Thoreau had walden. Renoir and Matisse had Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Hemingway had Cuba. Across time and generations, artists have been captivated and inspired by spaces. Their inspiration often stems from the environment around them: the people, culture and other artists pursuing their creative ambitions. Next year, a group of Princeton students will join this pursuit as a part of the Edwards Collective. The Mathey Arts and Humanities Residence is bringing together 20 students to live on the third floor of Edwards Hall and create an atmosphere that facilitates creative expression and artistic collaboration.
Dr. Kathleen Crown, Director of Studies for Mathey College, has overseen the creation of the residence and will be an adviser throughout its implementation. “Our focus here was on arts and humanities partly because we have the Writer’s Studio and the Firestone Society. We knew there was a need for an artistic community,” Crown said. The Edwards Collective hopes to integrate art and humanities into the Princeton residential experience.
Crown has a background in the arts as a poet, scholar and critic. “I’ve always been interested in how humanities intersect with creative arts. There is a trend of both wanting to read, analyze, interpret and critique and wanting to make something new. [I’ve] seen this a lot on campus,” Crown said.
Pelin Asa ’16 echoes this sentiment in her motivations for joining the collective. “Although I’m interested in many different branches of art, as a Princeton student you can’t really find time to be engaged in an independent project; I thought I would be more inclined if I was encouraged to,” Asa said. As a member of the civil engineering and architecture program, art plays a role in Asa’s major but she said she is also interested in focusing, with others in the collective, on other artistic pursuits like music and filmmaking.
The Collective hopes to encourage individual projects and facilitate group collaboration through the relationships formed in this unique setting. The hall itself is mainly comprised of singles, which will allow personal space for artistic pursuits. Bryan Pannill ’14, a poet who said he hopes to write a creative thesis next year, sees potential in Edwards Hall to be a space where he is free and encouraged to immerse himself in his craft. “I’ve struggled with how my main interests and passions can be somewhat isolating and not conducive to fostering real communities. I’ve been looking for a community that will bring creative and artistic people together, to facilitate friendship and the exchange of ideas, while also redeeming that solitary space needed for individual creation,” Pannill said.
The idea of living with fellow artists on campus, despite the students’ class years spanning from sophomore to senior and majors across the academic spectrum, appeals to the members. Jun Kuromiya ’14, a filmmaker, said he is drawn to the Collective as a congregation of artists brought together by a shared living space rather than a camp or program that brings artists together for a more goal-oriented reason. “Princeton is not a university where many people leave and follow their passions at the risk of making very little money. The artists who do so often depend on a community of artists that help each other sustain this lifestyle,” Kuromiya said. This sense of community is a driving force behind the creation of the Edwards Collective. “In the current economic climate, it is not easy to dedicate time and energy to arts and humanities. Being around other people who say this is a priority can be empowering,” Crown said.
Kovey Coles ’15, a Wilson School major, has an interest in various arts but was drawn in by the opportunity to mold this program. “This is the first year they are doing it, and I feel it would be really cool to be a part of the establishing class. Whoever joins will set the groundwork for what it’s going to be like for future students,” Coles said. This initiative and desire is going to play a large role in the Collective’s inaugural year.
“I think there is a hunger for cross-discipline collaboration. The Collective could forge new bonds across music, theater, poetry and painting,” Crown said. There is a hope that the Collective will contribute to campus life and conversation in many ways. Mathey College master Harriet Flower saw the Collective’s potential to enrich both student life and academics and has been instrumental in its creation from the start. Crown said she believes the Collective can play a role in increased arts citizenship and in supporting civic engagement in the arts. The current times are important and revolutionary ones in the art world. Technology and changes in mediums have propelled the arts into new territory. Art has always broken down boundaries, and the rise of the “digital humanities” offers the Collective a unique opportunity to explore the future of various art forms.
The Collective’s pursuit of art extends beyond the confines of the Orange Bubble. The group hopes not only to learn and contribute to art on campus but to also extend connections into the surrounding region. New York and Philadelphia are clear hotbeds for art, but Crown emphasizes the artistic presence that is also in New Jersey and the network of alumni pursuing art in the region. “We have some fascinating alums, both recent and older, doing amazing things, and we want to tap into that to change the ‘trips’ culture,” Crown said. The Collective will delve into smaller scale events, from the cutting-edge avant-garde to the “off-off-off” Broadway.
The Collective, like any work of art, has inspirations and goals in its creation. There are conversations it aims to promote and creative minds it hopes to ignite. But this work of art is yet unfinished, and the beauty of it is that it never will be truly finished. It will evolve in the hands of the artists, both current and future, whose visions will grow and intertwine in the molding of the Edwards Collective.
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