CLASS REFLECTION AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

My reflections on the class Curriculum Planning and Assessment in Art Education - Art Education 7607 SP 2024 taught by Dr. Shari Savage could not be more positive. By using peer feedback and encouragement, I could do something I haven’t done yet as a teacher or mentor and that is develop full units of study in a comprehensive and (above all) cohesive way. Before this class, my units development was based in my own studies that varied little with my own input. Much of my curriculum creation was based in what I had studied. With the help of this class, I was able to weave into the instruction, my own experiences and thoughts from the beginning and not wait until the actual class time to add my two cents.

Before this course, I was basing my teachings on what I felt was quality curriculum and I lacked a standardized methodology to measure, not only my students output within the class, but the quality of the class itself. Through readings and class feedback, I could step back and see where my curriculums lacked insight, interest, and connection with the students and I could see where my own grading systems were flawed and uneven.

The biggest take away for my own process is that I now have the ability and foresight to create a map of learning outcomes for each assignment and with enough planning, I can match those outcomes to each student’s projects so that they can be graded equally. This class, essentially, has offered me a way to create an engaging curriculum as well as a plan to see how students retained the information given. This class has provided a number of practical tools for me moving forward with my career.

Although these readings could be used in many different settings, the overarching message that is held aloft in this class is that it is up to the teachers to put their best foot forward to take art education forward. Each article is loaded with ways that teachers can make a difference in moving away from cut and dry technician teaching to curating and engaging material that keeps their students thinking and striving to create work that represents their ideals and passions. These articles and class have been presented to push new art teachers away from the cookie-cutter and uninspired past and into the malleable, positive, representative, and forward progress of the future.

Annotated Bibliography:

Buffington, M.L., Bryant, A. (2019). Changing Practice: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Art Education. National Art Education Association, The Journal of the National Art Education Association, Jan 2019, V. 71

Buffington makes a great argument for teachers to search harder for finding art lessons that are more diverse in their teachings. Buffington makes a point that teachers need to dig deeper than the skin-deep searches on Pintrest to find more diverse lessons for their students. Many of the top searched lessons on Pinterest that teachers default to do not promote diversity but create harm by simplifying it. “These projects are not celebratory, but trivializing. They reduce complex cultures to simple projects aimed at a reproducible, usually cute, product.” (Pg. 22)

Desai, D. (2020) Educating for Social Change Through Art: A Personal Reckoning. Studies in Art Education. 61:1. 10-23.

Desai makes a splendid case that creating art can be a source of power and a voice when creating change through social justice. By breaking down Western epistemologies within art and design is opening of the flood gates to realizing how powerful art can be as a tool for social justice. Art can be used to challenge social norms and take a stand against social hierarchies. "Art in its representational form can affect politics by serving as a moral witness to gross inequities and state-sanctioned atrocities." (Pg. 15)

Sawyer, A.G., Dredger, K., Myers, J., Barnes, S., Wilson, R., Sullivan, J., Sawyer, D. (2020). Developing Teachers as Critical Curators: Investigating Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Inspirations for Lesson Planning. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education,
Vol. 71(5) 518–536

In this article, the authors treat lesson planning less as a culmination of facts to be bundled together to be learned and more as a curation process of ideas to be presented and shared. This is a major shift from technician-style teachers delivering a memorized lesson with very little to no deviation from the plan to curation-style teachers who collect ideas and present them in an ever-changing way by continually adapting the lessons to best meet the student needs. "Being a curator of content means going beyond choosing an activity from Pinterest just because it has a lot of pins or assuming that an activity is developmentally appropriate just because a CT suggested it." (Pg. 533)

Wilhelm, J.,D. (2012). Essential Questions. Scholastic Instructor, Holiday 2012.

Wilhelm writes that leading students to the ask more questions is an essential key to keeping students engaged in the subject. Wilhelm states, that we keep students energized and engaged by asking essential questions. For students, distilling larger ideas into essential questions then framing them in a way that connects with the students, leads to longer discussions and more specific questions that keep the students wanting more information. "An essential question frames a unit of study as a problem to be solved." (Pg. 25)

Ploof, J., Hochtritt, L. (2018) Practicing Social Justice Art Education: Reclaiming Our Agency Through Collective Curriculum. Art Education. 71:1, 38-44

Ploof and Hocktritt agree that it is impossible to study art and social justice without participating in the process. By presenting the ideas behind social justice art, teachers are offering their students fodder to create their own voices in the art world. "practicing social justice art education is not an individualistic academic exercise but a dynamic collective process in which art, education, and action are interwoven." (Pg. 39)

Winner, E., Hetland, L., Weenema, S., Sheridan, K. (2006) Studio Thinking: How Visual Arts Teaching Can Promote Disciplined Habits of Mind. New Directions in Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (189-205). Amityville, New York: Baywood Publishing Company, 2006.

The authors present their findings for whether studying art can help students score better on testing from reading to mathematics to sciences to writing. Most of the findings show that it is inconclusive evidence to prove these theories one way or the other. While there are no silver bullets in the studies, the authors do land on some amazing discoveries about studying art. "Thus they are teaching their students to focus and develop inner-directedness. They teach them to break out of ruts and blocks and to feel encouraged about their work so that they are motivated not to give up." (Pg. 12)

Smilan, C. (2016) Developing Visual Creative Literacies Through Integrating Art-Based Inquiry. The Clearing House. 2016, V 89, Nos. 4-5, 167-178.

Smilan ties the ability to think creatively and to effectively communicate said creative thinking is a prerequisite for living in the 21st century. Even though the mediums have changed within creating art (painting with brushes versus digital creation), Smilan argues that much of the basis for art remains the same. And against much of the old-school thinking, Smilan argues that creative thinking permeates all walks of life and that teachers from all curriculums should engage in art-based practices. "What remains a constant in this educational reconstruction is the essence of arts-based teaching and learning: the situational ability to analyze, integrate, conceptualize, and [re]create." (Pg. 176)

BIG IDEAS Lesson Came to Life.

Assignment Slides:

Digital Photography 2 Class at EAC

As we were beginning to chat about the assignment, at least three of the students (total of 9) began to grumble and express their hesitation to the project, explaining that the assignment would be too basic to be interesting. I asked them to hold their criticisms until after we looked through the work of Ruth Orkin before poo-pooing the project as uninteresting. We worked our way through Ruth’s work and with each passing picture, their worries faded. From the surface, taking photos from a single point of view can be very straight forward and unimaginative but as the students could see examples of how they could view the assignment, their creative ideas and techniques started to flow. It was amusing as the teacher to watch their moods swing so drastically within a 10 minute period.

Unfortunately, a number of students did not want their work presented on my page on the internet so I have chosen not to represent their work here. But I will describe their process, their highs and lows, and their results.

As the students had the time to work on the assignment over a few classes, I had the opportunity to talk with them throughout the process. I started by asking if anyone was having issues completing the assignment? Almost all of them replied with a version of ‘the idea of sitting in front of a window felt daunting, mundane, boring, and ‘pretty damn silly’ (direct quote). Before I could answer, a single student fixed the issue for me with a two-word answer: ‘Then don’t’.

