PERCEPTIONS IN FLUX
SUSAN LOWBEER
FUSION MENTORSHIP: Perceptions in Flux
September 2023 to May 2024
Thank you to all artists who submitted their applications for consideration. Successful applicants will be contacted by June 29, 2023.
FUSION is proud to announce a Mentorship Program led by Susan Low Beer, commencing September 2023. The program will culminate in an exhibition at the Gardiner Museum Shop in the spring of 2024.
This Mentorship is intended to be a significant, transformative learning experience for clay and glass artists. It is ideal for those who have been developing their work over several years of studio practice and who wish to rethink or re-evaluate their current work and examine ways of pushing and expanding it beyond familiar solutions or limits.
It is suitable for artists making functional or sculptural work.
The Mentorship will begin with a session during which participants present their work. Each participant will then be asked to set learning goals and objectives to guide their journey over the next eight months. The group will meet every month in person at Susan’s Toronto studio to review their progress, participate in group critiques, and revise objectives as necessary. Participants will meet from September 2023 to the Spring of 2024.
In collaboration with FUSION, Susan Low-Beer will select a maximum of twelve participants for the group. Participants will be notified by June 29, 2023. The workshop fee for eight full-day sessions and the final exhibition of $900 (+ HST) will be due by July 29, 2023. Notice of acceptance will be sent via email. Payment plans can be made upon request.
Suitable candidates should be actively involved in an artistic practice, producing work, exhibiting, and should:
• have completed basic training (equivalent to three years of study)
• be willing to make a multi- month commitment to researching new sources and making new work intensively in their own studio
• be prepared to offer critical feedback to other artists in an open, rigorous, positive and inclusive environment
• through discussions with the mentor and others in the group, be prepared to set learning goals and be willing to take risks with their work and accept criticism in a constructive manner
• meet the criteria established by the mentor
• be a member of FUSION and maintain their membership for the duration of the mentorship & exhibition.
The FUSION mentorship is a year-long workshop for experienced clay and glass artists to expand their technical skills, develop critical thinking participate in and receive critical feedback and build confidence.
Participants are given the opportunity to critically examine their own work and embark on an individual project that will generate either a new body of work or will resolve current issues in their own work.
About Susan Low-Beer
Susan Low-Beer was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She has exhibited internationally in Europe, United States, Japan and Korea, as well as nationally in both juried and invitational exhibitions and has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards.
Susan has been teaching since 1970 in many institutions including: the Ontario College of Art and Design, Sheridan College, and Emily Carr University. Over the years, she has delivered numerous workshops and mentored many students across Canada.
Susan Low-Beer is represented among others, in the collections of: the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the National Museum of Modern Art in Japan; and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in North Carolina. Her retrospective called Embodiment: 30 Years of Sculpture finished at the Waterloo Clay and Glass Gallery in 2018. Since her traveling retrospective ending at The Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, she has been traveling a new show called Specimen which references the viscera of the body, its vulnerability and its mortality and in a broader sense, its relationships and intimacy. The show has recently been to the RiverBrink Art Museum in Queenston, ON and will be traveling to Gatineau, Quebec and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton N.B.
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FUSION: The Ontario Clay and Glass Association is the only not-for-profit organization dedicated to clay and glass artists in Canada. FUSION's mission is to encourage and promote excellence and quality in clay and glass, provide opportunities, a sense of community and continuing educational resources for members and people interested in clay and glass through tolerance, caring and acceptance.
FUSION creates opportunities for artists working in clay and glass through the Creative Directions program. Participants are mentored by a professional artist through a series of workshops, meetings and critiques where they expand their technical skills, develop critical thinking and build greater confidence in their work.
The culminating exhibition is the end manifestation of every participant's artistic path.