A dozen Study Group members gathered at the Art Academy on May 11 to begin exploring the idea of doing a collaborative book, a project we hope to complete this fall. Guest speaker Jan Thomas, coordinator of the WomenWorkBook Collaborative at Art 4 Artists, began the meeting with an overview of that group effort: how it was organized, some of the challenges, the heightened sense of community the collaboration fostered, and the unanticipated outgrowths that took the project into the wider community. We were able to examine some of the books participants created, and I'm sure this writer was not the only one who wished we had had more time to look at the wonderfully imaginative creations more closely. Many thanks to Jan for sharing her time and expertise with us, especially since she had a solo show opening that night!
Jan's presentation was a great lead-in to a discussion of our own upcoming project. On June 8, CBAS will be taking a field trip to the Vent Haven Museum in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky. Vent Haven calls itself "the world's only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism," and has a fascinating collection of ventriloquists' dummies and other props, dating from as early as 1910. Using the field trip as our inspiration, our plan is to create a collaborative book using the exquisite corpse format in which several artists contribute to create a single collective image. Peg Rhein will be leading a session in September guiding us in compiling the finished books.
To get us into the spirit of things, Study Group Coordinator Janice Kagermeier led the group in working together to make some quick exquisite corpse images, encouraging everyone to have fun, enjoy the process and not concentrate on making serious works of art. What a great gallery of images emerged.
If this is the result of an hour's worth of work, just imagine what our collaborative books will look like!
Thanks to Janice K. for this report and images.
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