The Exhibition
Your exhibition will come from a focused body of work completed during your senior year. You are required to 1) display the work in a professional manner with proper framing, mounting, or other presentation; 2) show your advanced studio professor a design/plan of how you will install your work in your location in the gallery; 3) install an exhibition with a sufficient quantity of work to clearly show the direction of your concepts and development of your skills; and 4) work in coordination with The Gund gallery staff and cooperate with your fellow students to professionally install and publicize your work.
Artist's Statement
The artist's statement is a two-page double-spaced document that describes your current body of work in terms of its content and form. Writing this statement is a means for you to better understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. When prepared thoroughly, this document also serves as the foundation for the more thorough artist talk on your work, which is part of the senior exercise. You will receive a departmental handout to help guide you through this process.
Wall Statement
The wall statement can be derived from your artist's statement. This short statement (about 200 words) will be on display in your exhibition and should inform viewers of your concepts, questions and process as a means to further understand the work in front of them.
The Artist Talk
For the artist talk, you will meet as a group in the gallery with your seminar section and the Department of Studio Art faculty. Each student will give a talk surrounded by their work where they address three general questions put to them by the department earlier in the semester. You will give a 12-15 minute presentation focused on the work exhibited. You will also show supplementary images of your work that are not part of the exhibition. These works may show how certain ideas or techniques were developed, or they may show directions that were explored but subsequently not followed. They should not be a general overview of your work at Kenyon.
Evaluation
After the completion of the artist talk, faculty members will score students in two categories: first, the quality of the work itself, on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being the highest; second, the strength of the talk and post-talk Q&A is scored 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest. (For example: quality of work = 6, artist talk = 2. Total = 4.0). The department averages the scores, in a confidential and anonymous manner, and faculty review the averages. To be awarded pass with distinction, a student must score a 4.5 or above. A student who scores above 2 passes the Senior Capstone; a student who scores 2 or below fails. Failure to attend the group presentation evening (during your seminar class period) will receive a zero for the four presentation points.
During the gallery installation, any student who is not prepared or fails at any time to act in a professional manner may be penalized by up to one point of their total score of their senior comprehensive exam.
Documentation
As a record of this show, you are required to submit five jpeg files in the folder on the server "Petra" labeled "Senior Artists Documentation." Each jpeg file must be 3000 pixels in the longest dimension. Then, print one page (8.5x11) containing five small labeled images, with the complete titles of the artworks, the media, physical dimensions of the artwork, and date completed. These images should be a minimum of 2" in size. The files should be in a folder labeled with your name within the documentation folder. To help you produce images of the quality required, attendance at the Department of Studio Art workshop on documentation is required.
If your project is primarily time-based, you must submit video documentation in the most current high-quality compressed format (h.264). Documentation must be submitted to Emily Zeller, who will determine if they are of sufficient quality. Failure to submit this documentation will be cause for failing the Senior Capstone. Documentation will be used to produce a catalog of the exhibition.
Notification
A letter telling you whether or not you passed the Senior Capstone will be emailed the Tuesday of exam week. Student scores are not given. After all seniors have completed the Senior Capstone, turned in their documentation, and filled out the department evaluation form, there will be an email announcement about who passed with distinction.
Expense Reimbursement
The studio art faculty is aware that art majors will have expenses associated with purchasing art supplies and that, at times, covering these costs can be difficult for our students. To help, all senior studio art majors are allocated $500 from the Mesaros Art Fund to help with the costs of creating work for their senior exercise exhibition.
Three options for that funding are:
- If you have items that can be ordered by the department for you, work with the administrative assistant to do this and have it deducted from your allocated funds.
- If you want to use the funds to pay for large format printing, note MESAROS (rather than your student ID#) on the printing log and the costs will be deducted from your allocated funds.
- Receipt reimbursement process: You may do this up to three times a year. It is due by the Friday after your opening.
a. Purchase supplies that support your senior capstone exhibition and save your receipts.
b. Complete the reimbursement form in Google Sheets or Excel using one line for each receipt. Print the form formatted to "fit to page" or "fit sheet on one page."
c. Use the art 3rd floor printer to scan one PDF file to yourself (check "prompt for more pages"): Scan the form and receipts with one receipt per page in the order listed on the form.
d. Email the one PDF file to the department administrative assistant to approve and send to accounting.
Equipment Funding
If a senior studio art major wishes to pursue projects that require expensive equipment they do not have (such as but not limited to technology), for their senior exercise, we would like to encourage students to work with their seminar professor to propose equipment purchases. Funding is limited, and a limited number of proposals will be granted. Unlike the $500 provided for each student to help with the costs of producing your exhibition of artwork, which is a reimbursement to the student, any purchases in this category would be made by the department, and the equipment would remain property of the department and Kenyon.
Guidelines for Exhibition Publicity to the Gallery
You will be working with The Gund gallery staff on your exhibition announcements, installation and opening reception. You are expected to submit requested elements on time. Details are available on The Gund contract.
The Gund Contract
The Gund will issue contracts that describe the logistics of your exhibition and the details of your “loan” of the work to the gallery. There will be portions for you to complete and sign before returning.
The gallery wall statement and "tombstone" labels will be posted near your work. You will create your wall statement and labels with your seminar professor and then submit them to the gallery.