SMAI, Students Make Art Initiative, is a club that based on an event back in 2013 -- Reset: Mandeville. A group of visual arts undergraduate students, who deeply concern about their education here at UCSD, were demanding more opportunities and attention from the department, as well as wanting to establishing a community for student to work with each other. Kim Garcia, who is the founder and current president of SMAI (Students Make Art Initiative), expresses her concerns about visual arts undergraduate program at UCSD.
We initially want to do a short documentary on the club itself, but end up finding a lot more potential sources regarding the issues that students have with the visual department. During our interview, we find out that people who hold different positions in the department have different opinions about the undergraduate program here. So we are trying to show different perspective on this matter, and to be as neutral as possible. We think that in spite of their statements in terms of the undergrad student program, as well as students who acquire more opportunities and attentions, they all agree that this has to be a ongoing progress.
We respect different opinions that they have, and really appreciate their honesty in terms of expressing their opinions. We hope that this documentary could inspire students, who are like us, are in search of a way to express their concerns and thoughts.
We initially want to do a short documentary on the club itself, but end up finding a lot more potential sources regarding the issues that students have with the visual department. During our interview, we find out that people who hold different positions in the department have different opinions about the undergraduate program here. So we are trying to show different perspective on this matter, and to be as neutral as possible. We think that in spite of their statements in terms of the undergrad student program, as well as students who acquire more opportunities and attentions, they all agree that this has to be a ongoing progress.
We respect different opinions that they have, and really appreciate their honesty in terms of expressing their opinions. We hope that this documentary could inspire students, who are like us, are in search of a way to express their concerns and thoughts.
Film by Rhiann Suen, Jingyi Wei
Editing by Rhiann Suen, Jingyi Wei
