October 2011Educators Showcase: Kristin Skees

Kristin Skees’ artwork combines traditional women’s craft, contemporary DIY culture, and a love of the unexpected and absurd. In her current interdisciplinary project, Cozy Portraits, Kristin creates custom cozies for her photography subjects, who are often close friends and family. Like an ill-fitting handmade sweater, the cozies are about the claustrophobia and absurdity of relationships. Some of the portraits take a week to complete, and some take a year. From beginning to end, the piece is defined by the relationship, dialog, and collaboration with the person being cozied. This work is currently being exhibited in the show Cozied at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s ArtLab. Kristin received her MFA from the University of Arizona, and also has a MLIS from the University of Alabama. Last year she was awarded an Emerging Educator Fellowship from ITI. Kristin currently teaches Digital Photography, Video Art and 2D Design at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.

Kristin Skees Portfolio

   

Kristin Skees Website

Assignment: Squares of Communication

click here to download Full Text of the Assignment

Squares of Communication: Student Work Examples

Materials: 6 x 6 inch designs made with black Artagain paper on 8.5 x 11 inch worksheets, flush mounted to bristol board

  

click on images above for larger view

September 2011 Educators Showcase: Lucy Curzon

Lucy Curzonteaches Modern and Contemporary Art History as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Her research interests vary from investigating ideas of national identity, gender, and sexuality in painting and photography to focusing on the exploration of how Art History and Studio curricula could better communicate with one another through active and collaborative learning strategies and new forms of teaching technology.  With regard to the latter, Curzon is currently focused on investigating the pedagogical value of collaborative social networking and other web-based media, for which she recently won a teaching grant to support her implementation of many of these ideas in large, lecture-based classrooms. Working with PI Dr. Brian Evans (University of Alabama), she is also a faculty associate on an NSF-funded ‘CreativeIT’ project.  Curzon received her PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester. 

Assignment: Using Blogs as a Pedagogical Tool

click here for Full Text of Assignment

Student Blog Examples

click on images above for larger view

Connecting the Dots: F.A.T.E. Regional Forum

 

 The University of West Georgia’s Department of Art will host a F.A.T.E. Regional Forum this fall called Connecting the Dots: Creating an Innovative Foundations Program that Works.  The conference will be held September 23-24, 2011 and the conference registration fee is $35.  All foundations instructors are invited to participate.
 
Conference Description:  Many Foundations programs are segmented into various areas (Beginning Art History, 2D and 3D design, Drawing), yet these classes are all interconnected in many ways. Students see Foundations classes as hoops they have to jump through to get to the classes they really want to take. The challenge is how to communicate to them what we already know—that these classes are crucial in laying the foundation for advanced work, and that advanced work will not succeed without dedication to the foundations of art. Foundations courses are not independent islands, but dots that need to be connected.

Our job is to help students connect the dots, quite literally, and to show them the whole picture that emerges once the dots are connected. Encouraging a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching will allow students to “connect the dots” between classes and allow faculty to build synergy between foundation courses.  Dialogue begins Friday evening and concludes Saturday afternoon.

Presentations:
Keynote Address and Artist Talk—Nancy Palmeri, University of Texas-Arlington
Contemporary Art Foundations—Mary Stewart, Florida State University
Drawing Machines—Kariann Fuqua, Columbus State University
Vector Self-Portraits/Variations—Angela Horne, Armstrong Atlantic University

For more information please visit here.

Coordinators: Clint Samples, Stephanie Smith, Casey McGuire, Rebecca Reynolds, Eilis Crean and Erin Dixon

 

Current Exhibitions of Martina Lantin, TT6 Emerging Educator Fellowship recipient

Martina Latin at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center 

 

"For her site-specific installation at BMAC, ceramic artist Martina Lantin turned her eye to the Union Railroad Station’s decorative period details, which over the years have been fractured and painted over. Focusing on the corridor between the former station’s waiting room and its parcel express area, Lantin chose to create a new passageway befitting a museum.

