July 6, 2019
Art educators from several local districts gathered at the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) for a day of art-making and pedagogy workshops. Workshops facilitated by the Onstead Institute included Life Casting with Alginate, The Sky' the Limit: Building an Energetic & Growing Art Program, and Visual Literacy.
MFA sculpture student Heather Hoskins led the Life Casting workshop in CVAD's very own sculpture studio. Participating educators learned how to make molds using their fingers and hands and Alja-Safe, a non-toxic material, and then used fast-setting resin to cast. The workshop also included discussion on how to incorporate the process into an art classroom and the best materials to use to create molds. Lucy Bartholomee, a recent UNT Art Education PhD graduate, led another workshop focused on developing a successful art program. Educators discussed successful strategies and resources available at their campuses that could help them start or enhance projects such as an active art club, developing higher level art courses, and retaining talented students. This workshop also included time to begin developing action plans and time for sharing challenges and brainstorming possible solutions. The educators were also able to visit and get a first glimpse of the new CVAD Art Gallery during their visit. The Gallery, which is open to the public, curates several exhibits each year, including both traveling exhibits and works from its permanent collection. Using current work on view, Art Education graduate student Shoshana McIntosh led a workshop on visual literacy in the art classroom. Participants took part in a visual literacy activity which called for close observation, description, analysis, and interpretation, and then discussed ways to develop visual literacy skills in students in order to help them critically navigate our visually stimulating world.
In addition to these workshops, the Onstead Institute helped secure rooms for additional workshops that TAEA had organized for the educators. Participants received Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credit for the workshops they attended.
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