Mimi Nguyen
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.
The First Look Fair
September 17th, 2020
I stumbled across the Terpoets through the look fair and as somebody who is inspired by writing poetry and looking to get back into slam, I see this as the first step as an Arts Scholar. Poetry is an expression of self, which is also a core value of Arts Scholars. Writing is a creative outlet that many Arts Scholars practice, and I got to communicate with likeminded people through the look fair. I am excited to create poetry with this club and bring it into the Arts program.
#literature
Sumire Skye Taniai Artist Talk
October 7th, 2020
This event was hosted by the George Caleb Bingham Gallery. In this exhibition, the artist Sumire Skye Taniai presents her portfolio that she applied to graduate school with. I learned about her thought process and art techniques behind her projects. Her artworks connect with her heritage as well, being Japanese!
#visualart
Art in the Age of Instagram
October 25th, 2020
A TedTalk on youtube by Jia Jia Fei in which she discusses how social media has changed the way people perceive art. This relates to Arts Scholars in that there are many mediums used to convey art, and social media happens to be one in the digital world we live in today. I took away the importance of appreciating art in its natural and raw form. A picture of an artwork cannot ever render the true meaning of the physical edition. Art can be appreciated in many ways.
#Presentation
Cho-Liang Lin, Violin
November 16th, 2020
A musical program that showcased Cho-Liang Lin, a violinist who shares the story of how COVID affected his musical career. This was inspiring and relatable in the sense that many of us artist have in some way been affected by the pandemic. Our ways of creating art have been impacted, whether good or bad. This program was presented at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
#Music
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Pentathalon Semester 1 (Continued)
Follow along this semester as I document my arts experiences this semester.
Chill with the Quill
November 17th, 2020
This event was hosted by the Arts Advisory Board. We participated in a free write session in which we wrote about anything we wanted based on two given prompts. I personally love writing as a hobby, so this event aligned with my art form here in the Arts program. We also got to read poetry prior to writing.
#Literature
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Pentathlon Semester 2
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.
Live Artist Talk: Muriel Hasbun
February 4th, 2021
Event Logistics: #visualart
The Walters Art Museum
I participated in a presentation in which Muriel Hasbun discussed her visual art that touches on many topics such as cultural identity and erasure, memory, migration, representation, and biases. The eerie nature of her artwork portrays the importance of memory on cultural identity, and how it is important to preserve our roots.
Reflection: Through art, different cultures can be rescued and depicted accurately. In the Arts program, we are currently doing Spring Workshops and our mentor emphasizes intersectionality and diversity which reflects these ideas. I found this presentation to be similar to what we're doing in our workshops because our TA emphasizes diversity often and encourages us to explore representation/intersectionality in our art forms. When we were sharing our favorite characters, she mentioned a female character that goes against the savior complex which is what I believe is a common trope for female characters. I learned a lot from both of these, such as acknowledging culture and the possibility that information may be misconstrued or portrayed inaccurately, therefore it is important to create art in ways that captures everybody's experience. The erasure of history is detrimental and must be retold in ways that is accurate and representative. The artwork shown by Hasbun emphasized these values and it helped me think more about how I want to approach art in my workshop.
2-in-1 Pentathlon
Drawing
February 28th, 2021
Event Logistics: #visualart
AAB
I participated in an art event in which we drew on a shared whiteboard and based our drawings on funny writing prompts. This event was lighthearted, fun, and creative because we all were forced to draw bizarre pictures. I found this event to be similar to what we're doing in our workshops because I am in the creative writing one, which also relies on prompts to facilitate projects. One of the prompts we had to do in this event was to draw animals without legs. Another one of the prompts was to draw animals and humans reversed. While this may seem bizarre, it reflects the Arts because we use our imagination and creativity. The Arts program is all about widening our scope of imagination and creativity to create new and different things. For instance, in our workshops we were sharing ideas for drafting a short story, and we found that many of our plots were oddly bizarre, but that helped drive our stories and reflect our imagination and creativity.
