School of Art Maymester Course in New York Immerses Students in an Epicenter of Contemporary Art

How does environment and design affect your experience of modern and contemporary art? New York City is undoubtedly an ideal playground for navigating this question. Twenty-one students at the University of Georgia enjoyed the opportunity to become immersed in this line of inquiry, spending a month in early summer 2022 engaged in discussion and visual analysis at encyclopedic museums, alternative gallery spaces, and intimate studios in and around the Big Apple.

The school’s New York Maymester course introduces a cohort of emerging artists, art historians, and art educators to celebrated contemporary artworks through a critical curatorial lens.

The crop of students in the summer 2022 course were led by Katie Geha, director and curator of the Dodd Galleries, Mary Hallam Pearse, associate professor of jewelry and metalwork, Eileen Wallace, senior lecturer in printmaking and book arts, and two graduate assistants, Shaunia Grant and Katie Ford. Geha, Wallace, and Pearse orchestrated lectures, readings, and an itinerary that spanned the Whitney Biennial, the Dia Beacon museum, the Guggenheim, the New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and MoMA PS1, along with private collections and artist studios.

School of Art Board Member Blair Clarke Opens the Doors of Voltz Clarke Gallery for a New York Welcome

University of Georgia alumna and School of Art board member Blair Clarke (ABJ ‘94), seeking to jumpstart the students’ Maymester experience with a familial welcome, invited alumni of the Lamar Dodd School of Art residing in or visiting New York City to join her at a reception at the Voltz Clarke Gallery in the Lower East Side on May 18, 2022. “I had no idea about the Maymester! It was amazing to learn that Dr. Geha and the students covered all the boroughs,” Clarke exclaimed. This well-attended social offered students a preview of the network of artists and culture bearers in the city connected to UGA.

A year ago, Clarke re-engaged her alma mater with a cocktail meet-up for alumni and guests at her apartment in Manhattan. “It was electric to connect with Athens, with Georgia, in New York. We need not feel so separated by miles, by distance.” On the opportunity to support study away students at the School of Art, she added “the Maymester was sharpening that pencil again and again, and using my resources—a gallery in the Lower East Side—to welcome the [students] on their first day of their program was…I remember my first day arriving in New York City; there’s nothing like it!”

Student Perspective: Minnie Black

The Maymester course holds a variety of transformational cultural encounters and educational opportunities for students. Minnie Black, a senior from Atlanta pursuing a concentration in drawing and painting, shared that she signed up for the Maymester the last day before registration closed after spotting the course on the School of Art’s website. “Among my favorite experiences in the course was a class reading and discussion on the American painter and mixed media artist Faith Ringgold,” Black said. “The retrospective on her work at the New Museum allowed me to observe the way her pieces hold weight in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily realize from looking at pictures.”

Aside from class conversations delving into curatorial decision-making, Black cherished moments bonding with her classmates. “On one of our last days of the trip, the whole group took the train up the Hudson River to Dia Beacon. It gave us a couple hours to hang out and just enjoy the view out the windows of the train,” she said. “That day was great because we all got to spend time together and talk about how everything we had seen over the past month was informing the ways we were looking at pieces now.”

For Black, the benefits of the Maymester course reached beyond memorable discussions on space, composition, and installation in contemporary art.

“After the Maymester, I feel like I have a much better grip on the history of art in New York City, as well as an idea of what an arts practice in the city can look like,” Black said. “I was also connected to an internship with an artist through professor Pearse, whose help I’m so grateful for—so the course prepared me in that regard, as well.”

Upcoming Maymester 2023 Interest Session

Students interested in registering for the 2023 Maymester Course in New York City are encouraged to attend an upcoming interest session with professor and curator Katie Geha on Friday October 21 at 1:30 PM at the Lamar Dodd School of Art in room N100.