Ashley Higgins
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
Fall 2020
The structure of my classes is generally what I expected for my first semester of college, but was changed to due asynchronous lectures and synchronous discussions. Grading in college freaked me out honestly. In math, 78% of my grade is dependent on 5 tests, and we have completed around 56 other assignments. In English, I have a few major assignments and a group of small assignments. There isn’t the padding I’m used to from high school where if I did okay on smaller assignments and then badly on one or two big assignments I’d still be fine. Instead, if I make one mistake on a major project, my grade tanks. This makes receiving assignments an extremely anxious process. The delivery is also not what I expected for all of the classes. I assumed that all of my professors would be amazing at teaching because they are at such a high academic level, but there was one professor who couldn’t deliver information in a way that I could absorb it, so I taught myself the subject out of the textbook. It’s also surprising how relaxed some professors are. In high school, my teachers were always saying, “College Professors won’t tolerate this! If you do this in college… You must write your email very formally,” and things of the like. I wonder if it would have been closer to what I expected if classes were in person.
I took MUSC289I this semester, Exploring the Power of Musical Performance in Social Engagement. This semester in Art Scholars we learned about Art and Activism, and my final music project was to create a musical event to promote change. I used the skills from Art Scholars panels and guest speakers to help formulate my idea and my delivery.
I didn’t expect to learn about podcasts in Colloquium because before this class, I didn’t understand they were art. This class has caused me to appreciate art in new ways, and to recognize art where I wasn’t recognizing it before. I was expecting more lessons on making art, but that comes next semester. I was excited to join art scholars for all the event and craft activities, so hearing that everything would be transferred online was disappointing, but the online adaptations were surprisingly great. Pentathlon motivated me to participate in the arts while living off campus. I did expect to build more of a community, but I still feel alone in a sea of others who are simply in a program.
I live at home, and my expectations of college were not met at all. I thought I would have more freedom, that I would get to live on my own, that I’d make new friends and discover my identity in a new environment. I was promised I’d be able to live on campus next semester, but now that it’s time, I’m still staying home. It’s extremely disappointing. I am at a higher risk in terms of the pandemic but I’m tired of having so little control over my life. If I’m not on campus for sophomore year, I honestly don’t know what will happen. It feels like this pandemic will never end. I dreamed of living in Cambridge Community, walking to get food from the dining halls, and meeting up with my friends to study outside or lay on the lawn. Maybe I expected too much, and even without the pandemic I wouldn’t be as happy as I thought I should’ve been.
I think that UMD’s response to COVID-19 is generally what I expected. I am disappointed with how long it takes them to make decisions, and I do realize that health decisions take a long time, but class locations weren’t released until after the housing deadline closed, and the only way I was living on campus was with an in person class. I couldn’t tell what classes were in person yet, so I didn’t get housing, and I had to change my schedule because several classes I was going to take were in person and I’m not on campus.
The most noteworthy part of Art Scholars actually occurred over the summer with Homie House Press. I’m a co-author of their most recent HITO publication! It’s an amazing opportunity, and it features my thoughts, drawings, collages, photography, and poetry. It has not finished the publication process, but I am so excited for it to come out. This is a great addition to a resume, and I learned how to interact and work with editors, which is an important skill for poetry work, something I am very passionate about.
Semester Two
Spring 2021
I built relationships with faculty the summer before my freshmen year by participating in optional art projects. It was nice to come in knowing I already had a personal relationship with those that could mentor and guide me in my time throughout the program and in college in general. As such, I felt comfortable reaching out when I had issues or technical difficulties, and I knew that they cared about me personally, as they did with every student. Incoming students need to remember that the faculty are there to help teach and guide you in your journey throughout Arts Scholars and they do not need to be afraid to approach them if they have questions or if a problem arises. The faculty is very understanding of personal issues. To make these relationships I had to get over the anxiety of approaching an authoritative failure and of judgement, because you never know what great relationships you are missing out on when you do not even attempt to reach out.
I haven’t done too well with connecting with students and living off campus in quarantine made this really difficult. In the beginning of the academic year, I reached out and made a group chat for everyone that has now become a giant chat, but I don’t use it too much. I needed to take advantage of the opportunity I created for myself. I have found adjusting extremely difficult, and I haven’t made too many connections. The workshops during second semester were very helpful for this as I got to talk and interact with a smaller group of students, but now that it is done, I feel like those connections are dissolving a little bit. My suggestion to future students, and to myself next year, is to balance the academic with the social. I focused way too much academically in the first semester and didn’t spend time making social connections, which eventually caused my academics to suffer a little anyways. Take these connections and use them to enjoy your life, college is where you discover who you are.