The class nodded in agreement and we discussed ways to take the photos without spending hours at a time at the window. One suggestion was to leave your camera near the window and when you walked by, you could take a photo or two and come back to the spot at a different time and repeat the process. This seemed to be the best way to keep the students interested in what they were seeing outside as different times of day created vastly different visuals.

With two classes in between the assignment given and the assignment delivered, my students were allowed to speak to each other about how things were moving along and what directions they were taking to complete the assignment. As a class, small successes came to light within these smaller, impromptu, interclass conversations where edits were shared, styles were shared and/or proposed, and techniques/technical aspects were suggested and or shot down. While my classes those two days were aimed more at image editing and image curation, the student to student talk was more about ‘what are your images shaping up to look like’ and ‘oh I tried that, it didn’t work because of _____ and _____’. It was as if I was overhearing the students teaching each other, or at the very least, offering up advice and ideas that were stretching the class further.

To offer up more insight, my student engagement for the assignment was on par with what of my student engagement is for the classes I teach at the art center. The student body is made up of a variety of ranges of photographers looking to get a variety of things out of the class. Here is how it breaks down in their own words (as listed by me):

-       15% of students are looking to take “better” photos
-       50% of students are looking to learn more about their camera
-       25% of students are looking to create a better-looking Instagram Stream / Social Media presence
-       10% of the students are looking for challenging their photography skills

Because the range is vast, their responses to the assignment ranged directly to their interest in the above percentages. But with this assignment, everyone in the class completed the 10 images and almost all of them made a compelling argument for the creativity produced. A single student just went through the motions while the rest gave it the energy and mind power that the assignment deserved.

For me, looking back on the lesson plan, I would like to try it out on High School students as the older age of the current students swayed the output to look more like Ruth Orkin’s work and less like their own. I feel that a younger, more impressionable student population would create more of a contrast between each final set of images which would spur the student creativity for the assignment that comes next. One of my goals is to constantly build upon the last assignment so that my students are creating a bank of creativity and an arc to their work that is visible.

In the future, I will use more time in creating my lesson plans as I feel like this particular assignment really came together over a number of weeks with a solid few days of research, testing, and ideating. I need to put more thought into lesson plans in general and this process definitely helps prove that.

And… Just because I did not get a chance to publish my students images looking out their window, here are 3 images of my own, looking out a window.

Using Windows for good...

What did you choose (key ideas for artmaking and big idea) and why?

My lesson plan titled, Framing the outside – What are you a witness to? addresses the idea of ‘Where/How do I fit into this world?’ for each student. I feel that this is one of the most important ideas for artists to continually address. This assignment provides a simple yet powerful outlet for students to answer the question. The lesson plan slots seamlessly into my curriculum for second-year students (High School Photo II) where a level of technical skill is expected. As this is an ongoing question in art, I would revisit the idea of ‘Where/How do I fit into this world?’ each year and catalog the images to show the individual students’ progress through photography courses. The advanced students would then have an extensive portfolio of personal artwork upon graduation.

Lesson:

Framing the outside – What are you a witness to?

Windows can be a powerful metaphor for artists to use. The idea of a window within pieces of art can be used in many ways. Is it a view in? Or is the window a view out? Can I see what other people are doing? Or are they the ones who are watching me? The window, like a door, allows for actions to be happening on each side of a division line but unlike a traditional opaque door, a window is constantly shielding us from what is on the other side while allowing both sides to see in/out.

Things to think about -

In our home, when we peek at the world through a window, we can see how we are connected to the community that surrounds us. Outside of our homes, the world is constantly moving with activity and interaction: people working, shopping, walking, animals eating, plants soaking up sunlight, automobile traffic, airplane traffic, conversations, weather patterns, etc.. It is the culmination of all these activities that connect us to our community. If you spent 24 hours sitting in front of a window in your home, what would you see? What would these exterior routines reveal to you about where you live? How would these observations make you feel about your own connection to your community? What role do you play on the other side of the window?

On the flip side of the coin… we complete everyday activities as humans within our homes: we sleep, we eat, we work, we interact, we play, and then we sleep again. If you spent 24 hours sitting in front of a window outside of your home, what would you see? What would your routine and the routine of your family reveal about you? How do these observations make you feel about your own space within your home? What role do you play on the other side of the window?

Assignment -

Using a window in your home, your camera, your choice of lenses, output sizes, and artistic techniques, capture and edit a set of 10 images from inside of your home looking out. The images should convey a sense of connection to the community around you. During the assignment review, students will be asked to use their photos to explain the answer to the question: “Where/How do you fit into your community?”

Things to remember -

The window frame itself allows for our eyes to have a physical outline to encapsulate the outside world, creating a virtual painting / photograph / video for us to imagine. The frame separates the interior inanimate walls from the moving images happening on the other side. Sometimes our windows are interrupted by bug screens, storm windows, drapes, condensation, fog, rain, sunlight, dirt, and other forms of distortion.

What artists are you drawing from? How do these artists inform artmaking in this project?

We will be studying the work of Ruth Orkin, a photographer, journalist, and filmmaker who documented life outside of her 15th story apartment through the window with her camera for decades. She would use different focal lengths (wide angle shots of Central Park as well as telephoto photos of people on the street more than 100’ below her) and she changed her point of view by filming through the window as well as move her head/upper body and the camera outside of the window to achieve different angles. Her photo collection book, 'A World Through My Window' published in 1978 is considered her greatest collection of photographs. Her technique of watching and waiting to capture scenes that moved her will be the same technique instilled in the students.

How do you anticipate your class/participants responding to this plan?

To be completely fair, I think this lesson plan will take some adjusting as it is used. I think certain students will flock to it’s absurdity and begin to grasp the idea of creating a vision of one’s self through images outside of their home while others will have a hard time seeing beyond the mundanity of the images they create for the assignment. I believe that the continuation of the assignment from class to class will help the students see the larger scale implications of using art to access how you see yourself within the smaller community and within the larger world. Being able to provide the students who are truly excited about photography with a portfolio that expresses their own understanding of themselves after 3-4 classes is something that I very much look forward to providing.

Class Reflection and Annotated Bibliography

My reflections on the class The Artmaking Process - Art Education 7604 AU 2023 taught by Dr. jt Eisenhauer Richardson, begin and end with the statement: this class is a game changer for me as a teacher, a mentor, and as an artist. I have known about the idea of ‘Play’ as an artist for some time but until this semester, I was unaware of how it could help me reach my goal preparing students to be creative problem solvers through making art.

 My most significant take away from the class was how I could integrate the idea of ‘Play’ into my teaching. Sydney Walker tells us right off the bat that Play is tough to define. “Although it seems that defining play should be a straightforward enterprise, the difficulty of corralling it, a complaint often echoed by theorists of play, indicates its complexity as well as its illusiveness.” (Walker, pg. 13) For me, the definition I attach to the word Play comes from the Miriam Webster dictionary “scope or opportunity for action”. As a creative, I have embedded the idea of Play into my brain as an opportunity to think freely and without judgement. Play is the space where I can be as outrageous or as buttoned up as I want to be. I see the idea of Play as not a game to be completed but as a frame of mind to use when creativity is needed. As Walker suggests, “extensive literature surrounds play, theorizing located in education, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and game studies. While I have drawn upon this body of work, it has been in a highly selective manner, laying hold of concepts that resonate with classroom artmaking. This approach led me to highlight six types of play and delineate the text chapters through them. These are nonsense play, physical play, experimental play, social play, participatory play, and chance play.” (pg. 5).