Working in collaboration with a skateboard ramp designer, she has given us a vaulted ceiling edged by period molding—some original and some a ceramic re-creation—and embellished it with rosettes. Lantin’s remarkable dexterity with clay and mastery of glazes fuse with BMAC’s historic public space, enriching our experience of history, place, and community."

 Martina Latin at Baltimore Clayworks

  

- an intimate exhibition of altered hand built and thrown functional work.  

Announcing ThinkTank7!

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ThinkTank 7  


Foundations Now
June 6-9, 2012
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Apply Now! DEADLINE - Dec. 31st, 2011

Agenda here!

Foundations Now will explore ways of integrating the ever-changing models, methods, motivations, and practices of contemporary art and design into foundational art courses. Exploring ways in which foundational curricula can respond to 21st century needs, we will compare emerging pracitces and motivations to existing models. Building on ideas generated by ThinkTank6: Leading Change, TT7 will continue to consider ways in which foundational coursework sets the stage for the undergraduate experience as a whole.  

Objectives for ThinkTank7 include:

  • To explore ways of integrating emerging practices into existing foundation curricula;
  • To develop effective connections among our missions, goals, learning outcomes and assessments; 
  • To identify the essential features of a foundations curriculum that is responsive to a multicultural contemporary framework; 
  • To develop student studio research skills and expand critical thinking; 
  • To experiment with new teaching technologies, including work with social networks, virtual spaces, and online tools.  

Potential breakout sessions include:

  • The Contemporary Learning Community
  • Cultivating Creative Inquiry
  • Artist/Citizen
  • From Foundation to Finale: A Journey
  • Technology as Subject and Tool

Applications are due by December 31st, 2011

Click here to apply!

More information:

  • Anticipated cost of ThinkTank7 plus lodging at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is $725.
  • Program enrollment is limited to 50 participants.
  • Up to three Emerging Educator fellowships may be awarded. 

Click here to apply for an Emerging Educator Fellowship

 

August 2011 Educators Showcase: Gary Setzer

Gary Setzer is an interdisciplinary artist who currently lives and works in Tucson, where he is an Assistant Professor of Art and the First Year Experience Division Chair at the University of Arizona.  His performances, installations, objects, and videos have been exhibited and screened extensively.   Setzer has recently toured his new performance work, Supralingual/Sublingual: The Tongue is the Terrain, across the United States. With stops in New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver, New Orleans, and Austin (among others), he provided gallery audiences with what the Huffington Post called “a phenomenal hybrid of his own, integrating video, music and performance.” In 2008, Setzer's performance work, Simultaneous Repellents (Repressed Sentient, Oppressed Séance), debuted in London at the Slade School of Fine Art.  In May of 2010, Setzer received the Louise Foucar Marshall Professorship—a distinguished honorary title and award.  Setzer recently transformed the University of Arizona’s traditional Foundations program into a sophisticated initiation into contemporary professional studio practice.  In the new First Year Experience program, eight-week modular workshop courses replace semester-long studio courses. Undergraduates choose six of the eight workshops to fulfill First Year Experience program requirements.

 

Gary Setzer's Portfolio

     

Gary Setzer Website


Assignment: Actionable (A Performance Art Project)

click here to download Full Text of the Assignment

 

Actionable Student Examples

click on links below to watch videos of student work:

Scott Francisco, 2010

Shelby Schneider, 2011

Iliana Madrid, 2011

Class: Experience
Media: Performance

 

For Past ITI Educators Showcases Visit Here.

 

Manifestos & Manifestations, Future Forward

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Integrative Teaching International would proudly like to present the second issue of our official journal Future Forward:

Manifestos & Manifestations, Future Forward Vol. 1 Iss. 2

Click to Download (PDF) 

Click to read online

In this issue of Future Forward, authors present mulitple viewpoints on foundations curriculumn development. 

Please forward this journal to any colleagues whom you think will find the information useful.

