Fall 2009 Message from the President

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Message from President:
It has been four months since ThinkTank4. In that time, Integrative Teaching ThinkTank (ITT) has made tangible progress towards its educational goals and planning.

Most significantly, Anthony Fontana (Vice President for Communications) and Stacy Isenbarger have co-edited a publication, State of Play, with contributions from ThinkTank4 participants including Melanie Lowrance, Anna Kell, Kip Bradley, Michelle Illuminato, Oliver Schemm, Matt King, Danica Oudeans, and Chris Kienke. Board Secretary and Treasurer Adam Kallish has done yeoman's work in the design of the publication. State of Play can be downloaded here and will be available via print on demand in the near future.

State of Play came about through the initiative of ThinkTank4 participants. It was not a planned objective of the conference. Instead, it came about through ThinkTank's synergy. It is a great example of how artists seize opportunities and create unexpected outcomes.

Within this newsletter is information on ThinkTank5, scheduled for June 2-6, 2010 at the University of Georgia, in Athens. As ITT and ThinkTank become better known, it becomes easier to get the word out to segments of our core constituency. For example, we have lists of individuals who expressed direct interest in ThinkTank at both the FATE and NAEA 2009 conferences. However, there are important divisions of our consistency that we still need reach.

There are four areas of focus:

Designers who teach foundations are a particular concern. This may be a small group, as many designers choose not to teach foundations. Nevertheless, designers have been a critical part of ThinkTank since its inception and we need to find voices ready to contribute to the dialogue.

Second, we need to push hard at making sure that the new emerging educators who can benefit from the dialogue and networking opportunities of ThinkTank know about and understand the career significance of their participation. This is where the members of the Advisory Board can be of particular help. You are our national grass- roots organization. You know the young professionals at your local institutions who could benefit. If every one of our Advisory Board members could recruit three emerging educators to apply, we would be able to select from a dynamic pool of applicants. We want ThinkTank to be competitive. We want the best people participating.

Third, leadership is an area that needs to be developed. We need to connect with the administrators who set budgets and establish the conceptual parameters for learning objectives in foundations. We need to do more than assure great teaching in our individual classes. We need to be at the policy table and set the agenda. We need to establish the curricular ideas of ITT as the norm.

These educational leaders are certainly the department heads, or school and college directors to whom we report. They can also be the principals who set standards for the high schools that feed students into higher education foundations programs. Finally, it also includes those higher education administrators who realize that foundation courses do more than develop artists.

Foundations experience develops ways of problem seeking, problem solving, and assessment that are a valuable part of a liberal arts education. This summer, Dr. Zach Kelehear, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership/ Policies, University of South Carolina has joined the Board as Vice President for Policy to assist us as ITT develops this area of focus.

Fourth, we want to reach out to small, targeted group of high school educators who are open to bringing the new ideas and approaches of ITT and ThinkTank into the School Advance Placement Studio Arts and the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

Bringing all of these constituencies into the mix of ThinkTank5 will be a challenge. It remains a priority to keep the scale of ThinkTank small, focused, and intense. Our core mission is improving studio+design foundations. Therefore, we need to find key people, particularly in the last two categories.

Full information for applying to ThinkTank5 is in this newsletter. I look forward to seeing you in Athens in June 2010.

Richard Siegesmund
President
Integrative Teaching ThinkTank

Participants Sought For ThinkTank5

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Participants Sought For ThinkTank5:

Scheduled for University of Georgia, June 2-6, 2010

ThinkTank is a facilitated discussion and intensive workshop forum that is designed to improve Foundations teaching. We bring together emerging educators, master educators, and administrators from around the country to expand the theory and improve the practice of higher education in the 21st century. We anticipate 90 participants in 2010, and plan to follow up with a 48-page journal, providing sample assignments and describing our results.

As a high-intensity and small-scale project, ThinkTank participation is by invitation only. Applications simple, quick, and are submitted on-line. For ThinkTank5, we seek participants in three areas:

Emerging Educators are untenured faculty members, generally with two to seven years of full or part-time college teaching experience. We will offer ten Emerging Educator fellowships that will pay the cost of the event and lodging in the Georgia Center Conference hotel. Fellowship application details will be posted by August 30 and the deadline for application is December 30, 2009. Emerging educators can also fund participation on their own or use funds from their home departments.

