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Donald Fortescue and CCA students at the FOR-SITE residency
Artist Programs

Education Programs

Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum. FOR-SITE offers educators affiliated with the foundation’s institutional partners the space and resources to create a course or seminar focused on their interests. The foundation provides access to the Nevada City residency site and funding that covers essential project expenses. Students are in residence for no less than two three-day sessions during an academic term. Upon completion of the project, students work with instructors to produce course documentation in the form of a publication or other record of the class.

Spring 2016, California College of the ArtsSusanne CockrellIndwelling

This studio research lab invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling.

Fall 2015, California College of the ArtsBrian ConleyNon-Site For-Site

Taking Robert Smithson’s concept of site/non-site as a framework within which to engage the land in and around Nevada City, this class focussed on three major subject areas that have affected—and will continue to affect—the region in the past, present, and future.

Spring 2015, California College of the ArtsMia FeuerOverstanding/Undermining

This class examined the complex and exploitive relationship between the human species and the natural world with a focus on the Nevada County territory and history. Engaging in discussion on the ecology of the man-made world, and the scars left on and under the landscape, students questioned, challenged, and reimagined humanity’s complicated but magical relationship to the natural world.

Fall 2014, California College of the ArtsDeborah Valoma and Angela HennessyLoss for Words

This seminar considered the Sierra Nevada landscape as a witness to personal and cultural narratives of loss. Locating historical and traditional practices as gestures of resistance and continuity, students contemplated how things speak without speaking, acquire meaning as they dissipate, and assert their presence in absence.

Spring 2014, California College of the ArtsRanu Mukherjee and David BurnsProcession for the Extracted

This project explored the history of gold mining and narratives of westward expansion in the region of Nevada City. Taking on dual roles as both guests and hosts, students in CCA’s Social Practice Workshop responded to these legacies through a processional series of works enacted on site.

Fall 2013, California College of the ArtsKota EzawaAfter “After Nature”

After Nature, a 2008 New Museum exhibition titled after a book by W. G. Sebald, sought to illuminate a future landscape of wilderness and ruins and to tell a story of “humanity coming apart under the pressure of obscure forces and not-so-distant environmental disasters.” Taking the exhibition as a starting point, students embarked on an expedition toward new ground in nature art.

Fall 2012, California College of the ArtsRichard T. WalkerRe-Presenting Experience: An Assessment of the Figure Within Landscape

A lone figure, dwarfed by the immensity of nature, confronted and challenged by the ferocious splendor and magnificence of the surroundings in which s/he is engulfed, is a common theme in many 19th-century Romantic landscape paintings. This provides a point of departure for a class examining the relationship between landscape, figure, and the representation of experience.

Spring 2012, California College of the ArtsDonald FortescueStudio Research Laboratory: NorCal Musings

This studio explored the land as a site for work. The class focused on the human and natural histories of two disparate sites — the FOR-SITE Foundation and the Headlands Center for the Arts — and created original works that engage the complex cultural mesh of each site.

Fall 2011, California College of the ArtsAlison Sant and Amy FranceschiniNature in the City

This course explored the complex relationships between rural and urban, natural and man-made. Using the Presidio of San Francisco as a case study, students researched the design and history of the park and how it reflects cultural concepts of nature.

Spring 2011, California College of the ArtsRené de GuzmanMining Nevada City: Oakland Museum of California Case Study

This project-based study examined how the art, history, and natural environment of a region are mediated and represented by an urban museum. Graduate Curatorial Practice (CURP) students immersed themselves in the history, landscape, art, and culture of Nevada City and in the collections, history, and programs of the Oakland Museum of California.

Fall 2009, California College of the ArtsTed PurvesThe Map and the View: Working on and from the Land

This course was an exploration of how one responds to a particular place; how one speaks of that response and the place itself when no longer there; and the methods used to describe a place to those who will never see it.

Spring 2009, California College of the ArtsNathan LynchMaster of Fine Arts Field Study

This interdisciplinary, field-based seminar focused on earthworks, land use, and ecological interventions. Students took several trips to the residency site to camp, study, experiment, and explore.

