Art & Writing Salon – Spring 2025
Instructor: Paul D’Agostino

Dates: Mondays, 4/21, 4/28, 5/5, 5/12 (also 5/19, 5/26, pending enrollment)
4pm meeting time, on Zoom
Time: 90-120 minutes

The Yellow Chair Salon encourages and builds upon creative breakthroughs in many ways. The process entails the furthering and refinement of bodies of artwork, on the one hand, and the discussion of intention and sources of inspiration, on the other. Instructor Paul D’Agostino developed his “Art & Writing Salon” to help artists open up and expand on both factors in this creative equation through flexible, personally inflected approaches to writing as a fundamental component of their artistic practices. 

D’Agostino has designed and taught various art and writing courses for YCS over the years, including “Studio Reportage” and “Artist Statements and Then Some”. His “Art & Writing Salon” incorporates select elements from both of those, with the aim of building students’ skills and confidence in articulating key themes and thoughts in their studio practices. This approach maintains several aspects of the traditional YCS Salon model while also exploring new pathways to foster enhanced creative vocabularies, constructive student dialogue, and individualized written expressions. 

D’Agostino’s course entails multiple rounds of portfolio reviews and instructor feedback, in-class artist presentations, and group discussions. Augmenting those aspects of class engagement are weekly reading, listening, and viewing assignments; thematic group discussions at the outset of each session; and various short-format writing assignments for all students to explore and share at each meeting. In addition, each student also receives, in the first leg of the course, a set of personalized writing prompts to explore in the creation of at least one longer-format, focused, cohesive piece of writing to be shared with the class in the latter meetings of the salon. 

Each meeting runs approximately 90 to 120 minutes and is structured as follows:

20-25 minutes: Open discussion of assigned reading/listening/viewing
30-35 minutes: Student portfolio presentation, instructor feedback, and group discussion 
30-35 minutes: Second student portfolio presentation, instructor feedback, and group discussion 
30-35 minutes: Pending class size, one or two meetings may include a third portfolio presentation

The salon will have four to eight students in the group and run for four or six weeks. Each student will do two portfolio presentations. Students who do their first presentations in the first session will do their second presentations in the third or fourth session, pending group size. 

The instructor will provide assignment materials before each class meeting. These will draw from various media outlets to select articles, podcasts, and videos featuring themes and discourses related to class interests. Students will be asked to read, listen to, or view these materials, and to take notes or respond to brief writing prompts for weekly group discussions at the beginning of each class.

Each student’s first presentation will be a slideshow of 12-15 works of the artist’s choosing, generally favoring recently completed or in-process works. The student will present the slideshow informally and in dialogue with the instructor while discussing materials, processes, intentions, and sources of inspiration. The presentation will be followed by feedback from the instructor and the other students in the group. 

Artists will receive individualized writing assignments from the instructor after their first presentations. Each artist will be asked to address specific material, thematic, or metaphorical aspects of their artwork according to observations that come up during the discussion. These aspects will be different for each student, and the individualized writing assignments will be of various formats, including reflective, expository, variably research-based, and creative approaches as applicable. Artists in the salon have completed many different types of writing projects from one group to the next, and fresh formats and novel approaches are a regular and welcome occurrence. 

Each artist’s second presentation will then be another sharing of a slideshow of works, modified according to the artist’s wishes to accompany a presentation of the written materials responding to the instructor’s prompts. Group feedback will then address the artworks in the slideshow and the writing alike. 

Following this format, all students will engage with and activate a great deal of critical material related to contemporary art, by way of the weekly assignments and group discussions. 

And by way of the individually tailored written assignments, each student will produce at least one type of finely tuned, personally resonant piece of writing exploring various aspects of creative drive, expression, and inspiration. 

At the conclusion of the course, all students will receive an edited compilation of class writings featuring full texts of final written assignments. This packet of writings provides students with an excellent resource to revisit to tap back into themes, materials, and creative approaches discussed during the course of the salon.  

A group of 4 or 5 students in the salon means it will run for four weeks. If there are 6 to 8 students, it will run for 6 weeks. 

No prior YCS coursework is required for D’Agostino’s “Art & Writing Salon”. Enrollment is open to all, including those who have already taken this or any of D’Agostino’s other courses. Several students have taken the salon multiple times and enjoyed engaging in all new assigned materials each time, and producing substantial writing projects of various types to expand their skill sets and confidence with a broader range of styles approaches. 

Weekly 90-120 minute meetings will be on Mondays at 4pm, starting on April 21st, 2025. 

Instructor Bio:

Paul D’Agostino, Ph.D. is an artist, writer, curator, and translator. He works with the MFA program at The New York Studio School as writing and thesis advisor, and he is a regular visiting critic and instructor for several residency programs. He also teaches writing workshops, is a translator among various languages, composes catalogue essays for galleries and artists, and writes about art, books, and film on a freelance basis. More information about him is available at this Centotto link, and you can find him as @pauldagostinostudio on Instagram and Threads.