Emerging Administrators are experienced teachers who are now seeking or have recently accepted the challenge of leading a Foundations program or Art Department. The opportunity to network with peers combined with discussions of curriculum design, leadership and strategic planning are especially valuable to these participants. Application deadline for Emerging Administrators is November 30.

Master Educators are experienced faculty members and administrators, generally with seven or more years of full-time college teaching experience, including substantial work with Foundations curriculum or coursework. For this group, ThinkTank provides an opportunity to share your knowledge while gathering fresh perspectives. Application deadline for these participants is January 30. 

 

In all cases, we seek participants that are:

· dedicated to developing the best possible Foundations education for the 21st century;

· high achievers as artists/designers/scholars;

· have strong leadership potential or a demonstrated record of leadership;

· willing to follow up on the event itself with a sample assignment, regional workshop, or peer-reviewed article for the new ThinkTank journal.

ThinkTank5 Agenda

ThinkTank5 Applicaton

Download ThinkTank5 Brochure (PDF)

A note to FATE Members: A strong partnership between FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory and Education) and ThinkTank is natural. FATE provides open access to the widest range of ideas and approaches. ThinkTank is an ideal forum for those interested in further in-depth discussions and those seeking to change their existing Foundations assignments, curricula or administrative strategies.

ThinkTank 4 Complete!

ThinkTank4 Stage 2 finished on Wednesday June 10th at the Georgia Center at UGA. Particpants were engaged by breakout groups that included:


• Critiques & Critical Thinking (Matt King, facilitator)
• Constructing Meaning (Peter Winant, facilitator)
• Leading Change (Mary Stewart, facilitator)

 

Slide Shows and Hands-on Workshops with Master Teachers:


• Drawing Intensive #1 & #2 with Cindy Hellyer-Heinz
• Composing Narrative, Traditional and Digital Approaches with Anthony Fontana
• Visual Structures, with Kristie Bruzenak
• Using MacGyver in the Classroom, with Tony Reynaldo
• 3D: Problems and Possibilities with Matt King

Stay up to date with information about ITT and ThinkTank5 adding this blog to your favorite RSS Reader (such as Google Reader) by following the "Blog RSS" feed in the right hand column of this page.

ThinkTank4: Stage 1 Complete!

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Stage one of Thinktank4 has been successfully completed. The four breakout sessions were intense, driven, and shared many common threads within this year's topic Divergence, Convergence, Emergence: Expanding Cross-Disciplinary Creativity.

The notes from this year's event have been posted to the wiki and will be viewable for a limited time. You will hear more about their findings over the course of the next several months.

Breakout Groups:

Find us on Facebook and Twitter

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Picture 4 We have set up a Facebook page for the Integrative Teaching Thinktank at http://tr.im/IntegrativeTeachingTT. Log into Facebook to become a Fan! There is also an event listed for TT4 where participants may RSVP.


These pages may be used to upload pics, notes, and start discussions about TT4.

Do you Twitter? We will be using the hashtag #TT4 for all Tweets regarding ThinkTank4. You can follow the RSS feed here: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23tt4

You may also follow along on the right hand side of this blog under the heading "TT4 on Twitter (#TT4).

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Fair Use of Photo Reference

This month I want to talk about a couple of contemporary artists and fair use of photo reference.

I first became aware of Elizabeth Peyton’s work in early 2007 as I was preparing my Everything is Appropriated in a Post Modern World session for NAEA (National Art Education Association http://www.arteducators.org/olc/pub/NAEA/home/) and for a panel discussion by the same name at FATE (http://76.162.42.140/index.html)

I rather like many of her images, and I think they are important in the conversation I have with art students about how they use photo reference that they did not shoot.  Elizabeth-peyton The controversy (if there is one) is that she often uses compositions directly from photo reference of pop icons as her painting inspiration.  She has an amazing career as a contemporary American painter with a recent retrospective at the New Museum in New York City http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/400 and the cover of the February 09 Art in America.  In the AiA article about her by Nadia Tscherny no controversy is alluded to in any way.  While Ms Tscherny admits that Peyton collected photographs from magazines for pictorial inspiration, she goes on to say “The transformative power of her vision becomes especially apparent when a photographic source is compared to the painting it inspired.”  W magazine commissioned Peyton to paint Michelle and Sasha Obama.  Here are the links to W http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2008/11/elizabeth_peyton and a site that compares the image to its photo reference and a famous photo of Coretta Scott King with Bernice KingMichelle obama

http://michelleobamawatch.com/sometimes-a-painting-is-just-a-painting-elizabeth-peyton-painting-controversy

