2017 Master of Arts in Art Education & Master of Arts in Teaching Research Abstracts

GEORGE ROEDER

MASTER’S SYMPOSIUM SAIC Department of Art Education

Wednesday May 10, 2017

9:15am - 4:00pm GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER 164 North State Street Chicago, Illinois 60601

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome to the 2017 SAIC Master’s Art Education Symposium.

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Program Schedule

As graduate students and faculty came together a couple of weeks ago to rehearse for today’s symposium presentations, I was excited by the diversity and complexity of these projects. The work encompasses a wide range of

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Panel One

artistic and research methodologies, to better understand and to contribute to the use of the arts to enhance each individual’s creative potential and to build strong, creative democratic communities.

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Whether using traditional art media or new technologies, the 2017 SAIC Art Education graduate projects are infused with a fresh sense of hope and of purpose.

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Art education matters.

Considered together, these projects remind us that the world is a makerspace and that each of us has the

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potential to inhabit this space, to join in, to contribute to and to shape this shared space.

Please join me in celebrating the accomplishments of

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Thanks!

these dedicated artist/educators. You will come away from the day filled with potent images and new perspectives, inspired to make art and to make meaning.

Enjoy.

Olivia Gude Chair of Art Education Angela Gregory Paterakis

#artedsymp

Professor of Art Education

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

9:15 AM

COFFEE

9:45 AM

OPENING REMARKS

10:00-11:10

PANEL 1: Media-Based Experiential Learning Tyler Fewell Iga Puchalska Candice Boulton Emily Calderon Lauren Wiley MODER ATOR : Kristi Emilsson

11:10-11:25

BRE AK

11:25-12:25

PANEL 2: Becoming and Belonging: Creating Spaces that Welcome and Challenge Kristi Emilsson Ana María González Sierra Rae Clatch Jia Zhao MODER ATOR : Tyler Fewell

12:30 - 1:30

LUNCH

1:35 - 2:35

PANEL 3: Representations and Reflections: Locating Self in the Media Landscape Taaj Lauture-Sims Michal Hall Anna Bosy Kate Schmeck MODER ATOR : Jia Zhao

2:35 - 2:50

BRE AK

2:50 - 3:50

PANEL 4: By Us /About Us: Amplifying Community Voice Melody Williams Ingy Mahmoud Mehvash DaRon Rebecca Beaird MODER ATOR : Taaj Lauture-Sims

3:50PM

CLOSING REMARKS

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SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

DEPARTMENT OF ART EDUCATION

THESIS ABSTRACTS 2017

PANEL ONE

MEDIA-BASED EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

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Tyler Fewell Iga Puchalska Candice Boulton Emily Calderon Lauren Wiley Moderator: Kristi Emilsson

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PANEL ONE

Tyler Fewell

Iga Puchalska

Play and Purpose: Enacting Meaning in Art Making

Inserting the “T” word in Art Education: The Therapeutic Benefits of Learning Animation for People from Marginalized Communities.

Master of Arts in Teaching

My thesis investigated the influence of play in a high school art classroom and how it might open social avenues of student interaction, challenge preconceptions of artmaking, and engage the classroom in student-led learning while deemphasizing high-stakes failure. Given that the setting of my research was a school that thrived upon academic success, using play as the crux of my investigation allowed me to ask: where can failure be embraced through play in order to promote a student’s comfortability with experimentation? How can the mechanisms of play situations be used to safely engage groups in meaningmaking activities and discussions?

I conducted my research over the course of seven weeks of full-time student teaching at a suburban high school located in a generally affluent area on Chicago’s north side. The student body was over eighty percent white and well over ninety percent of students were planning to attend some form of postsecondary education. The school had a reputation for intense academic pressure it applied to its students that cultivated a high-pressure atmosphere.

As a student teacher I taught a number of projects that were heavily based in choice, making paintings and sculptures driven by students. Day-to-day tasks included prompting groups and individuals with open-ended questions and then positioning their responses in opposition to each other to promote interaction, gamifying artmaking tasks and using reflection questions that playfully consider the meaning in their artwork.

Due to the intuitive, intangible nature of this instruction and research most of the evidence collected is based on my own observations and journaling, though some has also been documented through written student responses and reflections. Students often unknowingly participated in the utilization of playlike tendencies in the studio to grapple with conceptual and technical obstacles as a group; using games put students into the spotlight as the stars of their own learning. The enactment of my research promoted a classroom environment where the weight of failure faded into the background as students became more interested in the process of learning and less concerned with the right answers.

My research led me to conclude that a ‘playful’ art studio deepens student learning by connecting individuals and allows experimentation and failure to become welcome assets in the learning process. These are principles of learning that others will find valuable in their own classrooms.

