TU Community Brings Art To Public Spaces Through Digital, Outdoor Exhibitions

Press release from Towson University:

By Rebecca Kirkman on October 16, 2020

Visitors experience work by Towson University theatre arts MFA students as part of the
international art show Art Prospect at the H&H Arts Building in Baltimore on Oct.
15, 2020. (Photo by Katie Simmons-Barth)

Projected in a series of windows, artwork by Towson University College of Fine Arts & Communication (COFAC) students, faculty and staff is on view in Baltimore’s Bromo Arts District.

A collaboration between COFAC and The French Companies, which manages the H&H Arts
Building at the intersection of N. Eutaw and Franklin streets, makes the exhibitions
possible.

The partnership began with the international festival Art Prospect, on view through
Oct. 18, which features digital performance pieces by members of the MFA in Theatre Arts program projected in the H&H Arts Building windows.

Art Prospect showcases work by more than 50 artists in 23 cities and 13 countries
in an online–offline format around the theme “Treasure Hunt.” Since 2012, the festival
has filled public spaces around the globe with contemporary art. It was founded by
the nonprofit organization CEC ArtsLink, which promotes international communication
and understanding through collaborative, innovative arts projects.

In Baltimore, “Exposure” examines disparities brought to light during the novel coronavirus pandemic through
digital works by TU theatre arts MFA students Theresa Columbus, Skyler Fort and Megan
Lovely. It is one of only 10 Art Prospect exhibitions in the U.S. and the only one
in Maryland. The work is best experienced in person from sunset to sunrise. Bring
a smartphone and earbuds to experience audio by scanning the QR code, or visit virtually
online at artprospect.org.

The exhibited work grew out of an assignment in a graduate ensemble class taught by
Tavia La Follette, theatre arts assistant professor and curator of COFAC CoLab, an incubator for ideas, projects and collaboration.

“I asked the students to bring in work around something that they had been reflecting
on and was representative of the times we are living in,” says La Follette, who also
served as the curator for “Exposure.” “In the U.S., the pandemic has exposed disparities
in the country that can no longer be ignored, from the racial reckoning led by the
Black Lives Matter movement to health care and food disparities. Each participant
has a digital performative draft of a societal critique that lays bare what was not
so transparent in the past.”

Exhibiting in the Art Prospect festival offers the MFA cohort students, who embarked
on their graduate studies during a pandemic, a “unique international cultural opportunity,”
La Follette says.

The exhibition made possible a longer-term collaboration between COFAC and The French
Companies.

“I am delighted that the COFAC CoLab students and faculty have the opportunity to
present their work in the thriving Bromo Arts and Entertainment District,” says Dean
Regina Carlow. “CoLab was designed to be an incubator for ideas, projects and collaborations
across the college, and so this new partnership with the French Company allows TU’s
arts and communication students to have a new laboratory in an important arts collective
in downtown Baltimore.”

A second exhibition, “Occupy Now,” will follow the Arts Prospect installation and
feature work from a wide range of COFAC faculty, staff and students alongside artists
who live and work in the H&H Arts Building from Oct. 23 to Dec. 15.

Led by La Follette, the “Occupy Now” exhibition provides the opportunity for the COFAC
CoLab to move its work downtown and reach a wider audience as a hub for disciplinary
work that builds new knowledge for an ever-evolving world.

“Occupy Now” includes works by art history lecturer Ada Pinkston, theatre arts assistant
professor Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe and theatre arts academic program coordinator Katie
Simmons-Barth with sound by music assistant professor Diana Saez. The exhibition also
includes Black Lives Matter and voting posters created by graphic design students as
well as “The End is Near: The Nation’s Cartoonists Look at the 2020 Election,” a project
from the COFAC CoLab curated by Gary Huck and featuring work by more than 30 artists.
There will also be sound and live performance by COFAC Innovator-in-Residence Shodekeh.

“The name ‘Occupy Now’ is designed to be as charged and provocative as the work it
encompasses,” La Follette explains. “The art and the artists ask the viewers to be
alive and present in the moment. To recognize and participate in this cultural shift—an
evolution in humanity. To make sure that we never return to pre-pandemic normal. To
own our past in order to break inherited conflict and bias. And to vote!”

This type of interdisciplinary collaboration benefits students, too.

“COFAC faculty and staff involved in ‘Occupy Now’ embody a powerful art-for-social-change
collective representing music, dance, theatre, design and education,” Carlow says.
“This rich collaboration benefits our students as they encounter and work alongside
world-class faculty and staff artists from Towson University.”

Viewers may interact with the exhibition in person outdoors from dusk to sunrise along
N. Eutaw Street or digitally through the COFAC CoLab. During a live virtual panel
on Oct. 22 at 7 p.m., the artists will discuss the importance of their work in these
times. The “Occupy Now” window unveiling will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on October
23. For more information, visit the COFAC CoLab website.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland.

This press release was produced by Towson University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.