Courses Developed
My interest in intergenerational learning led to the development of community-based art education courses at both the Corcoran College of Art + Design and Virginia Commonwealth University. Below are descriptions of these courses. I continue to conduct Artstories research at home and abroad. In spring 2019 I will be a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where I will conduct an Artstories research project creating artist's books with youth and adults in Edinburgh.
Artstories RVA, ARTE 570 Community-Based Art Education. In this course VCU students collaborated with youth at the Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC) in Highland Park to create social justice oriented, Richmond themed alphabet books to promote literacy and social justice education for the youth and elementary students at Overby-Sheppard Elementary School.
Below are examples of courses I developed as faculty at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. These courses appeal to the K-12 in service/pre-service teacher and well as the teaching artist and museum educator.
ED5750 Social Justice and Art Education
TThis course first took place in Managua, Nicaragua working with children and adults living and working in two trash dump communities. I traveled with five students and we worked for 3 weeks in July 2011 making prototypes of craft items to sell made from refuse and recycled materials found on site. We made purses from plastic bags, jewelry using scrap metal and paper beads and purses and rain gear from ironed plastic bags. In the intervening years the communities we worked with at La Chureca and Tipitapa, created high quality craft items for sale to tourists and developed a co-op in which the monies they earn are put into better quality materials. The income the community derives from this work has greatly improved the living conditions of the community and the educational opportunities for the children.
ED5680 Studio-Based Teaching and Learning
TThis course is one of three in a series designed for different pathways in art education. This course, specifically for K-12 educators involves focusing on a specific medium/technique. Students create works with materials appropriate to K-12 learners. In addition to practicing with these materials pre/in-service educators write relevant curriculum connected to the mediums explored. In some instances the course takes place in a study away setting and students test out their curriculum with k-12 learners in the setting. This course was offered during three summer sessions at a home for abandoned girls in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The girls ranged in age from 3 to 19. The first summer we conducted a papermaking and printmaking project focusing on self-portraiture. The second summer we focused on collage and construction with community as a theme. Our last summer we conducted a digital photography project on self-identity.
I'ED5682 Community-Based Teaching and Learningm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
TThis course is the third in a series of practice-based courses designed for different pathways to art education (schools, museums and communities). This course specifically focuses on teaching in communities with learners across the lifespan. I wrote this course to be intergenerational, inter-institutional and interdisciplinary. I co-taught the course with a colleague, Margaret Walker, from the University of Maryland at THEARC community center in Washington, DC. The project involved creating mammoth woodcuts (4ft x 8ft) on the theme of "freedom." There were 18 student participants ranging in age from 9 to 74. Participants were divided into 3 mixed age groups to brainstorm on their conceptions of freedom and how to visualize it. Once the design was decided upon each woodblock was cut into sections so that every participant could work on the carving. The pieces were then inked, put back together and printed with a steamroller! A fourth woodblock on the theme of community was created by the faculty and staff. Each participant wrote a poem about freedom and a video (see below) was made.