Spring 2008, California College of the ArtsNathan LynchCeramics Workshop

This interdisciplinary course focused on earthworks, land use, and ecological interventions. Guest artist Ursula von Rydingsvard worked with the students.

Fall 2007, California College of the ArtsDonald FortescueFurniture Studio

This graduate-level course focused on the Northern California landscape as a site and source for art and design work.

Fall 2007–Spring 2008, California College of the ArtsOblio JenkinsSite-Specific Design/Build

This two-semester project connected students to nature and place in the context of a full exploration of the architectural design process.

Spring 2007, University of California, BerkeleyWalter HoodTopics in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design

Students in this course designed the perfect artist’s studio. By interviewing two prominent Bay Area artists, John Zurier and Mildred Howard, students gained firsthand knowledge of what a working artist needs in order to create, then translated these guidelines into working design models.

Spring 2007, San Francisco State UniversitySandra KelchGraduate Seminar in Information Design

This five-week “real-world” project afforded students the opportunity to research and design wayfinding systems (maps and signage) for the FOR-SITE Foundation.

Fall 2004, San Francisco Art InstituteAmy FranceschiniTrails Forever

The Trails Forever project took place within a Media Theory and Practice course. The project examined the use of wireless technologies as non-intrusive interpretation systems.

Fall 2003, University of California, BerkeleyWalter HoodShaping the Public Realm: Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

This project asked “What happens if we take the approach of Robert Smithson’s Nonsite?” Students critiqued and worked within the context of the Nonsite.

Fall 2003, California College of the ArtsLisa Findley and Bruce TombGrounding Architecture

This studio introduced students to tectonics in architecture through an investigation of site and ground. The focus was on the understanding of particularities that site lends to architecture, and learning to think about buildings in the landscape.

Spring 2003, California College of the ArtsDonald FortescueWood/Furniture Course

Fortescue, along with three other faculty and fifteen students from the Wood/Furniture Program at the California College of the Arts, trekked to FOR-SITE’s residency site for three days of exploration, learning, and creativity.

Artist Programs

  • Overview
  • Artist Residencies
  • Education Programs
    • Indwelling
    • Non-Site For-Site
    • Overstanding/Undermining
    • Loss for Words
    • After “After Nature”
    • Re-Presenting Experience: An Assessment of the Figure Within Landscape
  • Wauson Fellowships

Field Notes

  • Fall 2015 Education Program Perspective — Instructor Brian Conley

  • Fall 2015 Education Program Perspective — Frances Richard, Guest Instructor

  • Spring 2015 Education Program Perspective — Peter von Tiesenhausen, Guest Artist

Artist Editions

  • Syjuco DSC_2956a copy
  • alfarrowmultiple
  • michelepredmultipleopen
  • trevorpaglen-challenge-coin_rdh_001

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  • #LandsEnd featured artist Andrea Chung’s video Come Back to Jamaica (2009), & Come Back to Yourself (2013), will be… https://t.co/HXwouRNnBa
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Occupying a suite of former military structures in the Presidio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Home Land Security (2016) brought together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name. 

The exhibition extended FOR-SITE’s focus on provocative art about place, inviting viewers into decommissioned batteries, an administrative building, and a chapel — some open to the public for the first time — that served for decades as key sites in the US Army’s Coastal Defense System. #ArtAboutPlace

Image: DÍAZ LEWIS, 34,000 PILLOWS, 2016–ONGOING (VIEW FROM OUTSIDE BATTERY BOUTELLE); USED AND DONATED CLOTHING AND KAPOK FIBER FILLING; COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND ASPECT/RATIO, CHICAGO; © DÍAZ LEWIS; PHOTO: ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK
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Occupying a suite of former military structures in the Presidio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Home Land Security (2016) brought together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name.  The exhibition extended FOR-SITE’s focus on provocative art about place, inviting viewers into decommissioned batteries, an administrative building, and a chapel — some open to the public for the first time — that served for decades as key sites in the US Army’s Coastal Defense System. #ArtAboutPlace Image: DÍAZ LEWIS, 34,000 PILLOWS, 2016–ONGOING (VIEW FROM OUTSIDE BATTERY BOUTELLE); USED AND DONATED CLOTHING AND KAPOK FIBER FILLING; COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND ASPECT/RATIO, CHICAGO; © DÍAZ LEWIS; PHOTO: ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK
2 days ago
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1/9
@anateresafernandez’s Sanctuary rug design, titled Erasure, showcases a work from a series of the same name for which the artist documented a performance of erasure: painting her body black with thick acrylic paint in front of a black background. The resulting video and suite of signature large-scale, hyperrealist paintings leave only glimpses of color—in this case, a searing pair of eyes. Fernández performed this act of removal and mourning in response to the 2014 disappearance and presumed murder of forty-three young male student-activists in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. For the artist, this unconscionable act raises critical questions: “Whose life can be erased so quickly? Why are some sectors of our community treated in such a disposable way? What do we need to do as a society to be seen and treated equally, like valued human beings?”

