Professor Stephanie James
Former Chair, Department of Art, College of Fine Arts, Florida State University
Professor Stephanie James
Former Chair, Department of Art, College of Fine Arts, Florida State University
Former Director of the School of Art, Syracuse University
EDUCATION / QUALIFICATIONS
2009-2010 SEDA/CLTAD Supervising research degrees for professionals in art, design & communication at UAL.
2000 Research supervision CLTAD
1980-1982 Master of Fine Art, Newcastle University
1977-1980 Bachelor of Art in Sculpture - 1st Class Hons, Hull College of Art and Design
1974-1977 Bachelor of Fine Art with distinction, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
CAREER HISTORY
Academic Posts
2014-2018 Director of the School of Art, Syracuse University, New York
2009-2014 Associate Dean/Head of School of Visual Arts, Arts University Bournemouth
2008-2009 Director of the School of Art, Arts Institute at Bournemouth
2004-2008 Principal Lecturer, MA Programme Leader, School of Media, Arts Institute at Bournemouth
2002-2005 Program Leader BA (Hons) Fine Art, Arts Institute at Bournemouth
2000-2002 Program Leader – MA Fine Art – Sculpture and Site-specific at Wimbledon School of Art, London
1991-2002 Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art. BA, MA Site-Specific Sculpture and MA Drawing
1982-1990 P/T Lecturer at Wimbledon School of Art. First and third year tutor
1985-1999 P/T Lecturer at Norwich School of Art And Design. BA and MA Sculpture
1985-1995 P/T Lecturer at Kent Institute of Art and Design, Visiting artist - Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Art and Technology, Slade School of Fine Art, Manchester School of Art, Birmingham School of Art
ACADEMIC PRACTICE
2009-2014 Chair of the Gallery Group leading the AUB Gallery programme
2000-2003 Supervised to completion PhD student Wimbledon School of Art– graduated July 2003
2001-2005 External Examiner for B.A.(Hons) Fine Art – Nottingham Trent University
2003-2007 Subject Specialist Reviewer on eight academic Quality Assurance Agency reviews in England.
2005 External member of validation panel for MA Drawing at Norwich School of Art and Design
2006 M Level – seminar/workshop considering the FHEQ level descriptors and benchmark.
2004-2006 Arts Institute at Bournemouth: Developed PG Framework and MA Course through to successful validation.
2006-2010 External Examiner for BA (Hons) Art and Design (Visual Arts) Bolton University
2008-2013 External Examiner for FD/BA (Hons) Fine Art Practices at Plymouth College of Art validated by the Open University. Mentor for newly appointed External Examiners for Fashion, Spatial Design and Applied Arts
2010 External panel member on Quality Audit for Central St Martins, University of the Arts London.
2011 External panel member for validation of BA (Hons) Visual Communication at Leeds College of Art on behalf of Open University Validation Services.
2012 External panel member for review of MA Fine Art, Utrecht School of Arts on behalf of Open University Validation Services
2011-2014 External Examiner, MA Fine Art, City and Guilds of London Art School
2013 External panel member for validation of BA (Hons) Contemporary Arts and Illustration, BA (Hon) Photography, BA (Hons) Animation, BA (Hons) Graphic Design, University of Huddersfield
2014-17 Currently supervise 2 PhD students
CURRENT & PAST MEMBERSHIP AND ENGAGEMENT WITH HIGHER EDUCATION & THE ARTS
· College Art Association
· National Council of Art Administrators
· Tate member
· Trustee of the Dorset Visual Arts working to create a vibrant visual arts programme across the county and the South West.
· Active Member of the National Association of Fine Art Education – Delivered paper to annual forum:- http://www.nafae.org.uk/news/40/252/AGM-and-Forum-March-2010/d,EventDetail-v2/
· Facilitate the University College partnership with ArtSway; a contemporary visual arts gallery in the New Forest now working in a different capacity
· Trust Partner and Chair of the Trust, Winton Arts and Media College, Bournemouth
· Secretary of Steering Group on PARADOX Fine Art European Forum affiliated to ELIA
· Member of ELIA European League of the Institutes of the Arts
· Member of EPAN European Public Art Network 2011-14
· Member of the CHEAD Executive (Council for Higher Education in Art and Design) responsible for the Gallery Network 2011-14
CURRENT PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND RESEARCH
I am a practicing artist working in a wide variety of mediums. Below are details of recent external projects in curation, research and exhibition practices that have taken priority over the studio practice although studio practice continues to be important. I have exhibited widely.
2020
CAA Conference
Deliver a paper/presentation at the CAA Conference in Cincinnati as part of NCAA-CAA segment. My paper is titled: Who Wants to be an Accidental Arts Administrator? The trough of change!
