website: www.ox-bow.org
location: 3435 Rupprect Way, Saugatuck, MI
contact: Sarah Workneh, 800.318.3019

1. Does your space have a particular feeling, philosophy, or attitude? What kinds of things happen there? What factors lead to the creation of the space? How was it originally envisioned, what has it become since then?

Ox-Bow is a school of art and artists’ residency located in Saugatuck, Mi and affiliated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. We offer one and two-week intensives in 6 main studio areas for artists of all levels and backgrounds. We also offer two residency cycles for professional artists, one in summer and one in fall.

Ox-Bow is about to celebrate its 100-year anniversary as a community for artists, so it has had a lot of time to organically hone its philosophy. Ox-Bow was founded specifically as an escape from institutionalism, and from the daily demands that artists face while living and trying to make work. Our founders were looking for a space to form an engaged and understanding community where artists could freely access their own thoughts and other artists who could support them and push them to see new possibilities away from the pressures of commerce and the formal academic institution. Ox-Bow has been very lucky to develop from the grassroots community of artists that founded it, being passed down from generation to generation that has stayed committed to the original mission. Today, we have a handful of new buildings, and some degree of technology, and the coursework is fairly contemporary, but the spirit of experimentation, freedom, and community is still very palpable. The historic campus and the wild landscape of the place are still part and parcel of the artmaking experience. Not only does the landscape act as a buffer to the outside world, the historic buildings and drastic shift in environment often interrupts an established studio practice in really productive ways. Sometimes changing your environment and freeing yourself from routine is the greatest catalyst for moving work forward or allowing an artist to try something totally new.

2. What sorts of projects are in store for you?

As a place and a program, it’s our mission to lay the groundwork for discussion, exchange, and support and to provide this completely different world where artists can immerse themselves. As such, we have to stay pretty on top of what is happening in artmaking, but we never want to be prescriptive about what can happen on campus, so in some ways the artists who come to us set the program in terms of what’s next.

Our job is to facilitate what people want to make happen in their individual practice and also to see opportunities for collaboration or trying new things. Our programs rely on the invention and ingenuity of the artists who are part of our community.

3. What role does your space play in the community?

At Ox-Bow, the community of makers is also really important to what we do. We try to curate a community of engaged makers and thinkers to offer our students and artists in residents the opportunity to re-imagine their own studio practice, whether through an exploration of a new material or through a really barrier-free interaction with faculty members. We understand our role in both the community on campus and the larger community of artists is to challenge how we view the definitions of art, craft, viewer, participant, and artist. While all of our activities take place on this very defined 115-acre campus, we also know that the experience often is transformative to the artists who spend time with us, and therefore extends back into creative communities around the country.

4. With unlimited resources, what would you do with the space? What kind of infrastructural support would you want?

If we had unlimited resources, I wouldn’t change much physically about the space, since it’s such a huge part of life there. Maybe add a little to the studios. I would probably use most of the money towards scholarships and stipends for the artists who come to study, do residencies, teach and work there to make it as accessible as possible. I would also set aside money for historic preservation of the buildings, and maybe buy the office a photocopier so they don’t have to drive to town to make copies (one of the lesser charming aspects of working in the woods). But there is an immediacy, flexibility, and resourcefulness that has always been part of the artmaking experience and also really fuels the community and how we all interact at Ox-Bow that I think is really unique and really valuable in terms of what happens in the studios.

5. What other spaces or places that you like?

We really appreciate the range of spaces and opportunities for artists that exist both in Chicago, and within the overall map of residency programs. That things like apartment galleries and InCUBATE can co-exist with spaces like SAIC/AIC, Skowhegan, or the MacDowell Colony is really important in fostering different viewpoints. Every artist needs something different (at different times) to push a practice forward or allow them time to reflect or share work, and it all just adds to the greater richness of the overall world of art.