Brigid Sax
Arts Scholar
Semester 3
This semester, I learned about many ways that art can reshape or recontextualize an understanding of our learned history, bias and beliefs. Art is a universal outlet for expression and it is easy to overlook the instances of art we see everyday. For example, I realized that a lot of forms of activism use art to get across a message after listening to the speakers at the Art and Activism panel. Though all of the speakers used art in different ways, they all had goals revolving around progression. I thought this mirrored what we see in society today, with movements such as Black Lives Matter using music (for example, Beyoncé’s “BLACK PARADE”), murals, speech, film and many other forms of art to raise awareness. I also learned about theoretical models and practical strategies for initiating the creative process. From the art and activism panel, I learned that the biggest form of inspiration is having something to say. If you want your voice out there, you simply have to express it in the form you see most fit. Again, there are many different ways to express oneself through art, but as long as you are saying something, people will listen. Perhaps the most helpful thing I learned this semester was how to effectively incorporate feedback to revise and refine my ideas with greater depth and clarity. When it comes to feedback, I often get nervous to hear any criticism, as I can often take it to heart. However, we structured our feedback to be much more helpful and less critical. For example, when reviewing each others’ capstone presentations, we were told to ask our peers questions about their work. Asking and receiving questions was so much more informative than other forms of feedback, which helped me be more willing to incorporate that feedback and helped me understand exactly what I needed to tweak for my final product to come out as clear as possible.
A news-related item that I encountered outside of colloquium dealing with art as an expression of one’s values this semester is the transformation of the White House perimeter fence into a memorial for George Floyd. While I would have most definitely been moved by the gesture prior to our conversations regarding art and activism in colloquium, it is very easy to just see the memorial as a collection of signs. But through the eyes of my lessons and discussions in colloquium, I was able to appreciate it as a collection of pieces of individual art, all coming together to serve a common purpose and express a common emotion, which makes it all the more beautiful and heartbreaking.
The class I have taken with the most interesting connections to what I have learned as an Art Scholar is THET251: Broadway Mashup. In this class, we took a critical look at musicals throughout American history and analyzed their cultural implications. Whereas in Art Scholars we would analyze how others expressed themselves through art, this class had us analyze from another perspective. From this perspective, I was able to see how some forms of expression can come off as offensive which inadvertently sparks activism, just in a different way.
My learning was definitely improved by interacting with fellow Art Scholars outside of class. I often utilized my peers as a resource when I was confused about an assignment or testing out a creative idea. For example, I had a friend and fellow Art Scholar ask to exchange project proposals so we could proofread for each other. This was extremely beneficial for me as it allowed me to receive even more creative input and made me feel much more confident before submitting it. The only place where being a part of this living-learning program fell short was during the online semester. I felt that being at home allowed for a huge disconnect from my peers. I do not think I connected with anyone this semester the way I may have if I was on campus.
This semester, I feel that most of my contributions to the Arts Scholars community came from working as a Peer Mentor. By fulfilling my duties as a mentor, I was able to foster connections with new Arts Scholars, aid them through their first semester in college and host fun events for them to attend. While these events within my group of mentees were really fun to hold, I wish I had held more community-wide events so that anyone would have been able to attend. I think this would have allowed the freshmen scholars to get to know each other better, and it would have allowed me to form more connections with my sophomore peers, even though the events were online.
Being in Scholars has definitely brought me into contact with people or concepts that challenged my previous beliefs or opinions. For one, I often assume that many of the people I encounter in college share the same opinions as me on social issues and always have. However, when we had breakout discussions on diversity, I was surprised to find out that many of my peers had different opinions before they were educated on the impacts of racism. Many would make remarks within their friend groups that they did not realize were offensive until they were told they were. Exploring this perspective was interesting and surprising, but it allowed me to see the importance of education on sensitive subject matters like this. I think it is important to have conversations like these because it helps people, such as myself, avoid confirmation bias. I am grateful to have been a part of discussion like this during my time as an Arts Scholar.
Semester 4
The first thing I noticed when going through my ePortfolio was how much the language I used surrounding my capstone had changed. It was odd to see everything written in future tense or present tense because it is now all completed. There was once a time where I even doubted myself and believed I could not finish my capstone the way I wanted to, but now I am content with my finished product. I also noticed how much more in depth my pentathlon reports became, as I truly began using them as creative outlets when things got hard during the semester. I really enjoyed looking into more background research on the events I participated in because it made it so much more fulfilling.
Firstly, I can confidently say that the experiences I had in this program made me rethink my decision on pursuing art as a career. As I came into college, I had left my dream of becoming a professional singer behind because I was worried about stability. When I entered the Arts Scholars program, I cherished it as a way to keep a handle on music because I still loved it so much. But after attending many field trips, specifically my most recent field trip where I learned about Voguing with Marquis, I felt extremely inspired to recover the dream I had once tucked away. Marquis gave us a lot of advice about going for what we want and propelling ourselves forward no matter what. I started to believe that I could really be a musician if I tried. Additionally, our pentathlon assignments really allowed me to understand the beauty in so much of the world around me. As I continued to complete events throughout my four semesters, it became much easier to find activities that would count for pentathlon credit. For example, my film events would challenge me to look much deeper into the media I was consuming and recognize all of the artistic pieces that went into it. As for art styles I would not normally participate in, I found that visual art really relaxes me, which I would not have discovered if I had not participated in pentathlon events.
For my capstone project, I relied heavily on techniques that I learned in the songwriting workshop I took in the second semester of my freshman year. I have always loved writing songs, but learning about the formulas most commonly used in pop music helped me become more conscious when writing them. It also helped me speed up my writing process, which led me to be able to write 2 original songs in less than three months. This program also taught me a lot about how to spark inspiration, which I often struggle with. Usually I write a few verses or a chorus of a song but cannot continue it until I return to it months later. Through this program I learned how to use exercise and relaxation in order to spark inspiration which really helped me while I was working on my capstone.
I truly believe that I never would have ventured into learning how to produce and record music if it were not for the Arts Scholars program. Before beginning my capstone, it seemed like such a daunting task, one that I did not want to do if I did not know it would turn out perfectly. Choosing this path for my capstone pushed me to go with the flow when it came to making music and I am so happy with the turn out. As for ways I expanded my abilities, like I stated before about pentathlon, I am grateful that this program encouraged me to try forms of art besides music, like painting or dance. Though I am no expert in these other fields, I feel much more comfortable participating in them and I would love to do more activities within them in the future.
I feel that Arts Scholars has given me many opportunities to work with others who hold diverse artistic interests and I have been able to collaborate effectively with them. For example, my first semester in the program, we were asked to do a group project and our group had a slightly difficult time coming up with what we wanted to do. So we decided to combine all of our talents into one project. Those who wanted to do visual art created paintings or drawings while those who enjoyed music were able to compose and sing. Someone in our group was interested in videography, so they put all of our work into a video. The final product was amazing and it was because we decided to mash all of our talents together into one grand piece.
I expect to draw on a lot of my skills that I have learned, specifically from my capstone class this year, in the future. For one, a lot of the studying and focusing methods helped me get a lot of work done on my capstone, so I’d like to transfer that to my other classes. For example, the Pomodoro technique helped me get through certain stages of my project, so I plan to use that technique while studying for other classes. Further, during the process of creating my capstone, I discovered that I am quite a perfectionist and that tends to hold me back sometimes. I worked to overcome it little by little, but I realize that it is something I will have to continue to work on. Due to the project, I am now aware of it so I feel as though it is something more within my control. Hopefully taming that part of my brain will allow me to stop procrastinating as much for future projects or really any task in my life.