2-in-1 Pentathlon
February 28th, 2021
Event Logistics: #presentation
AAB
In the second half of the 2-in-1 Pentathlon event, I played scribblio. This was a fun guessing game similar to pictionary. Similar to the previous Pentathlon, we were forced to use our imaginations to recreate images and guess other peoples. I emphasize the power of creativity and imagination. Everybody took turns drawing the image and guessing what they thought the object was. These types of games help us with our creativity hence our activities in workshop.
Isabella Cardirola, Lecture Recital:
An Analysis of Debussy's Proses Lyriques
April 11th, 2021
Event Logistics: #ArtsScholars
Leah M. Smith Hall
In this event, Isabella Cardirola, a sophomore at the University of Maryland goes through multiple musical pieces and discusses their structure. She does an excellent job at analyzing these pieces of music and explaining why certain notes are the way they are. My takeaway from this event is that all art forms are open to interpretation. I noticed that she went through these pieces and gave her own interpretation of why the music sounded the way it did. I compare this to what we're doing in our workshops in that all of our writing is open to interpretation as well. While each writer carries their own unique message, somebody else may perceive these ideas differently.
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Pentathalon Semester 2 (Continued)
Follow along this semester as I document my arts experiences this semester.
Jennette McCurdy Short Film: Strong Independent Women
April 23rd, 2021
Jennette McCurdy happens to be one of my favorite creatives. She currently has a podcast named "empty inside" which covers topics such as self-esteem, trauma, eating disorders, mental health, etc. In this particular short film, she portrays the dynamic between a mother and daughter who both have eating disorders. However, the mother's eating disorder is not revealed until the end. Jennette does excellent at showing how the mother was projecting her own insecurities onto her daughter. I think that set up the audience for the plot twist at the end. I really enjoyed this short film, and it relates to the course because art forces the individual to look inward. Jennette is constantly finding artistic means to express herself. Overall, I love all the work she does.
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Pentathalon Fall 2021, 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.
Next Now Festival
September 17th, 2021
#film
The Clarice
In this event, I decided to watch the film Ponyo, which is produced by Studio Ghibli, one popular and renowned studio known for creating exceptional films. The graphics were vibrant and colorful, which made the moving picture more appealing to watch. I draw the connection between this event and Arts scholars to the artistic process behind film and graphic design. Not only is there graphic design, but writing. Each character had to be written. The story had to be written. There is an artistic process behind every creative project and I happened to really want to witness Ponyo.
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Netflix
October 5th, 2021
Dave Chapelle, a popular and quite controversial standup comedian, released one of his last Netflix specials. I decided to give it a go, and like typically Chapelle, he said many outlandish and bizarre jokes that can spark either laughter or uprising. The relationship between Chapelle’s show and art is that, well, stand up comedy is an art. It requires a lot of preparation and the ability to tell jokes at the right moment in time is a skill that not everybody can pull off. There is a creative process behind stand up comedy similar to how writers produce books, painters painting, and many more mediums.
#film
Record Painting
October 21, 2021
#ArtsScholars
In this event, we were given different mediums to paint on. We could pick from a record or regular canvas. This connects to the mission of the Arts program because everything creative has a process behind it. For myself, I decided that I wanted to use a canvas to paint on because I wanted to try to create an image. I'm not the best painter, but I managed to put together two pieces. One of which was a sunset, the other was just a mess.
Chancellor Conversations: Poetry & Labor
November 4th, 2021
#Literature
Academy of American Poets
This was a conversation between multiple poets who discussed the relationship between writing poetry, labor, work, and many more topics about writing. These poets discussed about what it is like creating a "career" out of writing and what struggles came from it. The term "labor" was brought into the discussion in which they defined it in terms of poetry. Many of these poets found ways to relate the average job to the "labor" of poetry. The labor of poetry creates an end product, which is technically work. While this work often goes uncompensated, the labor behind poetry is an arduous process. I relate this to Arts Scholars because we are constantly being challenged to create and use these creative passions to fuel our careers.
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Pentathalon Fall 2021, Semester 1 (continuation)
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.
