What is the structure?

Primarily, Fieldwork supports the development of new work. At each weekly meeting artists show works-in-progress and exchange feedback with their peers in a format designed by artists. Field workshops have been very successful in Salt Lake City.  The groups are multidisciplinary and have included artists working in all mediums of visual art and a wide-range of performing art including dance, music, theatre, poetry, and stand-up comedy.  Workshops are open to artists of all levels and all disciplines. Benefits of Fieldwork are:

 

* Get feedback on your artwork

* Meet like-minded artists

* Work toward a deadline

* Become a more savvy, articulate viewer of art

Field Workshops in Salt Lake City are held three times a year at the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts and/or the Women’s Art Center.  Typically, the group meets one evening weekly for seven consecutive weeks and then holds an informal showing on the eighth week. Sometimes workshop sessions are shorter than eight weeks.  All workshops are open to any level of artist (beginning, emerging, established) and any medium of art (performance, music, visual, theatre, film, poetry, etc...) there is no work sample or portfolio required for admission to the workshop.   

Who should come?

Again, Fieldwork is open to artists of all levels and artistic disciplines, the groups are aesthetically diverse.

What to expect:

Showing work – everyone will show work each week without qualifying the work verbally before it is shown. It may be a group work, a solo work, or anything in between. It does not have to be the same work each week - but it can be if the artist wants to work to develop a particular work. Participants are expected to show work each week whether it is a complete piece, an improvisation, or a very short or unfinished work-in-process.

Feedback – the goal is to give honest, immediate, specific feedback about your experience of each piece. The core of this is to reflect back to the artist what you saw (and to refrain from speaking to what you do not see). The Fieldwork method focuses on feedback that is non-corrective and non-suggestive because this parameter has proven to help artists move forward with their work without short-circuiting their creative role or ability to problem solve. 

Field Showing - the last session will be an informal showing of the works created during the workshop. Participants are not required to show their work at the Field Showing – it is optional. This is a casual “open studio” showing that provides and opportunity to introduce artists and their process to an audience.

What exactly does the facilitator do?

Facilitators are not teachers, but peer artists who are familiar with the Fieldwork method and act as guides in the Fieldwork process. They ensure the environment is supportive and challenging, and that each artist gets their fair share of stage time and feedback. Facilitators customarily participate in the workshop by showing work and giving/receiving feedback to encourage their process as artists and to eliminate feelings of hierarchy within the group.

Goals of Fieldwork:

Provide artists with a safe place to present their work and receive feedback in terms that are constructive, challenging, and nurturing.

Re-energize artists in relationship to their work by having other artists respond to their work, providing a new perspective.

Break through the isolation of working as an independent artist by joining other artists who are in a similar process of development.

Participate in an on-going deadline structure to facilitate productivity.

Develop artists’ abilities to articulate clearly what they perceive in others’ works.