Chair Kelly Chorpening’s art expertise inspires cross-disciplinary and transnational projects at the University. Courtesy of Chorpening
Professor of Art Kelly Chorpening was recently appointed chair of the art, art history and design department in the School of the Arts. Chorpening is an artist, curator, writer and educator with a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College, City University of New York and a bachelor’s in fine arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her work explores drawing as a contemporary art discipline and a tool for thinking and communication in cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Her interdisciplinary work has involved collaborations with the Architectural Association School of Architecture, the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the Gordon Museum of Pathology and The National Gallery, London. In 2023, she chaired and presented at “Land, Water, Place: an Art and Science Collaborative” at the Nevada Museum of Art — a symposium that brought artists, poets, geographers and biologists together to explore drawing, mapping, and water management and water justice in northern Nevada.
“Some goals we have identified for the department include more blending of new and old technologies, offering more crossover between disciplines, and providing more experiential and applied learning opportunities that would prepare artists, designers and art historians for professional life,” Chorpening said.
Her most recent curatorial effort, “Drawing in Social Space,” encompassed four artist-driven projects that emphasized collective, iterative processes, leading to shared authorship. “Drawing” was reimagined as a tool for thinking, discovery, storytelling and communication, and “Social Space” referred to how the projects were set outside traditional exhibition spaces and included participants from a broad range of disciplines, interests, ages, ethnicities and nationalities. An exhibition featuring these projects was recently on display at the Drawing Room in London.
“The fourth of these projects extended the partnership to the University, working with Moroccan artist Noureddine Ezarraf, testing the design of ‘Drawing in Social Space’ outside an urban context,” Chorpening said. “A group of students and lecturers worked together last April to collect, record and measure information using a variety of methods. Graduate students from both art and geography then created a zine that was produced on campus at Black Rock Press. I hope this model inspires future cross-disciplinary and transnational projects here at the University.”
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