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PANEL ONE

Master of Arts in Art Education

The purpose of this study was to analyze the social and emotional benefits of teaching and learning animation with small groups of people from marginalized communities. Drawing from the literature of art education and animation therapy, an emerging subfield of art therapy, I designed and facilitated animation workshops in informal learning environments. I examined similarities and differences between art education and animation therapy and investigated how the animation process was meaningful to participants. The main research questions are: can and should art education be therapeutic? What is the correlation between minority-specific needs in education and a particular set of benefits provided through animation? What is the importance of play and control in animation?

I worked with three separate groups, creating animation workshops within the pre-existing structures of after-school and community programs. The first workshop took place weekly over a four-month period at an immigrant-support organization. I worked with 5 to 10 adult participants who created one animated short. The second workshop became a long-term project with six 10 to 12-yearolds at a bilingual after-school community center where students met weekly for two semesters to create multiple animations. The third workshop was a week-long project with six students at an after-school program. In this context, my research deepened through working with one participant who had recently immigrated from Congo.

Each animation session was designed to foster cognitive, social, and emotional aspects of learning, which students explored through watching, creating, and discussing the final animation they produced. I used action research and auto-ethnography to collect data, including content analysis, observation, and interviews with workshop participants, professional animators, educators, and art therapists. I reflected on my own experiences with animation as an immigrant and art educator.

As a result of my research, I rid myself of expectations, allowing processes of creation to take priority over predetermined results. I realized the importance of play and control and the agency animation provides creators working with selfrepresentation and time. Time emerged as one of the most important aspects of animation; it functions as a tool for communication, and also emotional and linguistic literacy. Another invaluable aspect of animation results from the process itself: repetitive, meditative movements that evoke commitment, focus, and often collaboration. The most satisfying result of my research was facilitating the feeling of magical experience, of creating something out of nothing, the feeling of putting together hundreds of still images and creating movement.

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PANEL ONE

Candice Boulton

Emily L. Calderon

The Medium of Experience: Using Our Experiences to Teach Art Education

Clay as a Social Medium: Utilizing Technology in the Ceramic Arts Classroom

This research and subsequent project’s main focus was to understand how to enable students to find value in their daily lives as meaningful resources for the content of their artwork. I invited students to explore their everyday experiences through the use of an action based research project. The following questions guided my study: What occurs when art is based on experiential learning expressed through kinesthetic and tactile learning processes? How will students’ everyday experiences be legible within their artworks? How will students respond to an art-making practice with an emphasis placed on action, movement, and the body?

My action research took place over the course of seven weeks in Northwest Chicago at a regional gifted elementary school. Participants included 28 students enrolled in 7th grade who had met the school’s high standard of admission. Students participated in shaping artworks inspired by their daily lives and inspired by contemporary artist Kara Walker.

Students worked in small groups to develop visual narratives informed by experiences had at school to create silhouettes. Data was provided by the artworks, including their group narratives and silhouettes, along with written reflections, discussions, and field notes. Positioning the students as artists, narrators, group members, and group leaders allowed them to make complex decisions on their own and within small groups. This also gave them the freedom to decide the next steps; however, they were not always in agreement. As the project progressed, the students were able to resolve many of their issues by taking ownership of individual aspects of the group project. This sense of ownership helped students to find meaning and locate value in the process of creating.

I began this project interested in researching how students would respond to art-making focused on the movements and actions of the body, but shifted to center on the ways and means to express, embody, and visualize the student’s daily lives and experiences. This project’s challenge was to avoid telling the students exactly how to visualize their experiences and instead allow them to find their own ways of positioning, moving, or posing in order to recreate their experiences. I was surprised and excited to realize that while students were learning to make art inspired by the methods of contemporary artist Kara Walker, they were simultaneously teaching me about the power of their experiences.

The purpose of my action research project was to explore the integration and implementation of technology within the high school ceramic arts classroom. I investigated the ways Chromebooks, printers, smartphones, and social media can be utilized to help inform students’ art making processes through their research, exploration of material, execution, and dissemination of artwork. My guiding research questions were: What are the current uses of innovative technologies, such as Google Classroom and online instructional videos? What are artistic avenues of engagement with this new digital media in the ceramics art classroom?

I conducted my research over the course of 8 weeks at a well-resourced suburban high school on the outskirts of Chicago. In particular, I focused on the Ceramics II class, which consisted of students ranging from 9th to 12th grade. My students and I had access to a plethora of technology to utilize in the classroom including computer labs, color printers, and personal Chromebooks.

