2019 Master of Arts in Art Education & Master of Arts in Teaching Research Abstracts

Master’s

Symposium SAIC Department of Art Education

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM

Gene Siskel Film Center 164 North State Street 1 Chicago, Illinois 60601

Dear All, Welcome to the 2019 SAIC Master’s Art Education Symposium.

This is a significant culminating moment for the students and faculty of the SAIC Art Education Department. Today, graduating Master of Arts in Art Education and Master of Arts in Teaching students will share with you synopses of their research focus as artists and educators.

Our understanding of research in the SAIC Art Education community incorporates a wide range of practices by which we might identify, articulate, ideate, make, experiment, collaborate, analyze, and understand. Together, we value the arts as a form of inquiry into the past and present as well as, as a means for bringing into being imagined and as yet unimagined futures.

The great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire identified two important dimensions of cultural work—action and reflection; the fusion of action and reflection is known as praxis. Freire affirms the importance of activist practice, but cautions that making and doing without accompanying analysis and reflection will not be truly generative or transformative.

Today, you will see many examples of praxis, as these art educators engage in the difficult work of considering the ethical and pedagogical implications and possibilties for planning and organizing new forms of cultural work and fresh topics and themes for school, museum, and community-based curriculum in local and international contexts.

Please join with the faculty of SAIC Art Education in celebrating the accomplishments of these dedicated artist educators. Their research is a contribution to understanding what is now and what might be; through their reflections they shape and transform themselves and the communities in which they work.

Enjoy.

Olivia Gude Chair of Art Education

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Angela Gregory Paterakis Professor of Art Education

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Symposium Program Schedule

8:30 - 9:25 AM

COFFEE

9:30 - 9:35 AM

WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS

9:40 –10:35 AM

Panel 1: Participate!

Exchanging Culture Through Civic Engagement and Collaboration Almudena Caso Burbano Giselle Mira-Diaz Millie D. Mac Meera Rampalli Chair: Anagha Prasan

10:45–11:50 AM

Panel 2: Breaking Barriers: Exploring Identities Through Artmaking Cristian J. Roldán Kenyetta Broughton-Floyd Arifa Ibrahim Kayla McClain Todd R. Osborne Chair: Jenna Russo

12:00–1:00 PM

LUNCH

1:05–2:15 PM

Panel 3: Cross-Curricular and Collaborative Impact: Nature, Glitches, and Monsters in the Anthropocene Andrew Laverdiere Elizabeth Friedman Lauren Ross Elin Wojciechowski Deborah Hrydziuszko Chair: Martin Soto

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2:25–3:30 PM

Panel 4: The Agency of Awareness: Creating Empowering Spaces Chase Kaiser Nina Dorries Yaan Gao Ashley Lamb Saskya Fun Sang Chair: Nika Gorini

3:30–4:00 PM

CLOSING REMARKS & CONGR ATUL ATIONS

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SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF ART EDUCATION

THESIS ABSTRACTS 2018-2019

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Notes

Participate!

Exchanging Culture Through Civic Engagement and Collaboration

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Almudena Caso Burbano Giselle Mira-Diaz Millie D. Mac Meera Rampalli 7

Chair: Anagha Prasan

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Almudena Caso Burbano

Giselle Mira-Diaz

Master of Arts in Art Education

Master of Arts in Art Education

Becoming Civic Art Museums: Emerging Roles of Departments of Learning and Public Programs: Three Case Studies in the United States and Spain

Transcending Borders through International Art Collaboration

This thesis project seeks to understand how the Departments of Education and Public Programs in three art museums in Spain and the U.S are changing to promote equitable dialogue and programming that is relevant to citizen and community organizations. The aims of this project are to identify the differences and commonalities of the emerging practices in each cultural institution, to engage in a cross-cultural dialogue about the strategic lines that the museums have developed in both countries, and to disseminate the outcomes of this research to art education and art administration communities globally. This project is guided by the following research questions: What is, in the eyes of museum professionals, the emerging role of the art museum of the 21st century?

What strategies are three Departments of Education and Public Programs in Spain and the US developing to foster civic engagement? What determines successful participation in each context and what conflicts have manifested?

As a way to explore and analyze the experiences of staff members at each of the three museums, I employed a case study methodology. For collecting data, a residency of three to seven days was accomplished at each of the three participating museums: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago, U.S), and Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (Santa Cruz, U.S). At each museum, interviews with staff from the Departments of Education and Public Programs were recorded on video or audio. Data were also collected using photography and journal reflections. The result of this project is a website that represents the interviews, excerpts from video and audio interviews, a description of the research project, and conclusions.

