What are the skills needed for you to be a leader in the competitive world of art and design? Listen to a Keynote address by Cecelia Fitzgibbon, president of Moore College of Art & Design. Learn from women who’ve achieved success by taking risks, being flexible, developing a solid network and creating collaborative endeavors.

Cecelia Fitzgibbon // Moore Leadership Conference for Women in the Arts Keynote

Leaders gaze across the horizon of time, imagining attractive opportunities that are in store when the organization has arrived at a distant destination. Leaders have the desire to make something happen, to change the way things are, to create something no one has created. Listen to this brief reflection on the qualities of leadership by Cecelia Fitzgibbon, president of Moore College of Art & Design.

Cecelia Fitzgibbon // Reflections on the Qualities of Leadership

2014-03-18 Melissa-Dolin // Legal Issues for Artists & Designers

Ms. Dolin studied fine arts and communication design before going into law. A former legal intern for the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., she has combined her interest in the arts with her career as a lawyer to help benefit those involved in commercial litigations, as well as copyright and trademark cases.

Some highlights include:
    Licensing (protect  your rights as an artist)
    Copyright and trademark protection
    Visual artists’ rights (latest updates/trends)
    Internship rights and networking etiquette

Melissa Dolin // Legal Issues for Artists & Designers

Convocation speaker Risë Wilson, Director of Philanthropy for the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in New York City, told students that all change begins with a vision – personal change and “large-scale pattern breaking” change. Solutions emerge “from critical and creative thinking.”

“The ability to think this way is a skill…you have the capacity…” she said. “How do you foster visionary thinking? You make art and become a change maker.”

Referencing her work with The Laundromat Project - a project she founded which brings socially relevant and socially engaged arts programming to laundromats in neighborhoods – Wilson said it’s important to bring art to where people already are.

“I’ve learned that making art in your own backyard is a deceptively simple act,” she said. “There is power in applying art in your own community.”

She told students that over the next two to four years they should ask themselves: What am I ready to tackle? How can I remain gentle with myself? How can I milk every minute of my education at Moore?

“You are about to locate your voice and claim it and use it for the rest of your life,” she said. “You are a woman armed with the skills to change the world.”

Rise Wilson // Moore BFA Convocation

The City of Brotherly Love is home to "one of the most important design festivals in the country," according to the National Endowment for the Arts design director. The DesignPhiladelphia Festival features more than 120 (mostly free) public events highlighting the city's architecture, fashion, graphic design and other creative industries. From tours of open galleries to parties at private workshops, the festival is meant to raise awareness about design in our everyday lives.

The event is the brainchild of Hilary Jay, DesignPhiladelphia's founding director. Hear her speak to Moore's Graduate Students on their day of commencement.



Hilary Jay // Moore Graduate Commencement

2014 LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN IN THE ARTS keynote speaker Patricia Wilson Aden, President and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia

Saturday, October 18th 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

More than 100 women (and a few men!) learned how to nurture their artistic voices, envision the future, design 21st Century careers in the arts and overcome fear of success at Moore’s 2014 Leadership Conference for Women in the Arts.

Held on October 18, 2014, the daylong conference explored current topics related to college women who are, or who are interested in being, leaders in art and design fields.

Moore President Cecelia Fitzgibbon kicked off the morning by welcoming conference attendees from Moore and other colleges and organizations.

“Today you will all discover that you are leaders and hopefully learn how you might grow and think about your leadership in a different way,” she said. “Yes, leadership can be learned.”

She stressed that credibility is the foundation of leadership and something that is earned over time. “Credibility, respect and loyalty are earned when leaders demonstrate by their actions that they believe in the inherent self worth of others.”

Fitzgibbon then introduced keynote speaker Patricia Wilson Aden, President and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia, who spoke to students about being authentic, finding a way to push through adversity and be adventurous and strategic in their career choices.

"I've come to firmly believe that life is 10 percent circumstance and 90 percent what you do with the circumstance," she said. "Now that you've made your choices, how do you define success?"

Aden said she finds her passion, fulfillment and measure of success not in the amount of money she makes, but in the sense of adventure. "Know yourself well enough to not only know why you do what you do but to embrace the why of why you do it. Own it and celebrate it. Be purposeful in how you use your why. Talent alone is not enough to compete or succeed in today's cultural marketplace."

Following her remarks, students broke into the first of three breakout sessions on a variety of topics led by strong female leaders and artists, including Ellen Owens, Dr. Judith Weinstein and Moore students and alumni.

During one breakout session, Moore alumna Kia Weatherspoon ’10, Interior Design, emphasized the power of networking, building relationships, being sincere and smiling.

“Be the best version of yourself all the time,” she said. “You have to believe in yourself.”

Delia Ascher, a first-year Fashion Design student, attended a session about conflict resolution for women in leadership. She said she learned how to appropriately handle complicated business situations.

