Ox-Bow School of Art Announces New Award in Honor of Peter Williams and in recognition of BIPOC Alum.

SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN (January 18, 2023) –  Ox-Bow School of Art announces the Peter Williams Award. This new award will be presented annually to a BIPOC Alum whose teaching and/or mentorship exemplifies excellence and care for the student experience, life-long learning, and creative exploration. Each selected awardee will nominate a non-traditional and/or young artist for a scholarship to attend Pre-College Program, Art on the Meadow, or a non-credit course the following summer.

The award is named in memory of former faculty member Peter Williams who invested deeply in the students of Ox-Bow and embodied these same virtues. The award was first introduced in December 2022 in Chicago at Ox-Bow’s benefit, Winter Break.  

“When we learned of Peter’s passing, we also learned from his former students how deeply he had impacted their lives,” said Shannon Stratton, Ox-Bow’s Executive Director. “We wanted to celebrate Peter’s legacy and the experience of artists studying at Ox-Bow in an intimate and intensive environment, where faculty have the potential to really change an artist’s practice in just a short time. We also wanted to honor and amplify the many contributions of BIPOC artists to our educational community and the educational art communities nationwide.”    

Williams was an educator, artist, and activist who not only impacted Ox-Bow, but shaped the Arts community on a national level. He taught The Portrait as Starting Point at Ox-Bow during the summers of 2015 and 2017. At our 2022 Winter Break Benefit, we celebrated the legacy of Williams and the influence he has had on Ox-Bow’s campus and Alumni. Following his passing, the Peter Williams Estate gifted a portion of Williams’s library to our campus. The Ox-Bow community misses the departed artist and educator and will be forever grateful for the impact he left on our campus, an impact and legacy which is still ongoing. 

In Williams’s works, his paintings were an extension of his voice and convictions as an activist.

One of his last works that received significant attention was the George Flloyd Triptych; however, Williams had been speaking out against mass incarceration and police brutality long before it gained a new level of national attention in 2020. Williams made it his life’s work to bring attention to racial and systematic injustice: doing so in his lectures, interviews, and paintings. Just as the colors of Williams’s paintings are unabashedly bold and direct, so too was the artist’s intent each time he approached a new canvas. Over the course of his career, Williams was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship, Artists’ Legacy Foundation Award, The American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Peter Williams Award will next be given at the Winter Break benefit in Chicago. Nominations for future award winners, including the 2023 recipient are welcomed.

Founded in 1910, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency is an arts-based nonprofit with a rich legacy of empowering and investing in artists. Their year around programming welcomes degree-seeking students, professional artists, and those new to the arts. The 115 acre campus – located alongside and protected by the dunes, forests, and waters of Saugatuck – cultivates a space that does not simply host its residents but enhances their practice. Both its facilities and faculty edify their longstanding mission: to serve as a network of creative resources, people, and ideas amidst an energizing natural environment inspired by its rich artistic history and fueled by the potential of a vital future.

Featured Image: Headshot from Peter Williams estate via nytimes.com

In the Studio with Brandon Sward

Photo Caption: Below: Artist Brandown Sward and his exhibition How the West Was Lost. 

Artist Brandon Sward did not follow the “traditional” path of artists today. He does not have a BFA or MFA. In fact, he’s currently a Sociology Doctoral Candidate at the University of Chicago. And it's this space, between academia and art, where Sward’s latest work swims. During Sward’s time as a Longform Resident this past September, the artist invited me into the Lutz Studio for a conversation as well as a look at his work.

When I stepped into the studio it felt much more gallery-like under the curation of Sward. A barrel of hay sat in the far corner of the room and above that hung a saddle and stirrups as well as a variety of photos that Sward had taken at a rodeo. Not too far away, a belt buckle and horseshoe hung on the wall. A mannequin, posed on a distressed table, was dressed in an equally disheveled denim shirt under a canvas, quilted jacket. 

