Photo courtesy of marylandarteducationassociation.ning.com
Today I was invigorated by ideas and people at the Maryland Art Education Association (MAEA) conference. I saw peers, former professors, and art teachers from around Maryland. These conferences both spark new and exciting ideas to use in the classroom and also give a sense of comradery among educators. The experiences from today, further validate the importance of my profession.
Olivia Gude, one of my favorite people in the field, was there as bold as ever, discussing art education in post modern times. I love the way that Olivia allows relationships to be built between students and their artworks and students and their peers. To provide examples of this I will describe a brief part of her workshop that I attended.
We entered the space and Olivia asked us to take four colored sheets of paper, one pastel, and light and dark pencil from the back of the room. The topic of this workshop is 'The Dirty Curriculum' (intriguing title, right?). When we sat down we were asked to crinkle up our four sheets of paper, and then smooth them out. We had a discussion about the meaning of the word 'dirty'. Together we observed images and unpacked ways that the objects we were seeing could be associated to it's meaning. Sharing stories from our lives we described times when we had made a mess and got in trouble and times when we made a mess on purpose. Some also told how they had gone without cleaning a room, washing jeans, and brushing teeth. After our discussion, we picked up our paper again and rubbed it on our heads, face and feet. Searching among our own objects that we had happened to have brought to the session, we were challenged to stain our surface in any way we could. There were some people stuffing the paper in their mouths, some taking soil from near by plants, I had some blue mascara (I'm not sure why) that I used. This physical interaction with the material, automatically took away the 'fear of the blank slate' feeling. We were forced, in a very short time frame, to become familiar with the material. In a classroom setting this method can break that barrier for students who are scared of being unable to make the 'perfect' work of art, and create a NEW kind of interaction!
Proceeding with the workshop, we created narrative ripped paper collages that told a story about a time that we were messy. Before we glued our collage pieces down we were told to ask a peer to critique and offer additional suggestions to ensure strong compositions. There was trust build in this interaction by giving a peer the final say that our work was complete. Relying on others, talking about artwork together, physically interacting with materials, all of these encounters allowed us as participants to feel safe and comfortable with the art materials and with each other in a very brief amount of time.
Thank you Olivia Gude for a thought provoking workshop!
Olivia Gude, one of my favorite people in the field, was there as bold as ever, discussing art education in post modern times. I love the way that Olivia allows relationships to be built between students and their artworks and students and their peers. To provide examples of this I will describe a brief part of her workshop that I attended.
We entered the space and Olivia asked us to take four colored sheets of paper, one pastel, and light and dark pencil from the back of the room. The topic of this workshop is 'The Dirty Curriculum' (intriguing title, right?). When we sat down we were asked to crinkle up our four sheets of paper, and then smooth them out. We had a discussion about the meaning of the word 'dirty'. Together we observed images and unpacked ways that the objects we were seeing could be associated to it's meaning. Sharing stories from our lives we described times when we had made a mess and got in trouble and times when we made a mess on purpose. Some also told how they had gone without cleaning a room, washing jeans, and brushing teeth. After our discussion, we picked up our paper again and rubbed it on our heads, face and feet. Searching among our own objects that we had happened to have brought to the session, we were challenged to stain our surface in any way we could. There were some people stuffing the paper in their mouths, some taking soil from near by plants, I had some blue mascara (I'm not sure why) that I used. This physical interaction with the material, automatically took away the 'fear of the blank slate' feeling. We were forced, in a very short time frame, to become familiar with the material. In a classroom setting this method can break that barrier for students who are scared of being unable to make the 'perfect' work of art, and create a NEW kind of interaction!
Proceeding with the workshop, we created narrative ripped paper collages that told a story about a time that we were messy. Before we glued our collage pieces down we were told to ask a peer to critique and offer additional suggestions to ensure strong compositions. There was trust build in this interaction by giving a peer the final say that our work was complete. Relying on others, talking about artwork together, physically interacting with materials, all of these encounters allowed us as participants to feel safe and comfortable with the art materials and with each other in a very brief amount of time.
Thank you Olivia Gude for a thought provoking workshop!
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