in Philadelphia.
Summer is here! That means there are many opportunities for employment in summer art programs in the city. Take a look at the Bartol Foundation's news page to view new summer job listings from various organizations in the city.http://bartol.org/teaching-artist-programs/news/
NET Nights at Moore - Building a Creative Life as a Teaching Artist
Friday, March 19, 2010
Last night's talk was a great success, featuring four teaching artists in conversation about the ups and down, opportunities and obstacles and paths they have taken in their lives to maintain a balance of being a working artist and teaching artist in Philadelphia.
The talk featured Barbara Bickart, a filmmaker and recipient of multiple Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's Artist and Communities grants whose work often engages communities in telling their stories; Beth Nixon, of Ramshackle Enterprises, is a visual and performance artist who uses art as a tool for activism and social change; Michelle Ortiz, a Moore College alumna, administrator at the Bartol Foundation, muralist and visual artist whose work has taken her all over Philadelphia and around the world; Alex Shaw,a musician, teaching artist and education programs coordinator for Live Connections, a program of World Café Live.
A podcast of the talk and interviews with the participants will be available soon so stayed tuned!
NET Nights at Moore – Building a Creative Life as a Teaching Artist
Friday March 19, 6 - 8 pm
6:30 pm – Conversation with a range of working artists to learn how their role as an arts educator enhances and sustains their creative lives. They will share their paths to becoming teaching artists, strategies for securing teaching artist positions, resources to build your skills as an educator, and their reflections on how they integrate their lives as educators and artists.
Teaching artists participating in the conversation include:
Barbara Bickart, a filmmaker and multiple recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's Artist and Communities grants whose work often engages communities in telling their stories
Beth Nixon, of Ramshackle Enterprises, is a visual and performance artist who uses art as a tool for activism and social change.
Michelle Ortiz, a Moore College alumna, administrator at the Bartol Foundation, muralist and visual artist whose work has taken her all over Philadelphia and around the world.
Alex Shaw, a musician, teaching artist and education programs coordinator for Live Connections, a program of World Café Live.
Presented in cooperation with The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation.
The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation supports organizations that provide creative opportunities to connect and engage, that give voice to a community’s history and future, and that sustain and share a rigorous artistic process
Gigi McGee, Professor of Graphic Design at Moore and member of AIGA Philadelphia was interviewed as part of the November NET Nights program. As a member of AIGA Philadelphia, co-presenter of the program, we thought that she could offer good insight into involvement with AIGA, the nation's leading professional graphic design organization, to see what students can get involved in to get a step forward into the professional world. Sam Emonds, a current student in Moore's Business Scholars for the Arts program conducted the interview with Gigi and gathered the following information:
Gigi McGee received her BFA from PhiladelphiaCollege of the Arts, now University of the Arts. Following graduation, it took her about three months to land her first graphic design job. Since at that time there were not as many opportunities in Philly as there are today, she decided she to move, visiting a friend's home in Los Angeles where she lined up 25 interviews for the short week she was there. By the end of the week, she had a job offer. Despite the not panning out, Gigi stayed in Los Angeles while her friend was on vacation and filled in at her job. While there, Gigi received a call from Seiniger Advertising offering her a position working on movie posters. Her persistence really paid off.
Gigi began her teaching career in the Communication Design program at the Otis Art Institute of the Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles under the direction of Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, a visionary woman in the design field. She also taught at California Institute of the Arts under the direction of April Griman, yet another revolutionary designer, who is recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool in 1984.
After 7 fulfilling years of working and teaching in California, Gigi and her husband moved back to Philadelphia. She opened a studio on Spring Garden Street and began to teach part-time at Moore in 1989, later becoming a full-time faculty member.
Gigi has been involved with AIGA (American Institute for Graphic Arts) for quite some time, and has been a particularly active member in the past ten years. She joined the AIGA Board five years ago, and she became an Education Committee co-chair two years ago. As chair of the Graphic Design Department at Moore, Gigi has brought a number of speakers and exhibitions from AIGA, and she continues to work with students as the Education Committee co-chair.
Gigi encourages her students to get involved in AIGA. As the co-chair of the Education Committee, she is well aware of the organization’s focus on, and commitment to students. For the past five years, Gigi has organized AIGA professional portfolio reviews, helping graduating seniors gain valuable feedback from working professionals and potential contacts for future job offers. AIGA also helps to sponsor studio tours and informal presentations of working graphic design studios and firms, where students can ask employees for advice and guidance in an informal environment.
There are many ways for students to actively participate in AIGA. Students can attend studio tours and participate in contests run by AIGA, in addition to taking part in their mentorship program, PR committee, web committee and guest lecturer programs with graphic designers from across the country. Gigi also encourages students to join committees because you meet more people that way.
AGIA’s online job bank provides many resources to aid students in finding jobs, allowing members to search for positions locally and nationally. They also support networking through an open database of designers throughout the country and opportunities for members to post their portfolio online for all affiliates to review.
MooreCollege helps to prepare students for the professional world as well. The best resource at Moore is the CareerCenter where students are welcome both during their time at Moore and after they graduate to receive employment information, resume writing assistance, and advice from the staff. The graphic design department also offers great resources for students such as: writing exercises where students can learn how to write briefs, proposals, cover letters, resume, and more. Students learn how to price and talk about their work and how to stay organized. A required internship is also incredibly useful, helping students build confidence as new emerging designers and artists between junior and senior year.
Gigi seems like the kind of person that gets out there and makes things happen and who encourages her students to do the same. She's shown that persistence and involvement are really important for getting a job in graphic design (and any other field, really). You've got to find ways to get involved in your community and keep looking for opportunities everywhere. Join whatever professional organization there is in your field, use school resources to their fullest, and don't be afraid to go out, meet people, and get involved!
Artist and co-founder of Screening, Philadelphia’s first gallery dedicated to the presentation of works on video and film, Hironaka is currently a professor in the Video and Film Arts department at The Maryland Institute College of Art. Hironaka, whose video works have been exhibited internationally, has also received numerous grants, fellowships and residences including: the 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, the 2006 PEW Fellowship in the Arts, PEI Artists Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts Artist Residency, and Leeway Foundation Grants in 2001 and 2003. You can further explore Nadia’s work and learn more about her on her website www.nadiahironaka.com. Nadia was interviewed by BSA students Laura Bonvini, Melissa Chancer, Samantha Emonds.
What is Screening?
NH: It is the only gallery dedicated to the moving image in
Philadelphia. Nadia was able to fund Screening with a PEW (link)
Grant, worth $50,000. Screening has been established for 2 1/2 years, and it shows the work of internationally acclaimed video artists. You can go to Screening’s (link-there may be a better location or introduction for this link…) website to learn more!
Some good advice?
NH: Apply to everything!
You should apply to as many grants, galleries, exhibitions, festivals, etc. as you can. Anything to get your work out there and noticed!!!
NH: Consider all your options when applying for a job and hold out, if possible, for the one that fits your passion.
While Nadia was applying for jobs after grad school, she had an offer to work part-time in TempleUniversity’s gallery. At the same time, University of Pennsylvania was developing video courses, and Nadia applied to teach video at Penn about a year before the classes were to begin. To tide her over before she could begin the teaching job, Penn offered her a position working in their video lab. She took the interim job in the lab because she realized that her passion was teaching video. Six to seven months later, Nadia had a full-time teaching job at Penn.
NH: The Challenge Exhibition is open to all!
Don't be afraid to submit some work to Challenge or to visit the Challenge Exhibition. There’s more about this in our post on Warren Angle.
