Fall 2015 e art times

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ART TIMES Letter from the President

Jen Dahl, WAEA President

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The Wisconsin Art Education Association is a non-profit organization unified with the National Art Education Association.

Our purpose is to promote excellence in visual arts education in Wisconsin through the advancement of knowledge and skills, professional development, service, and leadership.

We are a professional organization for those interested in the future of art education. We supply exemplary networking opportunities and collegial support for educators throughout Wisconsin and with educators around the world. Our board (volunteers from around the state) meets quarterly to plan and organize these activities.

How can we help you?

• The Fall Conference is where you can explore new methods and techniques and hear and meet nationally recognized speakers.

• Youth Art Month (YAM) is a time of celebration, recognizing outstanding students and art teachers.

• The Visioneer Design Challenge is a statewide learning program and competition for high school and middle school students interested in design arts connecting with professional designers in each field. Professional designers develop challenges annually. These challenges cover design in everyday things, design of spaces and places, design for communication and information and design for human interaction.

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FALL 2015

Features

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10-14

15-17

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Teachers as Artists: Symphony Swan

Forum: WAEA Grant Recipient Report

Midwest Artist Studios Project: Jane Ryder

WAEA Events, Grants, and Membership Form

Calendar of upcoming events on the last page

Wisconsin Art Education Association Newsletter

Greetings from the Department of Public Instruction

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Note from the Editor

Letter from the President (continued)

• The Visual Arts Classic is a competition for High School students that encourages team building skills through the Critical Thinking and Quiz Bowl competitions, allows students compete individually in one of eleven studio categories, and allows them to have fun while learning more about art history and studio production. We currently have eight regional competitions, located throughout the state, where students will participate for the opportunity to compete at the VAC State competition.

• The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards align with the Wisconsin Art Education Association mission to promote excellence in visual art and design education for all students by showcasing student’s talents and abilities WAEA awards two high school artists each year with a check for 250.00.

• Action committees deal with advocacy, curriculum, programming, and many current issues: portfolios, mentoring, standards, visual culture. Volunteer!

• A network of colleagues connects you to national issues and information through NAEA.

• Our newsletter, the e-Art Times, keeps members inspired and challenged while increasing awareness of current issues. Take a look at the e-Art Times archives!

• This web site www.wiarted.org, is regularly maintained to keep you in touch with other art educators and the services offered by WAEA

Christine Woywod, Ph.D., Editor, WAEA Art Times

I hope you had an inspiring and restful summer! Here’s to a successful new school year. In this issue, we have our second installments of Teacher as Artist and The Midwest Artist Studios Project, featuring the work of Symphony Swan and Jane Ryder respectively. Julie Palkowski invites us to consider how we prepare our students for future work opportunities as artists. Korie Klink reports on a highly successful WAEA grant project. You can find information on upcoming grant opportunities, as well as information about opportunities for professional development and celebrations of your students’ artworks at the conclusions the issue.

The conclusion of my summer: contributing to a community mural at Walnut Way Conservation Corp. in Milwaukee.


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Teachers as Artists Featured Teacher as Artist: Symphony Swan

SYMPHONY SWAN is a Wisconsin based painter, mixed media and street art Artivist (artist + activist). She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she received her BFA with teacher certification. SYMPHONY SWAN uses her art to communicate the multifaceted sides to womanhood. Through the Black Woman experience she uses hair and contour line to build compositions that explore the good, bad, indifferent, hidden and celebrated sides to womanhood. She serves her community, one, by working with young people in a K4-8th grade urban charter school as the art teacher and two, by serving as the co-founder and creative director of BlankSpace MKE. BlankSpace MKE is an urban arts co-operative focusing on providing artistic opportunities and workspace for urban creatives. For more information on Symphony Swan or BlankSpace MKE please visit the websites below.

Top left: Azul - Acrylic on wood, 2' X 2' Above: Queen Sh*t, Acrylic and spray paint on wood, 2'X4' Right: Still a Queen, Acrylic on canvas, 10"X13" Website: www.symphonyswan.weebly.com Art Studio:www.blankspacemke.weebly.com Email: [email protected] Instagram: @queeNegra


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Summer 2015 Innovative Educators Institute

Rina Kundu, Ph.D., WAEA Higher Education Representative

This summer a number of community partnerships took place between universities and museums. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center hosted one in June, with about 30 participants. This workshop investigated how materials matter to artists and communities. The three-day institute was inspired by the Arts Center’s exhibition series, TOWARD TEXTILES, and expanded participant’s understanding of fiber-based art and its significance to current art practice. As the series demonstrates, for many contemporary artists, fiber-based work is a means to explore the expressive possibilities of materials and to engage the viewer in broader discussions of the medium’s associative meanings, including its connection to ordinary experiences and to social critique. Artists in the exhibition include Joan Livingstone, Polly Apfelbaum, Yuni Kim Lang, Ebony G. Patterson, and Ann Hamilton. Participants in the workshop had opportunities to examine the exhibitions, hear gallery talks, discuss and write about art, and work with both artists and educators to experiment with creative processes, such as indigo vat dye, embroidery, and assemblage, and explore notions of curriculum centered on identity and care in relation to the seductive qualities of materiality. Works created on the last day of workshop are to featured in an exhibition in the JMKAC Community Gallery. Teachers were asked to:

1. 1) Investigate and apply techniques found in the fiber arts in order to expand notions of creative making; 2. 3. 2) Explore the relationship between traditional fiber arts and contemporary artistic practices to push

disciplinary boundaries and construct hybrid relationships; 4. 5. 3) Research how fiber arts can be used to construct meanings about life-centered issues through the

experiential, the affective, the performative, and the haptic; 6. 7. 4) Construct a curriculum, or creative engagement proposal, that generates modes of participation,

process, integration, cultural contact, and embodied relation.


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Greetings from the Department of Public Instruction

Julie Palkowski

Fine Arts and Creativity Education Consultant Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

The 2015 Wisconsin Art Education Association conference theme is “PATHWAYS, share, engage, reflect.” This theme can offer us multiple journeys. I’ll suggest one for us to consider - our work to prepare our students for future opportunities. Pathways, to me, sparked the incredible journey our students are taking as learners, and the preparation for those paths yet to come. Pathways in education connect with the idea of getting our students “college and career ready” through the building of skills and knowledge, across all disciplines. This goal is prevalent within Agenda 2017 from State Superintendent Tony Evers who has shared, “Every child must graduate ready for further education and the workforce. We must align our efforts so all our students are prepared to succeed in college or a career.” Our work supporting students in the classroom is key is preparing our students for an ever changing world. Connecting Our Students to their Futures As educators we have been helping students make connections with their interests, talents, and areas in need of improvement by encouraging growth for learners to reach their potential. Whether we are teaching early childhood, elementary, middle, or high school level, the skills and knowledge we are

fostering have potential for transfer to careers in the arts and other extraordinary occupational fields. Consider the following quote from Stanford Professor and Arts Education advocate, Elliot Eisner. The arts naturally present us with circumstances that challenge our sense of the norm. This may happen in a piece of music where the key changes or within a piece of art where the perspective is altered. For both of these examples it takes some experience and background knowledge to “read” the music and artistic image, to understand the meaning and next steps for the musician and young artist. Our anticipation of the future, may be based on the signals from the past and present and may help us construct what our students may be involved in. Consider the lives of our students after they move on to another grade level, school, or educational opportunity. What skills and knowledge have they packed for their journeys? What areas have you helped them prepare? What areas are less developed and may offer struggles for our students? What guidance have we provided in our mentoring of these learners? Have we fostered experiences and helped develop skills that will transfer and support our students in the unknown opportunities of the future? Check this video, Arts in Schools - More than a Paintbrush. Reflect on how the experiences we offer in the fine arts fosters growth beyond the song our students are learning or the picture they are painting.

This article is based on a piece from the September 2014 Wisconsin School Musician magazine. Portions of the article have been modified for the WAEA ArtTimes edition.

“Purposes are seldom fixed but change with circumstances and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.”(Eisner, 2000)


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20th Century and 21st Century Skills - Seeking a balance

Beyond the basics of our content area skills and techniques, there are the 21st century skills that often come naturally within our arts classrooms. The 21st century skills include: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. These areas and the technical artistic skills we explore with learners offer a combination of skills that may support their post secondary adventures.

The 21st century skills are focused less on what you know and more on what you can do with what you know (Robinson, 2001). Technology allows us to find facts quickly. It is the processing, analysis, and application of these facts however, that offers more in-depth opportunities for learners. In the 20th century there was a focus on creating products. Currently we are within the knowledge age with a focus on services. Both centuries offer relevant skills for today. Our roles as educators need to shift in how we prepare students to succeed. (Trilling & Fadel, 2009) This presents a challenge to educators to foster educational experiences that help students develop the skills they will need to navigate paths in the future.

One way to support our learners is simply to stop and look at the current landscape.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” From the movie.” Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Yes, I resorted to a Ferris Bueller quote, however here is the rationale. It’s a quote from my generation, a Gen X kid, which causes me to pause and see how many years have passed since that movie was released. Think about it…since 1986 what has happened? What have you missed during that time span? What occupations existed then and what new roles have emerged since that time? Now think about our incredible students. They are embarking on their own journeys and will soon be released into the world as adults. Their post secondary opportunities, if past precedent can be considered, will look dramatically different than what they look like today.

Let’s look at the current landscape of Arts Related Occupations and Creative Jobs.

The Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted in 2013 by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shares some interesting information about people in various occupations. The National Endowment for the Arts helps us take a deeper look at these statistics, reviewing the data on who has been working either in the arts as their primary means of employment or as a second job. Those of us who "gig" in the arts for supplementary income include musicians who topped the list with approximately 84,000 people moonlighting in 2013. About 21 percent of the workers holding jobs in artistic fields were teachers. (NEA, 2014) “Artists" holding primary positions in the arts in 2013 included 2.1 million workers. (NEA, 2014) This data offers a current view of artistic opportunities.

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What does the artistic landscape look like in Wisconsin?

The Creative Industries of Wisconsin

The Americans for the Arts map identifies Wisconsin arts related businesses. You can see the arts related businesses and the locations they consider home. You can also identify the potential partnerships, collaborative school community projects, and opportunities to share artistic resources and talent may exist in the state. Would these arts businesses consider working with your students to share the unique nature of what they do and how they contribute to the arts? Is there a way to connect the relevant work experiences from these arts groups to student learning opportunities? Both the CPS report and the Arts-Related Businesses in Wisconsin data offer a current picture of arts pathways that have already been carved. What additional paths will emerge in the next few years? How will we prepare our students for these opportunities?

“The principle goal of education is to create men and woman who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” – Jean Piaget

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What are my next steps?

The quotes within this article offer some ideas to consider on your own and with colleagues. Share these quotes as a starting point for a discussion in our roles supporting students in their educational paths. Besides the quotes, we’ve also looked at two resources - the CPS report and the Arts-Related Businesses in Wisconsin data. These pieces identify the current landscape of arts opportunities. In refining your knowledge in this topic, consider visiting the Fine Arts Professional Development site which provides several articles and videos focused on this and other topics. A sample of the 21st Century Skills and College and Career Readiness in the Arts section is provided below for your use.

CAREER READINESS IN THE ARTS

Volume 2, Issue #5 - Read pages 1-3. Discuss the PLC questions.

• Watch the video, Art Education Builds 21st Century Skills. Share how these skills may impact the arts classroom and other content areas.

• Visit one of the career sites within Volume 2, Issue #5 on page 3. Share your ideas on how to utilize information from the site for learner support.

• Watch one of the videos from Just in Time- Professional Development, within the issue. Discuss the person highlighted and how their career offers information for classroom studies.

• Select a "Cool Career" to explore with your PLC. Discuss this tool's application to the classroom.

Where may I connect directly with Wisconsin Art Educators?

Join WI DPI Art Educators, a Google community. As of the printing of this article, there are 37 members within this new networking group. The group is meant to foster the sharing of art educational ideas, ask questions, and offer encouragement to support each other in the work to building arts skills and knowledge with our students. To join, start by setting up a free Gmail account, and then search within Google + for the Google Communities tab for Wisconsin Art Educators.

Thank you for continuing to refine and shape your instructional methods to meet the needs of your students in the arts.

“Education is about learning to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity. It is about learning to savor the quality of the journey. It is about inquiry and deliberation. It is about becoming critically minded and intellectually curious, and it is about learning how to frame and pursue your own educational aims.”

-Elliot W. Eisner, Stanford University


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References

• Americans for the Arts: AEP IV Welcome retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZxVIN9SYIHU on July 16, 2013.

• Arts and Economic Prosperity IV. State of Wisconsin retrieved from http://aftadc.brinkster.net/AEPIV/WI_StateOfWisconsin_AEP4_SummaryOfFindings.pdf/ on July 16, 2013.

• Arts Data Profile #3 retrieved from http://arts.gov/artistic-fields/research-analysis/data-profiles/issue-3 on July 9, 2014.

• Creative Industries: A New Economic Growth Opportunity for the Milwaukee 7 Region. A Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee and the Greater Milwaukee Committee project retrieved from http://creativealliancemke.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Full_Report.pdf on July 16, 2013.

• DPI Fine Arts and Creativity Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue #5 focus College and Career Readiness in the Arts - http://cal.dpi.wi.gov/files/cal/pdf/fine-arts-newsletter-v2n5.pdf (need to make sure links on page 3 work.)

• Eisner, E. W. (2000) Ten Lessons the Arts Teach. Learning and the Arts: Crossing Boundaries. Proceedings from an invitational meeting for education, arts and youth funders. Los Angeles.

• National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts Announces New Research on Arts Employment. (2014, March 28) Retrieved from http://arts.gov/news/2014/national-endowment-arts-announces-new-research-arts-employment on July 9, 2014.

• Pink, D. (2005). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future. New York , NY: Riverhead Books.

• Robinson, K. (2001). Out of Our Minds. Capstone Publishing Limited. Chichester, West Sussex PO198SQ, England.