Walker’s chapters on the six types of Play opened the door to formalizing the idea of Play so that I could create lessons deeply rooted in my teaching core belief of using art to turn out creative problem solvers years after their last art class. I have now been able to apply lesson plans that create the space for students to see that art is not a cookie-cutter class where expectations need to be met in order to succeed, all based in the ideas of Play.

Before this course, I was utilizing the ideas laid out in this class to students in VERY broad strokes by creating spaces for them to explore their own creativity. Much of what I was teaching was left up to the student to either grasp or neglect the idea of Play. Since this course, I’ve been able to hone in on specific lessons (using repetition, verbs, chance, etc.) to directly impact the student’s way of thinking about creativity while showing them that literally anything is possible with their camera.

If you can problem solve it, you can theoretically make it.

Annotated Bibliography:

Walker, Sydney. (2022). Artmaking, Play, and Meaning Making. Davis Publications, Worcester, MA.

This book details the ways that Play can be used within the artmaking process along with hundreds of examples of real-world artists utilizing it as well as teachers utilizing Play within their classrooms. Walker takes us through detailed ways to get students to think differently about making art via chance, movements, repetition, community creation, and many other ideas. This book should be taught to all art teachers in hopes of creating a basis for creativity at the grade school art level. 

Ingold, Tim. (2013). Making – Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. Routledge Publishing, New York, NY.

Ingold spends much of this book describing the ideas of creating and making as anthropology and thus the data presented to a culture by creating something can be used to study the culture as well as the individual. The acts of using one’s senses to glean even more information from various cultures through collection and art is just as important as reading about other cultures. Serious cultural connections can be made by replicating the creative process yourself as you study other peoples, places, and things.

Kaprow, Alan. (1986) Art Which Can’t be Art. Letter, self-published.

Kaprow, a well-known artist, used this letter to define why the mundane actions of humans, when repeated with purpose, can be considered art and not just sociology. The relationship between the artist, the action, and the documentation cannot be disconnected and thus must be received as art.

Kaprow, Alan. (1996) Just Doing. Keynote address for 'Performance Art, Culture, and Pedagogy symposium held at Pennsylvania State University 13-16 November, 1996.

Kaprow uses this keynote speech to show how performance art can be considered a higher form of creativity. Kaprow shows us how experiential art can be fleeting to the performer but lifelong for the viewer. Kaprow uses polite public rules in his favor to create a palpable imbalance within his works, occasionally pitting people in public against their better judgement for the sake of art. Kaprow uses his examples to show that art can create imbalance and make people think without much effort.

Smith, Phil. (2013). Walking-Based Arts: A Resource for the Guided Tour, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. Routledge Publishing, London, UK.

Smith uses this article to connect how art is created when the path of what should be happening is strayed from. Using tour guides as a metaphor for creativity, Smith shows us episodic regurgitation of information is bland and boring while the spontaneity of freethinking creates flashes of greatness and holds attention longer. Thus, spontaneity creates art just by it’s own introduction.

Contemporary Artmaking - Historic and Modern Visual History

Part 1:
            After viewing Bryan Zanisnik’s work, I was intrigued by the way he creates an intersection of historical data mixed with his own modern creations. Zanisnik is a modern artist who uses multi-media such as sculpture, painting, photography, and video to create installations filled with a wide variety of printed imagery, found objects, and discarded materials. His work is influenced by a place, a movement, or an untold story that he can shine a spotlight on. Zanisnik acts as a curator, piqued by materials as pieces to a puzzle that he eventually fits together to make a whole.

            For me, Zanisnik weaves historical pieces (photography, data, etc) into his pieces to show the passing of time by juxtaposing the historical information against the modern backdrop. From his interpretation of the New Jersey Meadowlands (a weird natural mirror of the subconscious of Manhattan), to creating monoliths that memorialize and tell the story of the Syrian and Armenian silk workers in Summit, New Jersey, Zanisnik is always looking to tell a story, a history, and create a lasting sense of connection between the viewer, the artwork, and the inspiration. Zanisnik’s work ‘Silk Monument’ uses archival images, historical texts, and conversations with locals that are used to cover monoliths with, to visually tell the story of how immigrants built the mill town into a work horse for silk fabric manufacturing in the United States during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Using research to his advantage, Zanisnik acts as a curator with much of his work, piqued by materials as pieces to a puzzle that he eventually fits together to make a whole. His monoliths look to be normal monuments with plaques like any other historical marker but with Zanisnik twists. “I was thinking about the viewer’s relationship to these sculptures, and how from a distance, they look very formal, but as you get closer, there are all these details about the Syrian-Armenian community and historical architecture that begins to reveal itself,” (Di Liscia). My favorite concept of Zanisnik’s is his use of archival images placed in a modern setting. I’d call the concept, Historical v Modern.

            Zanisnik describes his chaotic process by explaining, ““I kind of think of building one of my installations as if I’m constructing a stream of consciousness that’s not every word leads to the next but there’s an overall mood and feeling being constructed” (Art21 - 04:36). In the end, his pieces are a beautiful collection of chaos that are filled with common/comfortable materials positioned in unnatural ways, always visually stimulating, with great attention to detail while looking ‘thrown together’. Esoteric creativity tied to deep meaning and vulnerability when seen from a macro level.

Part 2:

            Leaning into Zanisnik’s idea of Historic juxtaposed with Modern, I chose to focus an idea for a large photography installation that brings into the focus the visual tug of war that is created when you display historic images next to new images. I live in a city steeped in history that has deep roots in the development of the Midwest. Evanston, Illinois has been the home of Northwestern University since 1851 as the university predates the city itself by six years. As the original higher education institution in the Chicago area (University of Chicago followed some 39 years later), the progressive thought seed was planted firmly in Evanston and has blossomed ever since.

            For this project, I wanted to display images from Evanston Historical Society’s beautiful collection of photography alongside my own photography from around the city. My goal was not to fulfill a shot for shot / side by side comparison of images but rather an updated time, society, location, so that the viewers can publicly see where our city has been, where it is, and hopefully give a glimpse into where it is going. From the archives come incredible imagery of a city that essentially was born from the prairie and has grown to be populated by 76,000 people.

            The project would launch on July 2nd as it would be part of the lead-up celebration for the annual 4th of July parade in Northwest Evanston. The Central Street Parade has been a staple in Evanston since 1922 and continues to be the highlight of the summer for families and residents from around the area. For a decent sized city, the parade carries with it an air of what used to be the small town Midwest. Along the traditional route, I would place medium sized billboards on stands so that the passersby would be able to view the images from both sides of the street and views of the parade would not be blocked. Small descriptions would help detail the ‘who what where how and why’ of the images as viewers could enjoy bursts of history along with a modern view of the city.

