Making and Being

Making and Being

Making and Being: Embodiment, Collaboration, and Circulation in the Visual Arts is a new interactive workbook by Susan Jahoda and CERN-member Caroline Woolard that offers a framework for teaching art that emphasises contemplation, collaboration and political economy.

It is based on teaching strategies that Susan and Caroline have adapted to spaces of learning which range from self-organised workshops for professional artists to college-level Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts programs.

Caroline says “the book is about the techniques that are necessary to become an artist but also who you become if you learn how to collaborate and think more holistically about where your projects goes, and how to share something so it will go widely around the world.”

There is an emphasis on “both the technical skills as well as an awareness of the world that an artist is entering into.”

This holistic arts education approach focuses on interconnections, as the introduction states “How can you talk about making a new project without talking about labor conditions? How can you talk about labor conditions without talking about payment? It’s time to address your artistic labor, your budgets, your storage units, your gifts, and your well-being.”

The book covers themes that include copyright, the ways an audience encounters art and how an art project is narrated; and there are a host of practical worksheets such as a Community Economies Budget, a Barter Agreement and a Standard Deviation Activity (which helps artists think about when and if, they would work for free).

Materials are available on-line at https://makingandbeing.com/. You can purchase a copy from Pioneer Works.

For more information, contact CarolineWoolard at Gmail dot com.