Art Scholars fosters community by making sure everyone has their cameras turned on in zoom meetings. It makes the online forum feel more like a real classroom. We also work in group discussions, offering each other feedback and suggestions which helps everyone improve upon their skills and get over humps in their creative process. We all support each other’s artistic endeavors, whether that be attending a show on campus that an Art Scholar is in, or supporting a social media account. Artistic engagement is really fueled by our interactions with outside artists and groups. I was able to participate in a project called, “HITO,” which is a digital zine publication representing how students feel at home in different spaces that they occupy. My work will be featured and published which is an amazing feeling. This publication will help fellow students learn how to be comfortable in their physical and electronic spaces. To continue to contribute to art scholars I would like to take on some sort of active role to help plan fun projects and opportunities.
My definition of art has expanded profusely. Anything with a spark of creativity and emotion behind it is a piece of art. Art is more than a pretty painting or a perfect poem, it is all of the effort, hard work, and emotion that was poured into the making of the piece. Art can be found more within the actions of the artist than in the art itself. The process of making art is what gives art its meaning. I was experienced to new materials and art forms that I didn’t know existed. I learned about podcasts, zines, wire sculpture, and most importantly, about myself as an artist. I came in thinking everything that I make needs to be perfect, but it doesn’t. In fact, I don’t think there is a perfect in art, and that word should not be said as a standard of work. Art is all about the emotion drawn from it, and learning that has helped me let go of my perfectionist instincts and really enjoy the process instead of only enjoying the outcome.
The workshop was the most beneficial experience for me. I chose to join the workshop that I knew the least about and now I have a brand new skill! This is where I learned the most and was able to apply my knowledge from colloquium. The hands on feel made it fun, not work. Sometimes I would forget that I was making something for school and just get lost in the artistry. To my fellow art scholars, don’t hide from new opportunities. Most growth occurs in areas of the unknown, so I suggest doing what I did and selecting the workshop that appears the most foreign to you.
Semester Three
Fall 2021
This semester was my first semester of in person university, and I got to experience Arts Scholars in an entirely new way. In Arts Scholars we have addressed several themes. The first is how art can reshape understanding. I have learned art can provide an easier way to process emotions and understand the feelings of others. When hearing about an experience that I am not familiar with it is difficult to empathize, but art puts these feelings in an accessible form and can be a very powerful medium. For example, in Art Scholars I watched the film “La Manplesa”. At first, it was difficult to understand the feelings of the Salvadoran immigrants in the film, but when presented with their art, music, and poetry, their suffering of the gentrification of their street and their increased police presence became painfully clear. I began to tear up at the film and really sympathize with their struggles. The second theme examines theoretical models to initiate the creative process. This semester we employed brainstorming methods to begin the creative process. This included bubble maps and venn diagrams with arrows connecting unrelated thoughts to come up with ideas. A third theme was incorporating feedback to revise creative ideas. To accomplish this in class we were involved in peer reviews. I found the peer reviews helpful because they revealed to me when my writing was not clear and was difficult to understand. I learned how helpful peer reviews are to the process of being clear in writing and in the creative process.
I have experienced Lil Dicky’s “Earth.” This is a song expressing Lil Dicky’s views about how we treat the earth and what we can do to help. My engagement in Arts Scholars helped me to understand the importance of Lil Dicky including so many artists in his production and the art of collaboration. I learned this art by collaborating during the process of capstone reviews.
The most interesting supporting arts course that I have taken this semester was the art of presentation. In the class we spoke about presentation techniques, and the presentation technique that was used the most was a visual medium, either that be movement or a visual presentation. This connected to our first theme this semester. We used movement to better portray emotions to gain attention during our presentation and to really connect with our audiences.
I don’t feel that my learning was improved by interacting with my fellow Art Scholars. I felt isolated not living in the Arts Scholars building and I don’t know many of my classmates. I attempted to reach out but I don’t feel it was reciprocated. I would have appreciated more group work opportunities to include the students not living in Bel Air in the community.
I have contributed to the community by attending every class and participating in Arts Advisory Board activities. I really enjoyed the powerpoint night that we had, as I got to know a few members of the class that I had never met. I wish I was able to participate in more arts advisory board activities and community building activities, but unfortunately they all took place when I was in other classes. Next semester, I am hoping that my class schedule changes up and fits with the opportunities.
Scholars brought me in contact with new beliefs and ideas, but not any that I disagreed with. I gained a lot of value from the different perspectives because they taught me about the world outside of myself. I am better able to understand the experiences of others and sympathize with them as well. I experienced the work of Charma which presented me with a new perspective on dance and how dance is formed in times of hardship where creativity blossoms. Being exposed to new forms of creativity is always beneficial because it provides new opportunities for growth and for new ideas of how to communicate with people.
