Eunice Oh
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
This semester harbored significant changes and despite the shift to the online environment due to the COVID-19 crisis, Arts Scholars has made the semester much more enriching. The first semester Colloquium was much different from what I expected of traditional university courses. It encouraged me to actively engage in discussions, lectures, and projects much more. Its delivery felt much more personal because I felt as if I was being integrated into the course rather than being a bystander simply taking the information and memorizing it. I was also challenged to relate what I learned in Colloquium in other aspects of my life. Additionally, I was able to connect Colloquium to other courses I took. For example, I took an Introduction to Art Theory course as an Arts supporting course. One of the more evident connections between this course and the Colloquium was that they both pertained to the arts. However, in both courses, we discussed the use of art in activism and how the arts can expand our understanding of activism in the world through the use of various mediums that portray different messages. However, both courses had unique approaches to this subject matter in that art theory focused more on the specific paintings and articles while the Colloquium had a more broad focus on the role of arts in social activism. In Colloquium, we also had the opportunity to participate in workshops, field trips, pentathlons, and more. Although, they took place online, I believe they were still effective in introducing me to other art forms that I may not have been particularly touched on in-depth. These new experiences allowed me to open myself to other artistic opportunities while continuing to find strength in digital art and writing. I think the most noteworthy thing I learned in Arts Scholars so far was how arts can be utilized in social activism. The panel with artists that used their platform for activism as well as our podcast highlighted how various art forms can come together to advocate and fight for change. Additionally, the podcast helped me to develop my teamwork skills as well as to showcase my strengths as an artist.
Reflecting on my first semester in college as a whole, I thought about my initial thoughts on college back in high school. Back then, I’ve always romanticized university life, especially how you're able to meet all sorts of people across the entire vicinity of the campus, from the dorms and classrooms to even the dining halls. The taste of independence and freedom was very attractive as well. Additionally, university life houses so much more diversity compared to the high school community. I felt as if I could find a community that I could truly belong in. This semester brought unprecedented circumstances, forcing me to stay at home, however, I remain hopeful that university life will offer what I’ve dreamed of. Whether I choose to live in an on-campus community or an off-campus apartment with a group of my friends, I still look forward to what it’ll bring. This pandemic has been a learning experience for everyone, both professors and students, but I'm proud of our resilience thus far.
It's only the first semester of Arts Scholars but I'm grateful for what it has given me so far. I've met great faculty and made connections with many of my Arts peers. I look forward to what the future semesters will bring.
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Semester 2
The university experience brings the opportunity to develop relationships with faculty. I had the opportunity to work as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for a professor. I believe this experience was a success in developing relationships with faculty members. This professor informed me that she was available to receive recommendations for further opportunities should I wish to take them. Being a TA allowed me to get a sense of the teaching environment as well and it was rewarding to not only assist the professor but help fellow students as well. Some challenges that still may exist is just taking that first step to reach out to your professors, however, many professors appreciate when you reach out to them especially through office hours. They start to notice you.
Adjusting to university life is not easy and it has been even more difficult with the pandemic and the shift to online learning. However, students have brought forth creative ways to maintain connections and develop relationships. For example, in the Scholars program overall, students created a Discord server for it with channels for each of the respective programs, including the Arts. This server has allowed Arts Scholars to connect with one another, showcase their creative talents, and more. Additionally, with this isolated, exhausting online environment, having a safe space with a group of students and faculty that you can come to know through shared interests, ideas, etc., the Arts Scholars have allowed me to make new friends. For next year’s freshmen whether they’re in Arts Scholars or not, I advise making the effort to reach out and find those who have shared interests with you. University encompasses a diverse group of students with diverse backgrounds and interests. It may be difficult and awkward to reach out but university brings many opportunities to create potential life-long connections.
Personally, the Arts Scholars program fosters “community” and “artistic engagement” in that I’m surrounded by all sorts of people who love and appreciate art just as much as I do. It is really validating to be surrounded by all this support not only academically as a student but also artistically as artists. Through the Arts Scholars program so far, I was able to gain access to information about all these different art-related events that I perhaps would have never discovered had it not been for other Arts Scholars, pentathlons, and even the weekly Arts Scholars mailing list. I may continue to contribute to the Arts Scholars community in the future by being a support system for incoming Arts Scholars who are just as excited about building on their understanding and appreciation of the arts.
The first year of Arts Scholars has really built my understanding and appreciation of art. Not only was I able to learn about all different art forms and extend my artistic abilities overall, but I was able to engage in how much art impacts my life and how much it means to me. In high school, I never had many opportunities for art in school so having these opportunities available to me in Arts Scholars helped me realize that art has an important role in my life and that I should continue to pursue it and try to even extend it into professional settings.
Similar to last semester, Arts Scholars once again brought many enriching experiences to this semester as well. The most beneficial aspects of this semester were the workshops and the field trips. With the workshops, I believed it was a great opportunity to supplement our understanding and appreciation of the arts through experimenting with art forms that we personally may not interact with on a regular basis. For example, I am primarily interested and actively partake in digital art so the photojournalism workshop was a new experience for me. However, it was beneficial because I was able to learn about the art of photojournalism and how effective it can be as an art form. Similar to the workshops, the field trips were also beneficial in that it gave us another opportunity to learn about different forms of art. The fact that we were allowed to choose which field trip to sign up for made it much more enjoyable. I advise incoming Arts Scholars to actively participate and engage themselves in these various aspects of the course because in the end, they’ll be able to build on their current knowledge of the arts.
