KATIE QUINN
Arts Scholar
SEMESTER 1
CPSA100 has been unlike any of my other classes this semester. I viewed the class as more of a discussion period, than a lecture or lab class. The class was centered around discussion with your peers, whether that be during Zoom class or online. This made it easier to connect with my peers, than in other classes. The majority of required grades were also centered around discussion, as well as reflection. They also had a lot of options and flexibility on how you wanted to complete them. For example, you could choose from a number of virtual field trips to complete your requirement. One course that I’ve taken this semester for my Theatre major is THET222: Fundamentals of Acting. This class relies pretty heavily on stepping outside of your comfort zone and learning to empathize and understand others’ perspectives. In CPSA100, we did a lot of group work and sharing of our own ideas and perspectives. By taking both of these classes together, I heard a lot of new perspectives that I never would have thought of myself. Both of these classes helped me expand my horizons and learn more about those around me. In Colloquium, I did not expect for us to talk as much as we did about the links between art and activism. I thought that maybe we would have a class discussion on it but, we went much more in depth, which I really enjoyed! I did, however, expect us to discuss some of the basic art forms and creation methods and the histories behind them. The activities we had for CPSA100 were a lot more fun than I thought they would be! I particularly enjoyed going to Peer Mentor events and my virtual field trip, watching the Sundance Short Film Festival. University life is a lot different than what I originally thought it would be. This semester I lived in Bel Air Hall with the majority of the other Arts Scholars who were on campus. I’ve never lived on my own and it was a lot more freeing than I thought it would be. I could eat and go do whatever I wanted almost anytime I wanted. I could go down the hall and knock on a friend’s door to hang out. Occasionally, I would forget to eat or leave my room for the day, but that’s a part of learning to be an adult. I’ve gotten a lot better at taking care of myself and being more independent. Next semester I plan on moving back into the dorms and maybe getting an apartment sophomore year! Being on campus during a pandemic has been even more of a shock though. I didn’t really know what I was expecting when getting on campus. Having all of my classes online has been a bit of a struggle but it’s helped to have at least some friends on campus to keep me entertained. It was hard having the administration keep changing plans on us, but that comes with the pandemic. I think the most impactful thing I learned through Arts Scholars this semester was how much a community can really support one another. I remember during almost every class session that my TA Damien would always check up on everyone by doing Roses and Thorns for the week. We would talk about one positive thing that happened to us that week (rose) and one negative thing (thorn). This little act of checking in with us really helped me take a step back and have a reality check for the week. I would hear how my classmates were struggling in similar ways to me. This really made me feel supported, or at the very least understood, by my peers around me. Sometimes this made all the difference for the week for me. I really hope to keep this sense of community present throughout my time at UMD.
SEMESTER 2
This semester posed a lot of challenges for me and everyone else on campus. One of the largest challenges was getting to know faculty members. I found that joining organizations like AGNR ambassadors really helped me in meeting faculty members that I would be working with in the future. I really got to know the administration team in AGNR through Ambassadors, as well as some professors in the college as well. However, since I only had one in person class this year, I don’t have a lot of experience with getting to know my professors and TAs in person. I hope that it’ll all come back to me from high school. I recommend that new students just go ahead and just introduce themselves to faculty members, if they want to get to know them. This cuts off all the fluff of trying to worm your way into meeting them and shows that you can really take initiative. As a Theatre major, it’s pretty easy for me to connect with other students at UMD. I have a whole community of people who share the same passion for theatre as I do readily accessible to me. Meeting a lot of these people has really helped me come out of my shell. It’s been hard trying to meet people in my majors in an online world. I think that finding a community that shares the same interests as you (like a club or Arts Scholars) is the best way to connect with your peers. The Arts Scholars community is really good about being proactive in providing opportunities for students to meet new people in the community. For example, I met some of my first friends at UMD through an Instagram groupchat some other Art Scholars made. This made me feel a lot more comfortable about coming to UMD and making new friends. In the future, I hope to contribute to this community by maybe being a TA for younger students, as they have all played such a big role in my meeting new people. Being in Arts Scholars has made me realize how much I rely on art as a form of self expression. Sure, it’s something to keep me entertained, but every time I was able to work on an art project I was excited about, I was able to relax and take time to do something for myself. I found that this was the case for a lot of my peers in Arts Scholars. These experiences have made me realize that art is something very personal to everyone and can be defined in many ways. In terms of supporting my work, I think that the arts journals helped me the most to grow professionally and academically. These assignments really helped me figure out the process and thought behind the work I was producing in my workshop. I used techniques that I will probably use for a while to figure out the process I’ll use in a project. I suggest that new Arts Scholars try and put a good amount of effort into these assignments to get the most out of the program.
