Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art

Columbus city schools are shut down for three days in October 2019 due to a lack of air conditioning in poorly-maintained school buildings. At the same time, it is revealed that millions in city funds may have been misappropriated to build a new soccer stadium. How can we as a city re-imagine civic priorities? How can social justice be locally organized? And what part do artists play in supporting change and justice; or conversely, in perpetuating the status quo? This paper reviews some of my work and observations over the past several years as an artist/activist and as a social practice artist, with the more recent events surrounding the “Save the Crew” soccer stadium campaign being the focus of my thesis exhibition artwork. In conjunction with this recent project, I will be presenting the 2017-2018 “As Seen in Franklinton” community photography campaign. In both of these projects, a marketing campaign or phrase was subverted to draw attention to the people who are not being served by Columbus's neoliberal politics. I will explore the intersections of art and real life issues, in what ways the creative class has either helped draw attention to inequities in Columbus, or conversely, reaped the benefits of that inequity. What obligations do artists, academics, and culture-makers have to recognize and counter systemic oppression, racism, classism, and inequality? How can we lower barriers to participation in both art and social justice movements? And does political art - does anything we do as artists - even make a difference, in the real world?

Committee: Carmel Buckley (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts; Urban Planning

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2019, Art History (Fine Arts)

In 2016, the first artist-led super political action committee (PAC), For Freedoms, was formed by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman. Two years later, the super PAC had transformed into a non-partisan platform for civic engagement and was generating the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history, The 50 State Initiative. This thesis seeks to analyze For Freedoms as art organization and impart examples of how it provides structure for contemporary artists to engage and participate within American society. The research focuses on For Freedoms' connection to the theoretical concepts of participatory culture, media convergence, and collective intelligence by means of reimagining uses for traditional mediums such as billboards and town halls. The research also showcases how For Freedoms provided space for the attempted reworking of classic American iconography. This thesis is meant to communicate how an art organization can help foster a system and space for artistic collaboration, connection, and creative participation by artists with other artists and the general public, ultimately helping to create a more diverse and inclusive conversation around what it means to be American.

Committee: Samuel Dodd (Committee Chair); Dori Griffin (Advisor); Marion Lee (Advisor) Subjects: Art History

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Art

In my thesis work, I investigate the social web surrounding our ecological, cultural, and personal relationship with food. My work addresses the growing concern for health and sustainability in a consumer-driven society. As we turn away from whole foods and move towards a diet full of processed foods served in plastic and Styrofoam, this gradual shift has impacted the way we think about what we eat and how we eat it. I use the ceramic vessel and human experience as a way to investigate the shift in society's relationship to food, eating, and the meal. My studio work is a consideration of form, function, and color of the ceramic vessel. These physical objects fuel community- oriented social impact projects in which the vessel serves as a catalyst in creating a dialogue around food. Through use, the vessel has the ability to elevate the food we consume and asks the viewer to reconsider what they eat, where it comes from, who they share it with, and how food affects our body and the earth. Partake Columbus is a time-based project in shared eating. The course of the exhibition spanned thirty-three days and engaged seven individuals from different neighborhoods throughout the city of Columbus, Ohio. Each participant shared a meal with someone every day for the duration of the project using a sharing set of dishes. Their stories were recorded through daily posts on a group blog. Partake Columbus brought attention back to the meal as something nourishing to be shared and experienced together. The project can be viewed at partakecolumbus.wordpress.com.

Committee: Rebecca Harvey (Advisor); Todd Slaughter (Committee Member); Jeff Haase (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2013, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

This paper analyzes socially engaged art and the institutions that produce it. A brief history of the practice and related practices such as participatory, performance, installation, and public art are discussed. Proposed guidelines are given for the production, marketing, and documentation of such projects. Organizations such as Creative Time and the Hammer Museum are used as examples for successful socially engaged art projects. This paper is meant to be used as a tool for arts administrators in developing social, interactive, and participatory projects at their own organizations.

Committee: Neil Sapienza Mr. (Advisor); Gediminas Gasparavicius Dr. (Committee Member); Durand Pope Mr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Arts Management

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2013, Asian Studies (International Studies)

This thesis examines the development of contemporary art in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in the post-Reformasi era. Focusing on communities who consider themselves "alternative" to the mainstream commercial art world, I examine three aspects of art in Yogyakarta including collective organization, alternative space, and the public sphere. Based on six months of research involving semi-structured interviews and participant observation, carried out from January 2012 – June 2012, I argue that the artists and groups described can be related to ideas of socially engaged art and do-it-yourself (DIY) practice. This examination stems from a discussion of Indonesian modern art history focused on the development of sanggar (artist groups) during the revolutionary era that contributed to the establishment of a collective tradition in Indonesia that again manifested itself in the work of Reformasi era groups, Apotik Komik and Taring Padi. Today, in the post-Reformasi era, the individuals and groups discussed legitimate their work through the support of an increasingly wide network throughout Indonesia and abroad. It is through the support of this peer-to-peer network that these artists are able to imagine the possibility of art to have an impact on Indonesian society, thus becoming socially engaged artists.

Committee: Elizabeth Collins (Committee Chair); Eugene Ammarell (Committee Member); Marina Peterson (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Asian Studies