 

While Elizabeth Peyton gets accolades for her adaptations, Shepard Fairey is definitely in the hot seat about his now famous graphic portraits of Obama used to benefit his Presidential campaign

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29023218/

Fairey obama

This online article offers a well researched critique of Fairey before the current accusations http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm  I love Fairey’s aesthetic, but it looks like I could end up with my art on his T-shirt if he decides he likes mine!  This shows that there is no formula for using the photo reference of others.  I think it is a question for each artist to address. 

This is a YouTube link to hear a little from the artist directly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVY8PXr3z90 This is specifically about the Obama work - but not about the controversy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxhgIoXzMrQ&NR=1

If you are on Facebook and you care to comment on the Shepard Fairey controversy, visit this link to Portfolio Creative Staffing’s discussion board http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/updates.php?id=38216235776&sent=1&e=0#/pages/Portfolio-Creative-Staffing/38216235776

go to their discussion board topic

Legal Wrangling over Obama Hope Poster--Right or Wrong?

I think it is so important for artists to carefully consider how they are using, borrowing and manipulating the images of others.  After all, the artist being referenced could be us.

Brooke Hunter-Lombardi

Independent Art and Education Consultant, TT Board member



 

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ThinkTank4 Stage Two Fellowship Award Winners Announced

ThinkTank has chosen the following emerging educators as participants in the Stage Two of ThinkTank4 at the University of Georgia, Athens from June 5-10, 2009:

Kip Bradley, Adjunct Faculty of Foundations and Painting, Savannah College of Art and Design
Amanda Burnham, Foundations Coordinator at Towson University
M. Michelle Illuminato, Alfred University
Stacy Isenbarger, MFA candidate in Sculpture, University of Georgia
Anna Kell, MFA candidate in Painting, University of Florida
Selena Kimball, Hunter College
Melanie Lowrance, University of Central Missouri
Erin Mcintosh, MFA candidate in Painting and Drawing, University of Georgia
Danica Oudeans-Coale, University of Wisconsin − Barron County
Oliver Shemm, MFA candidate, Florida State University
Rena Leinberger, Foundation Coordinator, State University of New York − New Paltz
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ThinkTank4 at UGA - Payment and Lodging Information

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For those stage one and stage two attendees that have been contacted by Richard or Mary, please send in your deposit and inquire about lodging for the dates based on the agenda sent to you.

1) Amount of Deposit
$50 to hold your place at TT4

2) Checks Payable to University of Georgia

3) Send checks to : 
Richard Siegesmund, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Art Education
University of Georgia
Lamar Dodd School of Art
270 River Road
Athens, GA 30602-4102

4) Room reservations
Room reservations will be available soon on-line through the Georgia Center for Continuing Education

1-800-884-1381 or 706-542-2134 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
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ThinkTank4 Fellowship Forms

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Thinktank 4: A 21st Century Foundations Program Emerging Educators’ Fellowship
University of Georgia - Athens, June 5 to 10, 2009
Deadline – December 30, 2008
Notification – March 25, 2009

Carefully review the criteria and information Download TT4_Fellowship_Instructions.pdf (184.3K). Then complete and submit all required information and the Download TT4_Form_final.doc (86.0K) (auto-fill Microsoft Word document. Save the file with your name, and send applications to Mary Stewart at mstewart3@fsu.edu.

Do not surface mail any forms or recommendations. Send everything via e-mail to Mary Stewart.

Ten $1,000 fellowships will be awarded to support participation by emerging teachers and administrators of studio art foundations programs in Thinktank4, to be held at the University of Georgia, Athens.


Jurors

Julie Morrisroe
Foundations Coordinator
University of Florida

Rusty Smith
Chair, First-Year Programs
School of Architecture, Auburn University

Peter Winant
Coordinator of Studio Fundamentals, George Mason University


ThinkTank is a pilot program, designed to develop the curriculum for the Institute and create connections between emerging educators and master teachers. Both are designed to help junior faculty quickly gain great teaching skills, develop professional networks, and better meet NASAD standards.

Who is eligible?
1. Current MFA candidates, or recent MFA recipients, with at least 1 semester of Foundations teaching experience.
2. Design professionals, with at least 1 semester of Foundations teaching experience.
3. Foundations Coordinators, with at least 2 semesters of Foundations leadership experience.

