From the Carleton College Voice, Spring 2010
Kelly Connole, assistant professor of art, hired a student assistant last summer as she prepared for a large, complex exhibition of her work as a ceramicist and metalsmith. When she describes her interactions with student Emma Bentley ’10 (Springfield, Mo.), it is clear that a true partnership was at work.
“When I’m working in my studio, there’s typically not much avenue for feedback,” says Connole. “I was able to bounce ideas off Emma and get the perspective of a young person who has a different set of cultural references.”
For Bentley, an art major and printmaker, “just hanging out with [Connole] was probably the best part,” she says. “To see how she worked in her studio, what it was like to prepare for and then set up an exhibition—these things gave me a glimpse of what it might be like if I were to become a working artist.”
Bentley did much more than “hang out” with Connole. She worked 20 hours a week for a whole summer, crafting a number of simple ceramic objects for the exhibit.
“Emma’s help enabled me to accomplish twice as much each week,” says Connole. Bentley also helped with other tasks, such as preparing an artist’s statement and grant applications. But the informal conversations and the relationship that evolved between professor and student were the most valuable aspects of the partnership.
Bentley was preparing for her own exhibition—a series of what she calls “assemblages” of found objects and pieces of writing—and she discovered that her interaction with Connole created a lot of cross-fertilization.
“My stuff is so different from hers, but we were able to talk about it and she was very encouraging,” says Bentley.
Years earlier, Connole experienced the benefits of developing a relationship with a faculty member when she was an undergraduate at the University of Montana, and now she is eager to pay it forward. She recently brought Beth Lo, one of her former professors at Montana, to campus to lecture and work with her students in the studio.
“I’d like them to see what it might be like 20 years from now, if they were in contact with one of their professors,” says Connole. “It’s really beautiful when you can see how information is passed from one generation to the next.”
Connole’s thoughts capture some of the essence of what Carleton’s commitment to research and scholarship—one of the primary means by which Carleton distinguishes itself as a premier liberal arts college—is all about.
