Semester Reflections

Semester 3

Throughout my third semester, I've felt lucky to experience art forms that I've never used before. For example, the African drum circle was an incredible learning experience. Being able to participate was much more impactful than a lecture. Opportunities like this prove how art can reshape or recontextualize an understanding of our learned history, biases, and beliefs. Art can introduce someone to things in a much more immersive way. Because art is such a personal form of expression, it teaches people things in a much more emotional and intimate way. This can rewire the way people feel about certain ideas. 

My creative process has been challenged throughout this semester. The method that worked best as I was trying to initiate the creative process for my capstone project was looking for inspiration around me. My capstone project was inspired by something I saw on campus that had a memorable impact on me. Because I listened to that feeling, I feel very proud of my final capstone topic and I am excited to work on it next semester.

Feedback from peers, mentors, and professors was integral for capstone topic curation. Hearing from another perspective is very valuable for any project, and I appreciated and took all the feedback I received into consideration. Negative feedback can be hard to hear sometimes but it is the most helpful for refining our ideas. For example, I received feedback that my ideas were good, but not specific enough. This made me realize that I had chosen a topic that I was not confident in. As a result, I decided to pivot to a different topic. Nobody wants to hear negativity towards their ideas, but hearing someone else validate my concerns helped push me towards a different topic that I am much more confident in. Even giving feedback to others can help you notice what to improve in your own project. 

While this is not specifically a news-related item, something that sticks out to me that describes art as a mechanism of expression is RuPaul’s Drag Race. I started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race after seeing Monet X Change for my Arts Scholars field trip this semester. I had never watched the show before, but after seeing Monet I became absolutely entranced by the talent and creativity that goes into the art of drag. In RuPaul’s Drag Race, you hear queens talking about drag as their form of escape. Many of them express their difficulties of being a queer person in America, and how drag has helped them confront their struggles. Using different mediums, including fashion, makeup, dancing, and performance, they comment on important issues in the US like politics and inequality. These queens are given a spotlight to express their beliefs and make it incredibly captivating and impactful for the audience using humor and talent. These societal issues are very prevalent, so it is imperative for them to be confronted. The Arts program introduced me to this incredible art form and I am incredibly grateful that I was given the opportunity to see Monet X Change at the Clarice.

One thing that I related in my head was the idea of creative processes and the scientific method. In my information science classes, the scientific method influences how we carry out a research project. It is very similar to the creative process that we navigated through while articulating our Capstone projects. My favorite supporting course has been Art History 201, Art and Society in the West from the Renaissance to the Present. My professor was passionate about every topic which made the course extremely interesting. I learned about the characteristics of Renaissance-era art which gives us more insight into the attitudes of people at the time. This was especially prevalent during the colloquium before election day where we talked about how historical information can influence how we interpret a piece of art. 

While being an Arts Scholar, I have made some friends that help make colloquium more enjoyable. It makes a world of difference to have friends in class who make learning more exciting. Especially at events, having people there that you are excited to see helps promote involvement. For example, I had the best time on my field trip to see Monet X Change because I got to go with my friend in Arts Scholars.

I had a great time this semester participating in TA discussions and TRYathlons. For one TRYathlon I helped paint a UMD Arts banner. It was an opportunity to meet and get closer to fellow Arts Scholars while working on a project that represented our program. I wish I was able to attend more events, but it is more difficult to plan now that I live on South Campus.

So far, Arts Scholars has introduced me to people who broadened my perspective and reinforced my personal beliefs and opinions. While everyone in the program has unique experiences and opinions, there is a shared appreciation for art which I believe goes hand-in-hand with a certain set of beliefs. I could especially notice this during the lecture before election day and lectures at the beginning of the semester where we would brainstorm societal issues at different levels. In these moments I felt connected with my classmates regarding these social issues because we all approached them with compassion. Even if there are differences in beliefs, I do not doubt that we would be able to handle them maturely. I do believe it is crucial to challenge your understanding of certain topics by listening to other perspectives. The TA discussions allowed us to do this and share our beliefs with our classmates. In situations where we were giving peer feedback to each other, different viewpoints provided the most beneficial critiques.