• The Arts and the Creative Economy: 21st Century Growth in Wisconsin. Arts Wisconsin article retrieved from http://www.artswisconsin.org/actioncenter/the-arts-and-the-creative-economy-21st-century-growth-in-wisconsin/ on July 18, 2013.

• The Creative Industries of Wisconsin – 2012 retrieved from http://aftadc.brinkster.net/Wisconsin/Wisconsin.pdf on July 23, 2013.

• Trilling, B. & Fadel, C. (2009). 21 st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• Wagner, T. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need-= And What We Can Do About it. New York, NY: Basic Books.

• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Agenda 2017 retrieved on July 22, 2015 from http://statesupt.dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/statesupt/pdf/AGENDA%202017.pdf.


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Forum: WAEA Grant Recipient Report

Children Are The Hope: Integrating Art, Environment, the Classroom Core,

and a Sense of Place in the Global Community

Children Are The Hope, Inc. (CATH) wishes to deeply thank the Wisconsin Art Education Association’s staff and membership for their generous support of the 2014-15 project year through WAEA’s Potawatomi Grant. It is only through such kind and giving partnerships that CATH is able to continue its mission of connecting children from Wisconsin to their global peers through art, environmental education, and the universal human condition. The Potawatomi Grant funds were used to support the Wisconsin portion of the CATH international art exchange with Turkey, Cuba, and Rwanda.

Children Are The Hope, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. CATH’s mission is to reach across barriers such as language, geography and politics to nurture children's knowledge of and sensitivity to nature and their global peers by integrating academics, environmental education, cultural connections and creative expression to inspire stewardship of the earth and respect for each other.

Children Are The Hope accomplishes this mission through a partner-based, multi-faceted, academic year-long cultural, environmental and art experience. The CATH project model connects elementary school children in grades 4 through 6 from central and southern Wisconsin with similar aged children in the Ciego de Avila province in the central region of Cuba, the capital city of Ankara in Turkey, and the Musanze District of Northern Province, Rwanda. CATH aims to unite classroom experiences with creativity, appreciation for the natural world, and a deep respect for and belief in our individual abilities as well as the power of the larger, collective global population to make the world a happier, healthier place for all living creatures and natural systems.

At the heart of the CATH model is a capstone experience of an international exchange of nature- and cultural-based visual art “messages” that encompass the ideas, values, beliefs and discoveries of each student. CATH nurtures self-expression through the visual arts by working with classroom educators to embed visual art into other academic experiences as students explore their local and global environment in tandem with partner countries. This very special and unique opportunity builds children’s awareness and appreciation of the world around them, their place in the global community, and their sense of self-worth as a member of that community

Contact Information: Korie M. Klink Executive Director/Founder E7415 Mile Road Reedsburg, Wisconsin 53959 [email protected] [email protected] 608.524.0585 “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.” ~Rachel Carson


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The visual “messages” are created using a variety of mediums including paint, crayon, marker, and pen/pencil sketch, among others. The completed messages from Wisconsin were sent to partner schools and organizations in the spring of 2015. It was through this exchange of creativity, vision, and knowledge that the generosity of WAEA was most deeply felt, as funds were used to purchase and print official Children Are The Hope poster-sized paper on which students were able to generate their artwork.

During the 2014-15 academic year, 18 classrooms representing four school districts in central and southern Wisconsin participated in the CATH program, and each of the nearly 500 students directly felt the positive energy and impact of the WAEA’s support. CATH works in tandem with a team of environmental educators, classroom instructors, researchers and scientists in all three partner countries and Wisconsin to implement innovative, cross-curricular, and hands-on project activities. We, together, share in expressing our deepest gratitude to WAEA for helping to make our work and partnerships a possibility.

Images copyright Children Are the Hope. Used with permission.


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THE BIGGER VISION AND UNDERSTANDINGS

Our world’s young people face unprecedented environmental and social challenges and enormously complex decision-making processes as they emerge as global leaders. Environmentally and socially sensitive and knowledgeable children who are capable of making thoughtful and meaningful decisions may very well grow to be those that lead our nations toward sustainability and stability in both environmental and social arenas. Such decisions are made with consideration to political, cultural, biological, and personal complexities, values, and beliefs. Children Are The Hope aims to contribute positively to the affective and cognitive advancement of elementary school-aged children in Cuba, Turkey, Rwanda, and in Wisconsin with hopes of impacting decision-making based upon cross-cultural understandings and environmental considerations. To this end, CATH combines the human experience, art, and nature – most specifically wetland communities and the world’s crane species –as common denominators.

CATH believes that conversations between diverse cultures should begin on common ground. Cranes and wetland systems are important links that can initiate cross-cultural dialogues among children in Wisconsin, Cuba, Turkey, and Rwanda. Globally, cranes are cultural symbols of peace, hope, friendship, wisdom, and happiness. As such, they are a unique instrument in developing multicultural connections between humans and the natural world. Because of their large size and cultural significance they serve as a key element in bringing diverse peoples together to learn about and address larger challenges and responsibilities, such as habitat destruction, pollution, human conflict, and community-building issues.

