Professor of Studio Art – Ceramics
With Pitzer Since: 2008
Phone: 909.607.7553
Educational Background:
MFA, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
BA, University of Colorado, Boulder
Tim Berg received his BFA magna cum laude from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2000 and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2003. Since 2006 Berg’s full-time studio collaborator has been Rebekah Myers. Berg and Myers have participated in multiple solo exhibitions including Tim Berg & Rebekah Myers at Dean Project Gallery, Miami Beach, FL (2015); Site Unseen at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA; Honest to Goodness at Santa Barbara City College (2014); An embarrassment of riches at Dean Project Gallery in New York, NY (2013); On the brink at Dean Project Gallery in New York, NY (2011); As Luck Would Have It at Nääs Konsthantverk Galleri in Göteborg, Sweden (2009); Hope Springs Eternal at Seigfred Gallery at Ohio University in Athens, OH (2007); and Glacial at Ironton Studios in Denver, CO (2007). Over the years Berg and Myers have also participated in numerous group exhibitions in the US, Mexico, South Korea, Qatar and Kuwait. Their work is included in many private and public collections including The Betty Woodman Collection at the University of Colorado and the Biedermann Museum in Germany. Berg has curated a number of exhibitions including Tannaz Farsi – Crowd Control (2012), The 67th Scripps Ceramic Annual – Making Fun (2011); Student Exchange Exhibition (2007 and 2004); and Northern Colorado Regional Student Show (2004).
Teaching Philosophy
My objective as a teacher is to challenge students to identify and pursue rigorous, imaginative and genuine independent thought. I work towards this objective with the explicit understanding that learning is a continuously unfolding endeavor where the questions students ask themselves may not necessarily lead to answers but to the generation of more questions. I believe my responsibility is to challenge students by creating an atmosphere where they are presented with opportunities to re-examine, re-define and re-invent their expectations of their art, the world, themselves and others. The studio classroom should be a flexible environment in which structure and spontaneity overlap: where the student begins to follow his or her own practice in a self-motivated and discerning way. I endorse taking risks in the pursuit of pushing past mediocrity. Simultaneously, I work to highlight how “failure” is often just another idea that can be followed intelligently and intentionally. I emphasize to students that artistic inquiry necessarily intersects complimentary fields including, but not limited to, all of the natural sciences, cultural theory, philosophy, politics and history.
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