October 2010 Educators Showcase - Rae Goodwin

Rae Goodwin's work in performance, photography and sculpture examines aspects of family history as it influences the construction of her identity, as well as gender-based assumptions about freedom, the unknown and nature. Using ironic humor, repetitive methods and suggestive materials, Goodwin challenges her own concepts of identity, family, gender and society and invites viewers to examine their own consciousness through her process.  The work is both inviting and intimidating, brought about by a collision of perceived opposites; intimacy in a public space, solo-hiking with friends, etc.  With the placement, scale and metaphorical nature of her work, she asks the viewer to become more aware of their own body and life. Goodwin received her MFA from Winthrop University and has shown at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, McColl Center for Visual Art and other venues nationally and internationally. She currently serves as Director of Art Foundations at the University of Kentucky.

 

Rae Goodwin - Portfolio

 

 

Rae Goodwin Website

 

Assignment - Portability and Possibility

Create a contained still life where you choose the objects based on a specific color scheme.  Place all of your objects inside of a box and have one light source to create dramatic shading for a variety of value and color intensity.   The choosing of objects can be based on iconography in art history, a metaphoric content from your life and times, or an iconography that you invent for this project.

Full text of Assignment

Portability and Possibility - Student Work

 

Future Forward

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Integrative Teaching International would proudly like to present the first issue of our official journal Future Forward, "Four Minds For The Future."

Click to Download (PDF)

Click to read online

ThinkTank is a high-intensity event, requiring a focused commitment and small scale. It will not work as a massive conference, with hundreds of people giving short presentations. Therefore, producing documentation that disseminates the dynamic thinking that takes place in a few days is crucial. We are breaking new ground with our first issue of Future Forward. We have exciting articles from each Think Tank 5 breakout group, an annotated bibliography and over twenty sample assignments. We are extremely excited about the quality of this publication and hope that you will be too!  Please forward this journal to any colleagues whom you think will find the information useful.

 

ThinkWire Fall 2010

ThinkWire is the official newsletter of Integrative Teaching International. Please download, read, and distribute this newsletter among your peers in education and the arts. 

Download (PDF) 

In this issue:

  • Message from Dr. Richard Siegusmund
  • FATE/MACAA/Think Tank Collaboration
  • Think Tank 6 Agenda
  • Think Tank Fellowships for TT6
  • Progress and Planning on Future Forward Issues 1&2
  • Think Tank Educators Showcase

Please send news, article submissions, or other ideas for the next edition of ThinkWire to info@integrativeteaching.org. 

August 2010 Educators Showcase - Cindy Hellyer-Heinz

Cindy Hellyer-Heinz at work in the classroom.Cindy Hellyer Heinz is the Foundations Coordinator at Northern Illinois University. She is an active artist and illustrator. Her drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries, and featured in books and journals. Her imagery describes the human aging process, paralleling nature’s cycles of regeneration. Cindy is a committed and passionate art educator, working with both Foundations students and faculty to offer the optimal learning experience in the first year. “My mission as a teacher is to inspire my students into thoughtful communication and empower them with the skill and techniques to accomplish their goals.” She has developed a series of drawing workshops which are targeted toward teaching idea generation and skill development. The emphasis is keeping students engaged, acknowledging the potency of visual communication and identity. A video of the first workshop has been produced and will be distributed by the creators of Prisma Color Pencils.

www.cynthiahellyerheinz.com

 

Cindy Hellyer-Heinz - Portfolio

"Benediction" 22" x 30" "The Ripening" 33" x 33" "The Anticipation" 33" x 33"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment -Thrilling Bastardization

Intro -

This is a large scale self portrait. It may be editorial, descriptive or narrative. The notion of bastardization implies a shift or change from the original ideal. Historically it referred to legitimacy, the legal connection for the transference of property. Today this archaic title has been applied to the borrowing and mutating of an idea, activity, value, and image. Our perceptions and beliefs are constructed through our history, family, culture, time, and, specifically, today the media. Through the impact of immersion in advertising, television, video, film and print we are unavoidably influenced. The adoption of codes of behavior, dress, and presentation represent our self perception. It is not always the truth. It may be a bastardization of who you actually are and what you choose to be.