In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@anateresafernandez’s Sanctuary rug design, titled Erasure, showcases a work from a series of the same name for which the artist documented a performance of erasure: painting her body black with thick acrylic paint in front of a black background. The resulting video and suite of signature large-scale, hyperrealist paintings leave only glimpses of color—in this case, a searing pair of eyes. Fernández performed this act of removal and mourning in response to the 2014 disappearance and presumed murder of forty-three young male student-activists in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. For the artist, this unconscionable act raises critical questions: “Whose life can be erased so quickly? Why are some sectors of our community treated in such a disposable way? What do we need to do as a society to be seen and treated equally, like valued human beings?” In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
4 days ago
View on Instagram |
2/9
Titled Here we die, @mpane.aime’s design for Sanctuary was based on one of his carved plywood portraits from a series of the same name. He creates these portraits with an ancient tool called an adze, which allows him to scrape away layers of wood and reveal his subject by reduction. Each panel is roughly twelve by twelve inches: the equivalent of a human head’s surface area. “Because my work deals with problems of race and the stereotypes of black people, the three layers within four-millimeter-thick plywood make me think of the three layers within human skin,” he explains. Despite the dark histories underlying his work, Mpane’s portraits are not somber: his embrace of bright color lends an air of inextinguishable hope and promise.

In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
for_site
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Titled Here we die, @mpane.aime’s design for Sanctuary was based on one of his carved plywood portraits from a series of the same name. He creates these portraits with an ancient tool called an adze, which allows him to scrape away layers of wood and reveal his subject by reduction. Each panel is roughly twelve by twelve inches: the equivalent of a human head’s surface area. “Because my work deals with problems of race and the stereotypes of black people, the three layers within four-millimeter-thick plywood make me think of the three layers within human skin,” he explains. Despite the dark histories underlying his work, Mpane’s portraits are not somber: his embrace of bright color lends an air of inextinguishable hope and promise. In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
7 days ago
View on Instagram |
3/9
@hankwillisthomas Sanctuary contribution, titled Keep the Faith Baby, comes from a series invoking buttons and slogans from political campaigns and social movements from the last 50 years, removing them from their original context to allow audiences to reinterpret the messaging through a contemporary lens. Thomas remembers encountering a button bearing this particular wording as a child. The phrase, used by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, originally served to communicate the hope and profound faith that fueled the American civil rights movement. “It may sound trite, but commercialism is the new religion. We are all believers. Even the most radical of us,” Thomas has said. “It’s not propaganda anymore.”

The notion of sanctuary—both physical and psychological—has been fundamental in shaping a sense of selfhood and social identity throughout human history. But in an era of increasing global migration and rising nationalism, the right to safe haven is under threat, and the necessity for compassion is greater than ever. Seeking to address these issues and ideas, In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@hankwillisthomas Sanctuary contribution, titled Keep the Faith Baby, comes from a series invoking buttons and slogans from political campaigns and social movements from the last 50 years, removing them from their original context to allow audiences to reinterpret the messaging through a contemporary lens. Thomas remembers encountering a button bearing this particular wording as a child. The phrase, used by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, originally served to communicate the hope and profound faith that fueled the American civil rights movement. “It may sound trite, but commercialism is the new religion. We are all believers. Even the most radical of us,” Thomas has said. “It’s not propaganda anymore.” The notion of sanctuary—both physical and psychological—has been fundamental in shaping a sense of selfhood and social identity throughout human history. But in an era of increasing global migration and rising nationalism, the right to safe haven is under threat, and the necessity for compassion is greater than ever. Seeking to address these issues and ideas, In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
1 week ago
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4/9
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
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Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
2 weeks ago
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5/9
Susanne Cockrell’s (@aradicalstitch ), Indwelling invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling.

Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum.

Image: Susanne Cockrell’s, Indwelling, 2016, California College of the Arts
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Susanne Cockrell’s (@aradicalstitch ), Indwelling invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling. Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum. Image: Susanne Cockrell’s, Indwelling, 2016, California College of the Arts
3 weeks ago
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6/9
Established in 2003, the FOR-SITE Foundation is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. Our exhibitions and commissions artist residencies, and education programs are based in the belief that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environment.

Image: Artist Chris Drury at work
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Established in 2003, the FOR-SITE Foundation is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. Our exhibitions and commissions artist residencies, and education programs are based in the belief that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environment. Image: Artist Chris Drury at work
3 weeks ago
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7/9
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
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Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
4 weeks ago
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8/9
In honor of #Earthday we want to acknowledge that the former Cliff House and the Lands End exhibition were sited on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Yelamu, a local tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples and the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula.

While we appreciate the beauty of the Golden Gate National Park, we must acknowledge that Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization
displaced and eradicated Native peoples across California, including the Yelamu beginning in the 18th Century. We offer respect to
the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramaytush Community and affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples.

We recognize the Ramaytush Ohlone's enduring commitment to steward the Earth. Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in how
we care for the lands, waters, and all the people must inspire our actions to achieve a truly ecologically sustainable future for San Francisco and our planet.

#LandsEnd featured works by a group of artists from around the world that strived to remind viewers of our interconnectedness via global currents of water and air, and to encourage visitors  to partake in all the fresh ideas and perspectives that emerge from the rising tides as we head deeper into this tumultuous century. The exhibition featured works by @suzannehusky  @brianjungen @catriona.jeffries @andreachungstudio 
@tylerpark_presents 
@angelo.filomeno  @galerielelong 
@project88mumbai 
@chester_arnold_painter 
@cclarkgallery @gerada_art @anateresafernandez 
@cclarkgallery @danielbeltraphoto @edelmangallery 
@adam5100 @dougaitkenworkshop 
@studioolafureliasson 
@mcevoyarts @elizabethellenwood 
@maja_petric 
@winstonwachter @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen 
@mcevoyarts @gulnurozdaglar @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen #williamtwiley #DougAitken #tuulanarhinen 
#andygoldsworthy #onebeachplastic #shumonahmed
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In honor of #Earthday we want to acknowledge that the former Cliff House and the Lands End exhibition were sited on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Yelamu, a local tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples and the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. While we appreciate the beauty of the Golden Gate National Park, we must acknowledge that Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization displaced and eradicated Native peoples across California, including the Yelamu beginning in the 18th Century. We offer respect to the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramaytush Community and affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples. We recognize the Ramaytush Ohlone's enduring commitment to steward the Earth. Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in how we care for the lands, waters, and all the people must inspire our actions to achieve a truly ecologically sustainable future for San Francisco and our planet. #LandsEnd featured works by a group of artists from around the world that strived to remind viewers of our interconnectedness via global currents of water and air, and to encourage visitors to partake in all the fresh ideas and perspectives that emerge from the rising tides as we head deeper into this tumultuous century. The exhibition featured works by @suzannehusky  @brianjungen @catriona.jeffries @andreachungstudio @tylerpark_presents @angelo.filomeno  @galerielelong @project88mumbai @chester_arnold_painter @cclarkgallery @gerada_art @anateresafernandez @cclarkgallery @danielbeltraphoto @edelmangallery @adam5100 @dougaitkenworkshop @studioolafureliasson @mcevoyarts @elizabethellenwood @maja_petric @winstonwachter @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen @mcevoyarts @gulnurozdaglar @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen #williamtwiley #DougAitken #tuulanarhinen #andygoldsworthy #onebeachplastic #shumonahmed
4 weeks ago
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9/9

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