Ottavia Steckel
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
This semester at UMD was a really great experience for me. My courses were challenging, yet interesting. Coming into the semester, I had some expectations of the workload, and my expectations were pretty similar to reality. I knew that having each class online would require me to do a lot of reading and note taking on my own time, which was definitely true. I honestly expected some of my classes to have more work than they did. I think the structure and delivery of each of my classes was different than what it would be in a typical year. But, it was not a surprise to have zoom meetings once a week for half of my classes, and lecture recordings for the other classes. I was somewhat surprised at the amount of graded assignments for certain classes such as ENGL101 and COMM107, which both had a lot of big assignments throughout the semester. In contrast, some of my other classes only had exam grades which also came as a surprise.
This semester, I took a few business related classes that relate to my major, marketing. The class that I have seen the strongest connection to the concepts we are discussing in CPSA, is my intro to business value chain class. This class discussed the various aspects of business such as finance, management, operations, supply chain, and marketing. In CPSA we have discussed how people perceive things differently. Whether it be a piece of art, a song, or even a product in a store, the way that someone views something can be completely unique to the person. In my business class, we also discussed this, which is why things like market research are so important. I chose the major marketing because I knew I could tie in my creative and artistic side, so seeing this parallel between the courses already is really exciting. This class also connects to CPSA because we learned to appreciate different opinions and cultures. Embracing differences of opinions is important for businesses as well as artists.
CPSA so far, has been different than what I expected. I did not expect to cover such socially relevant topics. The overarching idea of activism is so exciting to see in a class that is fundamentally about art. I think the idea of using art as a form of social change is something that needs to continue to be discussed. I think I was expecting this class to be a lot more surface-level about art and different artists, but it was definitely much deeper than that. I also was not expecting to have assignments such as pentathlon which pushed me to explore areas of art that I typically don’t. While I was expecting to see guest speakers and artists, I wasn’t expecting the broad range of such interesting speakers we had, like the musician/poets, or the podcast producer.
I lived in Bel Air on campus this semester, and although I didn’t have many expectations going in, it was much different than I thought it was going to be. I think most of this had to do with the restrictions and differences special to this year because of Corona. I expected to see more people in my hall and lounge. I also expected to meet a lot more people than I ended up meeting. Obviously, this was because of things being closed and not having in person classes. I really liked the independence that came with living on campus this semester, and defiantly hope to continue living there next year. I think there is something very valuable to having to manage your time well and fend completely for yourself. The COVID-19 crisis and the university’s response have mostly aligned with my expectations so far. I was honestly surprised we did not get sent home at the beginning of the semester, but as time went on our numbers fell and everyone began to fall into a more comfortable feeling about the semester. I think the precautions including, single dorms, online classes, closed dining halls, and closed buildings around campus truly helped the situation.
Looking back, I think the most valuable thing I learned in CSPA this semester, is that we are all very similar and we all experience similar emotions and things, which is very comforting to me. This became relevant to me each time I would look at our CPSA group chat or the comments on zoom. Each time, someone would say something that I truly related to. I saw this even more during the TA times in class. Each class, my group would go through our “thorns and roses” for the week. Doing this helped me learn about each person on a deeper level. It also helped me learn that we all really aren’t that different. We all have ups and downs, we all struggle to get school work done, we all have embarrassing or funny things happen to us, and we can all relate in some way. This was truly my favorite part of each class, and it made me wish we were in person to truly experience that time together. I will carry this into the future with each class or group I become part of. Maybe it is just me, but I often feel like everyone much more different from each other than we really are.
Semester 2
Freshman Time Capsule
During my first year in art scholars, I was able to make a few relationships with great mentors that I am grateful for. Although we have never met in person, I feel like I have gotten to know some people personally during the year. Gabi was extremely helpful when discussing classes and requirements for my schedule next year. I am glad to have a comfortable relationship with her, because she is one of few faculty members who I can confidently say knows who I am. My workshop leader Ally, is a great mentor and role model. She was so welcoming and fun to see each week. I really feel like I have a relationship with her that would allow me to feel super comfortable approaching her with any advice I needed. The same things goes with my peer mentor Jackie. She was very helpful the whole year with any loose ends or random questions I needed answers to. While it was difficult to make amazing relationships over zoom, all three of the people I mentioned, made it easier by reaching out and being super welcoming. For example, Jackie reached out over text multiple times and even offered to meet up in person a few times. I would recommend that future students take up as many opportunities as they can to meet people next year. You never know who you may click with.
