Finding A Balance (Part 1)
Time and time again, we are reminded how sharing work by a variety of artists can inspire new thinking, perspectives, techniques, and meaningful questions, but we often get swept up in the drive to produce strong portfolios or “cover the curriculum” when, as Elliot Eisner puts it, we should be “uncovering” it.
This week’s blog asks many questions and I invite you to weigh in on the possible answers….
- As art educators, how do we find a balance between teaching students to create art and teaching them how to engage with art?
- Is it wise to spend more time getting students to articulate their thoughts about art orally and in writing?
- Is it worth it to take time away from production in introductory art courses in order to teach students to understand, enter into dialogue, and ask good questions about art?
- What are the benefits of having students graduate from our classes who are more prepared to discuss their thoughts about art and perhaps less prepared to draw from observation?
PHOTO | Hairbrush painting by Ashley Lewis, Age 17
Expanding the Definition(s): Some Days Are Easier Than Others
Many thanks to those who have helped get the Teaching with Contemporary Art column off to a smooth start! Recently, a few friends and colleagues have mentioned (even e-mailed) about the fact that, well, while Season 4 of Art:21 has won quite a few prestigious awards, the selection of artists chosen can be difficult to transition into the classroom. As educators, how do we get our collective heads around teaching with Season 4 artists such as Mark Dion, Alfredo Jaar, Ursula von Rydingsvard and Laurie Simmons? These aren’t artists that lend themselves easily to K-12 or university-level curriculum, particularly if the course is production-based. How can artists like these, as well as artists such as Ann Hamilton (Season 1), Martin Puryear (Season 2), and Fred Wilson (Season 3) help us work with students in our classrooms?
First… they can help us redefine and expand on what art is and what it’s becoming in the 21st century. There aren’t too many neat little projects that fit perfectly with what some of these artists do, but the segments and related materials on art21.org help us work with students to consider new possibilities for subject matter and ways of working with traditional and non-traditional media. These segments can inspire writing in the classroom just as well as Elizabeth Murray may inspire students to paint in new ways. They can be the catalyst for spirited debate much like Trenton Doyle Hancock can act as a starting point for understanding cartooning or how artists develop/illustrate alter-egos. Mark Dion can teach about the relationship between art and ecology, as well as blurring the line between artist and curator. Alfredo Jaar can teach about public art and how contemporary art often needs a particular setting much like a great work of fiction. Ursula von Rydingsvard teaches how an artist today can create work that relates to landscapes, the human body and psychological states… sometimes simultaneously. And Laurie Simmons can teach that there is a difference between photographers as artists and artists that use photography as a tool.
While it’s hard to incorporate the ever-increasing number of artists that can meaningfully inspire and help guide students, it’s hard to NOT include artists that will help them open up definitions and engage in dialogue about what art is and what constitutes an artist to begin with. Bringing these artists into discussions and/or socratic seminars in the art classroom can have surprising and wonderful benefits. Is it easy? Never. Some days are easier than others. But it’s always worth it. I can tell you stories…..
Image: Untitled Hot Glue Drawing by Karyl DelMundo
Teaching with Contemporary Art: An Introduction
This is my first-ever blog post.
There…. I said it. Everyone and their Mom has a blog somewhere and I guess it was bound to happen to me, too. Blogging, I suppose, allows for a kind of rolling perspective reel. It allows for not just multiple perspectives but even overlapping ones. At least that’s what I hope. It certainly should be more than just a “report” on contemporary art education.
Teaching with Contemporary Art (the title of this column) is about the things that happen when we share Art:21 artists with our students. It’s about what happens to their approaches making art, the way they talk about art, and the ways engagement can help shape and redefine the art they create. Whether students are being introduced to Elizabeth Murray combining painting and sculpture or to Mark Dion balancing sculpture and ecology, this blog will focus on why contemporary art in the classroom is important, the kinds of things that happen when it’s part of the curriculum, and ideas for approaching contemporary art from a variety of angles.
But why bother? Why incorporate new artists in your classes when things might be going well enough? Students are producing strong work, perhaps. They “know the elements and principles.” But how well are they able to articulate their thoughts about art being made today? What kinds of skills can we give them for engaging with art beyond our classrooms after they graduate? These are some of the questions I’d like to take on as we get started….
