NDSU art professor reaches out to residents of Red Lodge
Michael Strand, associate professor and head of visual arts at North Dakota State University, got to focus on art in the community as the artist in residence at the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Mont. Ordinarily, the artist participating in the prestigious ceramics residency invites fellow artists. Strand brought four students.
"There's no separation between my own creative work, outreach and teaching. It's all dealing with community as one," Strand said.
During his two weeks in Red Lodge in May, Strand continued previous work and began several new projects. He and his students, along with two friends, handed out 350 ceramic cups to random residents of the city as part of his cup drop project (www.ndsu.edu/news/view/article/8189/).
"These projects focus on the space between art and people - they investigate the ways in which someone acquires art and how it impacts their relationship with that object," Strand said. "The moment it shows up on your doorstep instead of buying it, it's different. It changes the dynamics of how people encounter art."
This theme threads through much of Strand's work. Another project involved sending a ceramic cup in a box along with a camera and diary to religious leaders across the country. The box went from a Lutheran pastor to a Muslim imam to a Buddhist priest to a rabbi. Each used the cup in a sacred space and wrote about the experience before sending it on to the next leader. The box finished its trip in Red Lodge.
"It's a physical social network," Strand said. "A cup is something that's extremely intimate. It's something that provides nourishment. We put it to our face. It breaks down boundaries."
Another project he worked on is called Clayroake. Strand creates a cup based on verbal directions from a stranger who can't watch what he's doing.
"In essence I want to see if I can get people to actually consider that their idea is enough for them to call it their work of art, even though they have not touched the object," Strand said.
During the two weeks of the residency, the students took Strand's work and expanded on it in new ways during the trip.
Maren Shallman, a 2011 graduate in art with a focus on ceramics and printmaking, collaborated with Strand on an heirloom piece. They met with a family of four generations of women in Red Lodge and designed cups specifically for them using family designs and earrings. Shallman said the trip was a wonderful experience.
"It's really made me think more about residencies after school," Shallman said. "Before the trip, I hadn't been thinking much about applying for those opportunities, but it was so great that it's made me more motivated to look into it."
For more on Michael Strand's work, visit his website at www.artstimulus.org
