CommuniTea Culture

Over the last four decades, the Craft Alliance Center of Art & Design has been the sponsor of the Teapot Exhibition. This international exhibit brings together artists from all over the world to display their creations. The upcoming 18th Biennial Teapot Exhibition will be held in their Staenberg Gallery here in St. Louis in the Spring of 2022. The theme for the upcoming exhibit is:

We all come to the table with different traditions. Some are formalized and others are social customs. Drinking tea has many different adaptations to its culture from the ceremony, to its practice, to its many worldly traditions. Sharing tea culture brings us together and allows us to learn from one each other, strengthen our community. Tea Culture: Craft Alliance’s 18th Biennial Teapot Exhibition invites the viewer to explore many different ideas of tea culture.

Tea culture is about being present. We rarely carve time in between the hustle and bustle of our fast-paced lives to be in the moment with one another. Experiencing tea with a friend is about being patient and sharing. Each tea set assembles a group of objects that all play an important role. It is a service of gratitude and respect.

The Department of Visual & Performing Arts is proposing a STLCC-Forest Park cooperating exhibit that would be held in conjunction with this internationally renown exhibit and that would display the creative work of Visual & Performing Arts faculty, students, and staff. The focus of our exhibit would be on “tea culture” and “community” in all its many facets in any medium including ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, design, graphic design and photography.

When: Spring 2022 (first exhibition of the semester), date TBD

Who: Visual & Performing Arts faculty, students, and staff.

Objectives:

• To encourage artistic interpretation and expression of “tea culture” from the perspective of an inclusive definition of “community” (familial (self, family), geographic (neighbors, city/town, state, nation, planet), artistic, educational, political, religious, geographic, ecological, biological, interests, professional, vocational, celebratory, caring, and really anything that binds people together)
• To investigate “tea culture” especially as it is expressed in the Midwestern United States (metropolitan St. Louis region)
• To develop a welcoming collaboration of ideas and materials between faculty, students, and staff
• To encourage a “tea culture” project requirement for all Summer 2021 and Fall 2021 classes.

Process: Faculty will help select students’ work for the exhibition by the end of Fall 2021

Below are courses (instructors and their students) in Visual and Performing Arts that will take part in the Communi-Tea Culture project. The instructors will add the theme Tea Culture in their curriculum:

ART 109 Drawing I
ART 110 Drawing II
ART 210 Advanced Drawing
Instructors: Dan Wine, Ahzad Bogosian & Daniel Stumeier

ART 111 Figure Drawing I
ART 112 Figure Drawing II
Instructor: Metra Mitchell

ART 113 Ceramics I
ART 213 Ceramics II
AT 213 Advanced Ceramics
Instructor: Norleen Nosri

ART 115 Printmaking I
ART 215 Printmaking II
AT 215 Advanced Printmaking
Instructor: Zackary Petot

ART 114 Painting I
ART 214 Painting II
AT 229 Advanced Painting Projects
Instructors: Mario Carlos & Ahzad Bogosian

ART 140 Two-Dimensional Design Instructor: Sarah Paulsen

ART 116 Sculpture I
ART 207 Three-Dimensional Design
Instructor: Mario Carlos

ART 131 Computer Art Studio
Instructor: James Bruenger

ART 133 Graphic Design I
ART 134 Graphic Design II
Instructors: James Bruenger & Lindsey McGraw

ART 165 Photography I
ART 204 Photography III
AT 280 Advanced Photography
ART 172 Digital Photography
Instructors: Jamie Kreher & David Moore

ART 275 Photo Imaging I: Photoshop
Instructor: Cory Prahl

THT 108 Acting I
Instructor: Dolores Kane

MUS 121 Class Piano I
MUS 122 Class Piano II
MUS 221 Class Piano III
MUS 222 Class Piano IV
Instructor: Dr. Catherine Burg