Swiss Institute, Contemporary Art Topics: “The Color Blue: A Material, an Energy, a Feeling”

Location: Virtual

Date: Fall 2024

Overview: 

Open to adults of all ages (18+), SI’s Contemporary Art Topics program is a unique discussion-based course designed to investigate current themes and issues being explored by living artists today. Thematically-based and artist-led, these two-hour classes introduce concepts and ideas in contemporary art through lectures, guest artist talks, class discussions, “slow looking” at art, individual and group activities, as well as opportunities to share student artwork.

Fall 2024’s class, “The Color Blue: A Material, an Energy, a Feeling”, investigated the color blue by learning about blue material histories, as well as by looking at both historic and contemporary artists that either work with a physical blue material, or address a significance tied to the color through its unique qualities and/or spiritual and emotional implications.

Our class culminated in a zine publication “Blue of the Day” which documented an ongoing project. Throughout the 8-session class, students were asked to submit an image featuring a color blue that represented their day: a blue for their mood, a memory, something from nature, something they made, something they ate, or anything blue that made an impression on them. They posted each image to the online platform Padlet with an optional caption. This publication presents these collective colors as a community-based project. In addition to students from U.S. based locations such as NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Charlotte, North Carolina, we received contributions from international students based in Montreal, Canada, Athens, Greece, Beijing, China, Korea, Guatemala, Borneo, the United Kingdom, and the UAE. “Blue of the Day” was created through the combined efforts of: Julia Norton, Lead Educator, Jocelyn Tsui, Teaching Assistant, and Ash Frenkel, Education & Community Engagement Manager.