Friday, January 24, 2014

About the Exhibition and How you can help me out- please comment

Hello Group,
I wanted to reach out to you via both the blog and possibly e-mail.
I am interested in contributing to/organizing 2 different aspects of the exhibition and I need your help.
The first idea is that I would like as many of you as possible to sign up to be part of  
a panel of speakers that would each give a brief talk on what I imagine will be the day the exhibition opens.  I am modeling this talk on an exhibition I go to every year of artwork by Michigan prisoners sponsored by the Prisoners Creative Arts Project.   Each year a gallery in Ann Arbor hosts close to 100 works of art by incarcerated men and women from across Michigan, and in conjunction there are panels of guests that discuss and speak about related issues to the audience of gallery goers. It is very moving to hear the voices of those who are linked to the work in different ways.  It deepens the art and I often find myself looking at the exhibition again after hearing the speakers, seeing the work with new eyes.  Also, I am really into TED talks...

The thing that I want to explore in this exhibition is the voice of the art teacher in general, and specifically the voices of those in this group speaking about some aspect of their teaching practice.
I am interested in having as many of you speak as possible. I am picturing our main audience being other teachers and then parents, friends, teaching artists, students, administrators.  What do you want to tell them about your work and what you do on a daily basis?  I would like the speakers to be limited to around 2-5 minutes each with time for questions after everyone on the panel has had a turn to present.  The presentations could be in the style of Pecha Kucha where 20 slides (or so) come up automatically and advance automatically.  This would keep the talks moving but we do not have to use this format. I originally imagined we would all present something related to Studio Thinking- what we discovered, got better at, threw out, think is brilliant or bunk or obvious.  BUT you can certainly suggest a different topic.
What would you possibly talk about if you were on the panel???
here are a few ideas to get you started: (remember that this would be a little nugget of a talk and should therefore be very focused)
1. how has this 3 year group study/journey changed your teaching or helped it evolve?  What have you learned about yourself as a teacher or about your students?
2. how do you incorporate or include Studio Thinking in your classroom? What is useful about it for teachers?  Does it align with what you perceive your role as art teacher to be?
3. present another practice you have honed or explored since we started 3 years ago such as a Close Read and it's results
4. present a nugget/body of work/PPT. that you have already presented to our group in some way but that you feel needs to be brought to a larger audience.
5. ask a question of the audience related to teaching, art making, CPS, student growth.
6. speak about why teaching art is so important and/or about your role as an art teacher
7. speak about how your role has changed for worse or better over the years
8. describe what you do in one day

PLEASE RESPOND back to this post and let me know what you think about this panel idea.  If you are interested in speaking let me know via commenting on this post or e-mailing me directly what topic you want to work with and maybe a working title for your presentation (which would ideally include images).  The wonderful Matt and/or myself can workshop it with you as the date gets closer.

Thanks for reading!

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