“It was important to learn tips on how to resolve conflicts as a woman,” she said. “Women aren’t always as respected in the business world. I would like to be an entrepreneur and own my own small business one day, so it’s important to learn about the business world.”

Flor Jazmin Gutierrez, a junior Curatorial Studies major, said she learned that “there are a lot of people going through a turning point with combining what they learned at school with the professional world. Everything adds up to figuring out what your core values are and that develops you as a person, personally and professionally.”

A lunch and panel discussion held in the Great Hall was moderated by President Fitzgibbon and featured Beth Feldman Brandt, Executive Director of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation; Magda Martinez, Director of Programs & Community Engagement at Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial; Rachel McCausland, Manager of Leadership & Legacy Giving at Opera Philadelphia; and Laurie McGahey, Director of Development at the James Michener Museum.

The panelists spoke about their career trajectories, how they took advantage of opportunities, mistakes they had made professionally and their leadership philosophies.

“How you take advantage of opportunities is really important,” Martinez told the students. “How you take advantage of your education right now will reap rewards for so long. All things are connected in the end. To know a little about everything is a good thing.”

The conference concluded with a networking reception in Fox Commons.

Patricia Wilson Aden - Leadership Conference for Women in the Arts

Moore is pleased to announce that Judith Tannenbaum will be this year’s Commencement speaker and will be receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the College. Tannenbaum was named The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum’s first curator of contemporary art in 2000. In 2002, she became the Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art, the Museum’s first endowed position, which she held until 2013. She recently relocated to Philadelphia but continues her connection to RISD as Adjunct Curator. Moore’s 165th Commencement will be held on Sunday, May 18 at 11 am in Aviator Park, across from the College.

Tannenbaum has organized numerous exhibitions focusing on painting, sculpture, video, and interdisciplinary work--with a particular interest in connections between visual art and performance and relationships among fine art, craft, and design. Exhibitions and publications for RISD include Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast (2014), Painting Air: Spencer Finch (2012); Lynda Benglis (2010); Styrofoam (2008); Beth Lipman: After You’re Gone (2008); Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the present (2006); Betty Woodman: Il Giardino dipinto (2005); Island Nations: New Art from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Diaspora (2004); On the Wall: Wallpaper by Contemporary Artists (2003); and Jim Isermann: Logic Rules (2000).

From 1986 to 2000, Tannenbaum served variously as curator, associate director, and interim director at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. As interim director of ICA in 1989-90, she became the spokesperson for the defense of public funding for the arts and artistic freedom in relation to the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition originated by ICA.  Among the shows she curated for ICA are: Glenn Ligon:Unbecoming (1998), PerForms (1995) featuring the work of Janine Antoni, Charles Ray, and Jana Sterbak; Vija Celmins (1992), a retrospective exhibition that toured nationally; and Interactions (1991), a large group shows about collaborations between the visual and performing arts.

In January, 2014, Tannenbaum was honored by the Frick Center for the History of Collecting for her contribution to the book Get There First, Decide Promptly: The Richard Brown Baker Collection of Postwar Art (Yale University Art Gallery/Yale University Press, 2011). The book won the Sotheby’s Book Prize for a Distinguished Publication on the History of Collecting in America.

Judith Tannenbaum // 2014 BFA Commencement Speech

(Philadelphia, PA) – Moore College of Art & Design is pleased to announce that Susan Fisher Sterling will be this year’s Commencement speaker and will be receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the College. Sterling is Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. She has built her career and the stature of the museum around the message of equity for women through the example of excellence in the arts.

Moore’s 166th Commencement will be held on Sunday, May 17 at 11 am in Aviator Park, at the corner of Race Street and The Parkway, across from the College.

When she signed on as associate curator of the new museum in 1988, Sterling had just graduated from Princeton University with an MA and a Ph.D. in Art History, specializing in modern and contemporary art. As the museum’s associate curator, curator of modern and contemporary art and then chief curator/deputy director, she organized and oversaw exhibitions and publications on a wide range of contemporary women artists and topics for the museum for 20 years. These included well-received monographic exhibitions of artists Carrie Mae Weems, Sarah Charlesworth, Chakaia Booker, Hollis Sigler, and Niki de Saint Phalle, and others.

Standouts among her thematic exhibitions are two cutting-edge international shows focused on contemporary women artists from Brazil, UltraModern and Virgin Territory. She also was the force behind bringing major traveling exhibitions to the museum, including Inside the Visible, A History of Women Photographers, and WACK: Art and the Feminist Revolution.

Sterling’s final projects as chief curator/deputy director were Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography (2009), a ground-breaking look at modern and postmodern photography, and the creation of the New York Avenue Sculpture Project (2010), a public-private partnership featuring changing installations of monumental public art by contemporary women in the heart of Washington, D.C.

She has authored many brochures, catalogues, and books during her tenure at NMWA, and most recently contributed an essay to Eva Hesse 1965, published by Yale University Press in 2013.

