On October 22, faculty members John O’Connor (Visual & Studio Arts) and Scott Shushan (Philosophy) joined forces to present Minding Art, an interactive workshop that blended art and philosophy. The session – both conversational and experimental in nature – invited students to read a short text by art historian Yve-Alain Bois and discuss its relationship to the botanical drawings of Ellsworth Kelly, then engage in hands-on artmaking of their own to process the ideas that emerged from their discussion.
“Our goal was to help students see how art and philosophy reciprocally inform one another,” said O’Connor. “Each offers a way of asking questions that deepens the other.”
Workshops like Minding Art embody the kind of cross-disciplinary learning that happens every day at SLC, where students are encouraged to explore beyond traditional boundaries and are guided by faculty mentors every step of the way.
“Additional Minding Art workshops will be part of a new series to be added to those we already host each semester under the moniker Philosophy Cafe,” explained Shushan. “Our aim with all of these events is to foster a sense of community by engaging with various ideas in creative and innovative ways.”
The evening was a hit with its numerous student participants. "What I especially enjoyed was the hands-on art-making activity,” said Elizabeth Guirguis ’26. “Being able to learn, discuss, and dissect different ideas as a group of diverse thinkers about art was amazing in itself, but to put those ideas and theories to the test together was fascinating and just an overall blast!"
O’Connor and Shushan brought a wealth of experience to workshop participants, as they do to the students in their classes every day. O’Connor, whose work is represented in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, has taught at Sarah Lawrence since 2011. Shushan, a respected scholar of aesthetics, philosophy, and moral psychology, has been on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence since 2019.