For its first international residency, Nomad/9 MFA is joining forces with Laberinto Projects in El Salvador. Nomad/9 MFA’s 16 students are currently in El Salvador until November 19, 2017. This partnership exemplifies Nomad/9 MFA’s commitment to supporting regenerative culture through on-site engaged learning in locations throughout the Americas. Laberinto Projects is an arts, culture and education platform that fosters contemporary art practices, legacy preservation, social inclusion and dialogue in El Salvador, Central America and its diaspora. At the core of Laberinto Projects is the belief that artists are at the forefront of innovation and interdisciplinary discourse, and that art serves as a catalyst to shape civil society.
While in El Salvador, students are learning in various educational modalities, including participation in artists’ projects; a weaving workshop; seminar discussions; site visits and critiques of student work. Daily curricular activities are being shared with the public through social media. The curriculum for the residency includes four courses. “Art and Place, Reconsidered” is led by Muriel Hasbun, and addresses cultural memory, decolonization, identity, trauma and representation through contemporary art. “TechnoLab” is a hands-on weaving workshop with three of the remaining six master back strap weavers of El Salvador. It is facilitated by Caroline Lacey and is taught by Madeline Imberton, Margarita Laínez, Carmen Vega, Claudia Vega, and Ronald Vega. “Critique Exchange/MFA Projects” gives students time to respond to each others’ latest work, with insight from Nomad/9 mentors Mary Mattingly and Christy Gast. The residency will culminate with the “Distinguished Practitioner” class with Muriel Hasbun. In this course, students will learn about Hasbun’s artistic practice, about her archival efforts “against silence and forgetting” and about Laberinto Projects, her cultural memory initiative surrounding Central American art. Students will build upon the experience of the residency to imagine together the power of the laberinto archive as a site of creative, healing and educational potential.
Created in 2015, Nomad/9 MFA program is a low-residency program offered by the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, with high-impact curriculum that includes ecology, history and culture, and the craft-to-code technology continuum. The Nomad/9 MFA offers artists a revolutionary new way of engaging with their home community and other communities across the Americas, while preparing to address today’s most pressing cultural and social issues through their work. This singular MFA program is dedicated to regenerative culture and built for the 21st century with dynamic, cross-disciplinary, experiential coursework at sites throughout the Americas, including El Salvador, New York City, Oakland, CA, Miami, and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The public may follow the daily residency activities of the program in El Salvador on social media using the platforms listed below, as well as hear about events, deadlines and activities throughout the year.
For more information on Nomad/9 MFA, please visit www.nomad9mfa.org. Applications are now being accepted for the incoming summer 2018 cohort. Completed applications received by December 1st will receive notice of admission status within two weeks. Generous scholarships are available for applicants who submit before the January 15, 2018 priority deadline.
For more information on Laberinto Projects, please visit www.laberintoprojects.com.
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