On the heels of last week’s Art Party Extravaganza, the Lamar Dodd School of Art invites the public to attend the 2022 Short Shorts Film Festival and Open Studios, an evening of film, sculpture, and jewelry & metalwork at the Thomas Street Art Complex.
 
Guests are welcome to visit the Complex at 215 S. Thomas Street on Thursday, September 29 from 6:30 PM to 9 PM to enjoy a special outdoor screening of the 2022 Short Shorts Film Festival presented by whitespace gallery in Atlanta and juried by School of Art director Joseph Peragine, explore open graduate and faculty studios, and view an in-progress replica model of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral's wooden roof, known as “La Forêt,” built by students and faculty at the University of Georgia in partnership with Handshouse Studio and the Willson Center for Humanities & Arts. Snacks and beverages will be provided while supplies last.
 

“There is a powerhouse display of creative-making coming to Thomas Street. Between the Short Shorts Film Festival, the open faculty and student studios full of spacious work, and the display of the large-scale model of the Notre Dame cathedral roof structure that is being worked on with Handshouse Studio partners during a week-long workshop, this evening promises to be for all our senses and sensibilities,” remarked sculpture associate professor Martijn van Wangtendonk.

Short Shorts Film Festival, Jiffy Louvre II: Leave Worry Behind (Again)

The Short Shorts Film Festival is an annual event hosted by whitespace gallery in Atlanta that was on hiatus over the past two years. In its seventh iteration, the program includes two additional screenings of the program, one at Georgia State University and the other at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. This year’s guest juror is Joseph Peragine, director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Selected films vary widely in budget, genre, narrative, and experimentation, but all come in under five minutes in length.
 
The theme for this year’s festival is Jiffy Louvre II: Leave Worry Behind (Again).Originally used in Short Shorts 2019, the title is a mash-up of high (the Louvre, the museum of museums) and low (Jiffy Lube, purveyors of the drive whose slogan is "leave worry behind"). The title encapsulates the wide-ranging aesthetic goal of the festival. Any budget, any genre, any story is welcome, provided it gives a brief respite from these off-kilter times. Short Shorts is open to the off-beat, non-narrative, and experimental.

On the final, curated selection of films for the 2022 festival, juror and School of Art director Joseph Peragine reflected, “One of the things I found fascinating about everybody’s submissions is that I gave a very broad call, yet there were themes that cut through. One was a general nihilism; the other one was this notion of self-care. Some of the films had both going on at the same time. I think that’s the theme that runs through—trying to protect oneself in a time that is very difficult and in transition.”

Open Studios

Students, faculty, and the public are welcome to explore sculpture and jewelry & metalwork graduate studio spaces before, during, or after the short film festival. This event is the second opportunity for visitors to view open graduate studios at the school. The Art Party Extravaganza on September 16th in the main building of the School of Art included open studios in drawing & painting, printmaking & book arts, photography, and textiles.

The Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project

Handshouse Studio has organized a national project to invite colleges, universities and their faculty and students to build a large-scale wooden model of the oldest trusses in the roof structure above the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral’s choir.
 
In the summer of 2021, the Catholic University of America offered a course, taught by Tonya Ohnstad AIA, NCAR, centered on an effort to explore the architectural history of Notre Dame through hands-on construction of a model of “La Forêt.” La Forêt Model has and will continue to be built and exhibited around the country as part of The Notre Dame de Paris Truss Project, a collaboration led by Handshouse Studio that endeavors to explore how this medieval architectural icon was originally made.
 
The project, led by the Model Project Manager, architect Nat Crosby, has expanded to include participants from additional colleges and universities: Florida State University, Ball State University, Virginia Tech (WAAC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gordon College, Washington University, the University of Georgia, and the North Bennet Street School.

Thomas Street Art Complex

The Thomas Street Art Complex at the University of Georgia is host to a range of facilities supporting sculpture and jewelry & metalwork, including two project spaces/galleries, a wood shop, a metal fabrication shop, a jewelry metals shop, a foundry, computer labs and classrooms, and faculty, graduate, and undergraduate studios.

The site serves as one of five instructional buildings at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, along with the school’s main building on River Road, a Ceramics facility, Broad Street Studios housing an interior design program, and the Athenaeum gallery and collaborative space.