Meet the Artist Lecture and Podcast Series

About the Series:

The Meet the Artist Lecture and Podcast Series consists of artist talks, panel discussions, and classroom demonstrations, that support the Global Citizenship Program curriculum and liberal arts mission of Webster University in Geneva.

It gives an opportunity to local professional artists, art professionals, academics, and Webster alums to speak to the Webster community about their work. 

The series was launched in March 2018 in collaboration with the Media Communications department and the Webster Center of Creativity and Innovation (WCCI). Since fall 2020, several events have been held in collaboration with the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva.

As a learning platform, its main goals are to integrate the arts across disciplines and majors, to activate students’ potential for creative and innovative thinking through activities that are both cognitive and experiential – eg. curating, engaging with artists’ creative process and art making, podcasting, etc. – and to develop their capacity for lifelong learning.

The artist interviews, which are a part of the Webster University Geneva Podcast, form the basis of a research projects on visual artists working in the Geneva area.

For more information, please contact julianna.bark@webster.ch    

 

Past events:

Academic year 2017-2018:

March 22, 2018 – Marisa Cornejo A link to an interview with Marisa is here.
April 5 – Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup A link to an interview with Jennifer is here.
May 3 – Paul March A link to an interview with Paul is here.
June 21 – Nina Rodin A link to Nina’s talk is here. A link to an interview with Nina is here.
June 28 – Marquis’ McGee A link to his talk is here. A link to an interview with Marquis’ that was conducted by the students enrolled in ARHS 2200: Current Art (summer 2018) is here, and a link to an interview with Marquis’ (conducted together with Tim Young) is here.
July 5 – Tim Young A link to an interview with Tim is here.

Academic year 2018-2019:

September 27, 2018 – Sema Jonsson @ 6:30 pm SPECIAL EVENING FOLLOWED BY EXHIBITION OPENING. A link to an interview with Sema is here.
October 4 – Rolf Magnusson. A link to his talk is here. A link to an interview with Rolf is here.
October 11 – Rodrigo Hombre Radikal Figueredo A link to Rodrigo’s talk is here. A link to an interview with Rodrigo is here.
November 8 – Kristian Skeie A link to Kristian’s talk is here. A link to an interview with Kristian is here.
November 15 – Antonio Natale @ 6:30 pm A link to Antonio’s talk is here. A link to an interview with Antonio and his agent Christine Ruiz-Kerendi is here.
December 6 – Cécile Balsem SPECIAL EVENT HELD IN FRENCH. A link to an interview with Cécile is here.

January 24 2019 – Alan Bogana A link to an interview with Alan is here
January 31 – Lina Bessonova A link to Lina’s talk is here and a link to an interview with her (conducted together with Francesco Arese Visconti) is here
February 7 – Laura Couto Rosado A link to an interview with Laura is here.
February 14 – Gilles Dusabe A link to an interview with Gilles is here.
February 28 – Arantxa Cedillo A link to an interview with Arantxa is here.

April 4 – Ásthildur Jónsdóttir SPECIAL EVENT FOLLOWED BY OPENING OF “WALK THE SPACE” OUTDOOR EXHIBITION (WILL REMAIN ON VIEW UNTIL JULY 11TH) A link to an interview with Ásthildur is here.
April 11 – Olivia McGilchrist
April 18 – Noemi Niederhauser A link to an interview with Noemi is here.
May 2 – Francesco Arese-Visconti A link to a conversation with Francesco is here.

June 4 – Julia “Jayhan” Handschin, singer & songwriter – in collaboration with the WCCI and Media Communications department

June 17 – James Lang, visual artist and writer. A link to an interview with James is here.

June 27 – Pierre Bessuges, visual artist A link to a conversation with the artist, hosted by students enrolled in ARHS 2200: Current Art (summer 2019), is here.

July 4 – Angela McFall, visual artist A link to a conversation with the artist, hosted by students enrolled in ARHS 2200: Current Art (summer 2019), is here.

 

Academic year 2019-2020:

September 3 – Grisha Loginov, DJ

September 12 – Bob Bianchi, archeologist and chief curator, Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva

October 8 – Joy Corthésy, multimedia journalist. A link to Joy’s talk is here.

November 7 – Alan Lawson, visual artist. A link to an interview with Alan is here.

November 14 – Mishkat Hafiz, visual journalist

November 19 – Aissa Deebi, visual artist

November 26 – Leticia Antunes Maciel, owner of espace L contemporary art gallery

December 5- Hélène Tissières, African literature, film and contemporary art specialist, Guest Researcher at the Global Studies Institute

January 22: Tim Young, visual artist

February 12: Gary Bird, actor 

February 26: Amanda Callendrier, writer

March 30: A link to a talk about music and revolution by cultural anthropologist Katarzyna Grabska is here. 

April 6: Greg Pepper, photographer

May 28: “From clay to VR”: an overview of materials used to make art in the 21st century. Studio tour from ceramicist and writer James Lang, followed by a conversation on art & technology with Olivia McGilchrist

June 4: “Organising an exhibition from A to Z” conversation with curator and Webster alum Iraj Nabavi, and innovation designer and photographer Gregory Pepper

June 11: “Contemporary Art in Russia: Market Trends & Emerging Artists” presentation by Anna Kuznetsova 

June 23: Conversation about art & environmental sustainability & workshop with Asthildur Jonsdottir
 
 
 
Academic year 2020-2021:

Link to article about events scheduled for fall 2020 and for spring 2021.

October 1: Q&A hosted by the students from GLBC 1200: Global Cornerstone Seminar with Rwandan-Swiss documentary filmmaker Shyaka Kagame about his 2017 film Bounty. More details about the film can be found here and here. A link to the Q&A is available here.