Artwork by Nicole Bencivengo, Nyack High School, 2007.
New column: Teaching with Contemporary Art
Art21 is pleased to introduce a new column on our blog, written specifically for art educators. Teaching with Contemporary Art, written by our Senior Education Advisor, Joe Fusaro, will appear every Wednesday. Joe and a cadre of teachers and other guest bloggers will share their experiences with bringing contemporary art into the classroom and other spaces ripe for learning about today’s art and artists.
Joe Fusaro received his Masters Degree in Education from the City University of New York and his Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from Hofstra University. He is an exhibiting artist, educator, and Visual Arts Chair for the Nyack Public Schools in New York since 2003. Prior to his work in Nyack, he was a teacher and staff developer in the New York City school system for 13 years. Fusaro is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education, certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and has led staff development workshops in contemporary art education for the New York State Art Teachers Association and the National Art Education Association over the past four years. His recent exhibitions include solo shows at Kickstart Gallery in New York City and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Fusaro also exhibited in the December 2007 Postcards from the Edge group show at James Cohan Gallery, benefiting VisualAids.org, and was the summer artist-in-residence at Massachusetts College during 2005 and 2006.
Stay tuned for the first installment of Teaching with Contemporary Art tomorrow.
Art21 and Mel Chin’s “Fundred” team in overdrive at NAEA
Last month, Art21 and Mel Chin (Season 1) took arts educators from around the world by storm as they presented two of the most dynamic sessions the National Arts Education Association’s annual convention had to offer.The professional development session, presented by Kelly Shindler and Mel Chin, was standing-room only. Teachers were treated to a special presentation about Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project by Mel Chin himself. The following day, the Art21 Super Session was also packed with educators. After creating their own works of “Fundred Dollar Bill” art, teachers headed out to the street for a dramatic suprise entrance of the Fundred Project’s armored truck (pictured above), which runs on cooking oil supplied by school cafeterias.
Here on the left coast, plans to present the Fundred Dollar Bill Project to California’s educators are already underway through partnerships with local museums, KQED’s Spark program, and the Fundred Project’s national director.
Be sure to check out Art:21’s video of students who have already participated in the Fundred Dollar Bill Project and, if you’re an educator, help your students create their own Fundreds for donation to a neccessary and worthy cause. More information can be found on the project’s Web site, www.fundred.org. Password = Paydirt.
Art21 & Mel Chin at NAEA
Check out Art21’s photos from last week’s NAEA conference in New Orleans. Featured are Art21-featured artist Mel Chin’s SuperSession, Art21’s professional development workshop for teachers (coopted by Chin), and Art21 and Mel’s team on the ground around town.
Save the date: Charles Atlas with Lia Gangitano at New York Public Library April 7
Art21, BOMB, & the Mid-Manhattan Library
present
a film screening and conversation
Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4 episode Paradox
After the screening Lia Gangitano, Director of Participant Inc., will join consulting director and video artist Charles Atlas for a conversation and Q&A session.
Monday, April 7, 2008 at 6:30pm
Mid-Manhattan Library
The New York Public Library
40th Street and 5th Avenue, 6th floor
New York, NY 10016
212-340-0871
Elevators to access the 6th floor.
All events are FREE and open to the public.
Last chance to apply for Oliver Herring | Task
Tuesday, April 1, 2008, is the last day to apply for participation in Task, a recurrent performance by Season 3 artist Oliver Herring. This iteration is organized by the Frye Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, On the Boards, and the Seattle Public Central Library where the performance will be held on Saturday, June 28, 2008. Herring will select 35 applicants of various ages, professions and backgrounds for this day-long interactive. Visit the Frye Museum website to download an application. Selected applicants will be notified by the Frye no later than May 1.
Herring has staged Task at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2006); Plaza de Toros in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (2003), the Former Federal Security Bank in Lake Worth, Fla. (2003); L’Ecole Supérieur National des Beaux Arts, Paris (2002); and the Masonic Temple at the Great Eastern Hotel, London (2003). The Seattle Public Library performance will be the first staged indoors, and involving multiple organizations. The Hirshhorn Museum continues to offer a podcast of their 60 participants discussing the experience.
