Eskinder Belayneh
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
This semester didn’t turn out as I expected. Online classes were very hard to accept. I was hoping online classes would be temporary. I didn’t want to sit at my dorm and do work all day. The ironic part was that I was doing this during my last months of high school. I didn’t mind it as much as I did when I was in my first freshman semester. Maybe it’s because I thought all my hard work in high school would pay off when I go to college and enjoy the campus experience. I hoped things would change but unfortunately, they didn’t. We’re still in a pandemic and that I am realizing will be a part of our society for a long time. We should enjoy the things we can do during this pandemic. I’ve learned to make friends that take strict precautions about the virus. A community is important during this time and that’s how a lot of people cope. I have also stayed connected with family and old friends by having zoom meetings at least once a day. Every university has provided the students with free unlimited zoom sessions and that has helped a lot of people stay connected. Schoolwork will not seem overwhelming then.
When I arrived at college, I expected to have an increased workload. I also expected to have a different environment but since all the lessons were on zoom and all the assignments were online, the changes were hard to tell. Sometimes it felt like I haven’t grown out of the high school environment. I’m at a weird spot where I have to remind myself I’m a college student whenever I feel a shift between the environment and the workload.
Grading is difficult to follow. Most of the semester, I just try my best on every assignment and hope for a high score. Almost all of my teachers grade late, so a student's only concern is submitting quality work before 11:59 PM on the day it’s due. It’s a strange system to adapt to but eventually, you’ll get used to it.
I saw great similarities between my architecture intro course and my scholars class. My CPSA class showed us lots of art and encourages us to visit and explore different types of art. In architecture, we study different styles of architecture and the reason behind a lot of these designs. These two classes synergize well to give you a greater sense of exploring and questioning. Both of these courses helped me advance my creativity and learn about the purpose of sketching.
In CPSA, I didn’t expect us to do a lot of artistic stuff given that there is a pandemic and we had to do everything online but we did lots of artistic things and we learned about different art forms. We even had a field trip where we visit a drum lady and even got to learn how to play drums. We will also not forget about all the talented artists that showed up on our live sessions. It was a blast being in the arts scholars program. We were able to experience amazing things every week.
Semester 2
The second semester was just as lovely as the first semester. Besides the stress of having 8 am classes three days of the week, I wholeheartedly enjoyed this semester. I was able to explore a lot more than I did in the first semester. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to explore and connect with some of the faculty members. Most of my teachers couldn’t be reached on times other than office hours. Covid has set up a lot less window of connection with a lot of faculty members. I believe it will be different next year. In person classes and less Covid restriction will allow a lot of students to connect not just with themselves but with the faculty like teachers and dinner workers. Jacques for example is a good fellow I was able to get to know on my way to grab a coffee. I believe I will get to know a lot of people while eating at the diner next year.
One thing I was able to do often this semester is explore a lot of different arts and frequently play one art that I enjoy. I was able to understand poetry, dance, architecture and music and I loved working on architecture while listening to music. I’d have an Idea in my head and basically back that idea up with meaningful music while working to boost my thoughts and also give me motivation to keep working. Once I explored poetry with Saxon Brown, I totally wanted to open podcasts and admire the poetry while I was working. These sessions sometimes inspire you to write music. And you don’t really have to sing them If you don’t want to. You could just share them with people and basically understand their thoughts. I was able to do a lot of that in the poetry workshop. I look forward to seeing more of these workshops next semester and I’m just so excited to do it in person. You can definitely use these artistic styles to connect with a lot of people. I feel like there are a lot of potential ways to use art to connect with other arts scholars. You could do it during CPSA or workshop groups. And if you live on campus, you could probably connect with people in the lounge or projector room. There are so many ways.
I’ve also noticed that Arts Scholars have had great influence on me. Before the spring semester I’ve never written a poem willingly. Someone or specifically would have made me write it but I never did that myself. But once I took a workshop to study poetry, I definitely jot down some ideas for poetry and make some poems. I’ve realized that I communicate better as a poet rather than speech and I’m always thrilled to use it. I frequently love writing poems that have many layers and poems that get more emotional and interesting as u keep reading and go more in depth. Whenever I write these, it makes me feel like I’m contributing to a person’s enjoyment. The influence the scholars had on me was not little. It was path changing. It will be better next year because the Art scholars will not have break out rooms as their main source of community engagement. There will be less restrictions.
My understanding of Art has been broadened by the art scholars community. Art is now more than just creativity and presentation of quality of work. It’s a language and sometimes a sole method of connection. This has been proven in many ways. Poetry sometimes can be used to emotionally persuade the readers. A poem I read by Danez Smith juxtaposes a black man and a bullet and It fascinated me how he used poetic creativity to convey his message and make his message influential. This made me tap into this sort of art.
