On a trip to White Box Gallery in the Lower East Side/Chinatown, the Senior Capstone Class met with gallery founder and director, Juan Puntes, to view the current exhibition, Jizi: Journey of the Spirit. Jizi’s work confronted the legacy of the Revolution’s antipathy to religion and traditional Chinese life and attitudes. Deeply interested in the spirit, the artist’s work contains a strong metaphysical strain and sheds light on the complex, and at times contradictory, impulses at work in contemporary Chinese art and culture.
The trip was part of the research by the Capstone class, led by Joseph Cuillier of The Black School. The Scholars were able to engage in a conversation about the history and significance of White Box as a non-profit exhibition space in the neighborhood and its relationship to the development of Chinatown.
The Junior Scholars visited The Whitney Museum to view two exhibitions: Toyin Ojih Odultola: To Wander Determined and An Incomplete History of Protest. Scholars were able asked to reflect on the works on view through a guided questionnaire that included questions like: What do you think the artist is trying to convey through the work and through the medium? How does the work (in general or you can pick one piece) make you feel? What is the tone/mood/feeling of the work? How is the work displayed? Do you have any critiques of the exhibitions or any specific piece?
For the Sophomores, the day today was dedicated to creating their Learning Portfolios on Tumblr. The blogs are used in order for them to document their work, process and allow them to watch their progress throughout their years as Scholars. They set up their LP’s, chose templates and were able to get comfortable with using their tumblrs. After all the students successfully got their tumblr accounts resolved, the advocates sent the students out to locations close to school to find items in stores that had no relevance to where it was located. They were split up into groups and went to locations such as Party City, Goodwill, CVS, etc. Once they came back, they were able to upload images they took at the location and write a blog post about their findings.