In his latest installation How the West Was Lost, Sward wrestles with images of western masculinity in a fashion equal parts playful and serious. His great-uncle Stanton (namesake of Sward’s middle name) was the owner of the artifacts posted around the room. A number of plaques accompanied the objects. They were printed on plastic in the hard-lined sans serif font of a museum. At first glance they were equal in voice to those at museums: crisp, academic, borderline clinical. But Sward let the writing carry itself and transform into something new, morphing the prosaic into poetic: “The word ‘chaps’ is a shortened version of the Spanish chaparreras,” one plaque begins and by the end of the paragraph the text has galloped into a fantastical scene of “Lana Del Rey, flying down an open highway, loose dark curls billowing gently in the wind.”

If you’re interested in exploring the exhibition for yourself, you can check out How the West Was Lost as well as its accompanying performance piece.

If you have news or stories you’d like to share about your time at Ox-Bow or beyond, you can contact Engagement Liaison & Storyteller, Shanley Poole, at spoole@ox-bow.org.

Archive Deep Dives with Abbey Muza

Dogfight, Chewey and Baby, 2022; silk, wool, cotton, organza, enamel, wood; 26” x 48”

Artist Abbey Muza.

Congratulations to Abbey Muza (2022 Fellow) on their Fulbright-Harriet Hale Wooley Residency at the Fondation des États-Unis. Muza is currently participating in their Artist Residency in Paris, France, where they have begun a series of tapestries inspired by queer artists and writers of Paris. Much of Muza’s residency involves diligent research in the archives, similar to the work they conducted while at Ox-Bow as the Leroy Neiman Historic Preservation Fellow. In a Q&A Muza shared they were “delighted to learn that Ox-Bow’s history is actually linked to what [they’re] looking at in Paris.” The beloved caretaker of Ox-Bow, Mary Kay Bettles lived on campus for years with her partner Jean Palmer and Jean Palmer’s sister, the feminist writer Margaret C. Anderson – founder, editor, and publisher of The Little Review – eventually decamped to France and joined the bustling literary scene of Paris in the 1920’s, which Muza is now researching today.

Photo Caption: Archival Photo. Mary Kay, Jean Palmer, and Norm Deam enjoy a canoe ride on the lagoon.

Mary Kay’s Legacy

Jean Palmer and Mary Kay Bettles lived at Ox-Bow in one of the many quaint cottages scattered at the edge of the Tallmadge woods. The cabin the couple called home is now named the Mary Kay in honor of the woman many referred to lovingly as the Sheriff of Ox-Bow. Nowadays, the building is used as housing and studio space for Faculty, Students, and Visiting Artists… though guests might share the space with an unexpected visitor. Many individuals on campus have claimed to have encountered the spirit of Mary Kay in the cabin. Fittingly, the place has also become a staple feature at Ox-Bow Goes to Hell. This past weekend Artists participating in Residence Evil, dressed the cabin up in the spookiest of fashions creating a haunt we’re sure our visitors will remember for many moons to come. 

Photo Caption: Mary Kay crouches down to pet her dog on the meadow. Archival Photo.

Fun Fact:

Did you know about Mary Kay’s love of dogs? She was especially fond of her German Shepherds. Next time you’re on campus, pay Mary Kay’s old home a visit: you’ll find her tribute to one of her dear four legged friends behind the cabin.

If you have news or stories you’d like to share about your time at Ox-Bow or beyond, you can contact Engagement Liaison & Storyteller, Shanley Poole, at spoole@ox-bow.org.

Ox-Bow School of Art awarded a three-year Special Project grant from the Efroymson Family Fund.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (November 3, 2022) DOUGLAS, MI — Ox-Bow School of Art awarded a three-year Special Project grant from the Efroymson Family Fund.

The Efroymson Family Fund has given a three-year grant – totaling to $150,000 – to Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency. The funds will support Ox-Bow House: the school’s three-year pilot project, an adaptive reuse initiative for community engagement.

Ox-Bow House is a place for fellowship, art and education, falling in line with the mission that fuels the 112-year old, independent summer art school that has been welcoming artists from around the nation and beyond to West Michigan since its founding in 1910. The project will focus on four goals: activating the former library with thought- provoking programs and a retail space; serving as a cultural anchor for residents and visitors to experience contemporary art; connecting our visiting artists, faculty and students to the local community; and providing space for administrative offices and archives that will be made available to the public in 2023.

The grant will support growth and opportunities for Ox-Bow House from 2022 to 2024 with annual respective gifts of $60K, $50K, and $40K. Over the duration of these years, a portion of these funds will be matched with support from other grants and individual contributions. This is not the first generous gift from the Efroymson Family Fund, which also supports the school’s Visiting Artists Program.

“Ox-Bow is deeply grateful for this support from the Efroymson Family Fund and the confidence they have in our vision for Ox-Bow House,” states Executive Director, Shannon Stratton, “This significant contribution will help us reach our goals in these initial pilot years: evolve a public facing community interface, build a strong retail program, develop our archive and continue our research into the best re-use design for the space with our resident architect Charlie Vinz.”

The classes, workshops, residencies, and public programs of Ox-Bow are developed in-house by a professional staff of artists, curators, and educators. With a vibrant community of nationally and internationally respected artists on campus each year, Ox-Bow House seeks to extend this resource to the public through a diverse menu of programs throughout the year.

“Ox-Bow is thrilled about joining the Center Street community in Douglas,” Board President Steve Meier affirms, this extension of our campus is poised to cultivate deeper connections between Ox-Bow’s programs and art-lovers living and visiting the area. The range of opportunities to connect, converse, learn and appreciate the ground-breaking work happening in artist's studios today is limitless.”

The name Ox-Bow House acknowledges the legacy of this historic building as a place for community and celebrates the idea that the house will be a charming place to stimulate learning and exploration. This accessible location will be a welcoming space for community neighbors in western Michigan as well as summer visitors to Douglas and Saugatuck. Plans include a comfortable environment where guests can partake in refreshment while digging deep into meaningful and open conversations over the arts. Ox-Bow House will be home to an exhibition hall, space for programming, and a retail environment for curated art and design objects by alumni and artists from throughout the region and beyond.

Community members eager to experience Ox-Bow House before the year’s end can look forward to the launch of the Winter Market, which will feature the work of regional and national artists. The market opens Saturday, November 26 and will be available to the public Thursdays through Saturdays from 11:00-6:00 p.m. until December 17.

Founded in 1910, Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency is an arts-based nonprofit with a rich legacy of empowering and investing in artists. Their year around programming welcomes degree-seeking students, professional artists, and those new to the arts. The 115-acre campus – located alongside and protected by the dunes, forests, and waters of Saugatuck – cultivates a space that does not simply host its residents but enhances their practice. Both its facilities and faculty edify their longstanding mission: to serve as a network of creative resources, people, and ideas amidst an energizing natural environment inspired by its rich artistic history and fueled by the potential of a vital future.

Ox-Bow Announces Residence Evil Artists, Creeps-in-Residence

Ox-Bow Goes to Hell 2021 - Photo by Nick Funk

SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN (October 11, 2021) – Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency announces the 2021 Artists of Residence Evil. This Halloween, Ox-Bow Goes to Hell for a spectacularly spooky weekend. Fueling the fright are artists Keil Troisi (Sunbury, Pennsylvania); Teagan Walters (Chicago, Illinois); Dorothy Melander-Dayton (Sante Fe, New Mexico); Nathan Margoni (Benton Harbor, Michigan); Gurtie Hansell (Chicago, Illinois); Kierstynn Holman (Grand Rapids, Michigan); Salvatore Gulino (Roseville, Michigan); Grace Makuch and Chris Bailoni (Chicago, Illinois); and Eliza Fernand (Grand Rapids, Michigan). Trails and haunted houses are open to the public for all ages October 29, 30 and 31.