What is Integrative Teaching?
Thinktank4 is designed for studio artists who are interested in teaching at the college level. Integrative teaching creates connections between your personal creativity and creativity in your teaching.

What are your responsibilities?
Prior to the ThinkTank, a list of required readings will be sent to all participants. Participants must attend all ThinkTank sessions, and will be required to submit two assignment sheets and one syllabus for the ThinkTank Archive.

Why attend?
ThinkTank4 is a great opportunity to expand your skills, knowledge, and experience, and puts you in direct contact with higher education experts. Past ThinkTanks have attracted studio artists, designers, and art educators from around the country.

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Announcing ThinkTank4

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ThinkTank4's theme will be "Cross-Disciplinary Creativity" at the University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art from June 5-11, 2009.

The 21st century workplace is increasingly complex and demands the development of technical, transformational, and empathetic skills. Competitive workers will need to work in teams, forge connections between content across diverse disciplines, and pursue new imaginative insights. At the same time, the arts will maintain a classic role of forging community and articulating public values. What forms of thinking can best prepare artists and designers to gain from and contribute to our evolving 21st world?

Fellowship applications for Stage2 will be posted soon. The projected fellowship deadline: December 30, 2008.

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ThinkTank3 Feedback

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ThinkTank3, held at the Art Institute of Chicago in June, 2008 was the first ThinkTank that had a "Stage 2" for emerging educators. Below is some post-event commentary:

Think Tank III was an amazing experience and so incredibly helpful. If I could sum it up in one word it would be "Tangible." The entire experience provide me and my peers with tangible, useful, practical, straight forward and comprehensive tools to use in our teaching. What I found most helpful were the small group discussions and the "class room workshops."
Tom Ferrero, MFA, Indiana University

I can't tell you how much TT3 helped me in regards to our program at WVU. I have already called a meeting of our Foundations instructors to discuss and begin implementing things that I picked up while in Chicago. Jason Lee, Assistant Professor, Sculpture Department
Foundations Coordinator, Division of Art, West Virginia University

I took away great insights into what my peers are up to and what's going on in foundations programs around the US.  The experience was invaluable and the time in Chicago was memorable!  I'll look forward to crossing paths with you and the other TT3'rs in the years to come.
Hope Ginsburg, Assistant Professor, Art Foundations
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

What you have created with Think Tank is awe inspiring and awesome.  You said one morning in a breakout session that a strong Foundation program will bubble up and influence and create stronger upper division programs--I BELIEVE that Think Tank will bubble up and make stronger art programs across the country.  It makes me feel so excited about the future higher education in the arts, as well as connected to other programs in a meaningful way--thus endowing my deep sense of purpose with even greater depth.   Dawn Hunter, Foundations Coordinator, University of South Carolina

I would like to say what a wonderful experience the whole Chicago think tank was. I left with a changed perception on what a powerful force open sharing and heart full interaction makes. ..The positive feedback and the people I had a chance to meet is inspiring, the amount of positive energy you produced through one weekend I could have never expected.
David McLeish, MFA Candidate, Florida State University

I can't tell you what a fantastic learning experience it has been to partake in the conference. I am walking away so completely inspired and excited to re-visit/re-write/re-work and re-interpret my past syllabi/curriculum and now to finally have the tools and examples to begin to implement those changes!…These few days have deeply impacted my entire sense of myself and my role as both a student and emerging educator--I'm still wrapping my head around all that I have gathered.
Erin Obradovich, MFA candidate
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

I cannot thank you enough for including me in Think Tank 3.  It was such a valuable experience, and I am already including much I learned in my own offerings for k-12 professional development as well as plans for teaching my BFA students in the Fall.
Brooke Hunter-Lombardi, Columbus College of Art & Design
Educator Outreach Coordinator

As an aspiring educator I think that I was also one of the people who benefited the most from interacting with those a step ahead of me as well as the more experienced stage 1 educators. Since this is a new direction for Think Tank, I especially wanted to extend my appreciation and let you know that I think what you are doing is really important.
Magda Gluzek, MFA candidate, University of Florida

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ThinkTank3 Fellows Chosen

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Fifteen $1000 have been awarded this year. Candidates and final fellows represent exemplary junior faculty from across the nation. Our four jurors looked for the following strengths:

• candidate’s strengths and potential as an artist and/or scholar
• candidate’s knowledge of the fundamentals and/or the history of art and design;
• accomplishments to date as a foundations teacher;
• potential as an full-time college teacher;
• potential as a an eventual leader in the field of higher education.

