Stanford students make a place for making art at Jasper Ridge

Studio 2 is an eco, micro, mobile art space for the street or the foothills.

Three weeks before most students arrived on campus to start fall quarter 2015, guest artist David Szlasa was building an arts studio with students at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. The studio was built from salvaged materials largely from scrap material available at the Jasper Ridge maintenance site. The 11 students were enrolled in Szlasa’s Arts Intensive course “Tiny Eco Houses for Artists: Social Practice, Design/Build.” The objective of the course was for students to build a mobile art studio for use and demonstration on the main Stanford campus and as a studio at Jasper Ridge as a venue for artists engaging with the natural environment.

This academic year Studio 2 will be parked on campus during winter quarter and then relocate to Jasper Ridge for their first visiting artist in the spring. In the future the studio will regularly spend fall and winter quarters on campus, and spring and summer at Jasper Ridge.

“I am convinced that there is much about the experience of discovery that scientists and artists have in common and can learn from each other. I hope the mobile art studio will help expand opportunities for students, faculty and visiting scholars in the arts and humanities to experience Jasper Ridge and engage with the more traditional research and education community at the preserve.”
- Philippe S. Cohen, former Executive Director of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve