Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Programme (ISP)

Research

The Independent Study Programme at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York consists of three interrelated parts; Studio, Critical Studies, and Curatorial programmes. The programme begins in early September and concludes at the end of the following May. It costs £1,800 with a scheme for financial aid based on need. Fifteen students are selected for the Studio Programme, four in the Curatorial Programme and six in the Critical Studies Programme.

Irrespective of the programme selected by the student the ISP provides a setting within which students pursuing art practice, curatorial work, art history and critical writing engage in ongoing discussions and debates that examine the historical, social and intellectual conditions of artistic production. Many of the participants are enrolled at universities and art schools and receive academic credit for their participation, while others have recently completed their formal studies.

I favour applying for the Curatorial Programme. The four students selected each year collaborate to produce an exhibition. They work closely with the exhibition coordinators and curators at Whitney and develop proposals for the exhibition. Once a proposal has been approved by the museum’s curators, the students proceed to select artworks, arrange loans, and design and oversee the installation of the exhibition. The students write essays for and participate in the production of a catalogue accompanying their exhibition.

Application

All applicants must include;

  • A clear indication of which programme you are applying for
  • A CV.
  • Two letters of recommendation
  • A statement discussing your work, educational experience, and intellectual interests (no more than 2 pages).
  • An application fee of $15 payable to Whitney Museum of American Art.

In addition to the general application all Curatorial Programme applicants must include:

  • Writing sample (no more than 15 pages).
  • An exhibition proposal no more than 2 pages.

Application deadline is 1 April and should be sent to Margaret Liu Clinton, ISP Manager & Exhibition Supervisor, 100 Lafayette St., 5th Floor, New yORK, NY 10013 U.S.A.

 

Exhibition Proposal

Walking and Art and Not Walking the Line

I propose an exhibition on Walking and Art. My studio practice is influenced by artists that use walking as part of their process for their art works. The exhibition will seek to demonstrate the extraordinary range of methods used by artists to transpose their walks into art objects or experiences. Ideally I would use 3 rooms in the gallery and exhibit works from artists who use walks to transpose their walks into art objects or experiences.The question to consider in curating an exhibition is what do I want visitors to the exhibition to experience and remember?  Jo Ellison asked a similar question in a recent newspaper article and concluded that ‘Art is the opportunity to have your optics ambushed – it should open doors to different worlds’. Ellison, J. (2022). FTWeekend, 23 April

My first room would exhibit artists and the theme I have in mind could be headed ‘walking, maps and lines’. It is easy to imagine how walking leaves a trace as the body moves and the walk itself is a line with a beginning and an end. The recording of the line is something that the artists in the first gallery all try to capture. I have selected works by Richard Long, Jeremy Woods and Brian Thompson.

Walking is fundamental for the artist  Richard Long. Walking is this artist’s main tool. The line is a central image in a lot of his work. Long plans the walk and armed with a tent and a map does the walk and the resulting works are represented by a diverse range of photograph, writing  and representational maps. 

I have also chosen Jeremy Woods. He uses a GPS device to track his walk which is traced on a map as part of the process in producing works in a three dimensional way. It is a very effective way of representing the landscape and perfectly captures the topography of the terrain like the contours of a map. 

Brian Thompson uses a number of different methodologies to trace his walks. Sometimes he traces them in advance from maps or aerial photographs but like Woods also uses GPS devices as one of his processes. The topographical nature of his sculptures evoke the different geological layers and how the landscape has evolved over time.   

The second room would reference the historical context of psychogeography and walking in the city. I propose the theme City, Women and psychogeography. I have selected  four artists that demonstrate the traits of the flaneur but in a contemporary way.The artist Larissa Fassler has walked in cities that she is visiting such as London, Paris and Istanbul.Also a series of important works in her home city of Berlin. She walks and observes and in her drift around the street she gets to know the streets intimately and observes and chronicles the interactions of the people.

Julie Mehretu has been selected as her abstract paintings of cities also seek to capture the interactions and movements in urban spaces. She lives in New York and her paintings are busy and colourful, reflecting both the vibrancy of the city and her feelings and interactions with that city as she walks around and observes. 

Nina Murdoch’s opus operandi is also walking. She walks her local area of Battersea and produces some haunting paintings of street subjects. Her spaces are stairwells and underpasses and the light either suggests early morning or evening. The images suggest the earlier history of the scene  and the colours and tones suggest the soil and rocks below the surface which leads on to thoughts of geological history and time. 

In the last gallery I have selected three artists that use performance in different ways to produce artwork that share thier walks with the public, viewer or listener. The first artist I chose is Janet Cardiff whose early practice involved audio walks and later on video walks with very innovative themes from storytelling to alternative city guides. It has the characteristics of psychogeography as she describes her feelings as she walks and shares her thoughts.

I have also selected the artist group known as Wrights and Sites made up of 5 artist -academics based in the city who published an alternative 90 page guide book for Exeter and other pamphlets with suggested walks demonstrating applying playfulness and a rebelliousness to these alternative experiences of walking.

Finally two audio walks from the writer and  broadcaster Horatio Clare. The first audio walk was from Arnstadt to Lubeck in Germany in the footsteps of J.S.Bach who made the 250 mile journey in 1705. The second audio walk describes four different walks and four separate days as he climbs the highest peaks in the four home nations; Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Snowdonia in Wales and Scafell Pike in England.