Department of Art, Design and Visual Studies student Grace Ott was selected for the City of Boise’s Art Port public-art program for her sculpture “One Man’s Trash,” now installed on Grove Street (between 10th and 11th Streets) as part of a two-year, $4,000 loan. Crafted from repurposed steel, found metal, aluminum and paint, the work depicts a Cooper’s hawk perched atop a 138- pound pile of trash, a literal translation of a statistic from the City of Boise Climate Action Roadmap, and foregrounds material craft and ecological storytelling in a public setting.
The Art Port initiative operates as a structured, practice-based pathway for emerging artists through a formal partnership between Boise State’s sculpture program and city partners (Arts & History, Public Works, Capital City Development Corporation, Guho Corporation and Okland Construction). Linked to ART 334: Assembled Form (taught by Associate Professor Lily Lee), the program embeds proposal development, project management and professional submission practices into coursework, giving students tangible, community-facing experience that advances both career readiness and civic engagement.
In summer 2025, a ten-day faculty-guided tour of Berlin led by Professor Chad Erpelding in partnership with Associate Professor Beret Norman afforded students direct engagement with working artists and galleries across the city, extending classroom learning into professional networks and contemporary art contexts; the Berlin itinerary was supported in part by a School of the Arts Student Success Grant. Concurrently, a month-long printmaking residency at Venice’s Scuola Internazionale di Grafica offered intensive, process-driven workshops (drypoint, monotype, letterpress, woodcut, etching and collage) under the direction of Professor Jill AnnieMargaret, giving students hands-on instruction alongside internationally recognized printmaking faculty and access to historical print materials.
These study abroad experiences function as high-impact pedagogies that materially broaden students’ technical skills, professional literacies and cultural competencies. By situating coursework within international studios, archives and artist communities, the programs cultivate project-based learning, foster cross-cultural dialogue and create tangible pathways for career development in studio practice, curatorial work and arts administration. Both the Berlin and Venice programs are planned to run again next summer, continuing to serve as integral components of the department’s strategy for experiential learning and global engagement.