Each Artist or “creep-in-residence” will turn one of Ox-Bow’s historic cabins or a portion of the Crow’s Nest Trail into spine-chilling haunts. Residents will design and build their haunts with small-scale budgets and found materials on campus. Each installation will be infused with the artists’ own background and interests, whether that be stage design, science fiction, sound engineering, drag performance, puppetry, or environmental awareness. Spectacles will feature classic ghouls from devils to the undead, as well as Ox-Bow originals such as The Great Black Heron, the Portrait Geist, and the Ox-Bow Paradox.

Mac Akin, Ox-Bow’s campus manager and a founder of the Spooky Trail offers a sneak peak of the event: “The creative and twisted minds at Ox-Bow will bring to life, or maybe unlife, another set of creepy, beautiful and bizarre scenes along the Spooky Trail. There may be some returning spectres previous guests may have seen before, some of the ghosts really like it here and tend to stick around… A few of our cabins become very, let's say, active around Halloween and we and our ghostly residents are excited to invite a fresh batch of souls to an evening they'll never forget.”

Ox-Bow first offered this event to the public in 2019, when staff introduced the first haunted cabin. In an attempt to create a safe and spooky event, they moved the event outdoors in 2020 and created the Spooky Trail. This season, Ox-Bow is delighted to bring back both events for the spookiest weekend yet.

Returning patrons can expect fresh additions at this year’s festivities when visiting the Dark Carnival and Cavern Tavern, where guests can escape the haunt to play games or sip a seasonal cocktail. Saturday’s celebrations will include a Graveyard Rave on the Ox-Bow meadow. Ox-Bow encourages guests of all ages, but notes that Sunday will cater to the youngest ghouls. At the Sunday Halloween matinee, Ox-Bow Goes to Heck, younger guests can enjoy trick-or-treating at a family-friendly haunt.

“There's something magical about facing the unknown even if it's all just pretend,” says Mac Akin. “With care and safety in mind, I hope that the Halloween hellscapes that Ox-Bow creates now and beyond spark a fire of curiosity in the hearts of all who come through, even if sometimes it looks terrifying.”

Founded in 1910, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency is an arts-based nonprofit with a rich legacy of empowering and investing in artists. Their year around programming welcomes degree-seeking students, professional artists, and those new to the arts. The 115 acre campus – located alongside and protected by the dunes, forests, and waters of Saugatuck – cultivates a space that does not simply host its residents but enhances their practice. Both its facilities and faculty edify their longstanding mission: to serve as a network of creative resources, people, and ideas amidst a energizing natural environment inspired by its rich artistic history and fueled by the potential of a vital future.

Sharon Louise Barnes Awarded Fellowship by Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs

Image courtesy of Sharon Louise Barnes. Photo by Bria Goodall.

This year, Alumni Sharon Louise Barnes (2019 Longform Resident) was awarded the City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Master Artist Program. During her appointment, Barnes delivered a lecture entitled “Resistance, Resilience, and Radical Beauty” for the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. In her lecture she shares about her latest work and the inspiration behind them, including excerpts of poetry from Gwendolyn Brooks. Barnes’s ongoing collection Seeds of Wind is centered in what the Artist calls “poetic materiality,” which she describes as “an evolving practice using discarded materials, abstraction, and poetic visual language.” 

Each year the Fellowship culminates in a collective online exhibition of the artists’ works. The collection is currently live and Barnes’s work is available for viewing. Hear more about Sharon Louise Barnes in COLA’s 2022 Design Visual Artist Feature.

We’re so thrilled to see the work of Sharon Louise Barnes being celebrated and honored in Los Angeles and beyond. Congratulations, Sharon!

If you have news or stories you’d like to share about your time at Ox-Bow or beyond, you can contact Engagement Liaison & Storyteller, Shanley Poole, at spoole@ox-bow.org.

Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency Announces Summer Benefit Concert Line-Up

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (June 27, 2022) Saugatuck, MI — Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency Announces Summer Benefit Concert Line-Up

SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN (June 17, 2022) – Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency is excited to share their first summer concert line-up featuring Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Joan Shelley, Bitchin Bajas perform ‘Switched on Ra’, Marisa Anderson, Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek, Rosali, Bill Mackay, and a Corbett vs. Dempsey DJ Set, on Saturday, July 9th from 2:00-9:00pm EST.

The event is family friendly, offering food, drink, and a screen-printing experience. VIP tickets are $175 (includes limited food and drink tickets, snacks and NA beverages, and special accessed areas), general admission tickets are $100, and minor tickets are $25. All proceeds go to support Ox-Bow.

The curated line-up by The Storehouse will take place on Ox-Bow’s campus along the shores of the Ox- Bow lagoon. The Storehouse, co-founded by duo Penny Duffy and Michael Slaboch in Galien, Michigan, is a Southwest Michigan-based events company. The organization primarily focuses on orchestrating casual, intimate gatherings.

” By fostering partnerships with other small operations in our region, we can create our own alternate reality that has very little in common with the broader corporate sphere that dominates other parts of the country. It’s very empowering and enlightening to be a part of this communal process,” Michael says.

Tickets are available to the general public for purchase at www.ox-bow.org/benefit-concert.

Founded in 1910, Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency is an arts-based nonprofit with a rich legacy of empowering and investing in artists. Their year around programming welcomes degree-seeking students, professional artists, and those new to the arts. The 115-acre campus – located alongside and protected by the dunes, forests, and waters of Saugatuck – cultivates a space that does not simply host its residents but enhances their practice. Both its facilities and faculty edify their longstanding mission: to serve as a network of creative resources, people, and ideas amidst an energizing natural environment inspired by its rich artistic history and fueled by the potential of a vital future

Photography by Jamie Kelter Davis.

When Fashion and Inflatables Collide

We caught up with Claire Ashley and Vincent Tiley to see where their inspiration and excitement lies in this new course. Inflatables: Paint Skins comes to Ox-Bow this Summer for the first time!

OX: What are you most looking forward to in coming to Ox-Bow to teach next summer? 

Vincent Tiley: I’m very excited about the kind of artistic explorations that can happen at Ox-Bow. I think it’s very different than what is generated in a more typical classroom. At Ox-Bow you can really step outside of your focus and enrich yourself in a more self-directed way.

Claire Ashley: I'm always excited to be at Oxbow in person and bask in the landscape, pace, and camaraderie of the community!! There's nothing quite like it!  And I'm excited about this new class with Vincent as I've oddly enough never taught an inflatables-specific class before! 

OX: What was the inspiration behind joining forces for this new course, especially given that you both taught two popular courses separately? Vincent, will you be bringing any fashion elements to the table from your previous course?
VT: I was Claire’s TA in grad school and had a blast working with her. Claire is also a creative force. Her work is really incredible and fun. I’m very technical. I thought that this class would be possible at Ox-bow because of the success of the fashion class. Clothing and balloons are really similar. They both are essentially skins that are filled with something to give them volume. In the case of balloons that something is air instead of parts of the body.

CA: Vince is an incredibly inventive artist who works with a similar set of concerns as I do, namely inflatables as garments, performance, and the expanded field of painting, so I'm excited that we both will be working together again!! I'm also excited that I get to use the expanded field of painting content from my previous exploding paint class within the context of the inflatable membrane or skin, I'm hoping it will be a model that we can repeat :)

OX: Are there any exciting highlights you would like to share about your course that we can share? What can students look forward to in your course?
VT: I think that the most exciting thing is the possibility for installing outdoors. There’s forest, beach, lake, lagoon, and the campus of Ox-Bow to be explored for installation. The thing about inflatables is something that’s as tall as a house can roll up and fit inside a suitcase or back pack. You can really be playful in just where you install. 

