Faculty Q&A: Andrew Super
Coordinator of the Fine Arts and Digital Media Technology Program
Great Bay welcomes Andrew Super, the new coordinator of the Fine Arts and Digital Media Technology Program. He comes to Great Bay with a background in arts education and as a digital media artist. Super, 38, has taught photography in the United States and United Kingdom. As part of his introduction to the Great Bay community, a sampling of his photography is hanging in the Gateway Gallery.
In his studio practice, Super distills complex, layered experiences into single and often abstract digital image, challenging viewers to explore their relationship to those events. We caught up with him on his first day on campus.
What attracted you to Great Bay?
“I come from a background of education in small places – I’ve taught at a community college, small universities, and small private schools. You can do amazing things in small places. I love the location and scale of Great Bay, and the possibilities.”
What is your motivation as an artist?
“I was trained classically as a darkroom photographer, and one of the things that photographers get taught early on is the idea of the precise moment, that single instance when a great photograph can be made. I always thought that was strange. How can you define one moment vs. another one?”
Can you give an example of what you mean?
“If you think back to a birthday party when you were a little kid, you don’t think about just opening the presents or just eating the cake or the games that you played with your friends. It is about all those things rolled into one, so I try to capture whole the experience.”
Why is it important for people to study and engage in the arts?
“The arts are one of the few things that separate us from the rest of the living organisms on earth. But from a more practical perspective, engaging in art education is a smart path to follow for no other benefit than if to just expand the idea of what things can be, to force yourself to be a more creative and more agile problem solver. All artists have to bridge the gap of figuring out how to make something in their head become real. Those are good skills to have.”
To learn more about the Fine Arts and Digital Media Technology Program and other degree and certificate programs offered at Great Bay visit: https://www.greatbay.edu/programs/
