{"id":255592,"date":"2017-07-14T15:44:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T19:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=255592"},"modified":"2017-07-20T15:47:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T19:47:40","slug":"artist-elizabeth-cohen-remembered-gifts-observation-255592","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/artist-elizabeth-cohen-remembered-gifts-observation-255592\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Elizabeth Cohen remembered for gifts of observation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Cohen, an interdisciplinary artist who led the University\u2019s Arts New York program, died in May. Cohen was an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History <\/a><\/strong>and directed the University\u2019s Art New York internship program<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cElizabeth saw the best in people, and was a support to faculty and students,\u201d says Joan Saab, chair of the department. \u201cHer work with Art New York was transformative. It\u2019s an amazing program, thanks to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of the Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens, Cohen started college at Boston University. But a desire to see more of the world drew her away, to travel around Europe and Israel. When she returned to the U.S., she earned an undergraduate degree at California College of the Arts and a master\u2019s of fine arts degree at the Rhode Island School of Design.<\/p>\n

Cohen joined the studio art program at Rochester in 1997, and through her own art making and her role in redefining the curriculum made the program more innovative, says Allen Topolski, a practicing artist and an associate professor of art. Her teaching drew on a variety of art processes, with courses on sculpture, video and sound, and a multimedia introduction to studio practice in art. Cohen was also a member of the film and media studies program.<\/p>\n

\u201cElizabeth was skilled at the delicate balance of proximity and distance required in the one-to-one instruction that art necessitates,\u201d says Topolski. He says that her students left her classes with a well-developed visual vocabulary. \u201cBut most importantly, they left having an example of an artist and teacher they maintain as a model.\u201d<\/p>\n

The centerpiece of Cohen\u2019s work at Rochester was the Art New York program, which immerses students for a semester in the city\u2019s art world. Cohen began directing the program in 2001.<\/p>\n

Cori Wolff, now the director of public art for ArtWorks, a nonprofit organization in Cincinnati, Ohio, participated in Art New York. She calls Cohen a \u201cbrilliant mentor who gracefully forged connections and opportunities for her students that directly and positively altered the course of their lives.\u201d She \u201cviewed and treated us as professionals, challenging us to experiment, think critically, and reach deep within ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former students remember Cohen\u2019s thoughtfulness as much as her artistic guidance. \u201cElizabeth really saw me, and appreciated me for who I was,\u201d recalls Kim Stromgren \u201903, who\u2019s also an alumnus of Art New York. \u201cI\u2019m sure Elizabeth showed up that way, in all of her roles in life\u2014as an observant, supportive, encouraging, and truly open-minded human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topolski says that Cohen\u2019s art, which combined traditional, accessible qualities with progressive and conceptual ones, was shaped by a similar awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttentive to how information can be manipulated by form, Elizabeth enriched her work with a keen sensitivity to materials and how they speak,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colleagues pay tribute to Elizabeth Cohen, an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History and director of the University’s Art New York program, who died in May. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":255602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20522,3396,16072],"class_list":["post-255592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-department-of-art-and-art-history","tag-obituaries","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArtist Elizabeth Cohen remembered for gifts of observation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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