My methodology included mind-mapping exercises, sketching and planning that made use of student Chromebooks and phones for research. Additionally, students completed assignments on Google Classroom, and shared work digitally on-line through social media. I found that while using technology as a tool, such as a computer and laser jet printer to create ceramic decals, I ran into boundaries and limitations with supplies and budget. However, when switching the focus to students, their phones, and social media, opportunities opened up with students becoming more engaged with the lesson.

It is important to see where technology exists now and how it is becoming integrated within the classroom, including the ceramics classroom. Technology can and should act as a tool for democratization rather than an elitist commodity.

This becomes complicated when faced with issues of accessibility, even within well-resourced suburban schools, along with question of which technologies students can access. As a teacher doing this type of work, it is vital to incorporate what students are familiar with, while providing new approaches to creating their art. Integrating technology is one way to help inform students’ art making processes and promote conceptual thinking beyond technical skill building.

Master of Arts in Teaching

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PANEL ONE

Master of Arts in Teaching

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PANEL ONE

NOTES

Lauren Wiley Master of Arts in Art Education

Museum Game Night: How a Pop Pedagogy Program Went Viral, Transgressed the Museum Code, and Brought Young Adults to the Museum With the rise of social media platforms like Snapchat and Twitter, young adults have been using humor-based expressions like memes and GIFs to connect art with pop culture. Pop pedagogy draws connections between the culture that pervades participants’ lives, both outside and inside learning spaces. How does it function within museums?

I argued that using pop culture and social media helps museums generate a young adult audience, a group that museums struggle to engage. Through my research, I investigated the following questions: what occurs when pop pedagogy-based museum programs invite young adult audiences into the museum? How do these programs transgress the museum code? And, how can transgression attract young adult audiences to engage them in the museum?

This project blended ethnographic and action research methods in a series of public programs called Museum Game Night (MGN), which took place between April and August 2016 at the Art Institute of Chicago. These programs called participants to activate gallery spaces in unexpected ways, utilized social media contests, and encouraged closely looking at objects. MGN events were advertised on social media and occurred during free public nights. As a result, participant groups were broad, however, anecdotal evidence suggested that participants included a significant percentage of young adults. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered before, during, and after each event via Facebook and Twitter. I also collected autoethnographic data during events via reflective journaling.

My research indicates that young adults are interested in engaging in museum spaces under the pretexts of pop pedagogy programming. If the museum utilizes elements of pop culture in marketing programs and in the content of those programs, they can attract their desired audience. Because of the transgressive qualities of pop pedagogy programs and the use of social media these engagements also have the potential to go viral. Unfortunately, this can be perceived as a threat to a museum’s institutional identity.

In the digital age, audiences have unlimited access to images, information, and virtual educational programming. This impacts the necessity to actually set foot inside of a museum. Since museums actively compete with other entertainment outlets they must find ways to engage young adult audiences in order to survive.

Thus, if these institutions use pop pedagogy to increase their visibility amongst young adults, provide opportunities for social engagement, and encourage transgression and play, they can more effectively compete and reinvigorate their cultural relevance in the 21st century.

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NOTES

PANEL TWO

BECOMING AND BELONGING: CREATING SPACES THAT WELCOME AND CHALLENGE Kristi Emilsson Ana María González Sierra Rae Clatch Jia Zhao

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Moderator: Tyler Fewell

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PANEL TWO

Kristi Emilsson

Ana María González Sierra

Community in the Making: Intersections of Gender and Adult Art Education

Sisterhood is Still Powerful: Creating Feminist Spaces Through Participatory Art

The purpose of my research was to investigate the intersections of adult learning, art education, and gender in creative community spaces. What are adults seeking when they participate in community art spaces, and how do those spaces meet their needs? How does gender impact participation in creative spaces? Are the cultures of certain community art spaces more inclusive based on gender? How is this demonstrated? These questions were informed by my personal experience teaching community ceramics classes to a consistent majority of female students.

This led me to speculate that gender plays a role in how adults engage with creative work that is independent of other demographic attributes.

In order to observe creative communities with more male participants, I researched makerspaces. “Makerspace” encompasses a broad range of definitions; my research focused on public and membership based organizations where people engage in “making” activities. These included digital fabrication and technology as well as traditional skills like fiber crafts and woodworking. I considered the similarities and differences between the makerspaces and the ceramics studio where I taught.

I used ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methods. Over a period of six months I collected a variety of data. I attended events at five makerspaces with different locations, structures, and communities where I interviewed facilitators and participants. I also documented my observations. In addition, I taught two eight week sessions of an adult ceramics class in a community studio and had my students respond to a written survey about their experience.

My own participation in these spaces became an important source of data.

