BLUR is a co-ed, residential summer arts program for high school students located on the 3,250-acre campus of Sweet Briar College, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Why “Blur”? Because the program is designed for you to work deeply within your own art form—creative writing, theatre or visual art—and also to collaborate with artists in other fields, blurring the boundaries between the arts to imagine new ways of seeing, thinking and creating.
For more info and to apply go to sbc.edu/blur.
Concentrations
TheatreYoung actors improve their craft through improvisation and character study. In morning sessions, students take technique classes such as movement, scene study and the performance of Shakespeare. In the afternoons, they focus on developing an original, site-specific dramatic work to be performed at the close of the Institute. Members of Endstation’s theatre troupe offer workshops throughout the program on improvisation, stage combat and directing.
Creative WritingDesigned to nurture and inspire young writers interested in poetry and fiction, the program places special emphasis on helping students learn to pay attention to the writer’s sensory perceptions of the world and how to use these observations in their work. Students discuss published work by contemporary writers in the morning sessions, and they generate raw material through exploratory writing exercises. Afternoon sessions are dedicated to studio time, when writers further develop and draft writing projects. Peer-group workshops and one-on-one tutorials provide helpful feedback.
Visual ArtsArtists expand technical and observational skills while developing a critical and conceptual understanding of various types of visual art, with a special emphasis on art that is created for public spaces and how such art changes the way we view the world. Morning sessions are devoted to discussion of relevant artworks and completing sketch exercises in drawing, digital video and site-specific installation. Afternoon sessions inside and out of the studio help students develop individual and collaborative public projects and experimental art.
Faculty
Program DirectorDavid Griffith is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art program at Sweet Briar College. His work and teaching focuses on the intersection of the arts, technology and media. He is the author of “A Good War is Hard to Find: The Art of Violence in America.” He was the director of creative writing for the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, where he taught for ten years.
Creative WritingBrandon Som was featured in Best New Poets 2007. He is the author of “If St. Augustine Were A Butcher Like My Grandfather,” winner of the 2009 Snowbound Prize, and his poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, McSweeney’s and Octopus Magazine. He has taught creative writing at New York University, University of Southern California and the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts.
Visual ArtClaire Hoch is a multimedia artist focusing on community, food and the natural environment. Her work has ranged from building rammed-earth houses in Guatemala to cultivating an urban farm in Pittsburgh. She has designed interdisciplinary coursework at Carnegie Mellon University and taught pre-college studio art at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She is a VCCA Fellow and a recipient of a fellowship from the Middle Atlantic Arts Foundation.
TheatreAngela (Angie) Sweigart-Gallagher is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Lock Haven University and Education Director of Endstation Theatre Company. She has a doctorate in theatre from the University of Wisconsin and has specialized in productions with young actors. Her recent directing credits include Euripides’ “Medea” and Marsha Norman’s “ ’night, Mother.”
Program OverviewBLUR provides selected high school students an opportunity to grow in their technical skill and conceptual understanding of the arts, and explore how making art and thinking creatively improve life.
While in residence on Sweet Briar’s picturesque campus—ranked among the most beautiful in the country—students are inspired by the natural world and aided by technology. Each participant receives an iPad to use whenever and wherever inspiration strikes: in the studio, in the campus art galleries, on a hiking trail or on the banks of Sweet Briar Lake.
Studies show that creativity is best nurtured through collaboration. Students spend two-thirds of their time working with master teachers in the “home” studio writing, making visual art or acting. They spend the other third working in an entirely different medium, collaborating with professional artists and with their peers—using iPad applications and traditional materials—to create exhibits and performances inspired by Sweet Briar’s rich natural landscape.
All students work with members of Endstation Theatre Company, Sweet Briar’s professional theatre troupe-in-residence, as they design sets, run rehearsals and edit scripts for Endstation’s Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, staged on locations throughout the College campus.
2/3 | 1/3Two-thirds of your time will be spent in your “home” studio writing, painting, drawing and acting.
One-third will be spent collaborating with artists working in a different medium than you, designing and building collaborative exhibits and performances inspired by the natural landscape
iPadTechnology can aid creativity. Your registration includes an iPad stocked with apps to help you use technology in the creative process.
RecreationIndoor swimming pool (life guard on-duty)
Swimming and canoeing on Sweet Briar lake
Fitness and Athletics Center
More than 18 miles of trails
Films in the campus theatre
Weekend shuttle to shopping
Campus coffee house, serving Starbucks
Field TripsThe American Shakespeare Center | Staunton, Va.
The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts | Amherst, Va.
Smithsonian American Art Museum | Washington, D.C.
National Gallery of Art | Washington, D.C.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Washington, D.C.
University of Virginia Art Museum | Charlottesville, Va.
June 19-July 9, 2011
June 19-July 9, 2011
Blue Ridge Summer Institute for Young Artists