☆Semester 3 Reflection☆

Semester Three

This semester Art reshaped my understanding of who can do what. I think we all have these preconceived notions of how things work in the world which sometimes restrict how we see art. When we played drums during colloquium I was shocked to see a white woman teaching African drums but as the night slowly led on I learned that art really knows no bounds and can reach out to anyone no matter where it originated from.

I think the more structured parts of initiating the creative process like through research are very insightful. The colloquium where Irene walked us through using the university library resources was great! We also gave a lot/received feedback through colloquim mostly on our capstones. Through these activities (like most recently presenting our individual capstone videos for critique) I was able to better understand the goals and scope of my project. I used the feedback to reassess my project as a whole.
Throughout this semester a lot of the artists that I follow and support through social media started fundraisers for humanitarian relief in Gaza whether that was by themselves or with other creators. Through colloquium, I’ve learned more about the value of art but also organizing collective efforts through the medium as well which helped me understand comprehensively what these individuals were doing.
This semester I needed to fulfill my comms credit as well as something for arts scholars so I decided to take THET285. The class was very abstract and loose with its course material and was also mostly based on seminars, which are both things scholars prepared me for! I’m really glad scholars led me to take this class because it ended up being an excellent learning experience and wildly different from anything I’ve experienced in college so far.
Having connections through arts scholars was really helpful when it came to my studies this semester. I took a class as an elective and was able to reconnect with another scholar's student. I was kind of struggling with the material so it was very helpful having someone around to study and check work with.
I didn’t do much pertaining to working in the arts scholars community this semester which is something I need to work on. I did however continue to do my part by attending all required events and engaging meaningfully with course material which I found really enriched my experience.
I’ve yet to have my beliefs challenged by other art scholars. Not to say that it can’t happen, but I’m open to whatever may come my way through the program. So far though I do think hearing from a wealth of perspectives has helped me understand more about others around me. The panel we attended during one colloquium had a diverse group of folks to learn from about integrating art into our future careers. 

This semester did a good job of setting us up. Not only preparing us for our capstone projects but for the rest of our academic career (and even beyond).