View the Assignment "Thrilling Bastardization" on Google docs

Examples of Student Work - "Thrilling Bastardization"

C. Heinz - Student WorkC. Heinz - Student WorkC. Heinz - Student Work

ThinkTank5 Complete!

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Four Minds for the Future: Creative, Constructive, Critical, Connective

Quick Links:
Leave Feedback, Photos

4 Minds for the Future: Edit together or Download for yourself

Workshop descriptions

Inquiry Based Foundations

Our Facebook page has moved!          

Opening Address:

Re:Thinking the "Foundation"
Shifting the Lens

 

Download the PDF 

Focus: Climate, Curriculum, Pedagogy

Buzz: Self Assessment, Organizational Terrain, Proficiencies, Pacing, The "A" Word (Assessment), Accountability vs. Ownership, Rubrics, "Defining the box...", Ownership, Leadership, Followship, Heuristics, Perception, Otherness, Tacit-knowing

Leading Change: Edit together, download, homework

Observing the World: Edit together, download

Design and Social Practice in 21st Century: Edit together, download

Creating Bridges: Edit together, download

Cultural, Conceptual, Historical Frameworks: Overview, notes

Workshops: 

Meaning and Experience in the Foundation Studio with Matt King

Visual Narrative with Chris Kienke

State of Play with Anthony Fontana

 

ThinkWire Summer 2010

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ThinkWire is the official newsletter of Integrative Teaching International. Please download, read, and distribute this newsletter among your peers in education and the arts. 

Download (PDF)

In this issue:

  • Message from Dr. Richard Siegusmund
  • Calling All Graduate Students and Faculty
  • Facilitating Change : Bridging the Gap
  • Workshops and Panels for TT5 
  • State of the Art Abstracts & Biographies
  • Outreach Updates 

Please send news, article submissions, or other ideas for the Spring edition of ThinkWire to info@integrativeteaching.org. 

Getting Ready for ThinkTank

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To be best prepared Professor Stewart’s workshop, all emerging educators are asked to read the following.  All of these documents will be posted on the website by May 15.

FATE in Review, Spring 2009. This is the Foundations in Art, Theory and Education journal. The entire publication is of value, and articles by Linda Weintraub, plus a report on ThinkTank by Dan Collins and Mary Stewart are particularly important.
Click here to read online

“The Perfect Brainstorm,” from The Art of Innovation, by Tom Kelley. A lively and informative description of the brainstorming process used by IDEO, as major design firm.
Click here to read online

The Florida State University Teacher’s Manual, providing an overview of Foundations and over 60 sample assignments. Just scan through this one.

State of Play, edited by Anthony Fontana and Stacey Isenbarger. This compilation of exercises and assignmentswas developed by the emerging educators following ThinkTank5.
Click here to order hardcopy from Amazon and support ITI

Linda Weintraub will be giving a special presentation at TT5. Please visit her website: lindaweintraub.com to find links to her essays, lecture topics and resources that connect to her work.

 

State of Play on Amazon.com

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The first Integrative Teaching ThinkTank publication State of Play (available as a free download here) is now in print on Amazon.com. We encourage readers, TT Alum, or anyone who has found this publication useful to be the first to write a review for us! 

Print versions of this document could be a wonderful handout to incoming graduate students who will be teaching Foundations for the first time next Fall, steadfast veterans looking to liven up their classroom, or Administrators surveying what is new in the field of Foundations teaching. 

Click here to view State of Play at Amazon.com

Announcing ThinkTank6!

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ThinkTank6
Leading Change, June 8-12, 2011

Announcing ThinkTank6: Leading Change, June 8-12, 2011

Download the brochure (PDF) 

In Leading Change, Harvard Business School professor John Kotter describes factors that inhibit change and factors that advance change. Combining various readings in innovative leadership with our unique perspectives as artists and designers, we will develop strategies for developing new approaches to teaching and learning at the college level. ThinkTank6 will build on Four Minds for the Future, the topic of ThinkTank5 in 2010.

