"It's Not Just Art: A Complicated Conversation with Teachers"

SAVE the DATE

“It’s Not Just Art: A Complicated Conversation with Teachers"

Opening reception: Thursday, May 22^nd, 2014 from 6:00-10:00 p.m.

Exhibition dates May 22-May 26

Firecat Projects

2124 N Damen Ave

Chicago, IL 60647

What are our preconceived notions around the role of the art teacher within public education today? How can we better understand the complicated and rich teaching practices of teachers within the art studio and core content classrooms? Why do we need art teachers? Who are these art teachers (as teachers, as artists, as people)? Who is witness to their evolution? What does it mean to say, “oh, it’s just art?”

Since 2011, Arts at the Center at the Center for College Access and Success at NEIU has been working with a group of dedicated art and content teachers in the Chicago Public Schools using Lois Hetland’s Studio Thinking Framework as a lens for critically examining their teaching practice and understanding student thinking. This is an adaptive, thoughtful and responsive community committed to learning from and sharing with each other. The group draws upon each other’s expertise and responds to changes as they emerge in the classroom, across the District and within their teaching practice. As a University program, we are a hybrid of educators, artists, researchers and ethnographers that fosters artistic thinking within an academic setting. Collectively, we are working through and working towards a deeper understanding of the nature of artistic thinking processes.

We are inviting the public into a dialogic conversation around our teaching practices. This conversation strengthens our work. Students’ learning is expanded when teachers become self aware of their own practices. A new understanding is created through this rigorous conversation. We invite you to come and participate.

Interesting Curating: Art and Appetite

The Art Institute has a new exhibit about food and art.

Since we were talking about curating ideas, this new exhibit looks great. Has anyone seen it? I want to soon. My friend said it was fantastic. I love the connections being made with it, beyond the art world...



http://extras.artic.edu/artandappetite/recipe/cooking-with-the-curator?utm_medium=email&utm_source=promotional-xxx-2-nonmem-aa-opens-judy-barter-video&utm_campaign=nonmember-promotional-xxx-2-nonmem-aa-opens-judy-barter-video&utm_content=click-thru-video-xxx-2-nonmem-aa-opens-judy-barter-video

Studio Thinking Teacher Exhibition Preparation

On October 28, our learning community came together to collectively imagine, dialogue and envision possibilities for our upcoming Teacher Exhibition. The Exhibition provides the opportunity to tell your stories as art teachers and teachers who use the arts by highlighting the intricacies, the in-between spaces, the essences, and the complexities of your daily practice in and out of the classroom. This is your narrative to tell.

From "Learning to Love You More"

The clip below, "Maxine Greene on Teachers College: Its People and History," served as a spark to our idea generation for the Exhibition. In this clip, Greene discusses the ideas of being "wide awake," imagining possibilities, embracing others and various perspectives, being awake enough to be enraged to resist, and other wonderful ideas. 

These are some of the ideas the group generated. We should continue to revisit these ideas as we move through the year. What else do you want to say? What else should the Exhibition entail? What don't you want the Exhibition to be about? We encourage you to imagine possibilities and share them with the group as they come to you.

As Kate and Matt listened to your thoughts and reviewed the conversation, these are some of the emerging questions we are hearing as a way to tell your story:

What do you wish you were teaching?
What are you not teaching?
What do you think others think of you?
What can't you leave at school? What do you bring home with you?
What do you bring into the classroom from home?
How does your vision of teaching compare to your lived experience?
How do you transcend the times and think of new methodologies?

Curating idea - Painting with Video

I don't know how we could do this, (any of you computer geniuses?) but talk about a super cool way to curate images! I use them as an example of guerrilla art with my students. I would love to be able to do something like this. Don't know how... but "imagine the possibilities!" (quoting Kate there)

Sweatshoppe  is the group that does this. Here is a little write up about them.  http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/sweatshoppe-video-paint-europe-with-electronic-rollers

I've uploaded their video, and here is their website: http://www.sweatshoppe.org/

EXHIBITION: June 3rd Online Studio Thinking Network Conversation

We hosted a rich session on Adobe Connect last Monday night featuring an introduction to the new Exhibition content in Studio Thinking 2 by Lois Hetland, followed by presentations from Alisa Rodny and John Crowe.

You can watch a live recording of the conversation at this link.

 

 

 

Thanks to all of our presenters and to those that join the conversation! We hope you will join our next session(s).

Stay tuned for upcoming dates and topics.

A Visit to Hamilton Elementary

We recently had the opportunity to visit Ms. Schick's classroom at Hamilton Elementary. We sat down for a while after school to talk about her studio space and how her students interact with it. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.


"I wanted a class that was sort of homey. Kids probably spend more time here than they do at home. I think it’s important. Also, for art, if you’re in a sterile environment or space, it’s not creative. It’s not inspiring." 

Let’s start with the paint table. How does it function?

"Well, like today, we were drawing with oil pastels and I didn’t want to just put the paint on the table because kids will just start painting. Painting is too much fun. I had everything set up over there. And then when they raised their hand, I would look at their work and then they could go get the paint. So, yeah, kids should be able to get their own things and put them away and not be waited on."

"That’s the supply table. That’s where the markers, glue, scissors, drawing books are. They really like how-to drawing books. When they are done with an activity, they can go get a how-to draw book. Kids really like those and I think it can really build your confidence in drawing."

I’m impressed with how many supplies you have.

"I’m a pretty good borrower and stealer. And, one of the moms in this arts group, said 'we all have wish lists, right?' So, she said let’s put a bin in the hallway, so people can donate. People always want to give, but they don’t want to email me or they don’t know where to bring it. Now they just walk in and throw it in this bin. And it’s been overflowing with stuff, which is really nice. The bin has a list and now I have pretty much everything on the list."

"We have an art gallery here too. It’s an art gallery/café. I rotate with the other art teacher here. Every other month we each do a show. I would consider that one of the top 5 spaces. There’s this really cool installation hanging in there now." (Students created bird sculptures and placed them in the school garden. The garden installation was documented and exhibited in the café gallery. The students also exhibited the bird sculptures in a flying sequence above the café tables.)

Colorado Arts Education Association Presentation

Here is some photo documentation of a piece I performed for the Advocacy luncheon at the Colorado Arts Education Association two weeks ago. The conversation at the luncheon involved a presentation of the new Colorado State Standards for art by the creators of the standards. Interestingly enough, the authors of the new standards contacted Lois and asked if they could write Studio Thinking into their standards and, of course, Lois said yes. We'll see how ST will be used across the state in the next few years.

Art teachers seemed to feel disheartened by some of the new teacher assessment protocols being rolled out across the state. Our audience embraced our cantastoria (story song recitation) performance which questions the nature of teacher performance based assessments. For this performance we created 7 hand-stenciled panels and attached them to wooden poles. We sing the panels, telling the story of teachers, principals, students, parents and the Obama administration's response to the "Race to the Top" competition.

At the conference, Olivia Gude came up with a new phrase for reflection: "attentive reflectiveness." We really like that description for the process of looking at our students' work and our own teaching practice.

Kate