Alumni Profile: Liz Scofield, VU Art Class of 2010
Liz Clayton Scofield (they/them/their)
Artist, Writer+Poet, Play Advocate+Facilitator, Art+Tech Consultant
Website: www.lizclaytonscofield.com
Instagram: @lizclaytonscofield
“My education at Vanderbilt fostered critical and independent thinking, endless curiosity, and confidence in my creative practice. Somehow at Vanderbilt, I managed to exist at the in-betweens; I continue to do so and keep learning about the advantages and challenges in the liminality.”
I graduated in the Class of 2010, with an interdisciplinary major and a minor in studio art. I was (and still am) interested in too many things, and also am stubborn – I resist conventional structures. An interdisciplinary major was a great opportunity for me to explore a breadth of ideas and have agency in my scholarship. In my minor, I used these ideas as a foundation for creative work. Showing a cohesive body of work in the Hamblet exhibition was a highlight of my experience. I worked with the Curb Center, which continues to influence my pedagogy, and I lived in McGill Hall, a community rooted in creative thinking and making. After Vanderbilt, I earned an MFA in digital art from Indiana University, Bloomington, where I studied video, performance, interactive media, and sculpture. I continue to perform, exhibit multimedia work, publish essays and poems, curate, collaborate, and teach. I will be joining the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to study poetry in the fall of 2021. My education at Vanderbilt fostered critical and independent thinking, endless curiosity, and confidence in my creative practice. Somehow at Vanderbilt, I managed to exist at the in-betweens; I continue to do so and keep learning about the advantages and challenges in the liminality. The Vanderbilt Art Department was the beginning of my pursuit of a sustainable creative life, and I am grateful to experience the unfolding of this journey thus far.