Adjusting to college was definitely difficult this year. I found living in Bel Air Hall to be helpful and eased the transition into art scholars and UMD in general. It was really nice to see familiar faces on zoom and around the building and hallways. While it was very difficult to meet new people after the first few weeks at school, I was glad to know at least a few people in some of my classes. There are many obstacles to making friends, specifically during a pandemic, but being able to put yourself out there and just try to meet as many people as possible, is the best way to make friends.
I have found the Art scholars program to foster community and artistic engagement by being a weekly reminder of the art and the people around us. Specifically, the smaller groups that we participated in within art scholars really helped me to appreciate each person and their artistic abilities. For example, our TA groups during first semester, as well as our workshop groups were both great places to foster community and collectively appreciate art. I also enjoyed my field trip which allowed me to actively participate in making art. These experiences have definitely contributed to my understanding and appreciation of art. Simply having a tangible reminder each week that art is always around me, influenced the way I think about art. Participating in the photography workshop had me always looking for something interesting to photograph, which really emphasizes how much art is around me. I would encourage future art scholars students to do the same thing. By paying attention during colloquium and workshops, you are automatically fed new art and perspectives each week which ultimately give a broader understanding of art in general.
I thought the workshop was the most beneficial in supporting my art work. Being able to actively participate and create tangible pieces of art (photographs) was really valuable and therapeutic for me. Certain pentathlons were more beneficial than others depending on my personal interest in the topic of focus. I would recommend incoming freshmen to choose options that truly interest them rather than options that may seem easier or quicker. It is ultimately much easier to complete work that you are interested in. In general, to get the most out of your experience, you just have to be present. Try to appreciate the material being presented because it is much more interesting than most other classes.
Semester 3
Sophomore year
This semester in Arts Scholars has been refreshing considering we are able to meet in person each week. It was way easier to connect with my peers and truly feel like a community rather than a group of people that meet on Zoom each week. I was able to grow closer with a lot of friends and even my TA.
Something we have discussed in Art Scholars, is how art can be applied in greater contexts. For instance, we can use art as a form of communication about a larger issue, or as a medium to create discussions and raise questions. In a personal sense I have found that learning about other’s art as well as creating my own art can help to shape some of my preexisting beliefs and change some of the biases I may not have known that I have. For example, I really enjoyed watching the film La Manplesa because it really opened my eyes to a whole community and neighborhood in Maryland that I didn’t know much about. I have always known of Mount Pleasant, being from Maryland, but I really had no knowledge about the large cultural roots there. Being able to experience the art from the community really allowed me to better understand them and respect their struggles.
The creative process is something that is completely different for every person. In a theoretical sense, it truly is a personal and societal process that includes aspects of daily life as well as larger concepts. This could consist of being inspired by something in the greater world, and reflecting on it personally, to create something. In a practical sense, strategies for initiating creative processes can consist of searching for inspiration from other artists or scholars, or by following steps such as researching and defining problems that you may want to address in a creative way. Typically though, there is no specific process that needs to be followed to initiate a creative process.
Incorporating feedback is a super important part of the creative process in my opinion. While we can create amazing things strictly by ourselves, the inclusion of other’s thoughts, ideas, and perspectives, allows us to broaden our mindset on what we create, and can often allow our message to reach more people. I think as an artist or creator of any kind, being open to feedback and opinions of others is almost always extremely beneficial. In order to effectively incorporate feedback into our ideas, we must truly be open to receiving it, then we must reflect on it and let it simmer, in order to fully understand the intentions behind the ideas presented. Then, we can work to incorporate the feedback and use it to our benefit.
There are many artists today that use their art as a way to express their view of the world in a beautiful way. One artist that I have been following for a while now, is an artist on Tiktok. He sits on the subway in NYC and sketches images of random people sitting in front of him. He then gives them the image and it typically makes their day. I think this is a beautiful representation of how an artist can make something that seems so ordinary, into something so beautiful and truly allow others to appreciate simple things. I think this artist inspired my capstone project, by inspiring me to create something that could allow others to pause and reflect for a moment on the simple things in life.
This year has been a much more enjoyable year for me in the sense that I am able to interact with other students in my classes, especially this one. It is beneficial for me because I am able to bounce ideas off of others as well as take inspiration from them. This allowed me to contribute more to the arts community. I was able to take an art class separate from CPSA that really let me meet some other artists, and even a professor who has helped me become even more connected to the arts community, and has encouraged me to take another art class next semester. I think I was also able to contribute more to the scholars community simply by participating in more class discussions and other events such as the field trip I attended as well as the workshop presentations where I was able to meet other art scholars and some new members of the community. I wish I was able to leverage more of the living community that I missed last year. It would have been nice to be so connected as a freshman, but I am much happier living off campus this semester to be honest.
