In our previous Symposia! with John Yau, we have found that the design of “collaboration cum critique” is a whole new, extraordinary format of art education and community building. Given this great experience, John, Astrid and Michael have designed a new Symposia! for the Fall. It combines the best of what we learned from the previous one, and in addition to the poetry and critique elements, there will be an element of contemporary art history and storytelling.

Through his writing about artists he has reviewed several times and become close to (such as Suzan Frecon, Brenda Goodman, Jasper Johns, Brice Marden, Thomas Nozkowski and Peter Shear to name a few), John makes the contemporary practices of these masters come alive for us with a new light, by sharing how his understanding of their work grew and evolved over time through his conversations and interactions with these artists. 

Several of the artists John has written about will join in conversation to discuss his reviews of their work , (what they agreed with ( what they disagreed with ) and the complex relationship between Critic and Artist.

Each session will allow significant time for John’s storytelling, to facilitate in depth discussions and to provide for an open Q&A for group participation, as well as a closing with a poetry reading.

And of course, we will keep the PODS, and the ongoing multiple one-on-one critiques and the collaborative aspect of the current program.

Continuing the multiple one-on-one critique with John remains a crucial component and it will provide the opportunity for a deeper dialogue with John and allow him to get to know you and your work over an extended period of time.

It starts in September and will run through April and will culminate in an exhibition curated by John Yau.

Course Tuition: $5500
Scholarships and payment plans available.

Interview with John Yau about his exhibition on five decades of collaborations with visual artists: https://hyperallergic.com/904269/john-yau-talks-about-the-art-of-collaboration/ 

About John Yau:
Poet, art critic, and curator John Yau has published over 50 books of poetry, fiction, and art criticism. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1950 to Chinese emigrants, Yau attended Bard College and earned an MFA from Brooklyn College in 1978. Since his first book of poetry, Crossing Canal Street (1976), he has won acclaim for his poetry’s attentiveness to visual culture and linguistic surface. His poems frequently pun, trope, and play with the English language, anchored in the legacy of his dual heritages as Chinese, American, poet, and artist, and his work often explores, and exploits, the boundaries between poetry and prose. 

A noted art critic and curator, Yau has also published an immense amount of works of art criticism and artists’ books. He was the Arts editor of the Brooklyn Rail until 2011 and has since then contributed regularly to Hyperallergic. 

Yau has taught at many institutions, including Pratt, the Maryland Institute College of Art and School of Visual Arts, Brown University, and the University of California-Berkeley. 

He has received honors, awards and fellowships for his work such as the Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, to name a few, and was named a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by France. 

In 1999, he started Black Square Editions, a small press devoted to poetry, fiction, translation, and criticism.