The jurors also sought geographical distribution, a range of experience and a range of artistic disciplines (from Photo to Ceramics to Sculpture, etc.)


ThinkTank3 Fellows

Kjellgren Alkire teaches Foundations in the Maricopa Community College system and facilitates the BFA capstone course at Arizona State University. His various blends of printmaking, installation and performance interrogate and celebrate both evangelical preaching traditions and the mythology of the American West. He encourages his students towards intentional alignment of media, content, and form.

Carrie Anne Baade (pronounced baa`da as in Badda Bing) is an Assistant Professor of Painting/Drawing & Foundations at Florida State University. Historical materials and techniques inform her courses and her paintings, with leanings toward Pop Surrealism and the “New Old Masters.” She received a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Masters in Painting from the University of Delaware.

Mariah Doren is currently teaching the Graduate Teaching Practicum at SUNY Purchase and Advanced Photography at Teachers College, Columbia University while pursuing an EdDCT (Doctorate in Art Education, College Teaching) at that same institution. Her current work is a collaborative project with printmaker, Johanna Paas that investigates a shared interest in the tension between order that is innate and that which is imposed. The work seeks to apply the sensibility of the conceptual inquiry to the process of collaboration itself, resulting in layered, mixed media, overlapping images.

Thaddeus Erdahl makes figurative ceramic work that references the anomalies of human communication. He is interested in progressive approaches to education.

Tom Ferrero is currently a 3D design instructor in the Fine Arts department at Indiana University. He is a metal sculptor and jewelry artist whose work references the genres of science fiction and fantasy art. As a teacher, he emphasizes design theory and craftsmanship and wishes to integrate these concepts into his 2D design and drawing classes through the development of new syllabi.

Magda Gluszek is a 2008 MFA candidate at the University of Florida ceramics program. Her figurative sculptures investigate the psychological state of female adolescence and the internal conflict between natural and cultural influences. As a teacher, she is interested in developing engaging projects for introductory 3-D design courses.

Shannan Lee Hayes is a MFA candidate and Foundations: Idea and Form Instructor at Stony Brook University. Her current sculptural and video works investigate the poetics of identity, space and language, with a particular interest in the phenomenology of emotion and perception. Shannan asks her students to consider, What about process, material, and the formal elements of design best support your idea? and, Where do you locate your viewer?

Dawn Hunter is currently an Assistant Professor and the Foundations Coordinator at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Her current work analyzes the historical propaganda found within fashion photography and its ability to cultivate a contemporary pop body image through consumerism. She is particularly interested in having students create suites of projects that have an evolutionary link within the processes of discovery, perception, interpretation,
deconstruction, and re-construction.

Jason Lee is currently the Foundations Coordinator at West Virginia University. For the last 3 years Lee has been continually evolving his expansive multiple project focusing on the creation of a modular environment. While at WVU, Lee has focused his teaching efforts on creating a cohesive foundations experience for incoming art students.

Mary Magsamen received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and she is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Houston. She and her husband, Stephan Hillerbrand, make collaborative performance based videos and photographs. Their work has been included in exhibitions and video screenings nationally and internationally.

Sara Pedigo is an Assistant Professor in the Foundations Program at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Sara’s current work focuses on isolated moments that speak to the experience of memory and loss. This is an attempt to find visual representations for the experience of losing a mother. As a teacher, she engages students by forging connections between artistic practice and students’ everyday lives.

Gary Setzer is an Assistant Professor and the Division Chair of Foundations at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His work frequently celebrates the humor and poetry of language’s inconsistencies and can incorporate performance, installation and video as tools to plot different functions of representation. Always interested in blurring the disciplines, Setzer is also an active experimental musician. He is currently re-imagining the first year program at the University of Arizona.

Caleb Taylor is currently completing his MFA in Painting at Montana State University-Bozeman. His work investigates the possibilities of physical action and intuition through abstractions of internal anatomy. As a teacher, he directs his students to define a personal vocabulary through the development of observation skills, conceptual problem-solving, and historical awareness.

