ABSTRACT
Like many art spaces at colleges and universities, the studio used for Creative Practices class at Bethel University in St. Paul is an appropriated one, occupying an abandoned gymnasium in a 1970s-era building tucked away on the edge of campus. The outside walls are lined with individual student studios created with moveable walls that constantly seem to be in a state of remodeling. Students spend the first few days of the course outlining and defining a personal set of visual ideas and research/reading they will explore during the semester. The prompts and rationales are discussed during class as a way of setting up the students' independent studio work for the week. These include idea mapping, creative destruction, the medium is the message, authenticity and ownership, collaboration and conflict, obstructions, and identifying good work. At the end of the semester, students organize their work into a book that is presented to the class.
