OHIO UNIVERSITY ALTERNATIVES PHOTO BIENNIAL 2017
A 2017 interview with MFA graduate students organizing the 2017 edition of OU Alternatives Photography Biennial.
This is the second episode of the Talking Studio, an audio discussion series focused on the creative work and experiences of students in the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University. By providing space for discussion, the Talking Studio shed light on the spectrum of interests and particular concerns driving students in their formative years through the interdisciplinary fine arts programs.
(Interview recorded Feb 3, 2017)
Graduate students in the School of Art + Design Faith Moore, Andrew Musil, and Cassidy Brauner along with Director of Galleries, Courtney Kessel, discuss the making of the 2017 Alternatives Bienniel photo exhibition, Where I Come From on view January 17-February 18, 2017 in the Ohio University Art Gallery. With candy, and sitting in a small storage closet, we discuss collaborative efforts to plan and execute a juried show of photography, working with the juror Hans Gindlesberger, and address the perils and pressures of being a studio art grad student at Ohio University.
Alternatives is a biennial juried exhibition organized by Ohio University’s M.F.A. Photography and Integrated Media program in the School of Art. Since its beginning in 1980, Alternatives has achieved national recognition for its leadership in forging new definitions in the medium by emphasizing the work of photographers in the conceptual forefront of the practice.
Cassidy Brauner (http://www.cassidybrauner.com/) was raised in Plain City, Ohio. She concentrated in Photography and Visual Communications with a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Otterbein University (BA). Cassidy has exhibited her work in shows nationally and internationally. She was an Artist in Resident at Otterbein University from 2014- 2015. Brauner says her work is driven by the authenticity of the everyday becoming exceptional through a photograph. Cassidy is currently the chair of Photography in the School of Art + Design at Ohio University.
Faith Moore is from Columbus, Ohio. She graduated with a B.A. in English and Visual Art from Duke University and in 2017 completed her M.F.A. in Photography + Integrated Media at Ohio University.
Andrew Musil (https://andrewmusilblog.wordpress.com/) earned his BS in Studio Arts at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse in 2014. Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where he was born and raised, was a prosperous industrial town once. Now its largest buildings are vacant, and serve as evidence of what used to be. Introduced to the photographing process during the digital revolution, my interest moved towards the manufacturing of the photograph: the process behind the artifact. He currently lives in Athens Ohio as a MFA candidate in the Photography and Integrated Media Program at Ohio University. His projects explore the relationship of technologies and their users, and the impacts of newer innovations. His practices combine contemporary media with antiquated photographic and printmaking practices.
2017 Alternatives Biennial Exhibition Release.
FOLLOW-UP:
[11/2023]: This was an audio/podcast conversation with graduate students in the Photography + Integrated Media MFA program at Ohio University and the gallery director of the Ohio University Galleries in Athens, OH. I’ve posted this content on my site in the interest of archiving my own work, and in support of the OU Alternatives Biennial exhibition program, which I have both organized and exhibited with over the years, which has been around since 1980.