CATH provides an important opportunity for youth in all participating countries to explore and magnify their understanding and sensitivity to themselves and each other through art, nature, culture, and our universal human conditions. Shared resources, knowledge and attitudes nurture important, timely and relevant conversations about our human and natural world. Such conversations, in turn, nurture creativity, academics, cultural appreciation, environmental stewardship, and mutual respect. The CATH classroom and art exchange experience provides an important and unique framework upon which students learn, share, and build relationships upon a foundation of academic and creative learning and attitude building. Such work addresses many scales and levels of important and positive progress toward an improved cooperation, understanding and sense of partnership among the peoples of all countries.


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ENVIRONMENT AND THE CRANES: WHERE CATH WORKS

In the 1930s, Aldo Leopold lamented that Wisconsin was losing her Sandhill Cranes due, in great part, to habitat loss and over-hunting. Today, after many years of conservation effort, our state’s cranes thrive and Wisconsin hosts one of the largest populations of breeding Sandhill Cranes on the North American continent. Sandhill Cranes can be viewed quite easily in the wild and children are eager to learn the story of the species and how it relates to partner children in Cuba, Turkey, and Rwanda.

In Cuba, CATH works with a team of educators and biologists in the Gran Humedal del Norte (Grand Wetland of the North) in north central Ciego de Avila province at the center of the island. The Gran Humedal del Norte (GHN) supports numerous endangered and endemic plant and animal species – such as the critically endangered Cuban Sandhill Crane - living beside humans who also depend on the landscape for survival.

Similarly, a little-known but declining population of Eurasian Cranes make Turkey home during their breeding season, while others of the species temporarily travel through the country during their lengthy migratory journey to other breeding and wintering areas. There is also a small breeding population of Demoiselle Cranes in the country, which at present, is listed as critically endangered. In Turkey, CATH is honored to partner with the Bilkent Elementary School in the capital city of Ankara.

In Rwanda, CATH has partnered with Conservation Heritage – Turambe (CHT), an organization in the Musanze District of Northern Province. CHT’s primary focus is conservation and health programs for local people in communities bordering Volcanoes National Park, home to the critically endangered mountain gorilla. Rwanda is also home to the endangered Grey-Crowned Crane, a national symbol of longevity, good luck and prosperity. Visual art is central to CHT’s work and program model.

THE PROJECT MODEL: HOW CATH WORKS

In Wisconsin, CATH programming is sequential in content, with each classroom experience building upon the content of the last. The program model is framed as creating a “story”, with “chapter 1” introducing students to the biology and ecology of cranes and the landscapes and resources on which all living creatures depend. Subsequent “chapters” explore how cranes and people share resources and the local and global landscape, how cranes are meaningful in cultures around the world, and how those cultures, while profoundly unique, are also powerfully similar and share important universal characteristics such as the value of family, love, safety, and health. Students discover these colorful and beautiful characteristics through the exploration of food, music, dance, clothing, artifacts, folktales, and language.

As the CATH story continues, students are challenged to deeply examine what “message”, what “story” about their world, our Wisconsin culture, and their personal experiences, beliefs, values, and feelings about their surroundings they would like to share with partner students in Cuba, Turkey, or Rwanda through a piece of visual art. Students come to understand and appreciate that the visual expressions they are creating are much more than simply drawings or paintings… they are a message to the world about themselves and their space in the global community. The artwork, while most feature cranes, is a unique expression of each child’s perspective of the world, culture, and working together to make the world a better place. Suddenly, students realize that the CATH story isn’t simply about cranes… it’s very much about people who are coming together at many scales and levels to make the world a better place for all of us.


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The CATH art exchange illustrates how humans of diverse cultures – and, importantly from cultures and places who at one profound level do not understand each other – can come together to positively redefine the characteristics of human nature and our future.

THE MESSAGES: CATH ART IN ACTION

The capstone art experience ultimately bridges a gap between knowledge and feelings. It elicits and illustrates enduring understandings of cultural and environmental conditions and encourages students to become active members of their global community, impacting social change at the individual, family and community level. It allows children to transform scientific learning into visual tools, bringing a new and relevant meaning to their world. This is a particularly poignant ideology when applied to cultures - such as the United States and Cuba, as well as the Middle Eastern countries - that at a very visible level do not understand each other.

Korie Klink, Executive Director and Founder of Children Are The Hope, says that the student messages illustrate connections to the natural world and to partner students, as well as student commitment to care for both. By sharing artwork with and among countries, students see firsthand how their individual and collective decisions and actions impact the global community. We have important stories to share through our art messages.”

