TYPE AS IMAGE: SPRING 25
Prof. Mary Banas
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at
Tufts University

Tu 8:30AM–2:00PM
230 Fenway: Room B211A

When contacting me, copy both emails for best results:
mbanas01(at)tufts.edu
mary.banas(at)gmail.com

Office Hours:
Fridays from 12–1pm, on zoom
203.641.5386

How to make an appointment:
https://calendly.com/mary-banas/office-hours
please book this by 9am on Fridays, email me to give me a heads up that you have booked it.

Graphic Arts Area Instagram
Permissions doc for GRA IG is here

Syllabus
01 Description
02 Learning Outcomes
03 Assignments
04 How We Work
05 Studio Culture

Tufts University Policies

Calendar

Briefs01 Alphabet Book
02 Studio Experiments
03 Poster
04 Sequence

Readings

Tutorials (including how to print!)

Resources

Review Boards: Advice

Talks

Google Drive

Index

Type as Image

Review Boards: Advice

BEFORE: PLANNING N ADVANCE

Start to gather and organize your materials; digital and physical things —take stock on what you have. I encourage you to include MORE work rather than less, but curate the way you present the work (i.e. final work is pinned up or on a table and process is there but displayed in a secondary way)—If you have digital work to present, think through what tech you will need and reach out to SMFA Staff or a tech savvy friend to trouble shoot that well before your Review time (do you need to have your work on a drive? Do you need to connect to a screen? Do you need speakers? Etc.)

—Make a plan for printing things you might need to print out—If you want to make anything more “finished” schedule this into your life (i.e. I want to make 5 copies of my zine to put on the table at Review Boards)

—Include sketchbooks and process! People love to see this, and sometimes the critics will be able to make a connection that is not apparent in your finished work through your process/sketches work

—Make a plan to get a friend to help you set up and break down

—Reflect on the semester for yourself (take 15 minutes to write this stuff down): what did you learn? What are you sure about? What do you want advice or direction on? (courses to take, professional advice, references to inform your work). If you struggle with this, have a friend ask you questions about your school and career goals, and record the convo to jot notes down from it. Sometimes a natural conversation is easier than writing.

PRACTICAL THINGS

Start on time; if someone arrives late that is on them! This is your time and you should use all of it. Your work should be displayed and ready before. your start time.
Ask the students who are taking notes to record in the way that is your preference; for example “make sure you jot down the course names” or “I am really looking for artist references, can you help me ask for that?” “will you record audio instead of written notes?” ETC. I have noticed that some of the peers in review boards do not take a ~single~ note, so if you want something from them you may have to ask for it. Other topics to ask your peers: about courses, about labs, about study abroad, about internships, about opportunities off campus (galleries/social things)
Ask the students or one of the professors for a timer when there are 10 or 5 minutes left, or you can set a timer on your phone. This will let you have the last few minutes of the meeting to ask a question or otherwise conclude.

DURING THE REVIEW

This is your review. Based on the reflection you wrote, what are your goals for this meeting? Have these goals in mind and focus the group if they get off track (i.e. the group is talking for 20 minutes about a project that I am no longer interested in)

Frame up your presentation like this:

Tell people what you are going to show them and WHY, and set any practical expectations
Show them what you said you would show them (your work)
Tell them what you just showed them (context / questions)

For example, your review board might go like this:

Take a minute before this all goes down to get your mind right. Believe in your ideas and your work. Know that everyone is there to help you and guide you. Also remind yourself that you do not have to take any of the feedback, you are just there to listen, have a conversation, and decide what is valuable to you later.

Introduce yourself and state your pronouns, your area of focus and your year, something else like where you grew up or what you love about Boston is also nice to give a fuller picture of who you are; ask everyone else to introduce themselves because it is likely you will not know them or what department they are in, or they will not know each other—this sets the tone for the conversation.
Artist might say something like “I am going to show you three projects, with a special interest in the video which is unfinished at this time. I would like to give you an overview of these works and then for the video project I want to talk about possibilities. Then I will ask you for some advice on courses I should take. I would love to know what references you think I should be watching, reading or looking at based on the work you see here today. Finally, I have a timer set for 10 of, during which time I will ask any final questions I have”

OR artist might say something like “I am going to show you five things today. The first 3 are from my screen printing class, which has been a fruitful area of exploration this semester. I realized I am really interested in color after doing that work. I would like to hear what other printmaking or fine art classes I should take to get more into color. I am also going to show you a motion piece and a print piece. I am curious to know what threads you see across my work formally and from a content point of view"
Show your work, walk through your projects, give context. What is most important for an audience to know is what you were aiming or aspiring to do — what interest led you to making this work (I am interested in working with metal, I am interested in fairy tales and character building). Some work speaks for itself and can have a cold read (a video, graphic design) so you can also do that. Do what feels right for you, but DIRECT the focus of the critics on the stuff you want to talk about or you want the most feedback on.
Ask specific questions if you have them, the critics should be asking you a bunch of questions here to get to know you / your work better
Re-cap — tell everyone what they just saw, ask the final questions / anything you did not get to
Thank the guests!
Break stuff down with your friend
Give yourself a little treat for a great Review Board!

AFTER THE REVIEW

After reviewboards: the critics will send you notes via an internal system. You can follow up with any of the professors if you have additional questions and you can also thank them for their time and attention. In life, you will never regret “being a person”, and that is glue that connects us all together (and business runs on relationships, too, so when you want advice or to get into a class or to connect with a professional and you find it is that same professor who was in your review board... they will remember you as a nice person!)

A NOTE ON MY NOTES

I have been a reviewer for the time I have been at Tufts, but I do not have deep experience with this process here. The people who will really know the most about this experience are your peers who are juniors and seniors. Ask them what it has been like, how you can prepare, what they would do differently, etc.

School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University

smfa.tufts.edu