How Do You Have a Crit on Zoom? New York Academy of Art Students Are Finding Out—With the Help of Some High-Powered Visiting Critics

As much of the world entered lockdown, the New
York Academy of Art, too, closed its studios and locked its
doors, beginning on March 22. But social distancing hasn’t stopped
the school from holding weekly critiques for its MFA students—and
it’s bringing in a host of high-powered artists, critics, and
dealers to assist.

So far, students have had one-on-one Zoom meetings with artists
Eric Fischl and Tschabalala Self, both academy faculty members, and
painter Natalie Frank. Coming up soon on the schedule are artists
John Currin, Mickalene Thomas, and Rachel Feinstein; dealer Alia
Williams of Jeffrey Deitch, critic Jillian Steinhauer, and
curator Yvonne Force Villareal.

“We have tons of asks out to various artists, curators,
gallerists, and critics, and the list is updating constantly,”
Angharad Coates, the academy’s director of communications, told
Artnet News in an email.

“The biggest advantage is that we are now not limited by
geography. Normally someone has to be physically present in New
York to visit studios or to give a talk—nor by timing. Normally, to
give a crit, you have to be free for three to four hours on a
Wednesday afternoon, which is a big commitment,” Coates added.
“Now, we can ask people who are anywhere on earth, and most people
have lots of available free time.”

“We had our director of operations driving around the city and
delivering art materials like sculpture clay to students’
individual apartments,” Coates said. “We are fully committed to
making sure that students can continue to create work at home, even
under the circumstances.”

Although the semester has been dramatically disrupted, the
school is nonetheless doing its best to maintain a sense of
normalcy and to provide students with a well-rounded studio art
education.

Recreating the in-person experience of the critique at home is a
challenge. A visiting critic can’t just walk in and survey the
studio, seeing what catches their eye. Instead, students provide
JPGs of their work beforehand. Each visiting critic meets
one-on-one with 10 students for about 20 minutes each.

“I was curious about how it would work,” painter and visiting
critic Natalie Frank told Artnet News. “It was strangely intimate
actually, for not being in person—maybe because you could see them
in their home environment.”

For some students, the distant aspect of a Zoom meeting has been
a positive experience. “With the in-person dynamic removed I
was less intimidated and therefore could remove myself and be more
objective about my work and the conversation,” said first-year
student Dena Sturm in an email to Artnet News.

Zoom has its drawbacks too, of course. There are poor internet
connections, leading to cut off sentences and lost video feeds. And
nothing can compare to seeing a work in person.

“It’s hard to see the materiality of the surfaces, especially in
thicker, more expressionistic painting,” Frank said, “but in
broader strokes you could have a pretty informative and meaningful
conversation.”

Ultimately, the academy recognizes that a studio education needs
to happen, well, in the studio, so it is extending the semester,
which normally ends in May, into the summer.

So long as federal and state directives permit, the school will
reopen its studios in June. The plan is to hold final thesis
critiques in person from June 30 to July 2, and to stage the
traditional thesis exhibition afterward, making the in-person show
available online as well.

In the meantime, the weekly critique sessions are helping tide
students over as they work from makeshift home studios.

“It’s a brave new world,” Coates said. “But we’ve been thrilled
at how adaptable everyone has been, both faculty and students.”

The post How Do You Have a Crit on Zoom? New York Academy of
Art Students Are Finding Out—With the Help of Some High-Powered
Visiting Critics appeared first on artnet News.