ARTISTS' WRITING WORKSHOP
With Sarah Schmerler, Critic, Educator, and Curator

Wednesday, May 8, from 6-8pm

Cost: Free for current Keyholder Residency recipients
$12 for LESP Studio Renters and current Members
$15 for all other artists

Grant and exhibition proposals, artists' statements, press releases: As close as you are to your own artwork, you'd think it would be easy to write about it. Not so! Many artists get tangled up in knots, trying to find a way to express what it is they're already saying with their visual art. This workshop will help you untangle those knots in an enjoyable and methodical manner. Hands-on exercises will loosen us up and teach us to translate visual thoughts into words. We'll outline the basic structure of the artist statement, the press release, the bio; we'll talk about what kind of language will best help us describe our work clearly -- without diminishing from its power.

Participants will leave with a strong understanding for how to work more effectively on their verbal and written self promotion. They will gain valuable skills, and form new habits, even after two hours of discussion.

We encourage you to bring in a previous art statement you've written, as well as pen and paper. Other materials will be provided in the workshop.

Sarah Schmerler has worked as an art critic and journalist in New York City for 16 years. Her writing has appeared in newspapers like The New York Post and The New York Times, weekly publications like TimeOut New York and The Village Voice, and monthly and bi-monthly publications like Art in America, ArtNews, Photograph, and Art & Auction.

Schmerler taught Writing for Artists at The New School, art history at Pratt Institute and Medgar Evers College (CUNY), and presentation skills at the New York School of Interior Design. She has perfected her own methodology for teaching artists how to write, and lectures frequently on the subject at Universities, Institutions, and artists' collectives. She also does private consulting.