As a person with no previous experience in makerspaces, it was surprising to encounter my own discomfort and insecurity. My gender was not always a key element of this, but I felt keenly aware of it at times. As creative communities, makerspaces’ non-traditional basis allows them to be inclusive of diverse participants, but gender still affects social and creative engagement independently of other attributes.

Existing research in the field of art education has often failed to specifically address how gender affects adult arts participation. My research highlights why art participation is important for adults and provides insight into how participation intersects with gender. This will help art educators think critically about gender imbalances that exist within creative community spaces and support educational practices that increase art access for adults.

This project explored the implications and variables involved in the creation of micro-communities of women through participatory art. More specifically, I studied three aspects: how can artists create micro-communities that encourage meaningful conversations around women’s experiences? How do different factors (such as group size and place) affect the way participants in these microcommunities interact with each other? What is the role of the artist/educator in organizing participatory art projects in micro-communities?

The purpose of this study was to gather qualitative data about creating micro-communities of women through participatory art. To gather information, I organized a participatory art project with groups of adult women developing workshops in four different settings: a woman’s home, an art gallery, a community library and a museum. The participants of the four workshops were invited to contribute to a collective life-recipe book for women, who included their interpretations of life-advice, how-to’s or tips they have learned from other women or their own experiences. At the same time, I observed and engaged in two participatory projects created by artists in Chicago. Additionally, I conducted an interview with a cultural worker who organizes events at a feminist art gallery and used literature on participatory art and feminist spaces to guide the workshops and address situations that arose.

Through this research I uncovered a series of parameters to take into account when creating inclusive micro-communities of women and feminist spaces in community-non-feminist institutions. Running into complications during this research generated important questions that guided me and informed the creation of a list of parameters for mindful participatory projects.

This project aimed to inspire more art educators to see the potential in gathering people, encouraging discussions and acting on topics that are important for their communities today through art. I hope that readers see that creating feminist spaces where participants can have meaningful conversations does not require a feminist institution. However, successful participatory workshops do require an educator who can be observant and mindful of the expectations and experiences that people bring to the gatherings.

Master of Arts in Art Education

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PANEL TWO

Master of Arts in Art Education

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PANEL TWO

Rae Clatch

Jia Zhao

Understanding Gender Through Art and Education

Body Multiples: Exploring the Relationship Between Body and Identity Through Performance and Video

The purpose of my research was to explore how art curriculum can be created to better adapt to student needs and allow them to more confidently work through personally challenging concepts. I researched and documented how gender has been and can be explored through fine art, how the perception of gender has changed over time and how I as an educator can learn to more successfully guide this exploration of gender in a public classroom setting with students that have diverse (rigid to fluid) views of gender.

From January to March of 2017, I spent 7 weeks exploring gender through oil painted collages with the AP and Studio classes at a large public high school in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. This community is predominantly Latinx and 96 percent of the school’s students get free and/or subsidized lunches.

During my action research, I collected various forms of data including visual documentation of students’ artwork, students’ oral and written responses and reflections of the process as a whole, and video documentation. I also maintained a journal of my own teaching methods and adaptations. I analyzed this data and looked for patterns of growth, frustration, confusion and moments of clarity in the students’ conceptual understanding of gender through their art making process.

I then compared those patterns to what techniques I was using as a practitioner at the time and came to a couple conclusions.

My first conclusion was that the vast majority of my students created successful pieces that clearly addressed their personal exploration of gendered performativity. They each showed the layered complexities of how gender is learned and evolves over time through their use of juxtaposing images and media. The second conclusion was that students that struggled to fully engage in this exploration were predominantly masculine males. One of these students came from a self-described conservative familial background and two other students from this group struggled to confidently stand behind their pieces when presenting their work to others. What I learned as an educator was that carefully structured humor was the best tool for helping students build confidence in their ability to openly explore these facets of their lives. Additionally, taking responsibility for displaying their own work in an offsite gallery led them to engage more thoroughly in their reflections about how they could push their pieces to more clearly communicate their concepts to their viewers.

My research is inspired by artist Ming Wong’s Making Chinatown. Wong’s work challenges stereotypes, but also shows the author behind stereotypes by playing all characters in the film. In my project, students chose a film they found problematic. In order to change the film to make the characters less stereotypical, students played the main characters in the film themselves.

My research questions include : How will students relate their understanding of stereotypes in films to their own personal contexts? What occurs when students see themselves on the screen while playing the role of director, actor and audience at the same time? How will a student-teacher who is also learning film theory and film-making shape her understanding of learning to teach?