            To quote the 10th anniversary flyer from 1931, ““The primary objective of the First North Evanston Fourth of July Celebration was to give our children a good old fashioned, jolly July 4th with historic interest to stimulate their pride in their country; and so supervised as to assure us that they would still be safe and sound on July 5th.” Google Maps Street View was used to collect the backdrop for each image.

Bibliography:

Di Liscia, V. (2021) https://hyperallergic.com/660944/an-unlikely-monument-to-the-syrian-and-armenian-communities/

Art 21 (2014) https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/bryan-zanisnik-goes-to-the-meadowlands/

Evanston 4th of July Committee - https://evanston4th.org/

https://www.zanisnik.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bryanzanisnik/?hl=en

Engaging Contemporary Artmaking and Issues

Bryan Zanisnik is native New Jersean living in New York. He is also a multi-media artist who uses sculpture, painting, photography, video, and many other mediums to create installations filled with a wide variety of printed imagery, found objects, and discarded materials. His work is influenced by a place, a movement, or an untold story that he can bring into the spotlight, not only with his permanent and semi-permanent instillations but also with his platform as a well-known NYC art entity.

I found Zanisnik’s work via the website Art21.com and was intrigued by his attention to mundane details and his flair for utilizing small variations of repetitive imagery. His work is busy and feels, from the outside, sloppy and chaotic but as you glance closer, his attention to detail shines through and you realize that each piece, although hand placed and un-neat, is very deliberate in its own space and curation. Zanisnik’s collection of materials reminds me of my own process of walking, thinking, documenting, and formulating. It’s fascinating to watch him wander and ponder.

From his interpretation of the New Jersey Meadowlands (a weird natural mirror of the subconscious of Manhattan), to creating monoliths that memorialize and tell the story of the Syrian and Armenian silk workers in Summit, New Jersey, Zanisnik is always looking to tell a story, a history, and create a lasting sense of connection between the viewer, the artwork, and the inspiration. Zanisnik’s work ‘Silk Monument’ uses archival images, historical texts, and conversations with locals that he covers these monoliths with, to visually tell the story of how immigrants built the mill town into a work horse for silk fabric manufacturing in the United States during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Using research to his advantage, Zanisnik acts as a curator with much of his work, piqued by materials as pieces to a puzzle that he eventually fits together to make a whole. His monoliths look to be normal monuments with plaques like any other historical marker but with Zanisnik twists. “I was thinking about the viewer’s relationship to these sculptures, and how from a distance, they look very formal, but as you get closer, there are all these details about the Syrian-Armenian community and historical architecture that begins to reveal itself,” (Di Liscia).

Zanisnik describes his chaotic process by explaining, ““I kind of think of building one of my installations as if I’m constructing a stream of consciousness that’s not every word leads to the next but there’s an overall mood and feeling being constructed” (Art21 - 04:36).

In the end, his pieces are a beautiful collection of chaos that are filled with common/comfortable materials positioned in unnatural ways, always visually stimulating, with great attention to detail while looking ‘thrown together’. Esoteric creativity tied to deep meaning and vulnerability when seen from a macro level. I would love to try and see what stories I could tell in this same vein and see how my mind would interpret all the information while embracing the esoteric connections that my brain makes under normal circumstances. I fear the process might engulf my life. Regardless of my own follow through, Zanisnik’s process will spur me on as a fine artist and keep me invigorated for the near future.

Here are some links to his work and his website:
https://www.zanisnik.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bryanzanisnik/

Bibliography:

 Di Liscia, V. (2021) https://hyperallergic.com/660944/an-unlikely-monument-to-the-syrian-and-armenian-communities/

Art 21 (2014) https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/bryan-zanisnik-goes-to-the-meadowlands/

Summer Classes - Annotated Bibliography - Concept Mapping

I took two classes this summer, ARTEDUC 7606 Technology and Digital Texts, and SU23 ARTEDUC 7000.30 - Issues and Frameworks in Art Education and I enjoyed them both. With Technology and Digital Texts, I was worried that the class would be a regurgitation of what I do on a regular basis (using technology to create content, i.e. videos, animated lesson plans, etc.) but I was happily surprised when I learned a number of techniques that I had not encountered. One of my favorite takeaways from the class was the use of the Backward Design technique to create, not only the full year curriculum, but also day to day work for my students. It’s so comfortable to lay it all out and see where you want your students to start and direct them where you want them to go. At the end of the class, I learned not to underestimate my own knowledge of technology as I did pick up a few tricks that I can apply.

Within the Issues and Frameworks in Art Education class, I had the opportunity to study where I (and my teaching style and methodology) fit into the grand scheme of Art Education. The class allowed me to look at the latest issues in AE and it allowed me to figure out where I fit within my own position as a teacher and as an artist, from gender, to community art, to multi-culturalism and diversity. It was very cathartic, and centering, and I can return to the readings from the class if I need a reminder of how to interpret what’s in front of me in my own classes.

Annotated Bibliography:

Martinez, U., Note-Yupari, S. (2015). Story Bound, Map Around: Stories, Life, and Learning. National Art Education Association, The Journal of the National Art Education Association, Jan 2015 V 68, No.1 

This article studies how multi-disciplined projects within an elementary summer art camp setting that was created to bring out of class experiences to students. The team implementing the project used multimodal literacy (the practice of moving from one sign system to another ie. Visual to verbal, verbal to visual, visual to spatial). The projects used various art to create settings for storytelling, paintings, puppets, dance/movement were used to engage the students in using different parts of their brains to tell a story from development of the story to completing it via the different models.

Morris, C. B., Carpenter II, B. S. (2012). In Diversity, Intercultural Encounters, and Education, On Being Invisible and Passing through Walls: Toward a Pedagogy of Seeing and Being Seen. Rutledge Press

Within this article, the authors describe their autobiographic and autoethnographic stories as self-described invisible people (defined as those who do not quickly and recognizably fall under a cultural nameplate). The article tells each individual story through their own invisible mindset, struggles with personal identity, and the intricate ways that each author has evolved over time.  

Barrett, T., (2009). Stories. The International Journal of Arts Education. lnJAE7.2

This article is an insight into one teacher showing the educational value in two students creating very personal and differing narratives about the same piece of art. It details how each student can see the same piece of art from two very divergent and distant points of view. It also shows that the artists point of view does not have to come from personal experience or feelings but may actually come directly from their imagination. The stories tie directly to the teachers work within a community that was undergoing chemotherapy and helped students express what they were feeling at the time.

Rodriguez, G. R., (2015). Why Arts Education Matters In The Age of Tech and Diversity. Forbes Online. https://www.forbes.com/sites/giovannirodriguez/2015/06/08/why-arts-education-matters-in-the-age-of-tech-and-diversity/?sh=2f8c19474151

This article focuses on the growing studies that support the idea that Art Education is incredibly beneficial to the success of students when they enter the workforce. It specifically takes a look at the El Camino project that is augmenting cultural and musical teachings within the Hispanic community, one that sees 33% of it’s population living under the poverty line. The project is helping under-funded art programs reach their students, giving them more potential to succeed in the real world.