Each year, project assessments reveal very personal stories of knowledge and special connections between students and the natural communities around them.

Victoria, a CATH student participant from Wisconsin, noted, “It’s an amazing feeling knowing you’re going to change someone’s life with just some simple things… with drawings, writing, and most of all caring.”

One of her classmates also noted, “I found out that children really are the hope for the world.” Another student said, “I think that our messages could change the world. We sent them [to Cuba] to show…kindness, and true friendship.”

A 6th grade CATH student reflects, “Just to know that by drawing a picture can change a life and/or a community was the best feeling in the world.”

Dr. Dan Sivek, Professor Emeritus at UW-Stevens Point and member of the CATH Board of Directors, notes, “Children Are The Hope is unique in several ways. First, CATH involves interactions among children in very different nations nurturing a sense of global community and partnership. CATH also includes art as an important medium of communication, developing respectful connections between cultures. Children soon discover the importance of working together and develop a respect for themselves, each other, and the landscapes around them. The impact is quite remarkable.”

Children Are The Hope works to be a conduit through which diverse cultures come together as colleagues, friends, partners and collaborators to build a better world for all of nature, including the human community. This is of particular significance in the case of Cuba’s emerging development and its relationship with the United States, especially as children of both nations become aware of the complex associations between the countries and the varying perspectives with which cultures engage. Likewise, with Turkey’s strategic location within the struggles of the Middle Eastern region and the lasting impacts of Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide, CATH is an opportunity to connect people and nurture an increased awareness of what factors impact and drive the world around them.

We hope that you, the WAEA community, is proud to be a partner in and supporter of this work. Thank you, muchísimas gracias, teşekkür ederim, and murakoze!


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Midwest Artist Studios™ Project Frank Juarez, WAEA Past President

I created the Midwest Artist Studios™ (MAS) Project as a way to connect secondary art education to regional contemporary art through a series of studio visits with Midwest artists, curriculum development, and providing opportunities for educator outreach. What began as an idea to expose, educate, and engage my art students to a variety of local and regional contemporary artists has grown into a publication consisting of a catalog and a curriculum workbook. The catalog features the work of the Midwest artists visited during Year 1 as well as sharing their full interviews. The workbook features lesson plans inspired by the artists’ work, medium, and process. Each lesson plan provides an overview of the artist, National Visual Arts Standards, literacy, differentiated instruction, technology implementations, and a variety of assessments. Via Skype sessions, students are given the opportunity to interact in real time with the featured artists. In addition to this experience, a series of artist videos and gallery of images have been created to provide students with a meaningful and personal approach to learning about artists living and working in their region.

In this issue I highlight Iowa-based painter, Jane Ryder.

Jane Ryder writes, “My paintings are a right-brained approach to observing, dissecting, and recording the objective subject matter found in the lakes, rivers, prairies, and forests of south central Iowa. As my intimacy with the land surrounding me evolves, so do my approaches for depicting the complexities of varying terrains and the plants and animals that occupy them”. “Each of my gouache paintings is a fictitious ecosystem that has been broken down into a series of vignettes. Each vignette describes the decay, growth, and interaction between the flora and fauna of that imagined place. Although bold colors, repeating patterns, and flattened space make the paintings appear fantastic in nature, each scene is based off an observation”. “I am constantly inspired by the complexities of the natural world. My work is an ever evolving narrative about the interconnectedness of all things and the functions of an organism in a community of plants and animals”.

Image courtesy of the Midwest Artist Studios Project.


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Jane Garrett Ryder was born and raised in the fine state of Illinois. In 2005 she received her BFA from Bradley University and went on to earn her MFA at Northern Illinois University four years later. In 2009 Ryder moved from Northern Illinois to South Central Iowa; where she can be found tromping through various muddy environments in search of fossils, arrowheads, and new artistic content. Her change from an urban environment to a rural setting has influenced her paintings in many significant ways. A deeper understanding of the interactions between man, animal, plant, dirt, water, and sun have affected the content and compositions of Ryder’s body of work.

This past school year I had the opportunity to Skype Jane into my classroom to talk with my Drawing/Painting II students about their work based on Jane’s lesson plan titled, “Be one with nature: painting your landscape”. In this lesson students were introduced to her choice of medium, gouache, and hot press watercolor paper.

This activity was a great way to introduce new artists for my students to research, digest constructive criticism from the artist, and providing my students with an outlet to ask the artist questions about her work, ideas, and process. Here is link to the Skype session: https://vimeo.com/130170363.