Brent Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Art at West Virginia State University, where he teaches Drawing and Graphic Design. His work combines old knowledge as in quotes or belief systems to a changed landscape. He uses this to gather a greater understanding of his heritage and how that relates his place within his own social confines of history and the environment. As an instructor he tries to marry the technical aspects of foundations and place it within a contemporary context and theory.

Angela Harden Wilson graduated with a MFA degree in Photography from the University of Arizona in May 2007. She is currently an instructor for The Showcase School of Photography in Atlanta, Georgia. Her artwork displays issues of domesticity and female identity in American culture. As a teacher Angela is interested in continuing to develop new approaches to teaching technical skill while simultaneously inspiring creativity.


ThinkTank3 Alternate Fellowships

Emily Keown currently works as an instructor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.
She has spent the past 3 years teaching at Virginia Tech and at Radford University in the foundation arts program. She teaches with as many tools as she can get her hands on, helping students ask the question “What makes art?” Much like in her studio practice, she is always trying something new.

Chuck Carbia is an adjunct professor at Florida State University and Chipola College. Chuck's paintings deal with meditative process and humility. Chuck has also been a part of many performance groups. The performances involve pushing the spectacle of costume and music while allowing the viewer to remain closely connected through familiar character representation or popular songs. As a teacher, Chuck strives to make his students more aware of their potential in the contemporary art world through projects that investigate their personal beliefs.

Lori Kent is an assistant professor of Visual Studies at Kutztown University. She received a doctoral degree in the College Teaching of Art/Art Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College in 2001. The study of Critical and Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, (MA 1992) and work in numerous museums began her research in critical theory + pedagogy. Her current artwork is focused on public art in New Orleans–– community building, memory, and place.

Trish Limbaugh is currently a faculty member in the Department of Visual Arts at Frostburg State University (Maryland). Her areas of teaching emphasis are two- and three-dimensional design and art appreciation. In addition, she coordinates a first-year learning community for freshman BFA students that focuses on experiential education. As a ceramist, Trish explores the abstracted forms of nature

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Announcing Thinktank 4

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Divergence, Convergence, Emergence: Expanding Cross-Disciplinary Creativity

The 21st century workplace is increasingly complex and demands the development of technical, transformational, and empathetic skills. Competitive workers will need to work in teams, forge connections between content across diverse disciplines, and pursue new imaginative insights. At the same time, the arts will maintain a classic role of forging community and articulating public values. What forms of thinking can best prepare artists and designers to gain from and contribute to our evolving 21st world?

Location: University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art
Projected Dates: June 5-11, 2009
Projected fellowship deadline: December 30, 2008

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ThinkTank3 Announced

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ThinkTank 3 will be held June 6 to 11, 2008 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It will be facilitated by Mary Stewart, Foundations Program Director at Florida State University & Jim Elniski, Department of Art Education and Director, First Year Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The event is by invitation only.

One session will focus on bringing together MFA Candidates, Recent MFA Graduates, Beginning Adjuct Professors, and Emerging Adminstrators. Another session will bring together experienced foundations faculty and administrators with some participants from session one to discuss trends in foundations. The two sessions are overlapped by a few days to encourage emerging and master teachers and administrators to interact.

ThinkTank is a facilitated forum of the Institute for Integrated Teaching which brings together art and design master teachers, administrators & emerging educators to address thematic issues of higher education. By linking educational theory to studio practice, we develop innovative new approaches to higher education. An emerging educator is a current MFA student or adjunct instructor who is entering the professoriate.

Please download TT3_Brochure.pdf

For more information, please contact Mary Stewart or Jim Elniski.

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Institute for Integrative Teaching Thinktank3 Fellowships

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Fifteen $1,000 fellowships will be awarded to support participation by emerging educators and administrators of studio art foundations programs in Thinktank3, to be held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, June 7-11, 2008.

The fellowship will cover the cost of registration and lodging for Thinktank3 cost ($650.) Additional grant funds may be applied towards travel, food and other expenses associated with attending the conference. Participants are encouraged to seek additional travel funds, as needed, from their home institutions.

The Institute for Integrative Teaching (IIT) is an intensive practice-based educational experience that is designed to improve teaching and learning at the college level through support for art + design educators. Thinktank is a pilot program, designed to develop the curriculum for the Institute and create connections between emerging educators and master teachers. Both are designed to help junior faculty quickly gain great teaching skills, develop professional networks, and better meet NASAD standards.