Balsley, J., (2015).  Make It Work! 8 Lessons Art Educators Can Learn From Tim Gunn. The Art of Education University. https://theartofeducation.edu/2015/03/make-it-work-10-lessons-art-educators-can-learn-from-tim-gunn/

The author is sharing renowned clothing critic, designer, and art-school lecturer, Tim Gunn’s, 8 lessons that Art Educators can learn to help them in the classroom. The list is short and direct and is absolutely worth remembering when dealing with student creativity. Tim’s rules make connections with the artist and the art as well as allows teachers to hold their students accountable.

 Kraehe, A. (2017) Arts Equity: A Proxis-Oriented Tale. National Art Education Association, Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research 58(4) 267-278

The author furthers equity via the arts as social justice using critical race theory that also describes the current education gap between Equal and Equity. The article sets up a simple story about a teacher and how through his lens, we see the widening gap between what administrators, districts, and state education departments see as helping their students is actually widening the equity gap between students who are systemically set up to succeed in the system while pushing away those who are not set up to succeed. It also gives us some great tools and reminders on how to recognize and help to recede this gap.

Morris, C. B., (2013) Chapter 2 - Standing No Where. Stand(ing) up for a Change Voices of Arts Educators. NAEA

The author uses this article to document how mislabeled groups are persecuted because of where they are from and the religious beliefs that they follow. The author herself was accused of spending state funds in bringing these groups to speak at the university she works at. And she defends freedom of speech for all the groups who are being villainized incorrectly. The author walks us through the steps taken by public figures to accuse the author, then all the steps it took to show that no misappropriation happened, yet a number of resources and money were spent to show how wrong the initial accusations were.

Knight, W., B., (2013) Chapter 4 - Moving Beyond Preparing Just Art Teachers to Preparing JUST Art Teachers: Teacher Education for Equity and Social Justice. Stand(ing) up for a Change Voices of Arts Educators. NAEA

This chapter is dedicated to showing that traditional education for teachers prepares them for working within the outdated education systems that plague our education system. The author points out that Arts Educators should be learning ways to help change the system as opposed to abiding by it. Using Social Justice and Equity are the avenues that the author uses to show that perspectives should be recognized and respected so that each student can identify with what is being taught, not just the affluent Caucasian students. The author recognizes that there will be discomfort in discussing disparities but that getting new teachers to talk about equity before they enter the classroom will lead to positive engagement, collaborative group work, and in the end, a better understanding of equity.

Williams, R. M-C. (2008). Image, Text, and Story: Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom. Teaching and Learning Publications, Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press

Throughout this article, the author talks about the great uses of Comics and Graphic novels as visual tools to teach students about reading and making connections between the words they are reading with the images they are seeing. The idea that new readers can choose to look at the words or the images first means that the student can use to grasp what is happening in the story. As we evolve our idea of what is educational and what is not and comics / graphic novels rise in popularity, we are seeing a great correspondence between learning while reading and interpreting images. 

Wynn, T., Harries, J. (2012). Toward a STEM + Arts Curriculum: Creating the Teacher Team. National Art Education Association. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, Sep 2012 V 65, No. 5. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association

This article explains the rise of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and how the newer mandates are being implemented to include Art into the acronym to create STEAM. The article includes more proof as to why the modern and practical application of art helps students prepare for work in the real-world application of STEM. The skills derived from art are paramount for a modern society including the harnessing of imagination, and the creative process as a means of survival.

Hutzle, K., Bastos, F., Cosier, K., (2012). Transforming City Schools Through Art. Approaches to Meaningful K–12 Learning. A Possibility of Togetherness, Collaborative Art Learning for Urban Education. New York: Teachers College Press

The authors use this article to make points about collaboration as a learning tool, specifically within art-based service learning. Creating projects for groups to do within a community allows for growth as a small group that extends further out into a sense of connectedness within the community. When small parts of the community come together, gaps in age, religion, cultural differences, are bridged and connections are made. A community that thinks, designs, and implements are projects together, stays together.

Munakata, M., Vaidya, A. (2012) Encouraging creativity in mathematics and science through photography. Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 31, 121^132, 4 January 2012. Oxford: Oxford Academic

Following a survey conducted within the student body at the authors university, the student body overwhelmingly felt that science and math are not creative fields. The authors set out to use photography to change their student’s mind. Adding photography and the arts to help with understanding science and math for a multitude of learning styles, visual, auditory, and tactile. The paper discusses how to inject creativity into the process of math and science to help solidify the outcomes of the problems.

Schimmel, N. (2022) Using photography as a teaching tool in human rights and international affairs, Times Higher Education, 15 Mar 2022. Berkley: University of California, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/using-photography-teaching-tool-human-rights-and-international-affairs

The author shows how images enhance the urgency and depth that foreign affairs have for the people being affected. A story about a bombing is made much more impactful with an image attached, showing the power that photojournalism adds to words. For students who may feel connected to people living thousands of miles away due to cultural, religious, and physical differences, can’t deny the power of images of these same people enduring the things they are forced to endure, war, famine, political upheaval, etc.

Concept Map:

Hmm... collection

These objects represent a cross section of my professional interests, my life history via historical objects, and my own OCD tendencies to hoard camera equipment. Some objects encompass all three of these categories while others simply represent my esoteric nature. For me, collecting inspirational objects has been a joy for at least 20 years, and occasionally, a problem if I collect TOO many objects (it’s happened a couple of times...). It turns out I have a hard time parting with objects that I love, especially if the object holds no real value or purpose other than being ‘Cool’.   

To the people that know me best, it is no secret to what I have laying around my desks and workspaces and I am continuously eager to start a conversation about the things that students and coworkers can see. From Lego Car kits to vinyl albums and rock and roll concert posters to baseball cards. It’s a plethora of antiquities and personalized junk. I know that on occasion, I have put certain objects out to see what kind of reaction I can get from my students and co-workers. I once had a taxidermic squirrel sitting on a log holding a large walnut on the corner of my desk. It was the ultimate conversation starter and it worked like a charm. I named the squirrel Nutty. I miss him.  

In my current workspace, objects are not arranged Willy-Nilly as almost everything is on display to inspire, to be picked up and used, and or both. The objects in my space are always curated, so there wasn’t much of any surprise about what I found. These days, I adore analog cameras and I have spent the last 25 years collecting them from a variety of stores, antique shops, and from friends. It is always funny to me that when people see a camera collection, they realize that they have an old camera that is taking up space in their attic/basement and 9 times out of 10, they ask if they can add it to the collection. I almost always say yes. 

My collection of art and photography tools let my students know that I am ready to be creative and to make art happen. With antique cameras and Inuit block prints, bystanders will see that I take inclusion in art AND photography very seriously. My Boba Fett painting lets them know how old I am as it is from a small artist in Chicago who has been making block paintings for a number of years using characters from those born in the early-70's to the late-70’s. Almost all of Generation X loves identifying with the cultural icons of their youth. For me, my most interesting items are the Henry Napartuk prints (I inherited them from my grandparents who had a strange yet cohesive love of folk art) and my classic antique cameras, specifically the Kodak Pocket Camera #1A. Released as one of the first consumer cameras on the market, you can still buy film for the camera and take photos, more than 115 years after it went on sale. Pretty rad indeed.... 