Herring recently performed Task at the University of Maryland where he is the Spring 2008 Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Art. His residency will conclude on Wednesday, April 2nd with a public performance that coincides with the opening of a video installation titled Basic, a new component of an ongoing series by the same title. A series of playful videos that are the product of collaborations between the artist and strangers, Basic is on display at the University Art Gallery from April 2-26, 2008.
Art21 and Mel Chin at NAEA in New Orleans this week
We’re heading down to New Orleans tomorrow to present a few sessions at this week’s National Art Education Association conference at the Morial Convention Center. In addition, Season 1 artist Mel Chin will be joining us to unveil more details on the Fundred Dollar Bill project and the bills themselves. Those educators in New Orleans for the conference can find Mel and Art21 at the following presentations. For those of you who can’t make it, our friend at KQED’s Spark and co-presenter of the Contemporary Art Film Salon, Kristin Farr, and I will be blogging both the onsite conference activities and offsite investigations with Mel and his team.
NAEA Convention, New Orleans, LA - March 26-29, 2008
Thursday, March 27 2:00pm - 2:50pm
Art:21 and the Educator Workshop Model
This session shares findings from Art21’s professional development work with teachers to support the integration of contemporary art and artists into curriculum using inquiry-based learning strategies and connections to thematic strands.
(Convention Center Room 201)
Friday, March 28 1:00pm - 2:50pm
Super Session with Mel Chin | For Your Eyes Only: An Operation
Mel Chin is a conceptual visual artist motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances. He works in a variety of art mediums to calculate meaning in modern life, placing art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, and more. Chin says, “Making objects and marks is also about making possibilities, making choices—and that is one of the last freedoms we have. To provide that is one of the functions of art.”
(La Louisiane Room)
Saturday, March 29 10:00am - 6:00pm
Art21 and Spark Present the Contemporary Art Film Salon
The Contemporary Art Film Salon is back! Take a break from the workshops to view films from the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century and SPARK* television series, as well as other acclaimed documentaries on contemporary art and artists. Produced by Art21, KQED’s Spark, SFMoMA, ICA Boston, and Illuminations, these films are accessible and valuable resources for exploring the artists of today and their sources of inspiration. Films are 10-30 minutes each, grouped in 1-hour thematic programs.
(Convention Center Room R09)
Look forward to performance, activities, and special guests. If you are in town, be sure to join us. If not, we’ll be posting lots of video and photos when we get back.
All About “Fundred” | Interview with Mel Chin part 2
The following conversation concludes Art21’s interview with Season 1 artist Mel Chin about his national collaborative artwork, Paydirt/The Fundred Dollar Bill Project. Read Part 1, published last Friday, here.
ART21: Take us to the next step. You’ve talked about the collection but talk about the next part—what happens after the collection? Once the truck leaves North Carolina, what happens?
MC: No, we’re going to start in New Orleans. We’re waiting till we have [$300,000,000 Fundred dollars, the amount equivalent to the cost of the landscape project]. The car will leave New Orleans and go through this 15,000-mile, maybe even 20,000-mile drive, slowly across the country, with a team of relay drivers and a chase car and a video camera that will be passed to the next team.
They’ll stop at schools [Collection Centers]; they’ll pick up the artwork and respectfully catalog it. So eventually [the armored truck] will work its way around this very strange route because, again, it’s based on the way people are scattered. Finally, it will roll up to D.C., where we will stop at the Federal Reserve and ask for even exchange first. I have it from inside sources the Federal Reserve will probably not give us even exchange. That’s inside sources only. But then we’ll take it to the steps of Congress. We’re there to ask for an even exchange, and not necessarily just cash, but for processes that we think will probably cost this much to transform a city in need. And if we transform that city in need, its gift back will be the cure for cities all over America that have this problem.
Billions have already been spent in New Orleans and trillions are spent on the war. The cost we’re talking about, if you want to go the negative way, is one day in Iraq. But it’s also the cost of that bridge over the Mississippi or five cloverleaf interchanges. So if you think about it as an engineering project, it’s trivial, really. It’s trivial. Offset is what’s important to Congress.
