Sculpture, Architecture and Abstraction

Anderson Ranch’s Facilitated Studio Practice approach provides artists the opportunity to work on independent projects while receiving regular one-on-one mentoring and critique sessions with Anderson Ranch artistic staff and interns. Each participant receives an assigned studio space, orientation and access to equipment, as well as five hours of weekly technical guidance in the Ranch’s state-of-the-art facilities. This program affords artists the experience enjoyed by national and international artists who access our state-of-the-art studios. Participants may expand their practices, take artistic risks, try new media or complete works for exhibition. Applicants must submit project proposals or portfolios for approval. A limited number of participants will be accepted and rigorous health and safety standards, as well as social distancing requirements, must be followed. *Studios are open 24 hours a day and on weekends for students enrolled in multiple weeks, with limited use of equipment due to safety requirements. The machine room is only available when monitored - weekdays 9 AM-5 PM & Tues./Thurs. 7-9 PM. Facilitated Studio Practice winter sessions run January 9-27 and participants may register for one, two or all three weeks. Cost is $1,000 per week.  Private dorm rooms are available at Anderson Ranch for one, two or three weeks for an additional fee; please inquire for details and availability. Contact Liz Ferrill to apply: lferrill@andersonranch.org  

Throughout the history of art, steel is a material commonly associated with industry, violence, and strength. This workshop challenges such connections by investigating ways that steel can become visually delicate, and inventing new meanings and visual relationships through combining steel with materials that contain opposite characteristics. Exercises address both technical and creative inquiries regarding how steel is cut, shaped, and physically joined, as well as how to challenge material assumptions when steel becomes a secondary rather than primary compositional element. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

Raw and Cooked is a materials lab exploring five techniques of material invention: densify, reconfigure, transform, design, and cultivate. This class encourages experimentation with traditional techniques of production including casting, papermaking, and weaving. Accompanying lectures on garbology, vernacular architecture, secondary-use design, and current industrial models of material manufacture help us to understand both physical properties and their interconnected social, political, and ethical meanings. Dispensing with the notion of nature as a standing supply of raw materials, this course exercises art in a circular economy by sourcing surplus, waste, and by-products as the resources for making which contain inherent potential for meaning.