As an educator, my collection of stuff shows off a few things about me that I hope shine through just by their physical presence in my space alone: 
1. I like to spend time on the creation of things (Lego’s) 
2. I haven’t forgotten where I came from (antiuque cameras) 
3. I am up on modern photography (Aperture, Aesthtica, etc. Magazines) 
4. Lenses are an important piece of the photography equation 

Research Questions...

Research Questions:

I have spent most of my 20-year career as an artist, producer, and director. My job has been defined by how quickly, inexpensively, and how creatively I could overcome a problem. These were all skills that were originally introduced via the arts, and I honed them via practice and trial and error. Since I’ve grown up and had kids, art education has slowly been depleted within the school systems and I worry that my kids won’t learn the basics of creativity that I did.

My quizzical itch… How can we cultivate creativity as a problem-solving action in art education in schools?

I searched for these articles using several key terms: Creativity, Creative, Art Education, Creative Problem-Solving, etc... I picked these 4 articles as they all speak to creativity as a problem-solving action amongst children, adults, and within the art education and education systems. They weave an interesting trail and have added more ideas for me to think about when approaching my own research.

With my research, I would like to build a case for the need for art education to be funded in public schools. In my years in a creative industry, I have seen too many students grow into adults who do not possess the creative problem-solving skills I learned in my art classes in grade school, high school, and college. Without sounding too pious, I believe that creating art is a human right and that everyone should practice it from a young age.

For my research, I will survey the most recent classes I taught and interview my students. My questions will center around how each student applies the creative tools that I teach them. Through the interviews, I will study how and where my students are using the transferable skills that I teach.

Collard, P. and Looney, J. (2014). Nurturing Creativity in Education. European Journal of Education, 49(3), 348-364
-       The authors compiled various studies of classrooms where artists helped teachers
bring a level of creativity to learning and they found that creativity can taught in art education by example, i.e. allowing working artists into the classroom to show the students how they (the outside artists) make creative decisions in making art while working with the students to create something as a group
-       They also use other people’s research to dispel the idea that creativity is a fixed trait in students who would be dubbed ‘gifted’
-       Research question: “Can a greater focus on creativity change the dynamics of teaching and learning?”
-       Methods: Secondary data analysis (Qualitative)
-       Great list of recommendations for teachers, curriculums, and schools to better prepare their students by arming them with creative ways to teach
Quote: “Neither teachers nor learners are encouraged to develop their own sense of what counts as high-quality creative work.” (pp. 351)

Lucas, B. and Nordgren, L. (2020). The Creative Cliff Illusion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(33), 19830-19836
-       The authors set out to prove that creativity doesn’t decline over periods of time and that the idea of a ‘Creativity Cliff’ is an illusion and their findings supported their hypothesis
-       The study is important as people’s beliefs about creativity shape how people invest in the creative process
-       Research Question: “Do people understand the time course of their creativity?”
-       Method: Experimentation (quantitative) across 8 studies

 Henriksen, D., Mishra, P., and Fisser, P. (2016). Infusing Creativity and Technology in 21st Century Education: A Systemic View for Change. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(3). 27-37
-       The authors explore the idea of creativity, hand in hand with technology from an education standpoint and found that to be effective, technology and creativity must be ‘infused’ at three different levels in the education system: teacher education, assessment, and educational policy
-       Methods: mixed, secondary data analysis / archival study
-       Research Question: “Does creativity emerges and exists within a system, rather than only at the level of individual process?”
-       Another great list of recommendations for teachers, curriculums, and schools to better prepare their students by arming them with creative ways to teach
Quote: “agree upon what that is and how to engage it. This can vary greatly across contexts and cultures. So essential challenges involve convincing policy makers, who often prefer clear answers and objectivity that it is important to infuse curricula with creativity, an area that does not have one “right” answer. Along these lines, policy must also” (pp. 34)

 Pitri, E. (2013). Skills and Dispositions for Creative Problem Solving During the Artmaking Process. Art Education, 66(2). 41-46
-       The author examined how a younger student used their creative problem solving in an afterschool art program across two years while assessing what measuring devices are in place to single out kids who would be ‘Creative Problem Solvers’ due to criteria that was ‘vague’
-       Methods: Methods: mixed, secondary data analysis / archival study, experiments
-       Research Question: “How can a teacher determine if a child is a creative problem-solver?”
Quote: “Creativity is essentially a special form of problem solving.” (pp. 42)

Annotated Bibliography and Class Reflections

This semester I started my Masters in Art Education program with the class Critical Analysis of Multicultural Art Education taught by Dr. J.T. Eisenhower Richardson. Throughout the semester we explored, historically, how both race and racism drive, divide, intersect, and create issues within the education system while also focusing specifically on race and racism within art eduction. The course highlighted the rise of post WWI housing policies that have led to the segregated communities around the US and the many educational policies that followed said segregation that whitewashed how and what the children of the US would learn. In the end, both the housing system and the education system let a large portion of the population down by not adjusting to the needs of everyone and seeing the population as Americans and not as different races and genders.

Throughout the course, we tackled many ideas such as race is a social construct, the white-streaming of the educational system, and how, as teachers, we are not always given the best tools to handle a multicultural classroom. It was through these readings and conversations that I could truly realize my own part in the process and my own shortcomings in real life situations. One thing that was hammered home is that in any teaching environment, a connection must be made between student and teacher if a higher level of learning can take place. To do this properly, I need to be more than just a liberal white male who has already reaped the rewards of being just that, and I need to progress to an empathetic ally who is here to help anyone through my door, not just the students that look like me. 

Through this course, I have extended my own understanding of what it means to be an ally and how I can put my own privilege to good use as a teacher, a mentor, and as a friend and a colleague. Within the first weeks of the semester I was brought in to a project outside of my day to day teaching that paired me with a number of underrepresented communities in the Chicago theater/film/art industry and I was chosen to help mentor them through an entire independent film production where I could apply my knowledge and help support those around me who have had a hard time getting the chance to work in such a setting. It was eyeopening, beautiful, stressful, gratifying, tragic, and wonderful, all at the same time.

Annotated Bibliography

Kohli, R. & Solórzano, D. (2012). Teachers please learn our names! Racial microaggressions and the K-12 classroom. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 441-462. 

Within this article, published in 20212, Kohli and Solórzano argue that students of color constantly encounter racial microaggressions between the grades of K-12, specifically in regards to the pronunciation of their names. They argue that “enduring these subtle experiences with racism can have a lasting impact on the self-perceptions and worldviews of a child.” (pg. 441).  Both authors have firsthand experience with these microaggressions and it lends to their thinking. As someone who is named something that is not very generic (yet still understandably white), I can empathize with how it feels to be called something other than what your parents named you and how that stays with you for a very long time. It is a stark reminder that paying attention to your students cultures is just as important as students paying attention to your teachings if you want to connect. 