2019
No Particular Place to Go group exhibition at the Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK. Sept-Oct 2019. The exhibition will focus on the more intimate experiences of sculpture, both for the artist and viewer, that result from an engagement with smaller objects. Those made in the studio, as an exploration of an idea, material, form, process, or simply a sculpture that could be at home on a table.
Paradox Conference Riga, Latvia.Delivering paper presentation: Give Up and Let’s Partner! A tirade of frustrations over how change-averse our art education institutions are becoming.
2017
Paradox Conference 2017 – London, EnglandThis past September we held a 2-day conference and 10-day student project in London on the value of diversity; examining difference in fine art practice, research and education It was hosted by Middlesex University and Central St Martins at Conway Hall & the Artworkers’ Guild, London.
I co-facilitated the Strand: Diverse Ethics with Paul Heywood
Boîte-en-Valise: the generator Collaboration with two curators from the UK on this project for the Venice Biennale, May 3rd – 13th. Boîte-en-Valise aims to encourage transportability of practice, the nurturing of collaboration and the cross fertilisation of artistic practice. This project focused on production, intended to be generative exploring the process of creating contemporary art, and sharing this with targeted audience groups in Portsmouth and Syracuse. Six artists from the UK and USA were invited to use a suitcase as their generator – to explore, explode, expand and then exhibit their practice. The suitcase contained all that the artist needed to produce new work, working with materials transported within the suitcase or sourced from the environments in which they are resident. The normal sized suitcase was transported as luggage on a flight/train/bus journey and taken from the suitcase for production and/or presentation. Artists were invited to interpret this brief according to their practice. For three days, the artists worked intensively with communities from in and around Portsmouth, UK, and then continue to develop/make their work with visitors to the exhibition/presentation in the international art hub of the Venice Biennale. Finally, the artists were invited to take the project to Syracuse University, providing an opportunity to reflect on the experience, while also enabling the further development of the work with targeted SU audiences. The artists worked closely with and were supported by curators: Mark Segal, Joanne Bushnell (Aspex, Portsmouth) and Stephanie James (Syracuse University, New York).
https://www.aspex.org.uk/whats-on/boite-en-valise/boite-en-valise-generator/
http://vpa.syr.edu/calendar/boite-en-valise-generate
https://twitter.com/boite_en_valise?lang=en
GYNI – ByProductions – G-Shifts, When process satisfies more than the product.
October 17-November 9, 2017 at 914Works. G-Shifts: October 20, October 27 and November 3 from 3-5pm
By-productions presents series of processes and their left overs: “Press,” by Barbara Walter; “Pinch,” by Stephanie James; “Push and Pull,” by Jude Lewis; and “Drag,” by Joanna Spitzner. The public is invited to participate in scheduled G-Shifts: October 20, October 27 and November 3 from 3-5pm. All four artists are faculty and friends in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Art. James is the director of the School of Art and Doris E. Klein Endowed Professor of Art. Lewis is an associate professor of sculpture, Spitzner is an associate professor of art, and Walter is a professor of jewelry and metalsmithing.
http://vpa.syr.edu/news/914works-presents-by-productions-by-gyni
Previous GYNI Exhibition 2016 – three women at 914Gallery, Syracuse, New York.
‘This was an impromptu exhibition by three (there were four but one was missing) women artists who regularly get together on a GYNI or a GYNO. During a GYNI – a girly night in – the women eat great food and talk about absolutely everything. On a GYNO – a girly night out – the women eat great food and just about talk about everything taking earshot into consideration. There was always a lot, and we mean a lot, of laughing, hysteria and snorting and all with much affection. They are girlfriends, all around the same age and they teach and administrate in the new School of Art at Syracuse University. And so you would be right in saying, “I get it, they have a lot in common.”’
Paradox Conference 2015 – Poznan, Poland
As a member of the Steering Group of Paradox I work with 9 other members to hold a conference every two years. In Sept 2015 the conference was titled: Alternative Zones: Uncovering the Official and the Unofficial in Fine Art Practice, Research and Education. I co-convened Strand B: The Politics of Performance.
Grant for Arts May 2015
The Boîte-en-valise project awarded grant for the arts to support 9 artists on exhibition during the preview week of the 56th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia. Working with two other curators, Mark Segal and Joanne Bushnell Director of Aspex Gallery UK, the project included 3 artists based in NY USA, 3 artists based in the UK and 3 artists from Switzerland in dialogue across three venues; 2 in Venice and Aspex Gallery UK. Project was also funded by College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University, and the Arts Council Switzerland.
http://www.veniceagendas.eu/portfolio/boite-en-valise/
Paradox Conference 2013 – Granada, Spain As a member of the Steering Group of Paradox I work with 9 other members to hold a conference every two years. In Sept 2013 the conference was titled: The Inheritance: Contesting Legacies in Fine Art Practice, Research and Education. I co-convened Strand A: Material Meanings.