Drawing/Painting II student, Kimberly W. reflected on this experience with Jane. She wrote, “From this year, I have learned to have a little faith in the outcome of my projects. I am usually a self-doubting person, so I should take this experience and apply it to my life in general. There have been a lot of things this year that have actually increased my self-confidence. I do not feel ready for next year; however, I do feel a little more prepared, and I think I am in a slightly better mindset for what is to come. The world is complex just like these projects were. The outcome, on occasion, could turn out amazing though and I am excited to see what the world has to offer to me if I work hard enough. It is awfully strange, yet awesome, how many similarities the process of creating art is to living life”.

“The slightest change in a piece of art can change the entire meaning of a piece. After our interview with Jane Ryder, I began to think about what would be best for my painting, She gave specific suggestions to me through email, and I took those and created a more complex piece of art with the inclusion of another style of gouache painting. I watered down the gouache and created a fluid movement in the background, opposed to the strong colors and solid painting in the foreground. In the end, I gave my painting a softer, more balanced feeling”.

Images courtesy of Jane Ryder and the Midwest Artist Studios Project.


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We are in the middle of finishing our Year 2 of the Midwest Artist Studios Project. After a recent 7-day, 1831-mile road trip throughout the Midwest documenting regional contemporary artists I can now take a quick break and share with you my reflection on this trip. Here is the link: http://midwestartiststudios.com/2015/08/01/on-the-road-year-2-midwest-artist-studios-project-summer-2015-reflection/ I still have more work ahead of me, but it will be worth the long days put into this project that will bring a smile to our students' faces when they engage with our MAS artists online, learn about varied artistic processes throughout the Midwest, and to continue to develop their artistic voice. Later this month, we will be visiting the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/Industry Program to document Emmy Lingscheit, one of our featured artists. In late September we will be traveling once more to finish our series of studio visits with Krista Svalbonas (Chicago, Illinois) and Emmy Lingscheit (Urbana, Champaign). Also happening this month is the publication of “Studio Culture: On the Road with Midwest Artist Studios” in Art Education, the journal of the National Art Education Association. In late October, I will be presenting on this project at the Wisconsin Art Education Association Fall Conference at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. This project is supported by a grant from the National Art Education Foundation, Kohler Foundation, Inc., and the Wisconsin Art Education Association.

Image courtesy of Jane Ryder and the Midwest Artist Studios Project.


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WAEA Student Events

Youth Art Month 2016 dates are set! The State Show at the Capitol will be on display from February 27th, 2016 until March 11, 2016, with our celebration taking place at noon on Friday, March 11th.

All artwork is due to Regional VPs before Friday, January 8th, 2016. We will be using the same format as last year: all WAEA members may submit five works of art; three of those five will move on to State. This years' YAM theme is "The Power of Art." All members are encouraged to also participate in the Flag Competition. Flag forms can be found on the next page or online and are due to YAM Chair Tiffany Beltz by December 1, 2015. Look for information from your

Regional VP soon! For more information, please contact Tiffany at [email protected]. We look forward to an amazing Youth Art Month this year! Please join us!

2015 Youth Art Month Flag Design Winner: Mikayla Babcock, 8th Grade student from Edgerton Middle School. Teacher: Jamie Prahl


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The Wisconsin Art Education Association is excited to welcome you to the Fox River Valley for the 2015 WAEA Fall Conference on October 22nd and 23rd! Appleton is an ideal spot to host our annual gathering of art educators from across the state. It has the warmth and charm of a small town, yet has a big city variety of venues and events that support the arts.

Our host for the conference is Lawrence University, a liberal arts college founded in 1847 and home to beautiful facilities. We will be utilizing the Warch Center, Memorial Hall and the Wriston Art Center on campus, all of which are located within steps of each other.

Within walking distance of Lawrence University are many venues worth visiting. These include: a History Museum which features exhibits on the life of Appleton-native Harry Houdini; The Trout Museum, which is currently featuring a show of Norman Rockwell’s work; the Paper Discovery Center, which is a hands on paper making museum; and the Building for Kids, a popular children’s museum.

Our featured keynote speakers this year are two nationally recognized art educators. We are excited to welcome SchoolArts Editor/Former NAEA Elementary Director Nancy Walkup on Thursday and NAEA Executive Director, Dr. Deborah Reeve on Friday. Both of these ladies are phenomenal speakers and their decades of art education experience and leadership will provide our conference with inspiration and excitement!

Thursday and Friday are also loaded with sessions, both hands-on and seminars, which will leave you feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to return to your classroom energized! Also, our conference always provides you with the opportunity to connect with other art educators, visit vendors and explore a new city.

Our hope is that the conference provides you with the perfect pathway to share your expertise, engage in new experiences, and the opportunity to reflect on how these factors can all work together to develop us professionally and breathe new excitement into our classrooms and our teaching practices.