November 12: Presentation by novelist and essayist Joshua Craze about the research he is currently undertaking in the UNHCR archive and his thoughts about the respective roles of the historian and the novelist. His talk, which can be found here, was sponsored by the Swiss cultural association Embassy of Foreign Artists.

November 16: Conversation with artist and activist Alexandra Rodriguez (aka. culturalex), who explained how she uses food and nature in her work to the students enrolled in KEYS 4015: Food for Thought, a course which focuses on how and where food is produced, as well as issues of food scarcity, distribution, and pricing. It addresses local, national and international influences as well as the ethical issues surrounding these topics. A link to this conversation is available here.

January 21: the students enrolled in ARHS 2200: Current Art course met with the acclaimed New York-based realist painter Christopher Gallego, who spoke about his work and creative process. He also discussed his breathtaking painting “Interior with Three Rooms” (pictured here), housed in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. A link to his presentation and Q&A is here.

February 4: the students from ARHS 2200 Current Art met with Didier Schwarz, who founded 1m83, an art collective whose mission it is to create innovative open-air exhibitions that bring culture and creativity to city dwellers’ everyday lives. For their final project, the students in this course will have to think of innovative ways to engage an audience in an experience involving the visual arts, and it was a pleasure to brainstorm ideas with Didier, who shared stories of his most visceral and life-changing encounters with art. A link to his presentation is here.

February 9: Organized in collaboration with Career Services of Webster University, this Career Talk – formatted as a presentation followed by a lively Q&A with an audience of students, staff and faculty — is a great introduction to the art market. The speaker was London-based art advisor and gallerist Taymour Grahne, whose work focuses on contemporary art. Between 2013 and 2017, Taymour founded and directed Taymour Grahne Gallery in New York, where he presented an ambitious and rigorous exhibition program and through which he built a profile for exhibiting finding young and mid-career artists – whose careers have grown significantly since – artists like Maia Cruz Palileo, Hassan Hajjaj, Nicky Nodjoumi, Whitney Bedford, Zineb Sedira, and Radames Juni Figueroa, among others. In 2017 Taymour returned to London to focus on both his art advisory practice and a nomadic exhibition program, he launched a series of pop-up solo shows by leading emerging artists including GaHee Park, Dominique Fung, Matthew Fisher, and Nadia Ayari. In 2020 he founded Taymour Grahne Projects in London, a gallery which provides a space for audiences to discover new, exciting international artists. A link to Taymour’s presentation is here.

February 16: Meet the Artist and Career Services co-hosted a Career Talk with renowned gem expert Helen Molesworth, who gave us an overview of her 20-year long career in the jewellery industry. Helen’s compelling story took us from her classics-reading days at Oxford University, to her studies at the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, to working as a jewellery expert between London and Geneva (she was in charge of selling the private jewellery collection of HRH the Princess Margaret in London in 2006), to joining Gübelin as managing director, to recently becoming head of business development for Gembridge, a new digital platform for trading gemstones, pearls and jewellery. An extraordinary story, and one that is likely to remain imprinted in the minds of the Webster community for a long time to come. A link to her presentation followed by Q&A is here.

February 18: the students enrolled in Current Art met with audiovisual artist Joshua Chiundiza from Zimbabwe, who is currently doing a residency at the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva. Through this Q&A, which was co-written with the students, Joshua spoke with us about his experience as an artist-in-residence at the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Residency in Johannesburg (2018), about how his creative process involves transforming his exploration of his own Chewa, Shona and Nguni heritage into new forms of audiovisual narration, and about his involvement in the creation of a new African digital aesthetic. A link to the Q&A is here.

February 23: Lena Dobrowolska and Teo Ormond-Skeaping (in collaboration with the Embassy of Foreign Artists

March 15: A conversation with Yasmin Mehboob-Kahn and Sarah Grosso, the student/faculty supergroup who won this year’s Webster’s Got Talent competition at Webster University Geneva. A link to the conversation is here.

March 29: Meet the Artist and Career Services co-hosted a Career Talk with renowned fashion photographer Filippo Fior. A link to this talk is forthcoming.

June 9 (as part of Creativity week 2021): Jan Van Mol (Addictlab).

June 9 (as part of Creativity week 2021): Panel ‘Chance encounters in art and nature’ with Franziska Lauber, James Lang and Asthildur Jonsdottir. 

June 9 (as part of Creativity week 2021): Keynote ‘Happy accidents in the visual arts: Examining the intersection between design and craft with chance and accident’ by Alan J Lawson.

June 24: Interview with visual artist Franziska Lauber.

Academic year 2021-2022:

November 5 Rashayla Marie Brown (in collaboration with the Embassy of Foreign Artists)

Nov. 19 Rodrigo Figueredo 

November 26 Tara Fatehi (in collaboration with the Embassy of Foreign Artists)

December 10: Katarzyna Grabska

January 27: Joshua Chiundiza, audiovisual artist based in Harare, Zimbabwe and performer at antigel festival

April 19: Catherine Butterly, Psychotherapist, University Lecturer and Senior Advisor and Trainer with the Common Threads Project in Bosnia and Eastern Congo

April 26: Ariane Tsai-Tse Sudan, visual artist 

May 3: Dot Rogers, visual artist 

June 8: Panel discussion on with Katarzyna Grabska and Lilia Kudelia. Moderated by Julianna Sandholm-Bark.

June 9: Workshop with Sarah de Latte.

Academic year 2022-2023:

November 7: Johann Pai, food and travel photographer whose work has been featured through Saveur magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and The New York Times https://www.sliceofpai.com/about

November 23: Olivia Fahmy, Curator at the Fondation Gandur https://www.fg-art.org/en/staff

April 26: Sarah de Latte

April 26: Marisa Cornejo