My research took place in a Digital Imaging III class of a selective enrollment high school in downtown Chicago; students already knew how to use green screen. I did the project again a semester later with Digital Imaging I students who had never made videos before. They started this project by making a movie poster with Photoshop. Then students made a video clip recreating a film scene playing all the characters. This gave students more freedom in that the film they chose did not have to be about racial or gender stereotypes but movie clichés in general. Students still had to play all the main characters in the film by themselves.

During this project it became apparent that when you try to deconstruct one stereotype, you inevitably reinforce another: this helped us understand the complexity of working with stereotypes. In the end, we created a collective poster installation called Nextflix in the cafeteria so that we were deconstructing diverse stereotypes all at the same time.

Students had different levels of understanding about what they were doing.` Some thought it felt strange to play someone who is not themselves. Some thought playing all the roles in the film would help them develop empathy. Some were more aware of how their own identity could change the dynamic of the film clip. A few students understood that they were showing the author behind the film and breaking the screen.

My research indicates that teachers should not underestimate students’ ability to understand the complexity of stereotypes. We should leave rooms for students to develop strategies to interact with stereotypes and then analyze the visual effect those strategies create.

Master of Arts in Teaching

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PANEL TWO

Master of Arts in Teaching

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NOTES

PANEL THREE

REPRESENTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS: LOCATING SELF IN THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE Taaj Lauture-Sims Michal Hall Anna Bosy Kate Schmeck Moderator: Jia Zhao

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PANEL THREE

Taaj Lauture-Sims

Michal Hall

Representation in Children’s Literature & Storytelling in Art Education

Representation of Rape in Narrative Film: Cinema as Critical Pedagogy

All children are underserved when they are not offered books as mirrors, windows, and revolving doors into the world. Being one of the only black girls in my grade school, I often felt ‘othered’ when I consistently did not see myself in the heroes of the stories I was offered. My reflections from childhood are a source of inspiration for my research topic. The purpose of my research was to explore the ways in which examinations and discussions around the limited representation of black American protagonists in children’s literature can be used to engage storytelling in art education. Questions I examined included: ​what insights come from students when they discuss, investigate, and reflect on the limited representation of black American protagonists in children’s literature utilized in schools? ​What happens when students rewrite preexisting stories to reflect their own experiences and others? H ​ ow do the students’ experiences align with my personal experiences and research on this topic, and how can these revelations inform my practice as an art educator?

Using a critical multicultural approach to build meaningful curriculum, I conducted an action-research study in a predominantly black and low income Chicago high school. For a total of six weeks, I met with two sections of 27 students twice a week. During the unit, students discussed forms of representation in books and other media and re-imagined fairy tales that reflected their own experiences through comic writing. During the research, I collected multiple forms of data such as: teacher and student reflection journal entries, notes from student discussions, documents including brainstorming templates, thumbnail sketches, and student artwork (comics), and interviews with students.

From the study, three categories of findings emerged through data analysis: (1) themes from student written-stories, (2) cultural differences between teacher and students, and (3) storytelling as a vehicle for culturally responsive teaching.

I found that my critique of representation in children’s literature was similar to the students’ frustration with the representation of black urban youth in media.

Students expressed frustration with the kinds of stories about urban youth consistently presented in news media, such as street violence and economic struggles. Students used these same topics in student-written stories to reclaim their narrative in a powerful way. My research serves as an illustration of how storytelling can be used in the field of Art Education to deconstruct visual culture and engage students in artistic forms of resistance that reclaim representations.

My investigation addressed stereotypes about and social attitudes toward rape in cinema and the real world. Rape involves multiple perspectives and depends on historical and cultural contexts. Stereotypes work to establish the valueladen categories of ‘real’ versus ‘simple’ rapes, and rape myths tend to minimize the significance of sexual violence for victims while removing blame from perpetrators.

A public workshop in film analysis and screenwriting required participants to identify specific stereotypes about rape, discuss how narrative film represents rape, and produce original proposals for a film. More specifically, my research involved three adult participants who met for eight consecutive weeks at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where we screened and discussed two films, Brokeback Mountain and She’s Gotta Have It. In the process of creating a space where people felt comfortable to discuss sexual violence, I assessed the potential for films to show it as multifaceted.

Using a combination of participatory action research and art-based methods, my data consisted of audio recordings of dialogue, participant-made diagrams, journaling, screenwriting exercises, and film proposals. My research questions were: what occurs when a group of adults participate in a workshop that looks at representations of rape in narrative film and explores how these representations might reflect or challenge their attitudes toward rape? In the production of narrative proposals for a film, how do participants show self-direction to develop a story idea related to the theme of the workshop? What assumptions do I bring to this workshop regarding how my participants will respond to the material? What ethical considerations pertain to the design and implementation of this research?