Register online at

https://www.regonline.com/waeafallconference2015


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WAEA Potawatomi Grant Program

The Wisconsin Art Education Association (WAEA) offers three opportunities annually for members to apply for a $1,000.00 WAEA Potawatomi Grant to fund quality art experiences for art students. The WAEA Potawatomi Grant Program supports standards based projects that provide opportunities for students to gain in-depth art knowledge and skills in both school and community-based settings, because visual arts education programs play a pivotal role as the nation seeks to improve

high school graduation rates, counter the achievement gap in urban and rural communities, and prepare young people to participate in a workforce dependent upon creative contributions. WAEA invites all members to submit a WAEA Potawatomi Grant application. Grant applications will be accepted for innovative and creative programming for visual arts education grades kindergarten through college. Upon completion of the project, grant recipients will be required to submit an article to the WAEA ArtTimes and/or present at the WAEA Fall Conference to share their project with other art educators. Grant applications will not be accepted to cover costs associated with the participation in WAEA sponsored events. Deadline: December 1, April 1, and September 1.

WAEA Hunziker Endowment Grant

WAEA invites proposals for the support of projects that promote the practice of art education in Wisconsin. Art education includes, but is not limited to, the instructional process; curriculum development and delivery; student assessment; classroom environment, behavior, management, or discipline; advocacy; or practices relating to instructional interaction and the achievement of student learning. Grants will be considered in the range of $250 to $750. The Trustees may award requests in totality or partially depending upon the number and quality of the grant proposals received. Award announcements will be made after a review of all applications by the Trustees committee. Recipients will be expected to submit a brief report about the project in the ArtTimes newsletter. This fund was established with a gift from Ernella S. Hunziker. This fund will support the goals of our mission and vision statements: The Wisconsin Art Education Association is an organization dedicated to promoting excellence in visual arts and design education. The Association provides professional growth opportunities for arts educators; advocates for the arts and acts upon vital education issues; and supports art and design education for children in the state of Wisconsin. Deadline: December 1.

Grant Opportunities for WAEA Members

SaveOnEnergy.com Grant

Enter for a chance to receive a $500 grant and have your energy or sustainability focused lesson plan be recognized and featured on a nationally known energy marketplace. Visit https://www.saveonenergy.com/teacher-‐grant/ for more information. Deadline: September 18, 2015.


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WAEA Board Members and state regions

Executive Board: President 2015-2017 Jen Dahl [email protected] President Elect 2015-2017 Tiffany Beltz [email protected] Treasurer 2015-2017 Dani Graf [email protected] Secretary 2014-2016 Leah Keller [email protected] Fine Arts and Creativity Consultant Julie Palkowski [email protected]

Regional Vice Presidents: North Central 2015-2017 Jill Fortin and Megan Sluyter [email protected] North East 2014-2016 Julie Miller [email protected] Southwest 2014-2016 Tim and Sarah Znidarsich [email protected] [email protected] Southeast 2014-2016 Frank Korb [email protected]

Northwest 2014-2016 Danielle Penney [email protected] West Central 2014-2016 Lynnae Burns [email protected]

Divisional Representatives:

Elementary 2015-2017 Dustin Anderson [email protected] Middle 2015-2017 Randi Neimeyer [email protected] Secondary 2015-2017 Julie Adams [email protected] Higher Education 2015-2017 Rina Kundu [email protected] Student Representative 2015-2017 Olivia Griepentrog [email protected] Museums 2015-2017 Cate Bayles [email protected]

Vacant:

Supervision Representative Retired Representative Private School Representative

Standing, Subcommittee Chairpersons, & Representatives:

Advertising Manager 2015-2017 Amy Kent [email protected] Youth Art Month 2014-2016 Tiffany Beltz [email protected] e-Art Times Editor 2015-2017 Christine Woywod [email protected] Awards 2015-2017 Ronnah Metz [email protected] Membership 2015-2017 Devon Calvert [email protected] Advocacy 2014-2016 Ann Shedivy Tollefson [email protected] Historian Tasha Newton [email protected] Visual Arts Classic 2014-2016 Elizabeth Schlieger [email protected] Visioneer Design Challenge Kathryn Rulien-Bareis Johanna Peterson [email protected]


WAEA Art Times

c./o Department of Art & Design P.O. Box 413

Milwaukee, WI 53201

The mission of the Wisconsin Art Education Association is to promote excellence in art and design education for all students.

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October 22-23: WAEA fall conference in Appleton, WI

November 13: Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) artwork due

December 1: Flag designs for Youth Art Month (YAM) are due

January- February: Submit work for regional YAM exhibits

February 27: YAM set up at state capitol

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March 11: YAM Celebration at the state capitol

March 17-19: National Art Education Association Convention in Chicago, IL

April 8: Visual Arts Classic state competition in Madison

April 22: Visioneer Design Challenge in Milwaukee

Upcoming events

Looking for a professional community? Join us Monday nights at 7:00 for our

#wiartchat starting September 7th.

Documents

Fall 2015 e art times