Being in scholars has brought me into contact with many different people and opinions that I may not have encountered otherwise. I think it is a beautiful thing to be surrounded by other creative people who tend to think outside the box. Being in scholars gives us the opportunity to discuss these varying opinions compared to other classes that mostly consist of lectures and no discussion. For example, in one of the workshop previews I attended, we had a really great discussion on the benefits and some of the flaws in the way that we promote recycling at UMD. I learned a lot from others who had way more knowledge about the proper ways to recycle than me. I think there is a lot of value in hearing others perspectives that may challenge your own because it allows us to learn and grow as a community and society.
Semester 4
Final reflection: Program Synthesis
Looking back at my two years in the Art Scholars program, I realize how far I have come in my academic and creative journey. My ePortfolio is a great token of my progress and acts as a time capsule of everything I have done through this program. Looking through each of my pentathlon assignments, I can see how many different forms of art I was exposed to. For example, I watched dances, listened to short stories, watched films, listened to speeches, and painted paintings. Each assignment required me to actively reflect on how each of those experiences affected me. I also think it is interesting to see the progression from my semester 1 pentathlons to this past semester. I can see how I am now able to better communicate my thoughts as well as how I have pushed myself to continue to try new things and learn as much as I can.
My perception of art has broadened throughout my time in this program. I think coming into college, I already had a good sense of the different types of art that people create, and a good sense of what I enjoy, but I was able to expand on both of these aspects. For example, attending Artsfest and seeing the broad range of artforms and topics that everyone covered with their project really opened my eyes. I realized how many different ways people can express their emotions, things they are struggling with, and things that they enjoy. Another aspect of the scholars program that taught me this was the availability of workshops. Both years, when we were able to preview the workshops that would be available to take, I was blown away with the various things that people were knowledgeable about. For example, poetry, hard surface design, commedia dell’arte, wire sculpture, and character design are just some of the examples I can think of that I found super interesting and out of the ordinary. Both of these things challenged the knowledge that I thought I had of art and made me realize that I do have a narrow view of what I consider art, and that I have a limited knowledge of art forms.
Creating my capstone allowed me to draw on the things I have learned in art scholars. Originally I barely considered posters as a form of art, and rather just a way of displaying information. But, the more I looked into, and reflected on the other things I considered art, I realized just how much of an art poster making is. My Art history course as well as my history of consumerism class that I took last year, both discussed the use of posters throughout history which allowed me to have some prior knowledge to base my research on. I also learned about certain visual aspects of color and font in my marketing class and a marketing internship I did this past winter. It was awesome to see that overlap between my academic interests and my capstone.
Through art scholars I have been able to deepen my existing interest in art in a few ways. My typical mediums are painting, drawing, and photography. Both workshops I participated in were in this category but pushed me to explore new aspects and create things I would not have on my own. Kast year, my photojournalism workshop pushed me to use photography as a way to tell a story. This year, I was able to use my drawing skills to create and design a character. This was particularly fun because it was so new to me, I felt like I was learning how to draw all over again since I am not used to drawing in a cartoonish style. I was also able to expand my knowledge on other art forms such as dance, music, and film through pentathlons and field trips. I just attended a field trip where we watched a performance of a type of music that I had never even heard of. I appreciate being exposed to so many different types of art through this program.
Looking back throughout my art scholars experience, I have been challenged to collaborative with people who have different artistic strengths and opinions than me. One example of this that comes to mind is when we created our podcast freshman year. My group was very diverse, but we used it to our advantage. Keara had experience in digital media, so she designed our cover image. I had experience editing videos together, so I was the editor. Jordyn was well versed in our topic and wanted to do the talking for the podcast. Tiffany helped organize everything and did a lot of the research because she had prior knowledge of the topic. I think this is a perfect example of all of us collaborating effectively and utilizing our strengths. I also think something interesting with that project was that none of us considered music to be our main art form, and yet that was the art style we chose to focus on. It was cool to see everyone’s strengths come out as we created our finished product.
My biggest takeaway from art scholars is how much that can be gained from surrounding yourself with a diverse community. My favorite thing about art scholars was seeing all the different things that people were passionate and knowledgeable about. This was by far the most diverse community I have ever been a part of. From hearing people talk about their acapella concert, to an anime show they watch, to their architecture class, I loved to see what everyone else was interested in. I think a lot of people look at artists and think they are weird, but when you get to know them, you realize just how wrong that is. Through art scholars, I learned that everyone can bring something different to the table, and that is a very valuable thing. Going forward in my academic and professional career I plan to surround myself by as many different people who are passionate about different things as I can.