Sanjit Sethi and Ann Wettrich Appointed Codirectors of the CCA Center for Art and Public Life
San Francisco, June 13, 2008
California College of the Arts (CCA) President Stephen Beal announced today the appointment of Sanjit Sethi, chair of CCA's Community Arts Program, and Ann Wettrich, associate director of arts education at CCA's Center for Art and Public Life, as the new codirectors of the Center for Art and Public Life, effective immediately.
The Center for Art and Public Life plays a key role in keeping the college connected to the diverse communities that surround it, both through service-learning programs such as Community Student Fellows and through community-building art projects organized through the Visiting Artists and Scholars program.
In fall 2005, drawing on the center's success with managing programs that represent the college's commitment to civic engagement, CCA became the first art school to offer a BFA in Community Arts. 100 Families Oakland, a citywide community art program first implemented by the center, has become a model for similar programs now being planned in other American cities.
The center has also been a major influence in the ongoing struggle to keep high-quality art education thriving in public schools. In 2007 Wettrich oversaw the creation of the Teaching Institute, a comprehensive, year-round development program for educators and teaching artists working with students from prekindergarten through the 12th grade.
Says President Beal, "CCA remains committed to the vital and important work of the Center for Art and Public Life. We support its vision in bringing CCA students and faculty together with community partners for meaningful work that enriches the lives of Bay Area residents. So much has been accomplished in the 10 years since the founding of the center. I look forward to working with Ann and Sanjit to continue the momentum."
Both Sethi and Wettrich will continue teaching at CCA; Sethi will remain chair of the Community Arts Program, and Wettrich will continue to head the SMART (Subject Matter Art) teaching concentration program for CCA students who plan to enter postgraduate teacher credential programs.
Sethi and Wettrich comment, "We are excited to be collaboratively engaged in directing the center, drawing on its well-established foundation and the successes it has achieved. We look forward to bringing in new ideas and working with students, faculty, staff, and community partners to continue to evolve a diversity of approaches to artistic practice in the public realm."
Sethi and Wettrich succeed Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, who served as executive director of the center from 2000 to 2008; Mañjon was recently named vice president of diversity and strategic partnerships at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
About Sanjit Sethi
Born in Rochester, New York, Sethi received a BFA in 1994 from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, an MFA in 1998 from the University of Georgia, and an MS in advanced visual studies in 2002 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been an artist in residence at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada; a visiting assistant professor at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana; and an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago.
After completing a Fulbright fellowship in Bangalore, India, working on the Building Nomads Project, he continued his strong focus on interdisciplinary collaboration as director of the MFA program at the Memphis College of Art. His work deals with issues of nomadism, identity, the residue of labor, and memory. Sethi recently completed the Kuni Wada Bakery Remembrance, an olfactory-based memorial in Memphis. His current works include Urban Defibrillator, the Gypsy Bridge Project, and a collaboration with the Richmond Art Center and the Main Street Initiative of Richmond, California, all of which involve varied social and geographic communities.
About Ann Wettrich
Ann Wettrich has served as associate director of arts education at CCA's Center for Art and Public Life since 2001. She developed, and teaches in, the SMART (Subject Matter Art) teaching concentration program. Wettrich has been a leader in the Bay Area art education community for 30 years, developing innovative programs, events, and publications through her work with the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Oakland Craft and Cultural Arts Department, the Arts Education Funders Collaborative, and the San Francisco Arts Education Project.
As a consultant, she wrote and facilitated the Arts Master Plan for the Oakland Unified School District and conducted needs assessment and evaluation studies for Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley and the Marin Community Foundation. She is a published author and serves on numerous panels, commissions, advisory groups, and committees for local and statewide arts organizations. She chairs the art education committee for the Alameda County Arts Commission, serves on the steering and governance committees for the Alameda County Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership, and is a member of the program planning committee of UC Berkeley's Arts Education Initiative.
About the Center for Art and Public Life
The Center for Art and Public Life was founded by California College of the Arts (CCA) in 1998 for the purpose of creating and facilitating programs that provide and enhance arts education in underserved communities within and beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. The center fosters opportunities for CCA students and working artists to partner with public schools and community organizations, where they use their talents to make a difference as mentors for youth and leaders in community development.
The center administers CCA's Community Arts Program, the art teacher precredential program, and courses in diversity studies. It also offers intensive professional development opportunities through its recently established Teaching Institute, a comprehensive, year-round development program for educators and teaching artists working with students from prekindergarten through the 12th grade.
Sanjit Sethi
Ann Wettrich
Press Contacts
Kim Lessard
415.703.9547
klessard@cca.edu
Brenda Tucker
415.703.9548
btucker@cca.edu