Professors in Mississippi State’s Department of Architecture, Art and Design are using television as a learning tool in their classrooms.The MSU art department displayed the ecology episode of the PBS series “Art:21” on Oct. 9. A second episode focused on romance will be shown tonight at 7 p.m. at the Bettersworth Auditorium in Giles Hall.
According to the “Art:21” Web site, the program focuses on contemporary visual art and artists in the United States, giving an arts experience superior to gallery visits.
This is the fourth season of the “Art:21” series, and each season has four episodes that feature a few artists and their styles.
“Typically there are four nationally recognized artists in the peak of their careers,” said Critz Campbell, MSU assistant professor of art.
“For ecology they chose four artists where ecology is an issue in their art making. Ecology covered everyone from working with trees to working with weather patterns.”
Viewers see the processes and interests of the artists, he said.
The ecology episode included artists Ursula von Rydingsvard, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’, Robert Adams and Mark Dion. The romance episode will feature Laurie Simmons, Lari Pittman, Judy Pfaff and Pierre Huyghe.
“The underlying philosophy of this project is that contemporary American art is of real interest to a national audience,” assistant professor of art Kate Bingaman-Burt said. “By making contemporary art more accessible, the series affords viewers and students the opportunity to discover their own innate abilities to understand contemporary art and to explore possibilities for creative thinking and self-expression.”
MSU assistant professor of art James Davis said the series is nice as an extra tool in the classroom. Students get to see someone dedicated to their work in this series, he said.
“Without having museums and galleries [locally] here in Starkville, it’s good to have. You get to see the artists actually working rather than just an interview,” he said.
Davis said his students get to hear some art language in the series, like metaphor, irony, lines, shape and value. He said it is good for them to hear those words outside of class and in other works.
“It’s talking about things outside of business,” Davis said. “It lets the students know that that language isn’t crazy.”
By hosting the series, MSU gets to have the new episodes in the library. Campbell said that was one of the bonuses to hosting the series.
The old episodes are available in the library, too.
“It’s been a very used set of DVD’s,” Davis said.
Bingaman-Burt and Campbell are the two professors hosting the viewing.
“‘Art:21’ has an incredible educational outreach department. They contacted Critz and I in August to see if we would be interested in showing some episodes. There are screenings in all 50 states. This is the only one in Mississippi,” Bingaman-Burt said.
Campbell said that he believes it was part of “Art:21’s” mission to get the screenings in every state.
“I was a big fan of the program and decided to sign up. It seemed like a good thing for students,” Campbell said.
The ecology episode drew a large crowd of people. All but a few rows were filled with students and faculty.
“Attendance was a lot more than expected. I would say about 75 to 100 people showed up. We hope for the same showing next Tuesday,” Bingaman-Burt said.
For more information about events in the art department, visit its Web site at http://www.caad.msstate.edu/.