Who is eligible?
Current MFA candidates, or recent MFA recipients, with at least 1 semester of Foundations teaching experience.
Current Phd or MAT candidates in Art Education, with at least 1 semester of Foundations teaching experience. Your experience may be in a lecture course, and you need some studio background as well.
Design professionals, with at least 1 semester of Foundations teaching experience.
Foundations Coordinators, with at least 2 semesters of Foundations leadership experience.

What is Integrative Teaching?
Thinktank3 is designed for studio artists and educators who are interested in teaching at the college level. Integrative teaching creates connections between your personal creativity and creativity in your teaching.

What are your responsibilities?
Prior to the Thinktank, a list of required readings will be sent to all participants. Participants must attend all Thinktank sessions, and will be required to submit two assignment sheets and one syllabus for the Thinktank Archive.

Why attend?
Thinktank3 is a great opportunity to expand your skills, knowledge, and experience, and puts you in direct contact with higher education experts. Past Thinktanks have attracted studio artists, designers, and art educators from around the country.

Jurors
Melody Millbrandt
NAEA Higher Education Division Director and Associate Professor of Art Education, Georgia State University

Julia Morrisroe
Foundations Coordinator, University of Florida

Rusty Smith
Chair, First-Year Programs, School of Architecture, Auburn University

Peter Winant
Director of Studio Fundamentals, George Mason University

Download the following two documents for guidelines and submittal forms:

Download IIT_fellowship.pdf

Deadline – December 30, 2007
Notification – March 25, 2008

Download TT3_Form.doc


Download TT3_Form.doc

Download iit_fellowship.pdf

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ThinkTank 2 Documents

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Overview
THINKTANK 2

Teaching the 3 C's: Critical Theory, Critical Thinking, Critique Strategies

University of Georgia, Athens, May 22-24, 2007

Catalyst: Mary Stewart, Florida State University
Director of ThinkTank 2, Richard Siegesmund, University of Georgia

How are undergraduates entering the visual arts major prepared for understanding art as a process of analysis and inquiry? How can graduate students, who frequently are the instructor of record in foundations courses, be better prepared for teaching with linguistic tools that develop and refine visual thinking? These two questions guided the discussions at ThinkTank 2.

ThinkTank is a yearly forum that discusses the future of foundation art programs and creates focused activities linking educational objectives to learning goals. It has evolved out of the commitment of a national network of art educators, and their respective institutions, who are concerned with undergraduate students' introductory training in the visual arts. With the support of Foundations in Art: Theory & Education (FATE) and the Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, ThinkTank 2 brought together 32 individuals for two and a half days to address issues of foundations curriculum involving critical theory, critical thinking, and critique (the 3 C's).

Crittheory03_2




Critical Theory Break-Out Group

Out of these discussions, ThinkTank 2 has produced a primer intended for immediate use by novice foundation teachers. This is a practical guide to thinking about the content of teaching in a foundation program, with specific recommendations for strategies and teaching assignments for incorporating the 3 C's into instruction. It may also be of interest to experienced foundations teachers who would like to reflect on and improve their existing practice. Along with the primer, a complete set of notes and images of notes is available for those who are interested in going deeper into the deliberative process of ThinkTank 2. These materials are available below for download.

Critthink01





Critical Thinking Break-Out Group

Besides obtaining information about ThinkTank from this website, we ask that you also return and post your comments about these materials.  Were they helpful?  How did you use them? What was your experience in the classroom? How would you extend the ideas presented in the primer?

In addition, you can use the webpage to learn about upcoming ThinkTank events.

ThinkTank's objective is to develop a community of learners, who are committed to robust education in the visual arts. The webpage is the center of this community. We look forward to your participation.

Critique_day2_01



Critique Strategies Break-Out Group

Long term, ThinkTank 3 is currently planned for summer 2008 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ultimately, ThinkTank is working toward the creation of its own Institute for Integrated Teaching in the Arts that mentors new educators in best practices. As the abilities to think imaginatively, analyze visual meaning, and collaborate with others are critical skills to designing the future, the Institute for Integrated Teaching in the Arts would be a cross-disciplinary center with the visual arts, visual thinking, and visual experience at its core.

