Makenna Benson
Arts Scholar
Pentathalon Semester 1
As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.
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Sherlock Holmes Meets the Bully of Baker Street (Culver City Public Theatre)
September 20, 2020
I chose this event as my pentathlon event because I love Sherlock Holmes and theatre! I really enjoy the way that they were able to convert traditional theatre into an online space and still allow for an interactive aspect. I can’t imagine how hard this switch was for everyone involved, but they did a really good job of making you feel immersed in the story! The story has a really great message about bullying and it was a nice break from my schoolwork.
#theatre
Pentathalon Semester 2
Follow along this semester as I document my arts experiences this semester.
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Magnolia: An Intimate Conversation with Nekisha Durrett & Endia Beal
February 7, 2021; Youtube; #Presentation or #VisualArt
Today, I listened to a talk between artists Nekisha Durrett and Endia Beal. They reflected on their work as artists that celebrated their identities as black women.
This talk was extremely interesting because you were able to hear about how the artists used their art to highlight the often neglected role of black women in society. You can see the need for this conversation when you look at large movements centered around racism and police brutality, like Black Lives Matter, which mainly focus on black men, rather than including their equally discriminated against counterparts: black women. Their art and the conversation about it is really inspiring to me because I love the concept of using art as a form of activism. I explored this topic not only in scholars last semester, but also in my art history class (art and activism). While that class mostly focused on the past use of activist art, I am able to connect what I learned in that class to explore and understand the significance of more recent forms of art activism, like the ones by Nekisha Durrett and Endia Beal. Nekishas talk about intersectionality got me thinking about how my identities (being a woman who is a part of the lgbt community) can be incorporated into my work and how I can use my work as an artist to advocate for acceptance.
#Presentation or #VisualArt
Pentathalon Semester 3
Follow along this semester as I document my arts experiences this semester!
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Hayao Miyazaki Film Festival: Ponyo
September 17, 2021; 6:30pm; The Clarice Preforming Arts Center; #Film
For my Next Now Festival event I chose to attend a viewing of the Hayao Miyazaki film Ponyo. Growing up, I loved watching all of the Hayao Miyazaki films like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Spirited Away. Ponyo was always one of my favorites to watch when I wanted something with pretty imagery.
As an architecture student I learn a lot about making buildings look aesthetically pleasing. Though this may not seem connected to how Miyazaki makes his art, I see connections the more I think about it. We want our art (mine being architecture, his being film) to make the viewer feel a sense of enjoyment and form a connection with the art. For Miyazaki, this may be an emotional connection to the art, such as the one I formed when I was younger. For me, I want my viewer to connect with my buildings in physical ways, as well as possibly emotional, depending on the building.
Viewing this film made me think more about how I can help my viewer emotionally interact with my space. While much of architecture is based on the physical structure of the building, an important aspect of every building is how the individual emotionally interacts with the space. This is something that most people don't think about, but I was reminded of the importance of this aspect of my art. They even let us make bsomeuttons!
This relates to what we've been learning about in art scholars. Our capstone project has to relate to us (most likely on an emotional level), so thinking about how Miyazaki infused emotion into his work helps me brainstorm for my capstone project. #Film
Pentathalon Semester 4
Follow along this semester as I document my arts experiences this semester!
“We Are All Ears”: Sense of Place and Storytelling in Ghana, West Africa
February 4th, 2022; 4:30pm - 6:30pm; Zoom; #Presentation
Yesterday I attended Emily Williamson Ibrahim’s lecture on storytelling in West Africa hosted by UMD’s school of architecture, planning, and preservation. The talk mostly focused on Emily’s work in Ghana where she taught a workshop on storytelling for the local kids. They worked together to celebrate their culture and how their experiences living in the Zongos (Muslim urban settlements) can be reflected in the stories they tell.
This talk was interesting to me because I am majoring in architecture but have interests similar to Emily in other areas of art. She has masters in architecture and architectural studies from MIT and UVA respectively. Though the work that she focused on wasn't directly related to architecture, it was interesting to hear her perspective when asked about how her work was inspired by her studies in architecture. It really changed my perspective on what I can do with my degree after college and has me considering what areas of my major I want to focus on over the rest of my college career.
Emily was super inspiring and clearly cared deeply for the work that she was doing in Ghana. She went to the extent of becoming fluent in the local language in order to better communicate with the children. Art scholars has encouraged me to follow my artistic passions and it was really cool to hear about Emily’s success in finding a way to follow her dreams.
#Presentation
