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Press Releases
Artist Joyce Scott to Address Stevenson University’s Incoming Students, August 19
August 10, 2009
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Acclaimed
visual and performing artist Joyce J.
Scott will address Stevenson
University’s incoming class of freshmen and transfer students at the
University’s annual Convocation on Thursday, August 20, 2009, at 5 p.m. in
the Gymnasium on the Greenspring campus. Stevenson will also
honor three Maryland educators—nominated by this year’s incoming students—for
their commitment to excellence in teaching
Convocation serves
as the official opening of the academic year and as the final opportunity for
families to spend time with the incoming class. The day begins with move-in for
resident students and includes orientation activities to prepare students and
parents for the beginning of university life.
Joyce J. Scott is
recognized as one of the most significant artists living and working in
Baltimore today. Sculptor, jeweler, weaver, printmaker, installation artist,
performance artist, and educator, Scott has exhibited widely across the country
and draws from influences as wide-ranging as her media: from African and Native
American experiences to comic books, television, popular culture, and the contemporary
culture on the streets of her urban neighborhood.
For more than
three decades, this multi-talented artist and provocateur has created objects
of exceptional skill and beauty while offering her own distinctive commentary
on challenging social issues such as racism, violence, sexism, and stereotypes.
“I believe in messing with stereotypes, prodding the viewer to reassess,” she
has written. “It’s important to me to use art in a manner that incites people
to look and then carry something home—even if it’s subliminal—that might make a
change in them … My work is not meant to be openly offensive. I skirt the
borders between comedy, pathos, delight, and horror. I invite the viewer to
laugh at our collective selves.”
Scott received a
B.F.A. degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an M.F.A. in
crafts from Institute Allende in Mexico, with further study at Rochester
Institute of Technology in New York and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in
Maine. Scott’s earliest art lessons were
received at home from her mother, the renowned fiber artist Elizabeth
Talford Scott, who created quilts with unconventional appliqué and embroidery
techniques. Scott was also inspired from an early age by three generations of
basketmakers, quilters, storytellers, and wood, metal, and clay workers. At the
center of this generative heritage was the influence of Africa, where the
creation of utilitarian objects of beauty is everyday practice.
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