Grant will allow students to sample working with professional artists

by Maggie Neil / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Principal Ken Lockette wants the walls of Avonworth High School to be alive and vibrant -- not drab and institutional.

He also wants his students to know what it's like to work in the professional world and to prepare them for an increasingly competitive environment.

Thanks to a $10,000 grant from The Sprout Fund's Hive Fund for Connected Learning, the high school in Ohio Township is hoping to fulfill Mr. Lockette's visions through the Avonworth Pittsburgh Galleries Project.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-north/grant-will-allow-students-to-sample-working-with-professional-artists-697692/#ixzz2arvqRpDo

The plan is to connect 30 to 50 high school students with five arts institutions in the Pittsburgh region: The Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh Glass Center and Toonseum of Pittsburgh.

On being an artist and an arts educator...

by Sue Lemmo, a 22 year veteran visuals arts teacher
in Pennsylvania, a member of the PSEA Board of Directors,

the NEA Fine Arts Caucus Executive Board and a vibrant,
energetic and insightful  NEA leader for an arts education

for all of America's students.

Arts educators face many challenges today...in the political climate we live in, just keeping our fine arts programs alive and funded can be a monumental task. In Pennsylvania, after three years of draconian budget cuts many school districts are once again cutting or completely eliminating fine arts programs. And those of us who still remain on the job find ourselves doing more and more with fewer resources. Throw in the demands of our day to day lives and being an arts educator can be just plain exhausting.

Don't get me wrong, I just finished my 22nd year as a visual arts teacher in a small rural Pennsylvania school district. And I love what I do. There is nothing like the feeling I get when one of my students accomplishes a challenging task, creates a stunningly beautiful piece of art, or just feels stronger about their place in the world because of the work we do together in my classroom. Did I mention that I still love what I do?

But maintaining a classroom environment with that kind of drive and energy can sometimes make me forget about my own creative self. Between my  advocacy as a local and region union president, my work with

It is appropriate that this original post
celebrates our 300th post on the NEA
Fine Arts Caucus blogsite.  WTG Sue!

other labor organizations through my position as treasurer of my Central Labor Council, raising two daughters (one in high school and one in college), taking care of two sets of elderly parents (the youngest being 87 years old) and making sure our house doesn't look like an episode of "Hoarders" (Did I mention that I don't love cleaning?) actually making art just seems to get pushed aside.

Over the years I have recognized that my art making energies seem to experience peaks and valleys. So I allow myself to have those times when I am not as actively engaged in creating in-depth time consuming pieces. I have learned that just because I am not in the studio cranking out art doesn't mean that I am letting my creative mind rust away. On the contrary, those times are often when I am generating ideas, doing research, or allowing myself time for creative play. If I don't allow myself those down times I am actually less productive in the studio.

That said, I have been in this valley too long! I have decided that over the next two months, I am going to do my warm ups. So every day, I plan to spend at least 15 minutes doing something that is entirely selfish and productively creative...either getting my hands a little messy in the studio or working on those rough drafts of the stories for books that sometimes wake me up in the middle of the night in the hopes that getting back in the habit will push towards a peak and out of this valley. This post, is Day 1.

Measuring Student Creativity Topic of New Report

by  Erik Robelen on February 1, 2013 4:55 PM

from EDUCATION WEEK

Can student creativity be assessed in a meaningful way? Should it even be evaluated? And if so, how? These are some of the questions explored in a new working paper published by the global Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"Creativity is widely accepted as being an important outcome of schooling," according to the paper, by researchers at the Centre for Real-World Learning at the University of Winchester in England. "Yet there are many different viewpoints about what it is, how best it can be cultivated in young people, and whether or how it should be assessed."

The research comes at a time when U.S. political and business leaders increasingly are raising concerns about the need to better nurture creativity and innovative thinking in young people. In fact, last year I wrote about a push in several states to develop a "creativity index" for schools.

More Resources for Art Educators

Thanks to our friend Jennifer Jenkins for sharing even more great art education resources from online university.  Lots of links to online museum exhibits and on painters.  We appreciate your contribution Jennifer.

Visual art is one of the oldest forms of human expression, stretching all the way back to the cave paintings at el Castillo in Northern Spain to the massive installations by Damien Hurst in the 1990s. This resource will concentrate mainly on visual art, such as sculpture, painting, ceramics and drawing, some specific periods and movements in the history of art and galleries and influential museums which house online resources for those interested in viewing art and learning more about particular forms.

Art Education Links

 

 

Art Integration Tools and Resources

1.) Art History Resources on the Web is a place to find various Art from different countries and time periods. A valuable resource for students who might be interested in trying to recreate a famous piece of artwork, or make their own rendition. 

2.) Smarthistory.org is a free, not-for-profit, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook.

3.) Art Education 2.0 is a Social Network for Art Teachers to share, discuss, and find other teachers who are using technology in the art classroom.

4.) Artsonia is the words largest online database of art created by students and shared by students. It is a chance to get your student’s work displayed for the world to see.