The Weissman Visiting Artist Program and the Dayton Artist in Residence Program bring outstanding artists to Connecticut College.
Maya Lin, Faith Ringgold, Sol LeWitt, Mary Heilman, Elena Sisto, Alex Rubio, Sophie Kahn and many other artists have contributed to discussions, lectures and workshops that directly impact our students.
The Dayton Artist in Residence Program enables students to encounter and learn from artists and performers who are not typically accessible in an academic setting, giving them the opportunity to explore a wider variety of artistic approaches and techniques.
In 2017, the Weissman Visiting Artist program brings an exhibition by artist Kent Monkman and lecture by Claudia Hart.
In 2016, designated as "The Hip Hop Year," the Dance Department through the Dayton Artist-in-Residence Program brought Rennie Harris Puremovement, Ladies of Hip Hop and others to campus for master classes, artist talks, dance workshops and performances.
In 2013-2014, the department of art presented two exhibitions by the Artists-in-Residence. Sophie Kahn’s “Shards” and Alex Rubio’s “Abstract Experiment” were on display in the galleries of Cummings Arts Center. As part of “Abstract Experiment,” Rubio created a one large-scale work on site with the assistance and collaboration of Connecticut College painting and drawing students. Read the Oct. 22, 2013, news release, "Artists-in-Residence host dual exhibitions exploring technology, Latin American culture".
In the 2010-2011 academic year, those brought to campus included Michael Rees, an American artist doing sculpture, installation, animation and interactive computing. The Weissman Visiting Artists Program included an exhibition, "Peripheries," by Shauna Merriman, clay artist, and a visit by Clive King, drawing artist, who held a drawing marathon for art majors.
Light and Image series
The Dayton Residency made possible the Light and Image Series, 2007, which included an exhibit of the camera obscura by photographic artist and educator Thomas Mezzanotte, a public lecture, "When This You See: Photography, History, Memory," by cultural critic and historian Geoffrey Batchen, and an exhibit by eight contemporary artists titled "Light and Image: The Object in View."
Interactive art exhibit
Camille Utterback, a pioneering performance artist and programmer in the field of interactive installation, was the Weissman Visiting Artist to the art department in Spring 2005. Her exhibition, "Untitled 5: External Measures Series," was a computer-generated work in which the viewer "became" the artwork. She also critiqued student projects in the Ammerman Center for Arts & Technology and the art department.
Grant spurs innovative arts curriculum
In 2005, the College received a generous grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation to develop an arts curriculum with a focus on collaborative and multidisciplinary teaching and to build upon the strengths of the visual and performing arts curriculum at the College. A series of new multidisciplinary courses, taught by faculty teams and visiting artists, have since been offered at all levels, including freshman and senior seminars. One intermediate course, "Dimensional Color," explored temporal and spatial dimensions of color in film, architecture and contemporary visual art; another, "Designing the Body," explored the impact of clothing, furniture, and architecture on conceptions of the body.