The Creative Mind embraces risk, synthesizes prior knowledge, and develops new concepts. The Constructive Mind transforms creative possibilities into tangible objects or actions. The Critical Mind discerns strengths and weaknesses among multiple options and determines priorities. The Connective Mind brings all of these possibilities together and provides outreach to the larger community of educators at all levels. 

Objectives for ThinkTank6 include 

To explore uses of divergent, convergent and collaborative thinking as aspects of leadership; 

To explore ways to set priorities and use quantitative and qualitative information to the best advantage;

To explore existing ‘best practices’ in curriculum design and rough draft curricula for a variety of institutional needs;

To strengthen understanding of connections between mission and outcome and between coursework and the larger community.

Anticipated cost of ThinkTank6 plus lodging is $850. Because there are pre-conference readings and post conference writings required, all participants must bring a high level of commitment to ThinkTank. The general application deadline is December 31st, 2010. Three to Five $850 Emerging Educator fellowships will be offered; the deadline for the fellowships is December 31st, 2010.

 

 

Winter 2010 Newsletter: ThinkWire

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ThinkWire is the official newsletter of the Integrative Teaching ThinkTank. Please download, read, and distribute this newsletter among your peers in education and the arts. 

Download ThinkWire (PDF)

This newsletter contains articles and information on: 

  • Message from Dr. Richard Siegusmund 
  • Developing a New ThinkTank Journal 
  • ThinkTank Break Out Groups 
  • The Artful Leader: Creativity & Innovation for Leading Change
  • 2010 ThinkTank5 Fellowship Awards

Please send news, article submissions, or other ideas for the Spring edition of ThinkWire to info@integrativeteaching.org . 

 

Fall 2009 Newsletter

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Integrative Teaching ThinkTank
Fall 2009 Newsletter

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, Anthony Fontana 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. Read more...

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. Read more...

Brochure
Agenda
Application

State of Play
State of Play presents practical, innovative assignments that prepare students to learn the technical skills that ground study in art and design by introducing habits of mind that are the foundation for creative inquiry. It is the first Integrative Teaching ThinkTank publication that developed from ITT’s ThinkTank4 held at the University of Georgia in June 2009.

Edited by Anthony Fontana and Stacy Isenbarger. Contributions from Melanie Lowrance, Anna Kell, Kip Bradley, Michelle Illuminato, Oliver Schemm, Matt King, Danica Oudeans, Anthony Fontana and Chris Kienke. Designed by Adam Kallish.

Download it here

News

  • Mary Stewart is chairing a SECAC panel titled Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century: Form, Content and Context. Scheduled for Saturday, October 24, presenters Brian Evans, Lucy Curzon, and Susan Krause will explore a variety of contemporary teaching strategies. Stewart will conclude the panel with a presentation on the mission, structure, and accomplishments of ThinkTank.
  • Anthony Fontana will present on the FATE panel at SECAC his presentation titled "State of Play: Encouraging a Divergent Approach in Foundations Art Making". The topic will explore the role of playful methodologies in Foundations and showcase the first Integrative Teaching ThinkTank publication "State of Play".
  • Congratulations to Stacy Isenbarger and Anna Kell TT4 Fellowship Winners for landing positions as Visiting Assistant Professors at Eastern Kentucky Universit!
  • Congratulations Charles Westfall, ThinkTank4 Emerging Educator, who recently exhibited a performance at Alfred University, after connecting with Michelle Illuminato, Assistant Professor, at ThinkTank4!


ThinkTank Meetup @SECAC
There will be a ThinkTank meetup at the Southeastern College Art Conference on Friday, October 23rd. If you will be in Mobile, Alabama for the conference and would like to join us for dessert after dinner, please contact or call or text Anthony Fontana at 567-343-1319 or email at anthonymfontana@gmail.com.

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