Lisa Dent, adjunct graduate faculty member

By Lisa Dent

One beautiful day in the fall of 2010, I sat with eleven other people around a table on the third floor of CCAD’s Design Studios on Broad. Only recently acquainted with each person and unfamiliar with their background and knowledge, I scanned the room for signs of interest, apathy, or fear. All seemed present. I passed out copies of Roland Barthes’s essay “To the Seminar” and told them we would be reading this out loud together and then would discuss it for the next three hours. More confused looks. I officially started to love my new job.

As part of the requirements for CCAD’s new MFA program, students participate in my theory and criticism seminar. I prepare a list of required readings that will allow us to participate for several months in weekly discussions about the ideas that have inspired artists over the last 100 years. Scratching the surface of critical thinking about Western art is the goal. My hope is that each student will be inspired to discover more readings on his or her own later.

But first, they have to get through the ones I assign. By reading the Barthes essay together, I hoped to guide them through how this could go. I’d be less of a drill sergeant, more of a guide dog. Wait, now I’m a Labrador retriever? In any case, I looked to the great French literary theorist for a place to start. In his essay, Barthes proposes a scenario whereby all members of a seminar are on equal footing. The instructor, though sitting at the head of the table, does not have all the answers. We read through the essays together and find a way through them. There will be excitement, disappointment, and change. Although I’ve read these essays many times, I can still only look at them through my own knowledge and experience. How can I know what will come up for each of you? Together we will make this room a safe haven. Here we can talk, read, laugh, cry, argue, and confide in each other.

As I anticipated, the frustration soon revealed itself through a series of attempts to get me to shift my position. “Could you do a presentation with images of these artists’ works for us to see?” No, use the library. Keep reading and bring your thoughts to class. “I’m afraid that I’m not getting any of this at all. I’m so confused.” Of course you are. Keep reading. See you next week. I said in my first email to the class: sometimes you have to feel the burn.

So where do we find ourselves in relation to all of this theory six months later? I couldn’t tell you for sure. All of us are thinking about it every week. See how that worked? How fun is that?

Lisa Dent is an adjunct graduate faculty member at CCAD and the associate curator of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art. In 1992 she was a Helena Rubenstein Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and subsequently held curatorial positions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she completed its independent study program. Afterward, she was director of the Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York and worked as a freelance writer, art critic, and scenic designer. She has taught modern art history and design at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the University of California, Davis, and owned a gallery in San Francisco.

REFLECT: by James Lutz Associate Professor, Advertising & Graphic Design, & Mark Burleigh, Assistant Professor, Advertising & Graphic Design

By Duncan Snyder, Associate Professor, Photography and Graduate Studies, and President of Faculty Council

Over the past year, the faculty of CCAD has worked together to describe in detail the processes we use for teaching and learning here on campus. The last step in this work was to hone all that description and detail into a sort of manifesto we call the Learning Goals. It’s just seven simple words.

Create – Communicate – Connect – Reflect – Master – Risk – Impact

Whether you attended CCAD decades ago or are studying here now, whether you’re a member of the CCAD family or a distant associate, we think you’ll recognize these words (and more importantly, the actions behind the words) as a representation of who we are, what we expect, and what we aspire to at CCAD.

I personally think of the Learning Goals as a tool—a rudder, a shield, or even a Swiss Army knife. Whether in the classroom or the individual studio, in collaboration with others or out in the community, students and professors alike can use these goals to foster the CCAD spirit. Across campus, students and faculty are discovering the power of using these ideas on a daily basis and beginning to build a collective discussion on their experiences.

But even if you never set foot on campus, I think you’ll find the Learning Goals coming to mind the next time you meet a CCAD graduate. What makes them just a little bit different? It’s these seven words.

EDITOR’S NOTE: CCAD faculty members were invited to contribute images to represent each learning goal (all images are reproduced with permission). Click any image below to see it in full.