Professional Practices
March 1-22, 2026
Tiered Tuition
$250-$600 Reserve My Spot
Sundays, on March 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd at 11am-1pm (Eastern)
This workshop is designed to support you in developing an uninhibited and illuminating writing practice that allows you to create authentic language about and around your art work now and into the future.
We will survey a variety of exemplary artists’ writings—from informative to performative, narrative to poetic, evocative to persuasive, short to long. We’ll consider writing different texts for different occasions, audiences, and purposes (including for your own reflection and growth). A series of individual and collaborative prompts designed to evoke lots of raw material will be followed by drafting, instructor feedback, revising, and sharing in a supportive workshop setting. The workshop will culminate with each artist-writer presenting a polished statement, a grant proposal, an artist talk with images, or any other self-selected form.
Jen Liese is Director of the Center for Arts & Language (A&L) at Rhode Island School of Design, where she teaches graduate thesis writing, leads workshops on writing as a studio practice, and advises student publications. She has been an editor at Provincetown Arts, Cabinet, and Artforum, and her published essays include “Toward a History (and Future) of the Artist Statement” (Paper Monument, 2013) and “Ways of Speaking and Listening: The Artist Talk” (Archives of American Art Journal, 2021). Her book, Social Medium: Artists Writing, 2000–2015 (Paper Monument, 2016), an anthology of contemporary artists’ writings with a critical introduction, was named one of the best art books of the decade by ARTnews.