SEMESTER 3
This semester has been my first in-person semester of Arts Scholars colloquium, which brought a lot of new experiences and opportunities to learn about how art influences ourselves and others. One of these learning opportunities was about how art can reshape or recontextualize an understanding of our learned history, biases, and beliefs. Art has always played a large role in many different cultures and communities. By experiencing all of these different kinds of art, we can get a glimpse into a culture/community that we may not have the clearest understanding of. Art like this can be an opportunity for us to unlearn our inherent biases and beliefs about other groups of people. Another thing we discussed in our colloquium class was the theoretical models and practical strategies for initiating the creative process. This can be done by making a mind map of all of your ideas and how they connect together. This way you can find the connecting factors of your ideas to see what you’re really interested in. Another one of these methods was using Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. This helps to narrow down ideas you have for your project. This is also a way we can incorporate feedback to revise and refine our ideas with greater depth and clarity.
In the NPR article “For kids grappling with the pandemic’s traumas, art classes can be an oasis”, the reader is shown examples of how children are finding safe havens to express themselves in their schools, and have a safe space to do so. Being in the Arts Scholars program, I understood this concept very well. Being in the program has helped me get through my own troubles with the pandemic, just as it helps these students as well.
One supporting course that I’ve found very interesting in my time as an Arts Scholar is my URSP250 course on Sustainable Cities. I found that there is a large connection between art and urban planning. Art can serve as a factor in creating large communal spaces within a city (Semenza). In this semester’s colloquium, there was a large focus on art bringing together people from different communities. By using art to promote public gathering spaces in planning, this idea is translated into a completely different area of study, yet proves this idea that was thought to only have benefits to those in the art world.
By interacting with fellow Arts Scholars, I’ve definitely seen the benefits of doing so. I have people to talk with about assignments if I have questions, people to bounce ideas off of, and friends to hang out with and collaborate with outside of class. For example, fellow scholar Gracie Guzman and I have the opportunity of choreographing a student production of the musical Heathers next semester! We both get to collaborate on the project and support each other throughout the process. There were times, however, where I wanted to be surrounded by other scholars, yet there were no opportunities available for me to do so.
This semester has offered me a few opportunities to contribute to the Scholars community. One of these was going on a field trip to the Glenstone Museum. This museum hosted a wide variety of outdoor sculptures and galleries. It was truly a one-of-a-kind experience, as the attendee had to walk through multiple outdoor trails to see certain sculptures. I’ve also had the opportunity to have many discussions with my peers about our Capstone projects for next semester, bouncing ideas off of each other and supporting each other throughout the process. I wish there were more opportunities for community engagement with the arts, potentially through presentations or volunteer work.
Being in Scholars, I didn’t encounter many people or concepts that challenged my previous beliefs or opinions. However, this did happen on rare occasions. For example, I was once presented with the idea that dance, as an art form, is very exclusive to physically disabled people. This interaction presented me with an opportunity to learn about methods of modifying dance for people who are physically disabled. These instances showed me the value of seeing things from new perspectives; that it is vital that these occurrences happen so that we can learn and be more considerate of others and their situations.
Jan C. Semenza, “The Intersection of Urban Planning, Art, and Public Health: The Sunnyside Piazza”, American Journal of Public Health 93, no. 9 (September 1, 2003): pp. 1439-1441.
SEMESTER 4
Of my overall ePortfolio for Arts Scholars, the piece that I am most proud of would probably be my capstone project. This project was a long time coming and took the most amount of time, work, and effort compared to the other assignments. While I took pride in all of these assignments, my capstone project had to be the culmination of all the skills I learned in Arts Scholars. It really helped me with my oral communication skills, in both a classroom/workshop seeting and a professional/presentational setting. It also helped me communicate some ideas of butoh and artistic expression through the workshop and presentations.
One example of my perception of art being changed was on my field trip to the Glenstone Museum last semester. I specifically remember one of the outdoor sculptures being a “sound sculpture.” This was an idea I was never exposed to before and found that it was something that was really impactful. Another example of this perception being changed was during my Pentathlon event of working as a dresser for the TDPS production of “Hookman.” Many people, including my younger self, don’t view the technical and production work of theater as art. However, working in a production setting really changed my persoective on this, particularly when I was working on special effects.
My capstone drew upon skills learned throughout my time in Arts Scholars in many ways. One that comes to mind in particular is that of brainstorming. I wasn’t super set on what I was going to do for my capstone when the time came. The mind mapping activity during colloquium of my third semester really helped me narrow down what I wanted to do. This skill/activity is something that i will continue to use throughout my creative process, no matter what the project is.
Arts Scholars has helped me deepen my artistic endeavors in many ways. My main artforms include theatre and dance. Arts Scholars has helped me to find connections with others who share the same interests! I can think of quite a few people who I have met in the program with the same interests as me. Arts Scholars has also helped me find a new appreciation for visual arts through the workshop I took this semester, Creating Characters. I found that while it is not necessarily my favorite artform, I can appreciate the work that goes into visual arts after experiencing it.
One example of me being able to demonstrate effective collaboration with artists of different backgrounds and perspectives is when I lead a workshop for my capstone. Many people of different experience levels and interests came to participate in it. In 2 one-hour workshops, I was able to communicate effectively some of the principles of butoh and how we can apply them to our daily lives. In the future, I think that my Scholars experience will inform how I go about creating different works of art. It has helped me by learning effective ways to give and receive feedback, which can also be applied to my academic career.