Semester Four
Spring 2022
Over my two years in Arts Scholars, I have learned many things pertaining to the arts and about myself not only as an artist, but as a person and a professional. Throughout this program, I have taken 4 colloquium courses (CPSA100, CPSA101, CPSA200, CPSA201), 2 workshops (Wire Sculpture, Creative Expression of Emotion), 3 artistic electives (Power of Music Performance for Social Engagement, Writing Poems and Stories, Art of Communication), participated in 20 pentathlon events and a publishment for Homie House Press, attended 4 field trips, and curated my own individual research for a capstone project. These opportunities have caused me to grow heavily over the two years I was here, and I am grateful for the experience.
The first evidence of growth that I see is within my articulation about the arts and my own artistic process. Before Arts Scholars, I mainly felt art and was unsure of how to practice artistic communication. In the first colloquium, CPSA100, I was asked to make a podcast with some other students. My writings and proposals for this podcast are nothing compared to my proposal for my capstone project. These two assignments allow me to see my growth in presenting my artistic ideas. Another way I learned how to express my artistic ideas was through Journal prompts in workshops. In both workshops, I had to create a proposal for a final piece and an artist’s statement at the end of the workshop. The proposals are rough, explain my ideas, but are not articulate. In the artist’s statements I see a great improvement in the language and the execution of communicating my ideas and the message I wanted to convey.
My perception of art has changed throughout my time as an art scholar. I have realized many more things are art than I originally thought. I never considered a podcast to be a piece of art, but after working on one with members of my team, I realize it is an art. Design, music, and other production elements all go into a podcast to convey a central message, and that is what art is. Before the project, I was really bored by the idea that I would have to make a podcast and work with my fellow students that I didn’t even know because I was trapped at home. After the project, I learned a lot about the creation of art, and how even unprecedented times can’t stop art, it just inspires it. Many of our podcasts were about COVID-19, as it was the general interest at the time. I learned more about types of art, how art can exist under any circumstance, and how art can speak to the current climate and send an important message all through this one project. In my pentathlons, I purposely sook out opportunities to learn about dance, as it is an art form I was very unfamiliar with. I never really understood dance or how it could convey an important message or speak to humanity on a deeper level, but after these pentathlon events, my view on dance changed and grew. The main takeaway I had was after watching a dance called Bullfight. I learned that dance can be used to humanize aspects of our lives that we don’t show much empathy or sympathy to and bring emotions of care towards that subject. I never thought dance would be able to evoke something so powerful.
To complete my capstone project, I relied heavily on the knowledge I gained in CPSA250. In this class I learned how to ‘kill my darlings’. This is essentially throwing away some of the iterations or ideas you have for a project because they are not feasible or don’t contribute to the central message of the project. I drew upon this to ensure that my project was completed on time and curated well. I had many more ideas, but sometimes you need to focus on just a few ideas for the best presentation to the public. My capstone ideas didn’t particularly draw from any specific course or project within Arts Scholars because it was mainly influenced by my major of Psychology and my general interest in art, but the curation of the project was highly influenced by these courses. I learned about general curation through our GA, Gabi, who curates exhibits all the time and about how to draw eyes to the exhibit in CPSA250.
I have gained so many new interests throughout my time in Arts Scholars, some of which I have not had the pleasure of trying just yet, and much of this came from simply watching my peers work on their projects. Everyone in the program was incredibly talented. For instance, I saw a fellow classmate working with crochet commonly, and I’m now inspired to learn to crochet my own stuffed animals! I saw many people working with digital mediums to advertise their capstone workshops, and I would love to learn how to do that to help advertise my future endeavors. I also took a wire sculpture workshop, knowing nothing about wire sculpture, and came out of it loving the art form. I have my own wire collection and I continue this art to this day, even out of the workshop. I am very grateful to Arts Scholars for expanding my horizons.
The main collaboration I was involved in was during the podcast project, although all of us had similar experiences when I came to COVID-19, which was the project topic. I learned the most about people from different backgrounds outside of collaboration efforts, as I feel we didn’t do much collaboration. In the workshop, Creative Expression of Emotion, we did share our ideas, and I learned a lot about my fellow classmates and their different artistic interests. The final project didn’t have to be a set art form, so this is where I learned the most about them and their abilities, and it was a pleasure to work alongside them, even if we were working separately.
This experience has informed my future by helping me determine a possible career path. Previously, I was focused on therapeutic psychology, but after participating in the research process for my capstone project, I have developed a large interest in possibly being a psychological researcher instead and being on the forefront of new discoveries that may help benefit people’s lives. I plan to continue the research that my capstone project began for fun and to continue to test the waters in research psychology.