Summer School: State of the Sky, collaboration with Luke Stettner
Education Program
Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
June 14 - August 26, 2025
Summer School: State of the Sky was an experimental education program held within the State of the Sky exhibition at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, PA. The twelve-week program invited a diverse cohort of twelve participants — artists and non-artists alike, selected through an open call — and offered interdisciplinary approaches to critical resistance through arts practice, at a minimal cost of $100.00.
The program focused on the "document" as a tool to reimagine and challenge dominant narratives. Participants explored archival materials sourced from libraries, museums, and personal collections, engaging in the creative translation of newspapers, photographs, and data. Ultimately, the program investigated ways to "un-archive" and recirculate marginalized, contested, and unknown histories through a collective act of historical reclamation.
Seminars were led by a diverse group of practitioners, including poet Michael Leong, urban geographer/architect Nida Rehman, political ecologist Noah Theriault, and interdisciplinary artist Sobia Ahmad. The introductory and concluding sessions were taught by the program’s co-directors, Luke Stettner and Calista Lyon. Each seminar provided a space for participants to connect with a range of research methodologies, engage in creative experimentation, and foster critical discussions regarding cultural knowledge and memory.
Drawing on the history of analog photography within an experimental framework, the program offered participants the processes and facilities to creatively engage with documents. Participants were granted twice-weekly access to the exhibition’s solar darkroom. This unique space enabled the creation of photograms—images made using sunlight as the primary light source. Throughout the program, the solar darkroom functioned as a hands-on creative laboratory, fostering personal research and artistic exploration.
The seminar series was bookended by two public film screenings, Artifacts + Afterlives and Atmospheres + Auras, curated by Benny Shaffer and co-hosted by Pittsburgh Sound + Image. These screenings shared cinematic works that aligned with the themes of the State of the Sky exhibition and the Summer School.