The whole experience was amazing. The classes were amazing, the workshop courses were exciting and life in general with the art scholars was very special. I gained an important life experience learning with them. The arts scholars give you the feeling of togetherness and I’ve never had that during my high school and middle school years. This was very new to me, and with the art scholars, a lot of things become visible to you. It’s like you get to open your eyes more when you’re with them. As an Architecture major, who needed work on improving one's creativity, this was crucial. The workshop especially helped because I needed to practice my creativity in different ways and Saxon has made sure I practiced every week. I’m grateful for the community. For the incoming Arts scholars, I’d suggest to go out at least 3 times a day if you’re on campus of course and go to the common areas and visit the arts room. I’d suggest finding inspiration from arts scholars and working on your favorite art using that inspiration. It’s fun.
Artifacts in Gallery Format
Semester 3
I’ve had a wonderful residential experience. I enjoyed the company of my roommate who was also an art scholar and we realized that we have a lot in common. So it was an excellent semester for me and my roommate in the dorms. We also were able to gather in the lounge and do work together. The lounge was a great study space and it always had a perfect atmosphere. Next to the lounge is the arts closet and that room had a lot of arts resources. I’m an architecture student and I found myself going into that room for so many resources. I believe being an art scholar was a huge catalyst in my success as an architecture student in which one aspect was the resources I received from the arts closet. Another aspect would be the creative thinking process the program leaders help me learn. Just from attending this class, I was able to be inspired in a lot of my arch assignments. For example, the Napkin sketch assignment I was assigned in my Arch300 class required a lot of thinking and I got an inspiration to choose a personal theme and tried to tell a story with it. The assignment came out great and I was proud of the grades I received. I would also like to give credit to the art scholars' classmates who helped me think with this assignment. Â
In my time as an art scholar, I’ve grown to admire art way more than I used to. I get curious about the author's intent and I try to figure out what the author is trying to communicate. Being an art scholar forced me to define what art means to me. And It also taught me that this word has different definitions for different people. To me, Art means one’s ability to communicate a complex message and connect to the audience in mediums more than visual but emotional and psychological. I’ve grown to admire Art in my time as an art scholar.
Art from what I’ve seen can magnify certain historic events. It makes the event last longer and it allows us to understand and learn from this event. It makes the event so powerful. If it’s not provocative and it doesn’t make us think about the shape of society, it’s most likely not a significant art. A great example would be the movie La Manplesa in which we watched the 1990 incident in which a South American was shot by a cop when he clearly seemed to be harmless. The music choreography, storytelling, and production of that movie were really well done and it allowed for a lot of the arts scholars students to understand clearly what happened and why it happened. This movie also stuck with us.
We’ve also learned how to write a proposal. Writing a proposal is a great theoretical method to initiate the creative process. The proposal would include inspiration, research, execution, and iterative composition. For best work, we should have many iterations.
Being an art scholar and living in Bel air hall helped a lot in my aspiration to become an architect. It showed me a glimpse of what architecture is and that gave me a good understanding. When I was working with arts and crafts for one of my pentathlon assignments, I noticed that although it was a very small version of what I do in my Architecture modeling class, I enjoyed doing it. It was pleasing to me to do something I enjoy for a pentathlon assignment.
Art scholars were exciting this semester. I loved the dance groups that arrived to teach us how to stomp. I also won't forget the drum lady that came and taught us about African Culture. This semester in CPSA was just extraordinary.
Semester 4
I have learned and grown a lot as an artist during my time in the arts scholars program. One thing I have a stronger understanding of is the definition of art. Coming into this program, I perceived art to be something creative people do and I had a general perception of art like paintings, drawings, and sculptures. That had made it difficult for me to think of myself as an artist because I knew I couldn’t draw. During my freshman year, I spent most of my time fascinated by my scholar classmates' work. However, my sophomore year in Scholars has shown me that I am as much of an artist as anyone else. This has been shown through my capstone project which I was proud I was able to accomplish. It was not only a way to be able to express my love and recognition of my heritage but it was able to fuel my desire to be an artist. Other things have also changed my perception of what art is. The documentary of La Manplesa was so striking and the people who worked on it were so talented and very compelling. They have been drastically influenced by societal awareness. The poems they wrote were so moving. Not only was I motivated to learn more about the issue but I was eager to learn about the process and inspiration of their critical topic. Art is a great tool to do that.Â
In addition to that, I saw Alina Collins' performance about representing the generational gaps between Latina parents and children through the perspectives of both lenses. This is unique to my Arts understanding because I’ve never heard of this form. My previous preconceived notion of art is that there are concrete forms of art like music, film, painting…etc but Art is not like Math, English, or Science. I now understand that art is a powerful connection between people. This means Art could be in everything. I was happy to apply that to my capstone project.
Using a collage to show that has been a great lesson of what creative thinking is. A mosaic collage that influenced a lot of people that came to Arts-fest made me feel like I can make a difference with Art. One Ethiopian kid I talked to shared her disconnection with her culture at the time and that gave me the opportunity to learn from her and consult her on what she values. It was a crazy experience. Art can also be applied to my architecture class. Throughout the many hours I’ve spent on Architecture 400 studio and design, I have learned how to anchor my main point with a lot of concepts and design applications to reinforce my idea. Anchoring the main theme is also one of the things I’ve learned in my creatives in a progress workshop class. Even though this was a very difficult and energy-draining semester for me, I realize that I learned a lot of things and a lot of life lessons. This semester has been a critical influence on my career.