During her five-year tenure, the NMWA has flourished despite tough times. In 2012-13, NMWA marked its 25th anniversary with major celebrations and accomplishments. The most important of these came in September, 2013 when NMWA achieved its Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment goal of $50 million.

Among Sterling’s honors are Orders of Merit from Brazil and Norway, the President’s Award of the Women’s Caucus for Art and selection in 2011 as one of ArtTable’s 30 most influential professional women in the visual arts. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, American Alliance of Museums, College Art Association, ArtTable, QM2 Directors Roundtable and the International Women’s Forum.

2015 Moore Commencement by Susan Fisher Sterling

In this talk Helen Haynes, Interim Director of Exhibitions and Programs with the African American Museum in Philadelphia, talks about the women featured in Demetria Royals' film "Conjure Women," including the Urban Bush Women.

Helen Haynes: African American Women Artists & Connections to the Past

In discussing the films, "Guerrillas in Our Midst" and "The Heretics," Debra Zimmerman, Director of Women Make Movies, shares some thoughts and statistics on the lack of opportunities for women artists in the art and film industries. 

Debra Zimmerman: The Challenges Women Artists & Filmmakers Still Face in 2016

"Learning to Swallow" is Danielle Beverly's powerful film about artist Patsy Desmond's struggle with being bipolar.  In her talk, Dr. Kaimal cites recent research on the impact of Art Therapy, connecting it to Patsy's story. 

Dr. Girija Kaimal: The Impact of Art As Therapeutic Tool

Artist Diane Burko and Dr. Ann Sutherland Harris, co-founder of Women’s Caucus for Art, speak of their experiences in working with Alice Neel.  Dr. Harris has written about the 20th century portrait artist and curated an exhibition of her work in Los Angeles.

Diane Burko & Dr. Ann Sutherland Harris Reflect on FOCUS & Alice Neel

HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT AND COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
Ingrid Schaffner is an American curator, art critic, writer, and educator, specializing in art history. She is currently at work on the 57th Carnegie International (Ci18), which will open at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, in fall 2018.

Known for the breadth of her art historical knowledge and her exceptional collaborations with artists such as Richard Artschwager, Barry LeVa, Karen Kilimnik, Maira Kalman, and Anne Tyng, Schaffner’s work often coalesces around themes of archiving and collecting, photography, feminism, and alternate modernisms—especially Surrealism. Her many significant monographic and thematic exhibitions have brought attention to under-recognized artists and little-explored themes and practices in the art world. From 2000 to 2015, Schaffner directed the exhibition program at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the leading museums dedicated to exhibiting the innovative art of our time.  Click here http://ingridschaffner.com/about to read more about Ingrid Schaffner

2017 Moore Commencement by Ingrid Schaffner

Moore College of Art & Design’s ROI (Resources. Opportunities. Inspiration.) hosted Creative Business Contracts on November 15, 2017. Two legal experts and a creative business owner spoke on a panel discussion covering best practices for contracts (what to avoid, ways to protect yourself, and some stories). 

This panel featured: Elizabeth Sigety, Attorney at FoxRothschild, Corinne Militello, Attorney at Ballard Spahr, Ali King, Owner of Groundswell Greetings, and Holly Flanagan, Managing Director of Gabriel Investments (Moderator).

ROI 11-15-2017

Creative Business Contracts

Artist Janine Antoni provided the Commencement address at Moore's 169th Commencement May 12, 2018.
 
Janine Antoni is a visual artist who was born in Freeport, Bahamas in 1964. She received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is known for her unusual processes. Her body is both her tool for making and the source from which her meaning arises. Antoni’s early work transformed materials like chocolate and soap, and used everyday activities like bathing, eating and sleeping as sculptural processes. She carefully articulates her relationship to the world, giving rise to emotional states that are felt in and through the senses. In each piece, no matter the medium or image, a conveyed physicality speaks directly to the viewer’s body.
 
Her work shows nationally and internationally. Antoni has exhibited at numerous major institutions including documenta14, at the Fridericianum, Kassel, the Venice Beinnale, the Whitney Biennial, the Johannesburg Biennial, the Istanbul Biennial, and the Kwangju Biennial. Her work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Sammlung Goetz, Munic; and AstruoFearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo. Presently showing at The Met Breuer and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
 
Antoni is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 1998, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2011, and a 2012 Creative Capital Artist Grant.
 
Antoni currently resides in New York and is represented by Luhring Augustine, NY,  and Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco.
 
Antoni received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts at Commencement.

2018 Moore Commencement by Janine Antoni

Moore College of Art & Design prepares students for lifelong learning and leadership in the fine arts, design arts, art history, art education and curatorial studies. As the first and only art and design college for women, Moore advances the role of women in the visual arts and ensures their success by bridging the worlds of education and work. As a leader in the arts and cultural communities, Moore promotes the visual arts through distinctive education and gallery programs.

Moore College

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