Despite my initial anxiety as to how participants would react, they showed openness to raising questions about what constitutes rape along with stereotypes and gray areas between rape and sex. My participants located similarities and differences between how rape occurs in reality and its representation in film, as well as the limitations of images in showing verbal consent.

My research contributes to the field of art education by bringing attention to film as a medium art teachers can include in discussions of various topics and narratives, such as sexuality, race, gender, and class. Additionally, my project offers insight into what makes film different from other visual-narrative mediums in representing sexual violence. This work invites people to create cinematic narratives around rape that question stereotypes and address the complexity of the subject.

Master of Arts in Art Education

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PANEL THREE

Master of Arts in Art Education

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PANEL THREE

Anna Bosy

Katharine Schmeck

Media Mash-Up: When High School Students “Talk Back” to the News

Getting Lost: An Always-On Immersion within Art Museums’ Contemporary Social Media

In contemporary societies we are inundated with free or inexpensive sources of information through multiple media. In early 2017 for many people accessing the latest news was all-consuming, with topics ranging from President Donald Trump’s “First 100 Days” in office to Chicago’s snow drought.

During these months I student taught art in a Chicago public high school. Since many of the topics of the daily news related directly to the lives of my students, it felt appropriate to have my research be creating curriculum that supported them in making sense of and responding to news stories. My research questions included, How can students “talk back” to local, national, and international front page news? What is my role in cultivating students’ voices to respond to the news? How can artistic interventions such as changing the presentation and arrangement of images, texts, and symbols in news accounts provide avenues for students to compose personal, critical artwork?

My action research took place over eight weeks in a public high school on Chicago’s southwest side serving a predominantly Latinx student body. I worked with 68 junior students in the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program to develop a three-lesson art curriculum. Lesson 1 began by juxtaposing, analyzing, and altering newspaper clippings’ headlines and images. In Lesson 2, students rendered their opinions and questions by drawing literal symbols, abstract designs, and text onto newspaper front pages. Lesson 3 built on the previous lesson as students created original reduction print compositions by selecting and scrambling their story-specific drawings to make them relate and respond to other stories within the same front page, thereby forcing news topics to “talk back” to one another.

In my teaching, I referenced inspirational artworks that were both representational and abstract to support students in visualizing big, “abstract” issues, at a time when they felt overwhelmed and uncertain. Breaking curriculum into manageable steps provided students sufficient time to engage with the multiple stories of a big city newspaper’s front pages.

As we concluded the curricular investigation of news, students told me that our work together allowed them to cope analytically and emotionally with the current torrents of (disturbing) news. Therefore, I recommend that art curricula support students in identifying personal concerns and exploring relationships between news stories with what is going on in their lives because in my research it resulted in open-ended, reflective artwork that responded to real issues in real time.

The purpose of this research is to better understand how art museums utilize social media to engage audiences beyond their walls. Museums employ platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to portray an online institutional voice, offering their audience members expert information and behind the scenes perspectives. I explored how this development impacts museum authority; allowing visitors to follow favorite museums, publicly interpret work, and exchange ideas and experiences with friends and strangers.

For this research, I followed ten institutions on the three previously mentioned Social Media platforms for one month. My goal was to learn about their social media personalities and voices, pursuing my main question: how do art museums use contemporary social media to create and maintain enriching relationships with those who maintain an always-on lifestyle? This research is further guided by the following sub-questions: How is the art museum’s targeted demographic legible in their online presence? How does the content of social media reflect the mission, vision, and goals of the corresponding institutions? How will my personal experiences and relationships with the chosen institutions change during and after participating in an always-on lifestyle?

I established a systematic process to interact with the accounts of ten encyclopedic and contemporary art museums located in the Northeast and Midwest. I considered the content produced and how content was adapted via each platform. As the immersion progressed, I reflected on how my relationship and understanding of the institution shifted. I discovered how I yearned for institutions to offer more than purely encyclopedic facts, and noted that when they did I felt more part of their community, even across distance.

In order to understand the museums’ intentions I interviewed three social media managers from separate institutions. In these conversations we discussed the goals of the institution as well as the portrayal of an institutional face and personality to the public through social media.

During this process I realized that the rise of social media has significantly changed how individuals may interact with museums, and how museums may engage viewers and broaden audiences. Followers have new authority to ask questions, contribute interpretations and knowledge, and feel connected to the museum within or beyond their communities. Museum educators can examine and reflect upon the limitations of their current social media use in order to better understand how to create and maintain lasting relationships with their audiences.

