Featured Projects - Department of Art

The Featured Projects section of the UT Student Galleries pages hosts projects completed within classes offered at the University of Toledo Department of Art. Many of our classes involves students in community and social service projects that expand learning beyond the classroom.

Once Upon a place in toledo  -  aman mojadidi

Aman Mojadidi is an Afghan-American visual artist who uses personal experience and cultural studies to address conflict, identity, and globalization through art. His newest work, Once Upon a Place, features 70 personal accounts of immigration to the United States related by receivers in disused phone booths installed in New York’s Times Square. The work travels the week of September 11 to its first stop after Times Square — Toledo, Ohio — with the installation of three booths: one on UT’s main campus (Carlson Library) and two in downtown Toledo (Promenade Park and the downtown branch of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library).
Once Upon a Place in Toledo installed in Carlson Library on the main campus of the on the University of Toledo.
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Toledo Lucas County Public Library
Toledo Blade
Above Photo: Independent Collegian

Digital Billboards

From mid-October through mid-December, students from the University of Toledo’s Department of Art will display work on digital billboards throughout the city. Art students from the Time, Motion, Space class, joined by others representing the BFA program, have created fictional film stills to represent “Stories from Toledo.” These images are shown in varying locations around the city on twenty digital billboards over the course of at least two months. Student images are interspersed among the regular scheduled advertising throughout the period. The project is directed by Barry Whittaker, Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of New Media Design Practices at the University of Toledo.

SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY PHOTO CLASS PARTNERS WITH
​ARTS COMMISSION/ AMERICORP

UT Art students in a Social Documentary Photography class worked in partnership with the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo and AmeriCorp to help further Toledo’s Strategic Plan for Arts and Culture. The city’s plan is designed to “support cultural vibrancy, economic revitalization, and to connect and grow the rich network of creative life that exists in Toledo.”
 
Working with the Arts Commission, Professor Deborah Orloff and her students  volunteered their talents to help capture the stories of Toledo’s creatives and community leaders. Students  interviewed people in the community and captured the essence of their work through photographs. The students’ images were featured on the Arts Commission’s new website, in print materials, and in an exhibition at the Parkwood Gallery.
 
The Department of Art’s class was designed to expose students to the rich history of social documentary photography and allow students to experiment within the genre, while simultaneously working within the community in a professional capacity. The service-learning component of the course provided students with practical, hands-on experience working with regional agencies to support and enhance the local community. The class will also serve UT’s new Peace Studies program and become a regular offering in the Department of Art. 

WEARABLE CONDITIONS

The 3D Mixed Media class, under the direction of Lecturer and Gallery Director, Brian Carpenter, has produced Wearable Conditions from 2015 - 2017. WC is a fashion show formatted exhibition based on diseases, viruses, and disorders through wearable art. Students research, design, and create the wearable art by examining the intricacies of  a given disease and its impact on the world. The event is held in the GlasSalon in collaboration with the Toledo Museum of Art.  

Art and Engineering Wall

Students in Arturo Rodriguez's  printmaking class took on the large-scale project of designing and executing a 158' continuous mural on the wall outside the auditorium in Nitschke Hall, in the College of Engineering. The project was sponsored by Tom and Betsy Brady and they played vital role throughout the process. Students from the University of Toledo Department of Art joined students from the Toledo School for the Arts on the project. Translating a narrative, of the history of engineering and the college across the 158' blue expanse, became their task. They decided to create the mural, influenced by the simple designs of Charlie Harper, to tell the story of engineering, including events particular to UT. Silkscreen and hand coloring techniques were used on the mural. The sections of the design were applied with wheat paste and built across the linear space, ending with an Innovation - UT Rocket.

Arts DIPLOMACY
DAVE LOEWENSTEIN AND  THE FREDRICK DOUGLASS CENTER

Under the direction of Dr. Thor Mednick, Dave Loewenstein joined the Arts and Diplomacy class to create a mural at the Fredrick Douglass Center in Toledo. Dave is a muralist, printmaker and arts organizer based in Lawrence, Kansas. Dave works with communities to create a statement of their place and being. His murals can be found across the United States, and in Northern Ireland, South Korea and Brazil. Students int he UT Department of Art work with Dave and the community members at the center to design and create a mural unique to the center and their vision.

Service Learning

Learning responsibility through action

Downtown murals

Under the direction of Arturo Rodriguez, advanced printmaking classes have created large paper murals throughout downtown Toledo. Students work on large-scale designs, transferring them to plywood work surfaces that are then cut in relief and printed. Additional coloring techniques are used and the paper prints are secured to the buildings using a wheat paste  adherent.

Sculpture conservation

​Students in the summer sculpture course participate in conserving sculptures throughout the Northwest Ohio region. Tom Lingeman makes arrangements with local organizations and governmental agencies to clean and conserve that artworks. Time and weather conditions take a toll on the pieces and students bring them back to life as they learn the ins and outs required to conserve a large sculpture.

PArking Day     

Dozens of students and faculty members in the college converted five ordinary parking spaces into five spaces that showcase the arts.  Barbara Miner, chair of the Department of Art, said an event like PARK(ing) Day provides a deeper and richer connection to the city and its patrons.
 
“The students in each department have learned the concept of teamwork and collaboration throughout this project," Miner said. 
​
PARK(ing) Day was sponsored by the Toledo Uptown Business Association. For more information on PARK(ing) Day, visit http://parkingday.org/. 

MP3 Experiment     

Attendees at a Student Appreciation Day on main campus encountered students wearing headphones who, danced, jumped, crawled, ran and napped in unison as part of an Mp3 Experiment. "The Mp3 Experiment," was a performance event created by Improv Everywhere, the NYC-based group specializing in public spectacles.

Participants listened in unison to an Mp3 track that offered a series of whimsical directions to follow, which culminated in a balloon battle. The event presented a chance to act improvisationally with a diverse group of collaborators to create an unexpected performance for onlookers. It was a great chance to "play" creatively.

Urban Cairn

In 2009, ceramics artist Laurie Spencer was on campus to work with UT art students to develop a coil-built clay structure called “Urban Cairn.” 

“Urban Cairn” derives its name from its form. Cairns are conical structures that often served as markers in a number of ancient cultures. They can vary greatly in size and style, depending on materials and purpose. “Urban Cairn,” roughly 7-8 feet tall allows visitors to stand within it and experience its unique acoustical features as well. “Sounds resonate in a wonderful way inside the domes and particular tones will vibrate within your body when you talk or hum. It is a warm feeling of being enveloped by the sounds,” Ms. Spencer said.
 
The exact size and shape the dome ultimately takes will depend on a variety of factors. Ms. Spencer provided the initial design and demonstrated construction techniques to the students. But it is the students who built the structure, adding their own collective creative spark as they went. The structure was built by stacking 3-4 foot sections of clay, rolled into rope-like shapes. After that, the clay was allowed to dry and then the structure was  fired in a kiln built onsite around the piece itself. Under the supervision of Ms. Spencer, the students also built the fiberglass kiln.

Sketchbox Toledo

Sketchbox Toledo was exhibited by the Installation and Performance class, throughout the city, in metroparks, libraries, and businesses.Building a sense of community through an artistic expressive experience was the goal. The public were invited to draw, doodle, write and reflect, adding to the collective experience.