Grant for Arts March 2013 - Arts Pavilion Bournemouth presents, during the preview week of the 55th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Boîte-en-valise, a series of live art performances by established and emerging practitioners. Appropriating and transmuting Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise and responding to Venice Biennale Art Director Massimiliano Gioni’s theme of The Encyclopedic Palace, each of the selected artists has been asked to pack work in a suitcase and travel to Venice for presentation at [Palazzo Zenobio]. Lead organiser and curator working with Carol Maund, Arts Bournemouth and Mark Segal, Artists Agency.
http://www.veniceagendas.eu/portfolio/boite-en-valise/
Public Engagement and Impact: Articulating Value in Art and Design at the ICA May 2013 This paper delivered in collaboration with Sarah Shalgosky Director of the Mead Gallery, and further develops our work on the Art School Gallery.
Small Grant Award from Leadership Foundation 2011-12 The Art School Gallery; understanding the effectiveness of galleries in the HE sector This project investigates the effectiveness of the programming and management of Galleries based in and largely funded by Universities and Colleges and to evaluate the impact on the learning environment. It enables in-depth research to take place that for the first time brings together stakeholders to develop a framework for determining the way in which leaders assess effectiveness and evaluate the impact of the Art School Gallery.
The project is concerned with ‘the gallery’ within a higher education institution and its relationship to the learning, teaching and research associated with creative art, design and media curricula. The project seeks to explore what ‘the gallery’ means within the context of new media and its potential to support innovative approaches to art, design and media pedagogy with opportunities for haptic and creative learning interactions. The gallery space offers a focus for virtual as well as material interactions and may provide an extended network of collaborators. The gallery is both a physical space, a place of exhibition and congregation, and a conceptual space that can sustain a wider sharing of ideas through discourse and critical exchanges: a space of bringing in and sending out.
As part of this project I organised on the 28 January 2012 – ‘Art School Galleries of the Future’ Symposium that programmed six case studies and a keynote speaker – Sarah Shalgosky.
http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/research/smallprojects/sdp2011artsbournemouth.html
http://www.elia-artschools.org/News%2B/Art%20School%20Galleries%20of%20the%20Future
Neon - Shaping Light 2011 Created neon light pieces for exhibition in Bournemouth Town Centre and the Gallery at the AUCB. Chaired discussion with artists and glass workers on the attraction that Neon light continues holds over its viewers and the appeal for artists combined with the science of working with Neon.
Word Matters Seminar Programme
Initiated and contributed to four seminars held at the 52nd, 53rd and 54th Venice Biennales over a 6 year period;
WORD MATTERS – June 2007
‘Spinning a Line’ and ‘Crafting a Visual Language’, sought to explore current levels of dissemination of writing and practice, and the contribution of the individual to writing on art. Reaching no definitive conclusions, Word Matters is a discussion, an exploration, into text as label and as access; text as catalogue and as critique; as interpretation and as an accompaniment; text as description and as narrative; and text as gossip and performance. It is a debate about the limitations and the possibilities of words, and an observation of the contemporary art world and its on-going conversations.
‘Spinning a Line’ - 12 June, 2007 David Bate, Stephanie James, Lee Triming, and Laura McLean-Ferris. Chaired by Jim Hunter
‘Crafting a Visual Language’ - 26 June, 2007 Stephanie James and Professor Simon Olding, Chaired by Jim Hunter
WORD MATTERS TOO – June 2009 Invited writer Gemma Seltzer—author of Memory Colours for the publication Jordan Baseman: Dark is the Night—to join a discussion on the role and presence of narrative in contemporary art, with a focus on the artworks presented in ArtSway’s New Forest Pavilion. A publication contained the edited transcript from this event, led by Gemma Seltzer and Stephanie James, with audience contributions. The ensuing dialogue is an exploration into the narrative possibilities born from the meeting of the visual with language. It offers a glimpse into the different interpretations offered by those whose craft and training is rooted in the visual arts compared to others who work with words and language.
