CLEMSON – Clemson University students studying art have a new degree option. Starting with the current 2020-21 academic year, undergraduates can elect to complete a Bachelor of Arts with concentrations in digital art and design media, studio art or art history.

The B.A. program balances courses in studio art and art history with a broad liberal arts education. Students select a minor or second major to customize their educational experience and pursue their desired career path.

“The runaway enthusiasm for the art minor, with participation from more than 70 Clemson students, shows growing interest in creative career pathways, as diverse as each incoming or existing student,” said Valerie Zimany, chair of the art department.

“Creativity can’t be automated,” she said. “The arts cultivate critical thinking and resilience, two of the top indicators of future success. In this time especially, graduates who can imagine new possibilities and create whole new worlds of innovation will lead not only the arts but tackle our most pressing contemporary problems.”

Immediate opportunities

Until recently, Clemson students who wished to study art had to choose between a minor and the intensive BFA program.

The new B.A. offers adaptability. And the program will have an immediate impact on students like Jiawei Deng, a senior combining art studies with a major in Psychology.

Deng hopes to complete a dual degree in December, which would make her Clemson University’s first student to earn a B.A. in art.

Before she came to Clemson, Deng was already considering a career in art therapy. As a student at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, Deng discovered film photography.

“I just love it,” she said.

At Clemson, Deng was able to try her hand at large format photography. Because each 4-inch sheet of film must be loaded into the camera individually, “you are spending more time thinking about the composition, and why you are taking the photo,” she said.

Deng complemented her studies with work-study positions, contributing graphic design to departmental social media and interning in the Makerspace.

She is now considering several art therapy graduate programs in the Northeast. But first, Deng hopes to visit Guangzhou, China to see her grandparents and re-experience the country of her birth, which she hasn’t seen for more than a decade.

Deng said she has loved her studio art experience at Clemson, and appreciates that the new B.A. program requirements also allow more time for other studies.

“It’s more flexible,” she said.

Different paths

Both the B.A. in art and the BFA in visual arts at Clemson are degrees accredited through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Clemson also offers an accredited Master of Fine Arts.

Both undergraduate programs are built upon four foundations studio classes covering drawing, 2D and 3D design, and 4D art (digital art and time-based media like video). B.A. students are encouraged to combine their art concentrations with studies in other disciplines, while BFA students create a cohesive body of work that culminates in a thesis exhibition.

Art students at Clemson have rich opportunities for professional experience through internships and Creative Inquiry classes such as Atelier InSite and CSArt.

The new B.A. degree program was approved by the Clemson University Board of Trustees in April 2019 and cleared the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education in the summer of 2020.

CLEMSON – The Clemson Community Supported Art (CSArt) program is launching its eighth season. CSArt is a popular initiative that connects the public with Clemson art students while engaging in a unique art-shopping experience. The program is a new spin on the grassroots “Community Supported Agriculture” farm share concept, which provides fresh produce for investors who buy a “share” of a local farmer’s crop each season.

Clemson’s CSArt program aims to create the same market for fresh, handcrafted artwork. With the purchase of one share, the “shareholder” will receive five different limited edition artworks made by a selection of Clemson student artists, in a specially packaged crate. This season includes one ceramic bowl, two ceramic wall hangings – one sculptural form and one tile- as well as two photographs. Each season’s share is juried by a respected professional in the arts, with this Spring 2020 share selected by Elizabeth Goddard, Executive Director of the Spartanburg Art Museum. Ms. Goddard holds an MFA in Art Education with a concentration in contemporary museum practices. She has over 20 years of experience working in the arts education sector of multiple nonprofit organizations, including serving as Director of Education and later as Curator for the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

CSArt plans to sell a total of 15 shares this year, costing $200 per share. The CSArt program was begun through a Creative Inquiry team led by Clemson University’s Valerie Zimany, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Art, who researched with her students the strategies and successes of CSArt programs in galleries, art studios and art centers around the country.

“This initiative provides students with an entrepreneurial learning opportunity –many of our graduates go on to work for institutions, non-profits, galleries and more, and the real-world marketing and administration skills they acquire through participating in CSArt program gives a tangible experience to enhance their studio-based portfolio upon graduation,” Zimany said. “For those students who create the limited edition works for the share, the commission is a vote of confidence in the developing quality of their artwork, and a challenge to meet our enthusiastic shareholder’s expectations at our seasonal pickup event.”