Rothstein, R. (2018). The Color of Law. Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Within this book, Rothstein draws direct parallels between decisions made by the US government (a very white establishment) in a post World War 1 society that helped create and solidified the segregation within our major cities and suburbs that our country subtly continues to propogate today. Within those decisions made by the whites in power, Rothstein shows us specifically where BIPOC groups were not allowed to participate in the growth of generational wealth in the form of land ownership while white families could invest in their future generations. The driving forces behind these decisions and racist laws were a need to keep races separate. The whites in power used legislation as well as written and unwritten real estate practices and guidelines to keep BIPOC families from investing in real estate. Within the system, those BIPOC families that could invest were charged 3-4x more for their investment while facing stricter rules for missing payments than white families. If there is a book that every teacher in America should read, I would vote for this one. It is such an incredible reminder of how we got to the times and places that we live in today. “I think it can be fairly said that there would be fewer segregated suburbs than there are today were it not for any unconstitutional desire, shared by local officials and national leaders who urged them on, to keep African American from being white families’ neighbors.” (pg. 54)

Kraehe, A., Acuff, J. (2021). Race and Art Education. Davis Publications Inc.

Kraehe and Acuff spend a fair amount of time at the beginning of their book, defining what it is they see as race and as racism. They outline ways to talk about race and racism and they show how whites have used it throughout the education system. They also add in how they themselves have grown up in radicalized classrooms and how to overcome it. The beauty in this work is how the authors describe the difference that will be made if art teachers begin to undo the whitewashing of art in our society and history by using an anti-racist art pedagogy and an abolitionist mindset within the classroom. It is through these techniques that we, as future and current art teachers, can change how all students look at art and the history that surrounds the story of it. If you don’t know how racism affects the arts classroom, than you will not know how to reverse it. "The meaning of race is not stable or fixed in biology but rather at different moments is reshaped by human beings to exploit a variety of circumstances." (pg. 18-19)

Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Boston, Massachusetts, Beacon Press.

Love takes the story of her own life and brings it to the forefront of her book. As a young black student all the way through school and into her own classroom setting, Love take us on a journey of healing and facing her own faults while pointing out the holes within our teaching system, ones that she herself fell prey to before she could fully grasp what she was doing as a teacher. Love shows us that to be truly excellent teachers, we must teach with the the urgency of an abolitionist out to correct the wrongs of the previous generations. It is within her own stories where her techniques shine as she shows us how it did not work the first time around for her as a teacher and how a new mindset and educational outlook must be taught to teachers for them to be affective at their job. “Abolitionist teaching is not a teaching approach: It is a way of life, a way off seeing the world, and a way of taking action against injustice. It seeks to resist, agitate, and tear down the educational survival complex through teachers who work in solidarity with their schools’ community to achieve incremental changes in their classrooms and schools for students in the present day while simultaneously freedom dreaming and vigorously creating a vision for what schools will be when the educational survival complex is destroyed.” (pg 89)

Katz-Buonincontro, J. (2018). Creativity for Whom? Art Education in the Age of Creative Agency, Decreased Resources, and Unequal Art Achievement Outcomes. Art Education, 71 (6),

In this article, Katz-Buonincontro makes a case for creativity to be a human right and not just a human act. She uses this argument to show that inequality in art education has stunted students views on what creativity is and how it should be used. With creativity as a human act, the way our current education system teaches many, the acts are small, separate, and skin deep where as creativity as a human right means that no matter who you are, where you come from, you should be given an opportunity to excel and given the tools and teachings to exceed in the arts. But our educational system holds back many BIPOC communities in larger cities where art education is one of the first fundings to be removed from the budget. The access to arts education within the major demographic groups is widening with affluent whites receiving the easiest access which means that underrepresented groups are being left by the wayside.  "When art educators open up the curriculum to allow students to make socially relevant and personally meaningful connections, then it’s possible for students who may feel disenfranchised to excel at learning in the arts." (pg. 37)

Classrooms - C1 & C2

I am about to start a new section of my street photography class that uses two distinct spaces as classrooms. Classroom One will be designated C1 and Classroom Two will be known as C2. As a photography teacher, I like to teach a day of creativity followed by a day of technical learnings. This allows the students to learn both sides of the art form in complimentary steps. Many times students will overwhelmingly bring new ideas to the class that need a lesson in creativity as well as step by step technical learning. This method allows the class to apply what they learned the previous class throughout the program. 

My students are diverse in age and in gender but as we have seen in the past, the student population leans towards a white privileged culture. Fine art classes, in many urban settings, are still an elite offering but the community is making strides in making the classes more accessible for all socio-economical groups with a big emphasis on creating access for the large BIPOC community. One thing to mention here is the geopolitical landscape of Evanston is 85% Democratic and less than 10% Republican which means that the systemic issues lie within the liberal thought groups who feel they are doing enough for the underrepresented when in fact, they are not. The program I am working with has made huge strides to help level the playing field and within time, the student body numbers will represent the population numbers. 

For the class, C1 is an ever changing space that encompasses any public property and uses the Evanston, Illinois landscape as our pallet. Some days it is the busiest intersection I can find, some days it is the beach that stretches across the eastern border of our city that connects us to Lake Michigan, and some days it is a CTA train car filled with commuters headed to the city of Chicago for work. C1 is essentially, wherever we want to be (within legal reason). C1 is visually stimulating and creatively invigorating in a way that text books could never be and it helps connect what we learn from textbooks to real life situations.

C1 has very few limitations. My biggest disappointment is a lack of physical elevation changes as the midwest is cursed to be flat for hundreds of miles in any direction. Evanston sits on the northern side of the city of Chicago and southern Evanston is a smooth continuation of one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country (Rogers Park). Within this area, dozens of languages are spoken, there are a plethora of ethnic foods and smells, and within it lives a population that includes diverse religions, diverse backgrounds in a way that only an urban sprawl (greater Chicagoland) of more than 13 million inhabitants can. Evanston itself claims 75,000 residents and contains a rather large downtown area that begs to be photographed and explored. The issues we commonly run into is when’s students end up where they shouldn’t be, usually private property, and are escorted out of areas that they have wandered into. The good that comes out of these incidents is that the students are forced to interact with people while working on their craft. It can create some amazing relationships once a stranger knows what you are working on. And it seems to open more proverbial doors than it closes. One of my favorite rules is to be nice. 

Daily routines when the class is in C1 are very fluid. As a class, we meet at our designated spot for the day and I begin by talking about how we look for the unique things we will see, hear, feel, smell, and taste (if we are so inclined). We discuss what types of people are around us, what types of languages do we hear and what types of cultural differences are we witnessing. And THEN we discuss how to document it. From street corners to alleyways, storefronts to cabbie stops, bike lanes to semi trucks unloading goods, there is so much to take in visually.

C2 is the opposite of C1. It is quiet, clean, and utilitarian in nature. C2 is a simple digital photo studio. It is a white room with off-white with black fleck linoleum covering the floor, lit by daylight tinted overhead lights that match the window light. The light wood covered tables and black chairs break the visual monotony while silver computer/monitors and white keyboards continue the antiseptic motif. The lack of a microscopes are legitimately the only objects standing between the studio transforming into a science lab. To add to the ultra clean feel, the room is repainted after every class session so that any sign of humanity (pushpin holes, tape, printed photographs, wall scuffs) are wiped clean and covered in another layer of white.