CA: I think there will be an abundant amount of energy, play, and curiosity in this class. Both of us strive to build a supportive environment where everyone can take risks, test, play, cavort, and generally explore a more irreverent relationship to an artistic practice. 

Born in West Virginia, New York based artist Vincent Tiley (he/they) received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Tiley's garment-based durational performances queer clothings’ myriad uses--often combining multiple performers into one sculptural and painted form; the garments no longer function as outward signifiers adorned by an interior self but fully disguise, restrain, and extend their wearers, irreverent of the corporeal boundaries of individual selves. His work has been featured and reviewed in Art in America, the Chicago Tribune, Performa, and the New York Times. The artist has been widely exhibited internationally including the Museum of Art and Design, the Leslie-Lohman Museum, AxeNeo7, CFHILL, and the International Museum of Surgical Science. His works have been collected by the Whitney Library, the Leather Archives and Museum, Yale University Library, and the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Claire Ashley (she/her) uses her work to investigate inflatables as painting, sculpture, installation, and performance costume. These works have been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries, museums,site-specific installations, performances, festivals, and collaborations. Her work has been featured on blogs such as VICE, Hyperallergic, and Artforum, and in magazines such as Sculpture Magazine, Art Papers, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Yorkshire Post, and Condé Nast Traveller. Ashley received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland. Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Ashley is now Chicago based. Currently, she teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Contemporary Practices, and the Department of Painting and Drawing. 

Interview with Cover Artist Ling Chun

Ling Chun is the cover artists for the 2022 Summer Course Catalog and is teaching the Clay Makerspace during CAMP: our 3-week Intensive.

What are you most looking forward to in coming to Ox-Bow to teach next summer? 
I am most looking forward is the face-to-face connection with students after teaching an online class for more than two years now. 

What was the inspiration behind the piece you have featured for our catalog cover?
Green Jar, 2018— my inspiration for this work is finding the most recognizable language of ceramics ( in this case, the vase ) that connects with the most audience. With the use of hair as the extension of glaze— I intend to break the old structure and shape and walk my audience to look at ceramics from a refreshing perspective — simple way to say: I am giving ceramics a make-over. 

Your course says you are taking inspiration from historical movements, can you elaborate a bit more on which movements you will be highlighting?
The course would emphasize the most recent contemporary movement in the ceramics discourse — how cross-discipline this medium has become. Also, what does it means when dominantly crafts-based ceramics become more used as an art medium. 

What about ceramics do you love and why did you want to lead this makerspace?
Nothing like clay capture movement intuitively— spoil alert: SO MUCH disappointment from the ceramics process makes you appreciate every little moment— that’s what I love about ceramics. It makes you look at the world differently. Part of the reason to lead this maker space is the excitement I have for a student interested in what sort of projects and wild ideas they will bring in. For most, I love giving a demo and showing the possibility you can do with ceramics.

Are there any exciting highlights you would like to share about your course that we can share? What can students look forward to in your course?

Do you like sparkle? I bring lots of sparkle and glitter to the course. I am not joking. I will teach you how to make your work likes it from outer space. 

About the artist…

Ling Chun (she/her) is a multimedia artist from Hong Kong. Her work represents the coexistence of multicultural identities within a single society. Chun’s practice focuses on creating artifacts which speak about history with a contemporary sensibility. In her execution and conceptualization of creative projects, Chun brings together her knowledge of Chinese culture and her contemporary artistic vision. Chun aspires to create public artifacts to bring relevance to historical storytelling in her future artistic pursuits. Chun is the recipient of numerous awards including the ArtBridge Fellowship 2020 sponsored by Chihuly Garden and Glass and The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts emerging artist award in 2020. In 2019, Chun was shortlisted for the Young Master Art Prize in London and recently she has been shortlisted for 2021 Korea International Ceramics Biennale. Chun is currently based in Seattle. She works as a ceramic educator at North Seattle College and also as an educational guide for the Wing Luke Museum.