WORD MATTERS THREE – June 2011 Who needs art anyway? - Perspectives on Collecting Contemporary Art. This seminar contributed to discussions around the collecting of contemporary art. Why collect? as an individual or as an institution. What are the drivers for collecting, what are the strategies? How is collecting mediated? What are the current trends? Where is the 'public value' and how is it realised? Private collections or public, are either really visible? What is the impact of the current financial situation, if any? Professor Jim Hunter, Chair and Deputy Principal AUCB; Stephanie James, The Gallery AUCB; Stuart Evans, Collector and recently Head of Collections at Tate; Paul Hedge, Director of Hales Gallery; Gayle Chong Kwan, Artist; Kate Jones, Matthew Jones, John Jones Frame Design and Mark Segal, Director of ArtSway
ELIA Artesnet Teacher’s Academy Conference Paper Title: When we use story-telling to interpret artworks. 3 July 2009 Hosted by the Bulgarian National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Summary of paper: In a project focused on ‘thinking aloud,’ gallery audiences visiting contemporary art exhibitions used story-telling to interpret artworks, yet students of art and design are asked to discuss their artwork from a different perspective; they are expected to provide a critical and self-reflective analysis. I propose that there is a disjuncture between the communication of the meaning in artworks that takes place in the mind of the audience and in the education of the art student. Through new approaches to teaching, students can be encouraged to develop ways in which ‘story-telling’ can enhance their learning experience and prepare them for audience engagement.
http://www.elia-artschools.org/Activities/4th-elia-teachers-academy
The management of critical, promotional and contextual writing for ArtSway in the production of New Forest Pavilion; ArtSway and the Venice Biennale 2007.
2006-8 Awarded AHRC Knowledge Catalyst Scheme funded project, (£15,249) heralded by AHRC and NESTA as an example of new innovation took place in partnership with ArtSway which is partly supported by Arts Council England. A graduate was employed to assist in carrying out this research. The main objective of the project was to bring the expertise of the academic community to the enterprise partner, in this case, ArtSway. This project contributed significantly to the business and audience profile of the professional institution, and extended the remit of text + work. The development of the commercial, public and international profile of the organization was enhanced through seminars at ‘New Forest Pavilion.’ A publication, Word Matters containing transcripts of the seminars held at the Venice Biennale, which sought to explore current levels of dissemination of writing and practice, and the contribution of the individual to writing on art, was issued in December 2007 with an edited accompanying CD.
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/artsway.pdf
Curated Project: MEETING PLACE 2005–08 Meeting Place was collaborative project between text+work, the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, and the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth and was curated and managed by Stephanie James. Meeting Place provided a platform for 20 exhibiting artists and designers to respond to the unique and varied collections in the Russell-Cotes Museum. They were invited to commune with the artefacts, the spaces, and the cabinets, and respond to actual and imaginary events; personal and private, historical and present. The exhibition was accompanied by a book which provided an account of some of the ways in which the artists have touched the raw nerves of the museum and catalogues each of the artist’s personal ‘narratives’ and ‘stories’. This project was supported by Museums, Libraries and Archives Renaissance funding, AIB research and scholarship fund and an individual Grant for the Arts, Arts Council Southwest. This project supported the development, marketing, audience development and presentation with a publication of an exhibition entitled Meeting Place, held at the Russell-Cotes Gallery and Museum (RC) and the text+work Gallery at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth (AIB), between September 2007 and March 2008.
http://www.textandwork.org.uk/past.php?id=60
AUCB and ArtSway production residency partnership. www.artsway.org.uk 2006–11 Co-coordinated, short listed and selected artists, to undertake a residency at ArtSway culminating in exhibitions both at ArtSway and the Gallery at the University College. Each artist is then exhibited in the New Forest Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. I am co-editor of all the publications developed through the partnership residency programme; Nathaniel Mellors, A72 page full-colour book entitled B.OK, on the art practice of Nathaniel Mellors, edited by Stephanie James and Peter Bonnell. Book launched October 6th 2007 at ArtSway, New Forrest and distributed by Corner House and Matt’s Gallery. Dinu Li - residency, 2008-09 Co-edited the publication ‘Family Village’ to accompany the artist’s exhibitions – Family Village. Christopher Orr - residency 2009 -10, co-edited publication accompanying exhibition entitled; ‘Time is the Diamond’ Hew Locke – residency 2010-11. Co-edited the publication ‘Are We There Yet? For the exhibition at ArtSway – a small army of Fine Art students at AUCB volunteered in the cutting and then painting of the plywood panels for the Starchitect installation.
Subwayspecial 2001 This project was conceived in conjunction with MOTA Projects and invited artists to intersect with the disused underground station at Aldwych. The list of artists included William Furlong. Elizabeth Rosser, Tim Lewis, Fabian Cereijido, Stephanie James, Susan Stockwell, David Goldenberg, and Sebastian Hempel. A publication arising out of the project has now been released and is in the AIB library, on sale at the ICA, The Serpentine and other similar venues. AHRB (small grants £5000) to research material for publication the on ‘subwayspecial’ Exhibition in the Aldwych Underground station.