#share document

Share Document is a collection of writings on design, edited by Clifton Burt and Nicole Lavelle, and published by Ampersand on the occasion of Design Week Portland 2013. The book is available for purchase here. With big thanks to the editors and contributors, we're sharing the essays that were published last year here on the blog.

Ten Lessons Graphic Designers Learn That Every Artist Should Understand

By Jen Delos Reyes

I have spent the past five years co-directing an MFA program at Portland State University focused on art and social practice. The program is based on a foundation of access, community, collaboration and engagement. It values and acknowledges multiple forms of knowledge, and embraces an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary art. The mantra of the program could easily be that art and social practice starts and ends not in rarefied spaces, but out in the world. The program educates and activates students to develop and utilize their artistic skills to engage in society. It is the kind of learning that creates engaged citizens.

I believe that the fairly recent interest in and proliferation of art programs that focus on what is being referred to as either art and social practice, public practice, or community arts is in part because these programs propose not only alternate forms of sustainability for an art practice outside of market constraints, but promote the multitude of ways artists can function in the world. However the majority of these programs are at the graduate MFA level only, which is highly problematic.

I believe that an artist’s relationship to and placement in society should not be an area of specialization, or afterthought, but instead a core component of the education of all artists. Because I believe that all artists need to contemplate and consider context, publics, and relationships, I have recently been making the argument that art and social practice needs to be taught at a foundations level. As much as artists are pushed to develop craft and hone in on concepts, they should be thinking about context, publics, and social function. This should be the basis of all art education today.

Foundation classes in socially engaged art are not a requirement, or even an offering at most universities and art schools, however there is a place where these important creative lessons are being taught. Socially engaged artists (or any artists for that matter) can look to designers for an education that fully considers publics, context, use, and outcome. Designers are encouraged to think about collaboration, communication, and relationships in fundamental ways. The following are ten key things designers learn that I believe all artists should also understand.

1. Know your public

There is no such thing as the public or a general audience.

Get specific.

Get to know who you are trying to be in conversation with so you can best engage them.

2. Collaboration

Every aspect of what you do is a collaboration.

You are never alone in the process.

Remember that and work with it, not against it.

3. Communication

Communication is needed to make anything happen.

It is not only a tool, but the final product.

There will be a lot of communication in the process stages.

4. Context

Know your stuff.

Know the stuff around you.

Get to know the people around you.

Know the history around you.

Know everything you can about what you are working on.

5. Relationships

You need good relationships to make good work.

There are many relationships to consider.

Your relationship to the work.

Your relationship to your collaborators.

Your relationship to the world.

The relationship of the work to the lives of others.

6. Implications

All the work you do has an outcome.

It has a role.

It has a value.

It can be impacted by the actions of its users.

7. Your work belongs in the world

Period.

“I find the art world itself a ghetto and its distribution within the gallery system not very compelling.” —Stefan Sagmeister

8. Share often

Circulating ideas makes them better.

Sharing in the process is necessary.

Have a constant dialogue about the work you are doing.

9. Work hard

This all takes work.

Try many directions and possibilities.

Once you think the work is done, don’t be surprised if it is not.

Don’t be afraid to the work again.

And again.

10. Keep learning, keep making

This is a process.

This is iterative.

Put the things you learn into action.

Keep doing it.

Jen Delos Reyes is a creative laborer, educator, writer, and radical community arts organizer. Her practice is as much about working with institutions as it is about creating and supporting sustainable artist-led culture. Delos Reyes worked within Portland State University from 2008–2014 to create the first flexible residency Art and Social Practice MFA program in the United States and devised the curriculum that focused on place, engagement, and dialogue. The flexible residency program allows for artists embedded in their communities to remain on site throughout their course of study.