Critthink02


Critical Thinking Break-Out Group


Downloads from ThinkTank 2

THINKTANK 2 PRIMER. Teaching the 3 C's: Critical Theory, Critical Thinking, Critique Strategies (August, 2007). Editors, Mary Stewart & Richard Siegesmund
    A introductory guide for new foundations teachers
    Download ThinkTankPrimer.pdf

THINKTANK 2 NOTES: CRITICAL THEORY Break-Out Group
Facilitator: Jim Elniski; Recorder Katherine McGuire 
     Working notes from ThinkTank May 22-24, 2007
      Download CritTheoryRawNotes2007.pdf

THINKTANK 2 NOTES: CRITICAL THINKING Break-Out Group.
Facilitator:  Mary Stewart; Recorder: Jodi Kushins
    Working notes from ThinkTank May 22-24, 2007 
    Download CriticalThinkingRawNotes2007.pdf

THINKTANK 2 NOTES: CRITIQUE STRATEGIES Break-Out Group
Facilitators:  Carole Henry and Renee Sandell; Recorder: Erin McIntosh
    Working notes from ThinkTank May 22-24, 2007
    Download CritiqueRawNotes2007.pdf


More pictures From ThinkTank 2

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Initial Findings from ThinkTank II

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ThinkTank II, an initiative of Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE), met May 22-24 at the University of Georgia. Thirty- two higher education professors in foundations and art education attended the invitational workshop. Participants addressed two major issues.

1. How can undergraduates entering the visual arts major be prepared for understanding art as a process of analysis and inquiry?

2. How can the graduate students and adjunct teachers who teach the majority of Foundations courses be better prepared for teaching these core skills?

To address these issues, working groups formed around each theme. Jim Elniski facilitated Critical Theory. Mary Stewart facilitated Critical Thinking. Carole Henry and Renee Sandell facilitated Critique.

Besides developing ideas and approaches for curriculum, each group found that the intellectual skills it identified were by no means proprietary to the visual arts. The habits of mind and forms of analysis developed in each of the 3 C’s are arguably broad general skills for the 21st century workplace. From this point of view, teaching art is more than teaching art. Thus, the potential audience for Foundations courses extends far beyond the visual arts major.

Mary Stewart will be posting more detailed notes as they become available, as well as future ThinkTank events.

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ThinkTank II Participants Announced

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ThinkTank II is a mixture of ThinkTank I attendees and new participants in order to blend last year's experience with emerging content for this year's event. The goal is to focus on Teaching the 3 C's: Critical Theory, Critical Thinking, Critique Strategies through a workshop format.

Facilitators
James Elniski, Foundations Head, Art Institute of Chicago
Mary Stewart, Foundations, Florida State University
Richard Siegesmund, Art Education, University of Georgia/Athens

Attendees
Dean Adams, Foundations Montana State University
Debra Ambush, AP Institute, Goucher College
John Baldacchino, Art Education, Teachers College
Charlotte Collins, Foundations, Kennesaw State University
John Dimino, Chair/Art, Darton College
Edmund Feldman, Emeritus/Criticism, University of Georgia/Athens
Timothy Flowers, Foundations, Georgia State University
Cheryl Goldsleger, Foundations, Georgia State University
Cynthia Hellyer - Heinz, Foundations, Northern Illinois, University
L A Hightower, Chair/ Art Education, Kennesaw State University
Jodi Kushkins, Graduate Student, Ohio State University
Bruce Little, Art Ed/Foundations, Georgia Southern
David Mcleish, Graduate Student, Florida State University
Martha Macleish, Foundations, Indiana University
Erin Mcintosh, Graduate Student, University of Georgia/Athens
Katherine Mcguire, Graduate Student, University of Georgia/Athens
Melody Milbrandt, Art Education, Georgia State University
Julia Morrisroe, Foundations, University of Florida
Lara Nguyen, Foundaitons, Indiana University
Craig Roland, Art Education, University of Florida
Amy Sacksteder, Foundations, Eastern Michigan University
Renee Sandell, Art Education, George Mason University
Joe Sanders, Director, Florida State University
Rusty Smith, Design Foundation, Auburn University
Peter Winant, Foundations, George Mason University
Carole Henry, Art Education, University of Georgia/Athens
Chris Hocking, Foundations, University of Georgia/Athens
Larry Millard, Graduate Studies, University of Georgia/Athens
Georgia Strange, Director, University of Georgia/Athens
Martijn Van Wagtendonk, Foundations, University of Georgia/Athens
Shannon Wilder, Service Learning, University of Georgia/Athens

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