C2, much like many studios, was designed to fit the needs of the art medium being taught within. Antiseptic white walls allow for images, whether they be in color or black and white, to stand out from the surroundings, to jump off the wall, and for those who are looking at them to focus on critiquing and enjoying them. The space is used more as a technical tool than an inspirational one. It is a place for students to control, expand, edit, and interpret their photographs. And it is just physically comfortable enough for people to be able to focus on their own screens or on the projection of mine. It is welcoming to all and people can carve out their own work without taking away from others. Headphones and personal music are encouraged as creativity and music go hand in hand in my classes. Always. 

For my classes, the daily routines within C2 are consistent. We split up our time in the studio reviewing photographs from a diverse group of artists that are hand picked to inspire visually as well as expanding the students technical knowledge. The only limitations we have are the size of the class. There is a finite number of machines to edit on and for me, as the teacher, 10 seats seems to be the optimum amount of students so that I can share as much information as I can in the time allotted.

C2, to me, is only missing one thing… comfortable chairs. The starkness is there so that students can focus on their work or the work of their peers. But at the end of a long class, the chairs can cause restlessness and we try to take at least one walking break to break up the soreness.

For my classes now, these are the classrooms that I work within. With 10 students over the course of the program, I can get to know each of them on a personal level that allows for me to push them as photographers to express themselves. There are certain students where I would love to have more time with as they are either shy and have a hard time warming up to expressing themselves, or, they need just a bit more technical practice to truly get out what they have in their heads. For these occasions, I try to keep in touch with them to make sure they keep practicing and using their cameras regularly. With apps like Instagram, I can keep tabs on my students creative growth if they choose to keep posting their work. 

Teacher Identity

As a teacher, as an artist, and as a human, I lean into the idea that we are constantly evolving and moving from stages within our lives. I see these three distinctions vanish into a more malleable state of ‘me’ as opposed to individual tables of artist/teacher/human but each silo holds its own importance. The part of me that people would call artist for example has changed drastically through the years. My work today is vastly different from my work of 15 years ago as the amount of time, thought, and experience that has elapsed between the two points in my life are immeasurable but inevitably present.

If we are going to split the greater ‘me’ up into these silos, the Teacher silo is the one that is most connected to my human silo. As I move through life, my experiences as a husband, as a father, as a son, as a brother, as a co-worker, and as a friend inject themselves into how I see myself as a teacher and how I see my students and mentees as humans.

As an art teacher and professional mentor, my first goal is to create a safe space for students to explore their own creativity as they work on finding and establishing their own ever-evolving identity. If we don’t have a proverbial room to build up, break down, expand, and destroy with ideas… we don’t have a foundation for which to build art. Through thoughtful communication and genuine connection, I am looking to establish this safe space for the students to create their art. In my own student experience, once that level of empathy and comfort was achieved, I was empowered to tap into my own emotions and I was given the space to express them.

My biggest influences in creating connections with students have come from a diverse set of experiences in life, from an AP English Teachers in High School who taught me to trust myself and my creative instincts, all the way to former bosses who called me out of the blue because they respected my latest work. A lasting human connection is made via honesty, empathy, and a sense of kindness coming from someone in the place of authority. For me, empathy and sympathy for my students doesn’t mean that I change how, who, or what I represent but it allows me to help to understand where they are coming from and the path they traveled to get there.

Early in High School I encountered three teachers who proved to be large influences on my career. They taught three distinctly different subjects yet they all allowed me to discover things and encouraged me to embrace wonder and creativity as much as the finite skills they were also preaching. They all were strict in their assessments but encouraging in their critiques. Art and creativity need some sort of guidelines (no matter how ethereal) and art needs room to grow and evolve. My favorite teachers allowed for the theoretical fences to be erected and then they immediately talked about using tools to push those fences further. 

My greatest artistic influences are based in aesthetics as opposed to a style, vision, or medium. My love of music is just as much a part of how I create art as my love of photography, painting, color use, or cinema. Expressing a feeling or capturing an inspiration for me is about using whatever tools I have at my disposal to make it happen. Does my art get made without me listening to music? Sure. But to deny that sounds and visuals don’t generate feelings is preposterous. And I am always listening, looking, and feeling while I make art.

I look at my identity as a teacher as being that of a world class tour guide. I want to point out to my students ALL of the requisite talking points that their artwork has to offer, at the same time allowing the students to ask questions, push boundaries, and inevitably take a much closer looks at the places I have introduced them to. Setting the tone for being creative is about trust, safety, and a lack of judgement. Being creative is about letting go of the shackles of preconceived notions and labels while working in said safe environment. If you create the space and deliver the tools, the possibilities are endless.

MA in Art Education - Ian

Hello!
My name is Ian Merritt and I am a husband, father of two almost teen boys, and the central caretaker of an 80 lb. pup named Stella. We have settled in Evanston, Illinois (the first town north of Chicago) but I grew up in the farms and mountains of Vermont. After a 22 year run working as a creative within the advertising and marketing industry, I started the Masters of Arts in Art Education program at The Ohio State University this fall. As my portfolio shows (in no particular order) I have made a lot of ‘things’ for a lot of clients and I have amassed a list of titles that is mostly long-winded. In short? I make art with cameras and computers.

As a side note… my life is fueled by music. A day without music is a horrible waste time.

After graduating college, my initial goal was to work for a year while I got my academic life together to go back and get my masters in teaching. These plans were sidelined after my own artistic and professional ambitions got the best of me. Fast forward to 2019 and like many professionals, the pandemic solidified my frustrations within the industry I was living in and I needed to make some changes. Over the last 20 years, my favorite professional moments have always been when I was in a position of being able to teach and mentor those around me who were just starting out or looking to get to the next level within the creative industry. I have thrived in situations where professional and personal growth is nurtured and promoted. So by the end of 2020, I was ready to make a life pivot and start working with the next generation of artists to help them get the most out of their expressions.

After a few months of searching, I chose to apply to the OSU MA in Art Education program as it was a great fit for me. The flexibility of the class schedule and online capabilities allows me to balance my focus on my own artwork, my current and future freelance clients, as well as being an excellent scholastic conduit to my next job. The program’s focus on social justice is a big part of why I put the OSU program on the top of my list as I am looking to give back to my local community, teaching high school, college, within a community based arts program, or a combination of all three.

As for my research aspirations, I really want to focus on how to be an effective mentor / teacher to the marginalized youth of my community who do not have the access to make photography and film (and music!) viable forms of expression. I want to help them express themselves in the ways that my high school and college art teachers showed me a love for photography and film (and music!). Paying it forward is a kind and simple way to explain my aspirations for this new 22 year segment of my life but I would take it a step further as I see it as a natural progression, fueled less by the need to give back and more by the undying urge to teach people the tools that I have amassed, to express themselves artistically.

My latest series of work, Perception, at the very least, is a collection of images that keep the viewer guessing. The images have been manipulated in the vein of naturally occurring fractals, the repeating image created in a two mirror bathroom, and with a large nod to the folding landscapes created in the movie Inception by Christopher Nolan. Perception is a collection of single image photography, adjusted and replicated to create landscapes that are completely different from the original intention, that laugh in the face of gravity as well as turn the viewers own eye a little bit inside out; if not completely upside down. Intricate in their geometry while simple in their repetition.