q. What are the dates of the program?
a. The dates for FIT housing are from July 7th - July 29th. The AICAD studio dates are from July 9th - 27th.
q. What time is class?
a. Class will be held Monday through Friday, from 9:00am until 3:00pm, with a half hour for lunch at 12. Group studio work will take place in the morning, individual projects in the afternoon. Tuesdays and Thursdays are tentatively scheduled for group excursions to museums, galleries, artist studio visits and other field trips.
q. Where is the FIT dorm? What is it like?
a. The George S. and Mariana Kaufman Residence Hall at the Fashion Institute of Technology is located at 406 West 31st Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues). The dorm is air-conditioned and all of the apartments have private bathrooms and kitchens. Kaufman Hall also has a Study and Cyber Lounge with high-speed internet connections, as well as a fitness center.
q. Will I have to share a room?
a. Yes, each student going on the trip will be paired up with a roommate.q. What type of security exists in the residence halls?
a. Each residence hall has a security officer posted in its lobby 24 hours a day. Residents are required to show their residence hall identification card to enter the buildings. All visitors are required to have proper identification and must be signed in by residents at the security desk.q. Do I need my computer?
a. It's suggested that you bring your own device if you have a laptop/ipad or some other kind of mobile computer. There are computers available for your use at AICAD, but they may not have all the software you need or give you the freedom to work independently at the dorms or on work specific to your practice. It is not a requirement.q. What kind of access to I have to the AICAD studio?
a. You have 24 hour access! There is special key access from 7pm to 7am.
In addition to Central Park, Battery Park and other smaller parks scattered around Manhattan alone, there are several green areas throughout the five boroughs. You'll have a good opportunity to see one of them - Fort Tryon Park - when we visit the Cloisters Museum.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good question because it highlights the changing nature of the landscape in NYC, which of course is a part of the city's living map.
Here is a link to the NYC Parks & Recreation site that lists some other wildlife preserves within the city boundaries:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/greening/nature-preserves
I would also recommend that you all make a day trip up the Hudson River Valley to Dia:Beacon (in Beacon, NY) and see the amazing art up there. On the way, you'll also be retracing the steps of the Hudson River Valley landscape painters. Here's another link:
http://www.diacenter.org/
This is certainly possible - rooftop gardens are a staple of New York life - but not as common as plain green areas around the city for public access. You can take the elevator to the top of the Empire State building and look out from the observation deck, for instance, but you can also get a great view of the west side and the Hudson river, from the High Line park, which has been built on an old elevated railroad trestle. Here's a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thehighline.org/
This is definitely something that will be easier to explore on a situational basis once we get to the city, but an option that is open to us depending on what part of the city we're exploring on a given day.
1. There will be laundry facilities at the FIT dorm for our use. I agree - pack light if you can. It's only three weeks!
ReplyDelete2. There will probably be other students staying at the dorm while we're there, but we will have the AICAD studios to ourselves.
3. They do advertise on their site that AICAD has a "shop with hand and power tools for carpentry and small sculpture." Because of the shortened nature of our time there, I would suggest being as flexible as possible to accommodate the tools available. Here is the link to the facility resources page on the AICAD website:
http://nysr.aicad.org/experience/resources.html
4. The airport protocols for transporting a laptop might vary airport to airport slightly, but the TSA traveling protocols can be found here:
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/index.shtm
In my experience, security will ask you to put your computer through the x-ray machine independent of your other luggage (but it can be in its own laptop case). I've kept my ipod and phone (both turned off) in my regular bag, though random checks of carry-on luggage are common, especially at NYC airports when you all return.
5. The weight limit for luggage will definitely vary from airline to airline - I would suggest contacting them directly and/or just checking their website, which should have this information posted. Remember that we'll be purchasing materials when we get there as well!
This is still evolving, but what we have confirmed are three unique off-site visits - two to artist studios and one to a gallery. The artist studio visits will be an introduction to the artist's work and a discussion about their practice in New York - no lecture, but an opportunity for you to see their work and workspace up close with a general Q+A. The gallery visit will be at Sperone Westwater and is a behind-the-scenes type tour.
ReplyDeleteThe artists and other folks that I hope to invite to meet with you all at AICAD will conduct studio visits, but we will likely keep these to 1 or 2 days, toward the end of the course. There's simply not enough time to accommodate all the studio work, field trips and other elements of the class and include more than that. But you're welcome to show them photo documentation of older/off-site work in addition to what you're currently working on. The emphasis will be on the work you're doing there, however, since they can see the actual stuff.
Site-specificity is always an option. With permission from FIT and/or AICAD ahead of time, I can't see a reason that it wouldn't work (though their consent and your planning ahead would be key.) Also keep in mind that site is a flexible concept - site-specificity can apply to information taken out of a specific place and re-contextualized somewhere else, even the studio/gallery. A note of caution if you're considering public installations without prior approval:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/garden/designer-takeshi-miyakawa-returns-from-rikers-island.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
New York City, arguably more than any other American city, is especially conscious of things in public places that are out of the ordinary (or seem threatening) - an unfortunate legacy of 9/11. I would just encourage all of you to be aware of that sensitivity before making art in a public space without permission.