In the last few days of the first session, everyone was in a mad dash to put together their final presentations both visually and orally. These presentations are the culmination of the students’ time at Les Tapies featuring, for the Photography majors, a selection of their best pieces produced during the last three weeks, combined with a verbal reflection on their time at the program.
The Architects presented their plans for a new building at Les Tapies, which was placed, designed, and drawn entirely by them. In the process, they defended the choices they made for their building and explained how the "clients" would interact with their newly constructed home.
Finally, the Drawing and Painting majors presented a selection of their best pieces, ensuring that they displayed a variety of media and techniques. Included in this array of artistic works were examples of the writing pieces the Drawing and Painting students completed during the writing portion of the major. And, like the Photo majors, they delivered a verbal reflection of their Les Tapies experience and their artistic progression during that time.
Each student found a way to make their presentation a unique and complete reflection of themselves as an artist, a fact that was punctuated by the artist statements every student wrote under the guidance of Amy, our writing instructor.
Each student presented for 8-10 minutes, followed by feedback from the instructors on the student’s work and his or her growth at Les Tapies. The most important aspect of these presentations, something that is critical for people to learn and utilize in any area of their lives, is developing the ability to accurately and eloquently articulate their thoughts and intentions in front of a group. All artists should be able to communicate their artistic message both in their art form, be it painting, photography, drawing, etc., and in spoken and written words. This is the lesson that we hope to teach through the final presentations, and, from the incredible finesse and articulacy with which the students presented, we believe we have achieved that goal.