Brene Brown
November 21st, 2021
#presentation
TedTalk
This happens to be one of my favorite TedTalks and it can be argued that the topic of vulnerability is not art related, but I think that in order to put ourselves in art, the artist has to be vulnerable. Brown discusses the importance of vulnerability in our relationships and I personally still struggle with this part of myself because being seen 100% for who you are, for some reason, is quite scary. When I used to write a lot more, it took a lot of emotional energy and vulnerability to create really moving pieces. The creative process does involve this practice whether we think about it or not, as we dig deep down and identify what our values are and portray it into our hobbies and art.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
Blacklight Summit
February 4, 2022
#Music
The Blacklight Summit was an astounding performance put together by the Clarice. These performances combined music and dance to put on a beautiful show that also conveyed multiple messages that were not apparent to the eye at first glance. I found that these performances were an artwork that can be interpreted in different ways. One artist may not receive a message the same as another. However, I do believe that this does not take away from the fact that the beholder's intended message is just as important as the many interpretations by the audience. For example, I perceived these performances as releasing trauma from the body through music and dance. I personally felt bodily sensations and the urge to let go of certain emotions. I connect this to the arts in that art is emotion, and the sharing of these emotions can be a collective experience between artists. Overall, I loved this summit and did not regret it.
The Book as Art: Altered Albums
March 1, 2022
#VisualArt
National Museum of Women in the Arts
In this online event, different artists took different concepts from literature and actual novels and transformed them into something totally new. The process of taking apart a novel that already exists and transforming it into something unique and telling of a concept, I find, is unfamiliar. This online art exhibit reminded me a bit of the event I attended in the fall in which I did record painting. I took something that already existed and put my own personal spin on it. This is related to the Arts program especially because we emphasize taking apart things and putting them back together (very much like the creative process). Overall, this online art exhibition helped me learn about the less common art styles that we do not see in a typical google search.
Navigating Intersectionalities Within Ourselves and Our Communities
March 15th, 2022
#Presentation
NextNowFest and Multicultural Center
Keynote speaker Leo Sheng talks about his experiences being a Chinese American transracial adoptee. Sheng is also an artist and an actor. This Q&A session delve into important questions of identity, confusion, and issues that come with living in intersectional identities in America. I found this conversation very important because identity is something that the Arts Scholars program constantly asks us to reflect on in relation to our creative identities. Our cultural identities and creative identities are related and in many ways the same. In my personal experience, my cultural identity has always been a point of conflict due to not engaging with my culture a lot living in America. This conversation caused me to reflect on this ongoing conflict I have within myself regarding my cultural identity. It reminded me that I have work to do: getting back in touch with my roots.
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Pentathalon Spring 2022, Semester 2 (continuation)
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.
Brene Brown
November 21st, 2021
#presentation
TedTalk
This happens to be one of my favorite TedTalks and it can be argued that the topic of vulnerability is not art related, but I think that in order to put ourselves in art, the artist has to be vulnerable. Brown discusses the importance of vulnerability in our relationships and I personally still struggle with this part of myself because being seen 100% for who you are, for some reason, is quite scary. When I used to write a lot more, it took a lot of emotional energy and vulnerability to create really moving pieces. The creative process does involve this practice whether we think about it or not, as we dig deep down and identify what our values are and portray it into our hobbies and art.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
Blacklight Summit
February 4, 2022
#Music
The Blacklight Summit was an astounding performance put together by the Clarice. These performances combined music and dance to put on a beautiful show that also conveyed multiple messages that were not apparent to the eye at first glance. I found that these performances were an artwork that can be interpreted in different ways. One artist may not receive a message the same as another. However, I do believe that this does not take away from the fact that the beholder's intended message is just as important as the many interpretations by the audience. For example, I perceived these performances as releasing trauma from the body through music and dance. I personally felt bodily sensations and the urge to let go of certain emotions. I connect this to the arts in that art is emotion, and the sharing of these emotions can be a collective experience between artists. Overall, I loved this summit and did not regret it.
The Book as Art: Altered Albums
March 1, 2022
#VisualArt
National Museum of Women in the Arts
In this online event, different artists took different concepts from literature and actual novels and transformed them into something totally new. The process of taking apart a novel that already exists and transforming it into something unique and telling of a concept, I find, is unfamiliar. This online art exhibit reminded me a bit of the event I attended in the fall in which I did record painting. I took something that already existed and put my own personal spin on it. This is related to the Arts program especially because we emphasize taking apart things and putting them back together (very much like the creative process). Overall, this online art exhibition helped me learn about the less common art styles that we do not see in a typical google search.
Navigating Intersectionalities Within Ourselves and Our Communities
March 15th, 2022
#Presentation
NextNowFest and Multicultural Center
Keynote speaker Leo Sheng talks about his experiences being a Chinese American transracial adoptee. Sheng is also an artist and an actor. This Q&A session delve into important questions of identity, confusion, and issues that come with living in intersectional identities in America. I found this conversation very important because identity is something that the Arts Scholars program constantly asks us to reflect on in relation to our creative identities. Our cultural identities and creative identities are related and in many ways the same. In my personal experience, my cultural identity has always been a point of conflict due to not engaging with my culture a lot living in America. This conversation caused me to reflect on this ongoing conflict I have within myself regarding my cultural identity. It reminded me that I have work to do: getting back in touch with my roots.
Use this Footer Paragraph to add Image Credits when needed.
Pentathalon Spring 2022, Semester 2 (continuation)
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.
Sakura Matsuri Festival 2022
April 9th, 2022
#music
The Sakura Matusuri Festival showcased Japanese culture in various ways. There were many booths with different things being offered, such as language programs, Japanese merchandise, anime merchandise, music performances, and many more. I really enjoyed this festival because it was great seeing a diverse body of people immerse themselves into Japanese culture. All colors were present and overall the atmosphere was very inclusive. In relation to Arts Scholars, this festival emphasized culture and the Arts. Music, language, and anime were all popular parts of the festival. As an Arts Scholar, I understood how important these types of events are because every culture has a unique form of expression. I loved seeing what this festival had to offer. ooffer.
Butoh and Storytelling
April 23rd, 2022
#ArtsScholars
In Katie Quinn's workshop, she taught the fundamentals and basics of Butoh dancing which originated from Japanese culture in response to historical events. I personally enjoyed this workshop in spite of my rusty dancing skills because the movements had less to do with "aesthetics" and more to do with telling a story through our bodies and syncing our energies with the people in the room. Learning about the history behind Butoh was especially telling because it showed that all forms of art originate somewhere. In this case, Butoh came from Japanese culture in the midst of tragic events such as WW2, Pearl Harbor, etc. This form of art is meant to be cathartic and help us convey our emotions and the stories we'd like to tell.
The Book as Art: Altered Albums
March 1, 2022
#VisualArt
National Museum of Women in the Arts
In this online event, different artists took different concepts from literature and actual novels and transformed them into something totally new. The process of taking apart a novel that already exists and transforming it into something unique and telling of a concept, I find, is unfamiliar. This online art exhibit reminded me a bit of the event I attended in the fall in which I did record painting. I took something that already existed and put my own personal spin on it. This is related to the Arts program especially because we emphasize taking apart things and putting them back together (very much like the creative process). Overall, this online art exhibition helped me learn about the less common art styles that we do not see in a typical google search.
Navigating Intersectionalities Within Ourselves and Our Communities
March 15th, 2022
#Presentation
NextNowFest and Multicultural Center
Keynote speaker Leo Sheng talks about his experiences being a Chinese American transracial adoptee. Sheng is also an artist and an actor. This Q&A session delve into important questions of identity, confusion, and issues that come with living in intersectional identities in America. I found this conversation very important because identity is something that the Arts Scholars program constantly asks us to reflect on in relation to our creative identities. Our cultural identities and creative identities are related and in many ways the same. In my personal experience, my cultural identity has always been a point of conflict due to not engaging with my culture a lot living in America. This conversation caused me to reflect on this ongoing conflict I have within myself regarding my cultural identity. It reminded me that I have work to do: getting back in touch with my roots.
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