Skip to main content

This is your Donation message.

Home » News » New College of Florida Partners with FSU Art Programs

New College of Florida Partners with FSU Art Programs

Published November 13, 2015
Written by Devyn Fussman, excerpts from The Sarasota Herald-Tribune and New College of Florida.
SB

Samantha Burns

New College of Florida (NCF) has entered a new partnership with the Department of Art, in which a recent FSU Art MFA will be placed in the Visiting Artist position annually. The inaugural recipient of the position is FSU Art MFA ’14 Samantha Burns.

According to the New College website, Burns is an interdisciplinary artist whose works have been exhibited in national and international venues. In 2013, she was one of eight artists selected for a studio program in Berlin, Germany and was featured in the International Sculpture Magazine as an honorable mention for the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award in 2014. Burns believes that her job as an artist and instructor is to push and motivate others to grow within the field and themselves. She intends for her students to gain the skills necessary to work more confidently while encouraging their growth as artists and individuals.

For the academic year of 2015-16, Burns will be creating new works in her studio at New College while teaching at the campus, which is located adjacent to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. She will be instructing an Introduction to Printmaking course in the Fall, and in the Spring, she will teach an additional advanced printmaking course as well as participate in an exhibition and lecture. The work Burns is creating as visiting artist will be shown in New College’s gallery, and she looks forward to sharing her students’ and her own new works as they progress.

“I was able to bring my class to the Ringling Museum’s Education Library to look at Goya, Rosa, and Dürer prints,” Burns said. “It was absolutely wonderful! I think they have even more inspiration for their intaglio projects.”

Samantha’s work and projects are showcased on her website. She has recently applied for a Fulbright in addition to other shows and residencies. More news on this exhibition and her lecture are coming soon, as dates for this exhibition are still to be determined.

Above: Burns’ students at the Ringling Museums Education Library viewing Goya, Rosa, and Dürer prints 

About New College and the Partnership with Florida State:

New College of Florida is the State of Florida’s legislatively-designated “honors college for the liberal arts.” NCF is the only public college or university in the state whose sole mission is to provide an undergraduate education of the highest caliber to leading students from around the country. The beautiful 110-acre campus in sunny Sarasota Bay resides on Charles Ringling’s former estate. The mansion is now known as College Hall, one of NCF’s signature buildings. NCF provides an ideal learning environment for motivated, intellectually curious students who thrive on active learning and are drawn to an intellectually rigorous curriculum. NCF relies on a simple formula: putting academically talented students together with highly qualified faculty members and letting them pursue subjects of mutual interest.

According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, NCF has pushed for greater funding of their arts programs and is looking to “expand arts education in a partnership with Florida State University.” In particular they aim to enrich programs and create more positions at the Ringling and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training so that they may offer a competitive program for prospective art students despite their small size.

The Herald-Tribune quotes Stephen Miles, NCF’s vice president for academic affairs, as saying, “We’ve needed this and the time was also right for FSU to move. For us to try and do this on our own when we’re sitting next to a national leader would not make sense.” Such a partnership benefits everyone involved, including the Sarasota community. Resident artists such as Burns will have the chance to exhibit their work and promote the programs of both schools, maximizing the educational potential for all.

College Hall

New College of Florida, courtesy of New College website.