The visiting artist program brings professional artists to campus to work with students and to exhibit or perform work. Examples of visiting artists include:

Julia Ford Carpenter - Winter 2007
Visiting artist Julia Carpenter states, “I think we, as a society, do not give enough consideration to animals.” Her show Considering Animals, on exhibit in the Nancy Lincoln Gallery from February 12 through March 21, sets out to make us change our minds. In conjunction with the show, Carpenter will give several gallery talks to groups of students. They will learn about both her artistic and conservation work.

The exhibit consists of forty-four acrylic paintings, each of an animal with accompanying text that draws attention to the remarkable similarities among species, human and non-human. Carpenter’s show asks us to consider, for instance, how sheep can recognize and remember the individual facial features of dozens of other sheep. And to consider how a crow can transform a piece of wire into a tool; or how pigs can learn to adjust the climate control in their pens to set the temperature to their liking; or the special friendship that developed between a baby hippo orphaned in the Tsunami of 2004 and a giant tortoise in a zoo it met after its rescue.

Carpenter, who spent her early childhood on a small farm in Vermont, says she “can never remember not loving animals.” She holds a master’s degree in environmental science and policy from Tufts University, and for the past 18 years, she has been doing research on wildlife conservation issues, mostly in developing nations in Africa and Central America. Although she began drawing animals when she was a child, she only began painting seriously a few years ago, as a means of expressing both her love and concern for other species.

Amanda Mujica
As a freelance costumer for clients ranging from Fitchburg State College to Kiss 108 FM, Mujica has extensive experience designing costumes for theatre, film, ballet and special events.

Mujica has devised and created costumes for individual artists, corporate clients, museums, theatre groups and retail rental shops. She has also completed coursework in costume design, textile printing and design, patternmaking and garment construction at the Massachusetts College of Art, the School of Fashion Design and the Rhode Island School of Design.

At BCDS, Mujica worked with students to design and construct original and whimsical works, which combine her passion for fiber arts with a strong attention to detail, for performing arts productions. Additionally, she taught a class titled “Costume Design & Construction.” This course fostered an understanding of the basic principles of costume design, the history of theatrical costuming, and the fundamental skills of costume design including script analysis, sketching and design presentation. The costume design room in the new Visual and Performing Arts Center at BCDS, complete with a washer and dryer, offered Mujica a beautiful space in which to work and collaborate with students.

Samuel Bak
Holocaust survivor, Samuel Bak, visited BCDS to relay his unfathomable story and talk about his artwork at the school’s Nancy Lincoln Gallery. Bak’s life story and artwork had a big impact on the curriculum at BCDS, giving students a poignant and interdisciplinary experience of personal narratives, and a meaningful understanding of socio-political themes.

Telling his story through art, Samuel Bak shared his world-renowned work with the BCDS community. His surreal paintings reflected many themes connected to his experience surviving the Holocaust as a young, Jewish boy in Vilna, Poland. In addition to loaning a collection of work to the school, Bak met with classes, talked with students in the gallery, and made a special address to the school about his experiences and his approach to his work.

The eighth grade faculty also incorporated Bak’s work in their art, history, English, music and drama classes. Upper school playwriting students used Bak’s story for inspiration. Upper school and middle school meetings featured a film clip and activities to lend context to Bak’s work. The exhibit also spurred the school’s decision to invite Terezin Chamber Music Ensemble to BCDS to perform musical compositions written by composers who experienced imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.

"When students learn about history and cultural diversity through the arts, their understanding is greater because they are not just learning facts, but they’re experiencing the lives of people in a more authentic and emotive fashion," said one BCDS arts teacher. "Because they are moved, students are motivated to dig deeper, look harder and make positive change."

Magda Fernandez
Magda Fernandez created a powerful installation in the Nancy Lincoln Gallery, which centered on her experience of being dislocated from her homeland of Cuba and her subsequent strained relationship with her mother, Margarita Maria Gertrudis Fernandez y Dalmau. After hosting a reception in the gallery for BCDS families and guests, Fernandez made several visits to art and Spanish classes in the Middle School and High School.

Using wall paintings, a surviving passport photograph, sound, and architectural space, Ms. Fernandez created a work that evoked the ambivalent yet strong feelings between the artist and her homeland, and the artist and her mother—relationships that have been indelibly shaped by family history, politics, and a host of other social influences. To accompany the installation, Ms. Fernandez produced a booklet that offered a condensed family history, based on the artist’s personal experiences; conversations over the years with her immediate family and other Cuban exiles who knew her parents; plus the few surviving photographs and ephemera from Cuba.

The artist notes, “When Beaver approached me to create a body of work for the school because of the political nature of my work, I saw a wonderful opportunity to share my art with the students, and to create new work for a museum-quality space.”

The “Magda Fernandez” exhibit and visit provided a unique opportunity for Spanish students to experience first-hand the language and culture they have been studying,” said a BCDS Spanish teacher. “The artistic perspective enhanced our understanding of the exile experience [or “displacement”] and also served as an avenue for numerous questions for the politically minded. I salute the Visual Arts Department for making this valuable cross-cultural activity accessible to our students.”