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Semester 3
Art can reshape an understanding of our learned history, biases, and beliefs, in that art can come from a range of diverse backgrounds. There are many works of art that challenge biases and beliefs, asking and allowing us to view things in a different way, sometimes even providing a cathartic experience that may change our initial beliefs and learned history. This semester we learned about the Critical Response process in regards to the creative process. Critical Response involves a thoughtful discussion between the artist and the viewer, facilitating questions and commentary from both sides. This process was especially important for the development of our Capstone throughout the semester since we had multiple peer reviews utilizing the Critical Response process to receive feedback to revise our project details. This also led into how we could effectively incorporate feedback to revise and refine our ideas with greater depth and clarity in that we get a fresh perspective from viewers who may have never seen our work or heard of our ideas, allowing artists to gauge things that they may not have noticed or caught. This could then also facilitate further ideation and revision.
This semester was considerably rough especially with the transition from online to in-person classes; additionally, despite this transition, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic carried over to the in-person change. This semester was the first semester that I got to do in-person so this change was a particularly memorable one. Being in the Arts program helped me cope with this change in a way in that it allowed me to interact with my Arts peers and friends and being in-person for discussions and field trips made the engagement much more impactful.
One course I took that allowed me to create intellectual connections to what I learned as an Arts Scholars was ENGL272; this course focused on writing fiction and we learned about the different parts of fiction writing, including different ways it can be written. This course also encouraged the use and understanding of the Critical Response process, especially since we held workshops where we reviewed our peers’ work in an unbiased, open manner. It was nice to already have a basic understanding of the Critical Response process since I had learned about it in Arts Scholars. With this process being applied to other courses besides Arts Scholars, it really showed how I can connect things I learned as an Arts Scholars to other courses, even if they aren’t related to my major.
It was one thing to interact with fellow Arts Scholars virtually like we did last semester, but it was a totally different experience when we interacted in-person like we did this semester. Being able to face-to-face with my peers made me feel much more connected in that I could hear feedback, ideas, and encouragement face-to-face. As social creatures, humans need face-to-face interaction so I believed it was much more impactful to interact in-person rather than virtually.
I was able to participate in active contribution through peer feedback/review for our Capstone projects as well as our field trip. I believe I participated in peer feedback/review the most since it was such a large integral part of this semester because we were focusing on developing our Capstone. I was able to help my peers with their projects through questions and suggestions and just being able to see such diverse projects overall.
Being in Scholars not only allowed me to reinforce current beliefs and opinions, but it also allowed me to challenge those same beliefs and opinions. For example, when we learned about the creative process and how it was slow but developmental rather than spontaneous. At first, I disagreed because my personal creative process mainly involved spontaneous creativity, that sometimes I would just get such a great idea that I want to bring alive in digital art, and oftentimes, it wasn’t a meticulous process. I wouldn’t really take specific steps to finish the drawing because sometimes I just wanted to see where it took me. However, my opinion of the creative process was challenged and I learned how art can be spontaneous and slow and developmental. This especially applied to our Capstone which required a number of different steps, each thoughtfully completed. Exploring perspectives that are different from and challenging my own is valuable because we get to learn about different viewpoints that may enhance our knowledge and understanding of things; being exposed to these challenges helps us to grow as students and individuals in general.
Semester 4
I particularly enjoyed how our pentathlons across these two years have really encouraged us to reflect on the different art forms and how they could inspire and influence our own thinking and creativity. Having the constraints of doing four different types of Pentathlons in terms of art forms allowed us the opportunity to enrich our thinking of things that may be outside of comfort zone. This showed how the arts as a whole work together in tandem. Additionally, our field trips, particularly visiting Glenstone and watching the Kennedy Center's Digital Stage, have helped to enrich my perception of the arts and my beginning understanding of them. For example, for the Digital Stage specifically, the hosted guest, Tavares, a Portuguese singer, reimagined traditional Fado music through the inspiration of literature and poetry. Her showcase helped me develop my own wonderings of how the arts can be reimagined and redefined for the future generations.
My capstone project was slightly influenced by the podcast project during my first year as an Arts Scholars. My group focused on the relationship between art and mental health. I believe the development of this project may have sparked the beginning of what I wanted to do. Additionally, the techniques I learned in CPSA250 with the mentorship from Heather helped me to strengthen my central message of using art as a powerful tool in visualizing our individual, personal struggles
Through Arts Scholars, I was able to dive deeper into my long-time passion of visual art and getting the opportunity to continue to refine my skills was a great break from the academics that we're all so used to doing everyday. I never wanted to lose my passion for art and so the Arts Scholars program really allowed me to engage it in while finding ways to redefine it in order to grow. My capstone project especially forged an even stronger connection to my art and being able to clearly identify who I am as an artist and individual was a rewarding feeling. I was also able to expand my creative interests through viewing all of my other fellow Arts Scholars' capstone projects and final workshop projects throughout the two years. It's amazing to see how all the different forms of arts can be stretched and formed.
Looking back on my experiences in Arts Scholars, I believe having workshops and field trips coupled with questions and objectives to think about helped me to push my ability to collaborate with those holding diverse artistic perspectives, interests, and abilities. For example, in the workshop I participated this semester, Creatives in Progress, there was a range of artistic abilities and interests, each that had their own individual passion for creativity and the arts. Being able to have discussions about our final portfolios and the components of them, helped me to gauge these different perspectives and see how each individual used art in their own personal way,
I think my Scholars experience has definitely allowed me to strengthen my interpersonal skills with so many like-minded people. The techniques I've learned in CPSA250 such as "killing your darlings," having constraints, and even visual techniques such as curating, could be beneficial in my own personal growth through my art. Through Arts Scholars, I was able to carry my first digital art project to completion and I feel so connected with it; having these techniques to support my project helped me to focus and stay on track and I could apply these aspects to future personal art projects.