Master of Arts in Teaching

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PANEL THREE

Master of Arts in Art Education

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NOTES PANEL FOUR

BY US/ABOUT US: AMPLIFYING COMMUNITY VOICE Melody Williams Ingy Mahmoud Mehvash DaRon Rebecca Beaird

Moderator: Taaj Lauture-Sims

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PANEL FOUR

Melody Williams

Ingy Mahmoud

Contextual Study of an Institutional Engagement Program’s Art Courses for Young People

Contextualizing Community: Students Visualizing Cultural Change as Changemakers Using Mixed Media Painting

This study is informed by my experience as Research Fellow at Homan Square for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) Continuing Studies (CS) Youth and Outreach program. Nichols Tower at Homan Square in the North Lawndale neighborhood is home to SAIC’s first classroom location outside of the downtown area, and is headed by the school’s Office of Engagement. I came into this work wondering about the many vantage points of people involved in CS programs, and how positioning and representation affect one another within institutional engagement programs. I wanted my study to offer a platform for the multiple voices and perspectives involved in CS Homan Square programming, and I was curious what these different perspectives could tell me about the ecology of engagement work.

With these interests in mind, I asked the following: How can understanding multiple vantage points presented by students, SAIC instructors, community workers, and Continuing Studies administration contribute to sustainable engagement practices between the North Lawndale community and SAIC? What are some experiences and insights from young people and community workers in North Lawndale that can support SAIC in developing approaches that address the nuances of teaching young people in the area?

I addressed my research questions by observing CS Early College Program classes at SAIC’s Homan Square and downtown locations; by talking with instructors and community workers; and by developing research projects with individual high school students. A close investigation of community-based organizations in the North Lawndale area, service-learning programs in higher education, and community engaged arts programs provided context and comparison for projects and courses provided by SAIC at Homan Square. The study also included textual analysis of CS administrative workflow, and illustrated shifts in Chicago’s public school landscape.

My work identified numerous themes including empathic and holistic teaching practices, negotiation between multiple social worlds, and incorporating the hopes and goals of various parties involved in the Foundation for Homan Square campus. I found that through critical listening, Continuing Studies can learn from veteran teachers’ and community workers’ practices, which address the particular needs of students who live or attend school in North Lawndale, including offering leadership opportunities for students in the classroom. I believe that identifying and addressing the hopes, needs, and goals of the many actors at play in Continuing Studies youth programming will provide practical insights for equitable community-to-institution engagement.

My thesis explored how students perceived the concept of culture, how they relate cultural change to their daily lives, and how they see themselves as agents of change. The purpose of my project was to investigate students’ understanding of the meaning of ‘power’ in a culture and community, how power influences a culture, what it means to question it, and how questioning power is part of cultural change. By illustrating a personal narrative, students visualized their role in cultural change from their individual perspectives. My research questions include: how can cultural change by questioning power be visually represented?

How will this individual and collaborative process enable students to investigate community, and better understand the subtlety and complexity of implementing change? What effect will the approach of students working together on similar yet individual narratives have on the students’ experience of learning?

My project took place over 4 weeks of my apprentice teaching. My research site was a public neighborhood high school with a diverse student body from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds in Chicago. The majority of the students were either immigrants or came from immigrant families. The participants included 47 students in 11th grade International Baccalaureate (IB) visual arts.

Students created a mixed media painting triptych consisting of silhouettes made out of their own bodies in the process of change for installations they displayed in the hallways of the school. Students’ brainstormed topics related to social issues and experimented with materials. Students then collaborated to discuss how to approach and represent them, and voted for group themes.

Writing, sketching and mapping exercises, as well as observations of one-onone conversations were used to document and analyze students’ process of investigating their topic.

This project revealed that regardless of resistances, students were not afraid to share personal narratives of change with their peers and the school community through their installations. Grouped according to the choice of personally relevant themes, the students, as a cohort, grew closer by the end of the project.

Specifically, the process of installing and discussing the final project helped students understand and empathize with each other. They learned they have the ​ power​to make change and they were encouraged to implement these changes in their topics. Through a culturally relevant art making experience and curriculum, educators can create a safe space in the classroom to allow students to become effective, integral members of their community.

Master of Arts in Art Education

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PANEL FOUR

Master of Arts in Teaching

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PANEL FOUR

Mehvash DaRon

Rebecca Beaird

Ambiguity As a Means To Promote Individuality and Differentiated Curriculum

Collaboration in a Makerspace For Artists With Dis/abilities

Master of Arts in Art Education

The purpose of this study was to examine how embracing ambiguity can facilitate experiences with art that promote individuality and a differentiated curriculum especially for artists living with multiple disabilities. Ambiguity is a road travelled without resistance. It deconstructs our current understandings and perceptions into opportunities and constructions for personal growth.

Encountering difference in an art studio utilizing ambiguity can stimulate curiosity, imagination, new possibilities, and new perspectives.

