The application deadline for Summer Arts 2022 is May 27. 

What happens when students have a safe space to take artistic risks, live in a vibrant community with world-class artists, and create, perform and study with students who share their passion? Transformation.

For over 30 years, CSU Summer Arts has assembled some of the world’s best creative artists to teach and inspire students through intensive master classes across all art genres. The 2022 Summer Arts program runs from June 27 to July 24, offering 15 courses at Fresno State and four courses abroad in Ireland, Spain and Germany. 

Featured guest artists include Charles Gaines, Yannick Jacquet, Dinty W. Moore, Pepe Romero, Urban Bush Women, and many more.

This year four Fresno State professors will lead classes on campus. Theatre Professor Kristine Doiel will host “Contemporary Puppetry and Devised Performance,” a course that will explore the power of puppetry in theater and the visual arts.

English Professor Carole Firstman will coordinate “Writing from Life: Creative Ways to Tell Your Story.” Students in this class will work with award-winning authors to learn how to make memories into memoirs, ideas into essays, and life into literature. Guest authors include Dinty W. Moore, ​Katey Schultz, Mark Arax and Armen Bacon.

Art Professor Matthew Hopson-Walker will lead “Off the Wall – Alternative Print Methods and Forms.” This collaborative course will focus on the role of printmaking in a three-dimensional space. Students will use their printmaking techniques to transform two-dimensional prints into unique three-dimensional printstallations and airborne objects.

Art Professor William Raines, who participated in Summer Arts as a student last year, will host world-renowned artist Charles Gaines and other guest artists for “Art > Anthropocene < Action.” In this course, students will use multiple materials and techniques to explore the human relationships we have with the physical and social world and create art that examines the human impact on social and environmental ecosystems.

“The beauty of the Summer Arts program is that it offers a deep immersion into an inclusive experience of developing content and exploring your unique style,” Raines said. “The multitude of materials, concepts and overlapping relationships of content is beyond what is usually provided and experienced in a typical college course. And you have the amazing opportunity to learn from incredible artists and leaders in their field.”

Other highlights include:

  • “Dance and Identity with Urban Bush Women” – Engage in the power of dance and live performance to inspire, speak, transform, and build community. Create live performance through embodied expression that honors one’s identity and lived experience.
  • “From Bomba to Timba: Afro-Caribbean Jazz in the 21st Century” – Jazz instrumentalists and vocalists will explore the musical worlds of Cuba and Puerto Rico in this performance-based workshop. Experience daily rehearsals with world-class musicians and discover why Afro-Caribbean music is an irresistible combination of improvisation, dance, rhythms, and expression.
  • “Video Projection Mapping in the 3D Space” – Students will learn about the innovative artistic approach of Video Projection Mapping to create large-scale digital video artworks and installations. The course will be taught by video maker and visual artist, Yannick Jacquet, whose work has shown at museums and galleries in Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Brussels, Montreal, and Taiwan.

Registration is open now. Undergraduate, graduate, emerging artists and advanced practitioners are invited to apply to live and study on campus with world-renowned artists and CSU faculty in visual art, creative writing, dance, media, music and theater. 

CSU has offered this prestigious multidisciplinary program since 1985, with this being the fifth consecutive year the festival has been hosted at Fresno State (and 17th year overall). This summer, two sessions are offered, the first from June 27 to July 10 and the second from July 11 to July 24. Students accepted to the program have access to on-campus housing and work alongside arts professionals for intense, apprentice-like study.

In the evenings during Summer Arts sessions, local communities surrounding the campus are invited to a public arts festival, where Summer Arts students showcase their artistic talents and guest artists and instructors perform on campus. 

“Summer Arts is truly unique, and the professional opportunities are simply unmatched during the two-week intensive courses,” said Ray Smith, Summer Arts program director. “Many of the resident artists and faculty share on-campus housing with the students, so they are sharing meals and late-night conversations that are truly transformative. Something magical happens when you eat, breathe and live the arts up to 14 hours per day, working with an artist or instructor who also happens to be one of the best in their discipline.”  

CSU Summer Arts is now accepting applications for the 2022 program through May 27. Students admitted to the program can earn up to six units of transferrable college credit, and scholarships are available. Anyone 16 or older who desires to master their craft is encouraged to apply.  

For more information about CSU Summer Arts courses, registration, artists or scholarships available, visit the CSU Summer Arts website.