NEW FACULTY: DR. AMBER WARD The Department of Art Education and the Graduate Art Education Program welcomes Dr. Amber Ward to Florida State University and the city of Tallahassee. The Art Education program places emphasis on the value of art as a catalyst for social change to promote both individual development and to enrich the world around us.
enjoys the flexibility of online teaching, as well as the opportunity to reach students with new technology. In addition to teaching, Dr. Ward also hopes to work with other faculty members to strengthen the online Graduate Art Education Program by taking the first steps toward creating a more regional, and eventually national and international, presence of FSU’s online Graduate Art Education Program. Additionally, during her visiting professorship within the Department of Art Education, Dr. Ward is pursuing collaborative research that uses creative qualitative methodologies to advance equity. For example, she is collaborating with FIU assistant professor Becky Christ on a research inquiry into sphering and braiding as theory, as well as our impact on the environment. In February, she plans to install a solo interactive art exhibition in the William Johnston Building Atrium Gallery, focusing on gender roles and equity by gathering stories from members of the FSU community regarding how race, religion, family, and social media have informed their expressions of gender.
Dr. Amber Ward has an extensive repertoire of professional experience in art education. She received her BFA in Fibers from Colorado State University, her MAAE from Maryland Institute College of Art, and her Ph.D. from University of Missouri. Dr. Ward spent twelve years in K-12 art education. Part of her responsibilities included developing online art curriculum for high school students. She joins us from California State University, Sacramento, where she was an assistant professor of art education and the Credential Advisor for the PreCredential Program.
Dr. Ward’s other research areas include cultural and critical theories, social justice art education, and contemporary art. Her art practice focuses on feminist themes through the use of fibers, sculpture, and instillation work.
As a visiting professor within the department, Dr. Ward teaches online master’s level courses, including Program Development and Art for Life. Art for Life is a class based on the book Art for Life: Authentic Instruction in Art by Dr. Tom Anderson and Dr. Melody Milbrandt. This course is unique becaue it focuses on honoring the sense of self, sense of place, and sense of community in art education. She reports that she
Dr. Ward is pleased to join the students and faculty in the Department of Art Education and the Art Education Program at FSU for the 2019-2020 academic year.
DEPARTMENTAL HAPPENINGS Spring 2019 - “Bringing Our Whole Selves to Work” Lecture & Workshop with Dr. Amber Johnson
and Social Justice at Saint Louis University and the creator of The Justice Fleet™, a mobile justice museum that interrogates radical forgiveness. Dr. Johnson explores the language, exigency, sound, and aesthetics of various social movements. Their research and activism focus on performances of identity, protest, and social justice in digital and lived spaces. As a polymath, their mixedmedia artistry involves working with metals, recycled and
On April 12-13 of the Spring 2019 semester, scholar, artist, and activist, Dr. Amber Johnson, hosted a two-day workshop titled “Bringing our Whole Selves to Work” for the FSU Department of Art Education. Dr. Amber Johnson is an award-winning Associate Professor of Communication
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