My research occurred one day a week for eight months. The following questions were addressed while utilizing a multi-method inquiry that connected elements of action research and a case study: how does ambiguity in curriculum lead to individualized solutions in art education? How is art a vehicle for identities?

This research took place in an art studio of about 10-15 professional painters that is based in a residential campus that housed participants living with moderate to severe physical and/or intellectual disabilities. I addressed these questions through the implementation of curriculum with five artists.

The residents created socially engaged art by making “Wanted Posters” for endangered animal species. They engaged in a group dialogue to generate ideas about possible ways to raise awareness about the animals that were intuitively selected by each artist. In addition to collecting data regarding conversations and visual images of the artwork of the residents, I kept a detailed journal of happenings in the studio. My interpretation of the gathered data produced these suggested teaching strategies: Investigate approaches to facilitate art instruction in order to position teachers and participants to actively seek paths of fresh ideas rather than passively accepting preconceived ideas.

Encourage flexibility in pedagogical approaches that create opportunities for discovery of new processes.

Accepting ambiguity for both educators and participants pushes them to renegotiate already existing plans to respond to the challenges and unforeseen events within their environments and experiences.

Through my research I discovered ways in which ambiguity played a part and materialized in the facilitation art making processes. It enabled me to understand my role as an educator, artist and student. Challenges became possibilities for personal transformations. This study presented ways to investigate ambiguity with theory and practice to design and reshape curriculum to fit into an art making space.

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PANEL FOUR

Master of Arts in Art Education

My thesis research investigated an accessible model of collaboration within a makerspace in hopes to expand upon art programs for adults with disabilities.

This model aimed to take into account the various perspectives and needs of the artists. The study followed the main research question: How can a collaborative relationship within a makerspace of adult artists with dis/abilities impact art programming?

My research explored the dynamics of collaboration through the following three sub-questions: how can collaboration foster inclusive educational pedagogy? In what ways do members of the community inform the organic development of programming? As an art educator, how does participation with the artists at the makerspace improve my understanding of this community and inform future practice?

This research took place with the artists at a makerspace for adult artists with cognitive disabilities or mental illnesses in the Bridgeport neighborhood of South Chicago. Of the 35 practicing artists within the community, 16 participated on the “book team”–all were native to Chicago and over the age of twenty. Their preferred media ranged from graphite to cardboard.

Over the course of four months, the “book team” designed an artist book including art and/or writing from all participating artists. The project began with conversations about interests and ideas, leading to the decision to make an artist book. The artists worked collaboratively on the format, title, cover and each contributed their own “Chicago story”. The book was printed in an edition of 40 and sold to fund future collaborative projects.

I utilized action-based and arts-based methodologies, chosen due to their flexibility, cyclical nature, and appropriateness for the needs of the community.

I used a strategy of reflect, act and evaluate that parallels other collaborative models. Throughout the process I collected qualitative data in the form of journal reflections and recorded conversations, both verbal and visual.

As a result of this thesis project, I came to better understand the dynamics within the makerspace and its many positives and negatives. I also found that the hierarchy within the organization affected the program more than anticipated, causing me to continually question the presence of agency and power for participants and myself. As a recommendation to the field, I have visually outlined an accessible collaborative model to explain my process and how it can invite more voices to the table for unforeseen results.

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THANK YOU! to the Department of Art Education Faculty & Staff Olivia Gude Chair Adam Greteman Director of Master of Arts in Teaching Rebecca Keller Director of Master of Arts in Art Education

FACULT Y

ADJUNC T AND

Andrés L. Hernandez Drea Howenstein Nicole Marroquin John Ploof Karyn Sandlos Jim Elniski

PART-TIME FACULT Y

STAFF

Kathleen Mary McGrath Administrative Director Amelia Sawyer Administrative Assistant Valerie Vasquez Licensure Specialist

Anne Becker Joy L. Bivins Salome Chasnoff William Estrada Cheryl L. Gold Kelly Gross Jerry Hausman Faheem Wafeeq Majeed Patricia Pelletier Lavie Raven Sarah Ross Jerry Stefl Kate Thomas

2017 G R ADUATE SYMPOSIUM STUDENT ORG ANIZ ING COMMIT TEE

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT SAIC OFFICE OF THE DEANS AND DIVISION CHAIRS GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER Jean de St. Aubin, Executive Director

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Emily Calderon Kristii Emilsson Ana María González Sierra Iga Puchalska Jia Zhao PROG R AM DE SIG N BY: Ashley M. Freeby, MFA ‘18

DEPARTMENT OF ART EDUCATION 37 South Wabash, Suite 713 Chicago, Illinois 60603 arted@saic.edu 312-899-7481