Jenny Rhodes ’00, GSAS’17
Core Studio, the brainchild of Jenny Rhodes ’00, GSAS’17, offers undergrads a no-pressure space to connect to what they learn in Lit Hum and Art Hum through other mediums. In semi-weekly sessions, Rhodes provides materials and a quick how-to for artistic techniques — such as fresco, oil painting or screen printing — that come directly from Core works or are inspired by them.
Though the setting may be informal, the materials are extraordinary: Rhodes has curated a selection of authentic resources including Tyrian purple dye, ground lapis lazuli, and ochre and carmine pigments — the same ones that would have been used in the workshops of the artisans, scribes and creators represented in the Core.
“What excites me most is that each of the materials has its own story,” Rhodes says. “Not just in terms of the origins and location of the materials, but also in how humans have used them over time and how they appear in our texts and artworks.”
In each session, Rhodes gives a brief historical overview that highlights the materials’ unique properties and how they fit into the syllabi, then students are free to dive into using them. “This combination — the specificity with which the historical materials align with the works on the curriculum and the open accessibility of the workshops to all students — is what makes this program so unusual,” Rhodes says.
Larry Jackson, director of the Center for the Core Curriculum, is a fan. “Core Studio is a creative way for students to enter the worlds of the authors and characters that they encounter in our classes,” he says. “It fosters community and it works across disciplines. This is the kind of innovative pedagogy that we need in the humanities today.”
Now an adjunct professor, Rhodes taught Lit Hum for several years before officially launching Core Studio last fall with sponsorship from the Center for the Core Curriculum. In June, she was awarded a Large-Scale Teaching & Learning Grant from the Office of the Provost; the support will allow her to expand program collaborations (Rhodes has already partnered with curators and conservators at Avery Library and Butler Library’s conservation lab) in addition to developing a website. The latter will feature an inventory of the materials collection, along with artistic projects and techniques, all cross-referenced to related Core works.
Rhodes grew up in Austin; as a pianist, she was initially interested in attending the College because of the Juilliard School dual-degree program (she dreamed of one day conducting operas). But once she arrived on campus, she realized she wanted to be a comparative lit major. “All the literature!” she says with a laugh. “Plus I could take the Italian I needed for opera, and music classes and art classes. I knew that was what I wanted to study, and I’ve never deviated.” She found Lit Hum to be “a revelation,” and opted to stay at Columbia for a Ph.D. because that would allow her to teach it.
Core Studio originated informally in 2016, when Rhodes starting making paints as she was finishing her dissertation. “I needed something to take me out of my mind and into my hands,” she says. The ancient method of grinding solid materials into pigment changed the way she thought about color and craft in the texts she was teaching. “I had a bunch of practices I wanted to learn, and materials I wanted to work with, and it’s just more fun to do in a group,” Rhodes says. Students were welcome to stop by her office if any of her projects interested them; then, during the Covid-19 pandemic, she created kits of historical pigments, parchments, papers and textiles that she sent to students to explore and report on. By 2022, Jackson and Dean of Academic Affairs Lisa Hollibaugh saw the potential and offered resources for Rhodes to create a syllabus.
In addition to Core Studio, Rhodes has taught “The Core as Praxis/Fieldwork” since 2019. The course provides students the opportunity to connect what they learn in the Core to professional work they may be doing off campus, like internships or volunteer opportunities.
Now decades into her College experience, Rhodes is thrilled to have created successful programs out of her love for the Core and her varied creative interests. “I feel like I’m living the dream,” she says. “What would it look like if I could do anything? This would be it.”
On February 6, join Rhodes for “Café Columbia: The Color of Creation,” an experiential workshop series that employs historical materials and artistic practices to explore the works of the Core Curriculum.