Proceeds from the shares supports student scholarship, and allows students to present Clemson’s CSArt program at national conferences. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 between 10 a.m.–5 p.m. shareholders can meet the artists and pick up shares during the Spring Ceramics Studio Sale at the CSArt Pick-up in the Lee Gallery hallway, located on the first floor of Lee Hall, 323 Fernow Street. To learn more about Clemson CSArt or become a shareholder-member, please visit www.clemson-csa.org and follow the directions under the heading “Purchase a Share.” To get to know this season’s selected student artists, visit the website for highlights and features of the team, “behind the scenes,” and sneak peeks of the artists’ “works in progress.”

With only 15 shares available for purchase, the community is encouraged to sign up now as shares will go quickly.

CLEMSON — The ceramics studio in the department of art at Clemson University will hold the annual Fall Ceramics Bowl Sale from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in the hallway in front of the Lee Gallery in Lee Hall.

All proceeds support student scholarship and travel to the annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference.

A large selection of functional work by students and faculty will be on display in a variety of price points. Soup will be served between noon–1 p.m. with the sale continuing until 5 p.m. The annual Spring Ceramic Sale will be held April 22, 2020.

For additional information, contact the department of art chair and associate professor of ceramics Valerie Zimany, vzimany@clemson.edu.

CLEMSON – Valerie Zimany, chair and associate professor in the department of art at Clemson University, has been awarded a 2020 South Carolina Arts Commission Artist Fellowship.

Through the fellowship, the Arts Commission recognizes and rewards the artistic achievements of South Carolina’s exceptional individual artists. “These awards can be transformative; they lift artists’ spirits and self-perception while allowing them to focus on their art. Past fellows talk about how it can be a life-changing event,” said Ken May, former executive director of the S.C. Arts Commission. “South Carolina’s artists are at the core of our creative economy and serve as indispensable contributors to quality of life in our communities. Our agency is proud to deliver these tokens of gratitude on behalf of those most affected by the work being honored: the people of South Carolina.”

Valerie Zimany is an innovative ceramic artist, professor and chair of the department of art at Clemson University.

Zimany, a department chair and faculty member in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, will use the award to facilitate her creative practice blending digital and hand processes in ceramics, work which received early support through a CU SEED research grant from the Office of the Vice President of Research at Clemson.

Zimany, a two-time Fulbright award recipient and Japanese government scholar, digitally models and fabricates florals through 3D printing and mold-making to explore cross-cultural influences of Asian and European decorative patterns and the sometimes imperfect translation of cultural codes through ornament.

“I am honored to receive this fellowship to assist with the creation of new work for several upcoming national exhibitions as well as a forthcoming solo exhibition in Kanazawa, Japan,” Zimany said. “The S.C. Arts Commission’s long history of funding the visual arts is critical to an active future generation of artists in our state and the Clemson University research campus is the ideal environment to expose more students and, by extension, a larger community to how new technologies and tools are being used for creative purposes within the context of contemporary art and education.”

Zimany joined Clemson University in 2010. During her time at Clemson, she has been selected for numerous solo and group exhibitions and competitions in Asia and across the United States and garnered praise in the ceramics world for her award-winning research and internationally active Master of Fine Arts graduates. Zimany is a past Fulbright Fellow through the U.S. Department of State and was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Grant through the U.S. Department of Education.

The South Carolina Arts Commission is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The commission also collaborates with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and South Arts. The fellowship jurors in the 2020 cycle were Wendy Earle, curator of contemporary art, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Bruce Pepich, executive director and curator of collections of the Racine Art Museum and Wustum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine, Wisconsin; and Marilyn Zapf, the assistant director and curator at the Center for Craft, a national arts nonprofit headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.

Athletics and art are uniting at Clemson University with a new sculpture at the Allen N. Reeves Football Complex.

Following the opening of the 140,000-square football complex in 2017, students with Atelier InSite, Clemson’s student-driven public art program, began the process of commissioning the piece. After two rigorous years, main campus’ newest public art is now complete.

