vanessa german: Gray Center Fellowship supported by the Joyce Foundation

The Gray Center for Arts & Inquiry is proud to announce a long-term collaboration with self-taught citizen artist vanessa german in preparation for her first museum solo exhibition in Chicago at the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Supported by the Gray Center’s grant from the Joyce Foundation, this two-part residency and exhibition project will unfold at a critical point in the artist’s career and bring together the conceptual manifestation of her visual art practice with german’s community activism.

Paraäcademia- art, spirituality, and social healing 
ARTV 26220/1 [21845] 
Tuesday-Thursday 3:30 - 5:20
Logan 601

Paraäcedemia is a set of knowledge bases that typically exist outside of officially recognized institutions of higher learning. It is the space where new, heretofore unknown forms of art may come into being and underrecognized traditions thrive. Coinciding with visiting artist vanessa german's 2023- 24 residency at the Gray Center, this experimental and interdisciplinary seminar will explore various schools of mysticism, art as a form of social healing, the political histories and methodologies of witchcraft, the aesthetics of the occult, and the technics of the supernatural A number of guest speakers from various backgrounds will lecture, join discussions and participate in class critiques. Assignments include weekly readings and an updated Google doc of class notes, two short writing assignments, one on a para-academic thinker, and a creative writing assignment based on your own para-academic practice/interest/experience, along with dedicated weekly studio time in class.