News 2017: Ellen Mueller joins CVPA faculty

News 2017: Ellen Mueller joins CVPA faculty
Ellen Mueller joins CVPA faculty

Starting first semester with Social Practice Conference

Photo portrait of Ellen Mueller

This fall, artist Ellen Mueller will join the faculty at UMass Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Mueller is an interdisciplinary artist exploring subjects ranging from hyperactive news media to environmental concerns through a variety of media including social practice, video, drawing, and installation. Her most recent publication is Elements and Principles of 4D Art and Design (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Upcoming projects at UMass Dartmouth include a conference entitled, Teaching Social Practice, scheduled for Saturday October 14, 2017, 12-6pm at the Star Store Campus, 715 Purchase St, New Bedford, MA 02740. The conference features presentations, discussions, activities, and a Family Project Space (a child-friendly, family-friendly space). For this conference, social practice focuses on engagement and collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutions as a form of participatory art. Registration is required, and available online at http://tinyurl.com/tsp-conference through September 15, 2017.

Before coming to UMass Dartmouth, Mueller taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College and Colorado State University-Pueblo. She serves on the College Art Association’s Education Committee where she recently started a podcast featuring conversations between art, design, and art history educators from across the United States - it launches fall 2017. She is also working on a new textbook entitled, Remixing and Drawing: Sources, Influences, Styles, which is contracted through Routledge with an expected publication date in 2018.

Recent exhibitions have taken place at Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, and Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe, NM. She has received grants from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Appalachian College Association, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. She is a founding member of EyeSplice Collective. Selected artist residencies include Ox-Bow, Ucross Foundation, Nes Artist Residency (Iceland), Arrowmont, VCCA, Signal Culture, Playa, and Künstlerhaus Lukas (Germany). More information is available at http://ellenmueller.com

Mueller was raised in Fargo, ND. She received an MFA in Studio Art from University of South Florida. At Bemidji State University she received a BA in Theatre and Art, and a BS in Design Technology. Additionally, she has obtained performance training at Dell’Arte International and the Brave New Institute (now known as the Brave New Workshop Student Union).