Designed by renowned artist Gordon Huether, “All In” is a 25-foot aluminum spheroid structure that encapsulates the building’s purpose and vision while complementing the facility’s existing spatial and aesthetic elements.

“Ultimately, ‘All In’ is intended to reflect the precepts of Clemson’s football program: striving for excellence, individual personal growth and community service,” said Huether, noting how it represents the optimism, diversity and complexity of both the athletic department and the broader Clemson community.

Located outside the facility, it serves as a visual link between students’ academic and athletic successes, which is perfectly summed up by its name, “All In.”

First adopted by Coach Dabo Swinney in 2008, the phrase “All In” has become synonymous with Clemson football. The Tigers are 116-30 under Swinney’s leadership, including winning national championships in 2016 and 2018. His “All In” approach has similarly led to academic success, as his 2018 national championship squad not only became the first 15-0 team in the modern era of major college football but also set program records for team GPA and the number of student-athletes with a 3.0 GPA or better, while also earning the Academic Achievement Award from the American Football Coaches Association.

“Though inspired by the game of football, this piece signifies a metaphoric bridge connecting the academic core of Clemson to the university’s athletics programs,” said David Detrich, an art faculty member who works alongside Joey Manson and Denise Woodward-Detrich to lead the Atelier InSite initiative. “It is also uniquely Clemson in the fact it is ‘by students, for students,’ and enhances the existing cultural capital that makes this university such a distinctive place.”

By students. For students.

Since 2012, four large-scale art pieces have been installed on the main campus of Clemson University.

What makes these public art installations remarkable – beyond the inspired final form of the individual works – is the innovative and inclusive selection process that led to their creation.

Building off of the legacy of Thomas Green Clemson, himself an avid art lover, Clemson University has taken steps to ensure that public art has a permanent place on campus. Thanks to the university’s Percent for Art policy, any capital building project of more than $2 million must have one-half of 1 percent of that investment dedicated to public art.

At Clemson, the campus community is part of the public art selection process. Faculty contribute to the decision-making, and students are directly involved, too, through a Creative Inquiry class, which brings together undergraduate students from different disciplines to work on research projects in close collaboration with faculty.

To that end, the Atelier InSite class was created to provide the structure and broad representation necessary for the selection of public art. Atelier InSite’s motto, “by students, for students,” is behind every step of its rigorous selection process for public art.

Public art. Practical skills.

The Atelier InSite program gives students robust, real-world opportunities to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom.

“Being in the Atelier program has helped me to enhance my design skills, which I will definitely be using after graduation,” said Katherine Comen, an Atelier InSite student and senior visual art major. “The program has taught me about working with a team, as well as communicating well, which are both skills that I intend to use after graduation, too.”

Students participating in the Atelier InSite program have had majors as diverse ashorticulture, chemical engineering and economics. Working alongside students from different educational backgrounds has exposed them to new lines of thought they may not have encountered in their own courses of study.

Students come to Atelier InSite in various ways. Some, like Comen, arrive at the program because of their curiosity about the role of public art at Clemson.

Kendall Massey, a senior architecture major, signed up for the class on the recommendation of a friend who knew of his appreciation of art.

“Public art is important to me because it’s artwork that truly everybody can enjoy or take part in,” Massey said. “The practical aspects of the course and my architecture major have helped me better understand spaces and how public art can improve these spaces.”

Public art with purpose

In 2017, Atelier InSite students put together a request for qualifications, which resulted in more than 230 artists submitting their portfolios for further consideration. The students then worked with campus constituents and the public to narrow down the submissions to 50, then 12 and finally down to three.  The remaining artists were required to submit their proposals for the space.

“We developed a set of guiding principles that help our decision-making process and assist us in determining if a proposal is a good fit with the site we have selected,” said Woodward-Detrich. “Atelier InSite members take great care to ensure that each installation is an organic offshoot of the environment it is being placed in.”

Atelier InSite principles and student input were vital in crafting “All In.” Selected from three other proposals, Huether’s sculpture best fit its mandate from Atelier InSite. It not only fit its installation site, but also will engage the people who interact with it.

While “All In” is the latest public art installation at Clemson University, it is not the last. The Atelier InSite team will now set its sights across Bowman Field to the new College of Business. Atelier InSite recently finished the request for proposal process and will select an artist in fall 2019 for an installation date of spring 2020.