Each of the participating museums is facing a similar challenge of creating ways to place the experience and participation of diverse audiences, community groups, and activists at the forefront of their agenda. These cultural institutions attempt to accomplish this aim through the creation of stable and equal relationships which collaterally question the structural functioning of the organization, its power as an institution, and its potentials to be a transformative social agent. Ideas such as educating the institution, relationship building, care, and new methods of assessment are common values and concepts that all participating museums are questioning and addressing.

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This thesis focuses on how international art collectives can function as the connective tissue for students to engage in international exchange, the politics of collaboration and art-making. I have analyzed the sustainability, structural operation and political implications of such exchanges at the university level and in the professional art world. Examining different programs such as the International Art Collaboration Network (INTAC), inSite, and Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo as comparative case studies, I address the following questions in my research: What are the social and political outcomes when art organizations develop transnational programs using collaborative models? How do art organizations create sustainable transnational programs?

INTAC served as the main focus of my investigation. INTAC is a network that has been connecting students around the world to work on lens-based collaborative art projects for the past ten years. My data collection was based on surveys and interviews with students, professors, and INTAC alums. As part of my fieldwork, I studied four Chicago-based artists who participated in the 2018-2019 INTAC collaboration. I gathered artwork, interviews and exhibition documentation. I also looked at historical collaborations between the US and Mexico and interviewed artists from various collectives who have worked in collaboration.

These programs are critical to local and international communities since they provide an accessible entry point into complicated conversations through artwork. Such models can be replicated at the university level and in the artistic community. Through research I found that while there are challenges in collaborations, these are outweighed by the many benefits of a transnational exchange. When ideas are exchanged and conversations are held between artists and cultural producers, we can begin to challenge and destroy hateful rhetoric that divides us. Collaborations can connect us as equal contributors, creating a space where all members are significant contributors through a democratic and egalitarian model of collaboration.

Online communication generates the spaces in which these kinds of collaborations can be planned, allowing participants to think critically through artistic collaborations and dialogue about the world, border politics, international relations and citizenship. This thesis functions as a reference for individuals who wish to implement transnational art collaborations in their art practice or as a pedagogical model. As artists, educators and global citizens, how can we engage and adopt these ideas and methods so that globalization serves human cultural integration?

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Millie D. Mac

Meera Rampalli

Master of Arts in Art Education

Master of Arts in Art Education

Open Doors for International Artists - Life After F-1 Visa

Grassroots Leadership in Community Arts Organizing: A Self-Development and Social Change Strategy

My thesis researched life after art school for international students who are seeking legal employment opportunities in the U.S after receiving higher education under F-1 visa status. Drawing on the history of international cultural exchange and how it plays an important role in the U.S art market, recent immigration/visa policies along with psychological pressure student’s experience after leaving art institutions, I developed, conducted, and piloted workshops that incorporated information from immigration attorneys and international alumni at SAIC under the supervision and partnership with International Student Affairs Director Lawrence Rodriguez. My research questions were: In what ways do soon-to-graduate international students need help and support navigating the visa process? How can a workshop that brings together alumni who have navigated the process, legal experts and international students help address these needs?

The first part of this research involved analyzing SAIC’s Spine Program’s Professional Practice course contents, followed by conducting interviews with faculties from CAPX- SAIC’s career center and SAIC’s International Student Affairs. We discussed functionalities of these student services and address possible improvement to support graduating international students. The second part of the research involved research into non-profit organizations outside of the SAIC community that support international artists such as Lawyer for the Creative Art (LCA) - a nonprofit organization with volunteer lawyers who support creative business and practices to look for immigration attorneys. I also included discussions and interviews with former F-1 art students who already received their higher education in the U.S to learn about their post- art school experience and their struggle with transitioning from students to professional art practitioners. My research also included a student survey on life after F-1. The data collected from this survey and other research formed the blueprint for the design of the workshop curriculum.

Through the course of my research, I discovered that there is a need for institutions of higher learning to: 1) meet the needs and understand the challenges and disadvantages international students have compared to their domestic peers; 2) to provide student services for international student’s resources on government policy and 3) greater connections and follow up with international alumni.

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My thesis explores how critical place-based pedagogy and decolonial education strategies contribute to civic leadership through a qualitative ethnographic study of leaders and organizers who catalyze positive community change. The purpose of this study is to better understand effective grassroots leadership in public arts organizing and cultural sectors. I am a teaching artist with five years of experience in community art practice, and my research and experience contribute to this autoethnographic study. The primary question I sought to answer was, what factors contribute to civic leadership and effective positive change in community arts organizing? Following this I asked, how might teaching with decolonial methods through the lens of critical pedagogy of place inform a community arts practice?

In order to answer these questions, I interviewed practitioners whose life works are exemplary examples of positive community change. These organizers included Emory Douglas, the former Minister of Culture of the Black Panther Party, Blanche Suggs-Killingworth, a representative of Neighborhood Housing Services and President of the North Lawndale Historical and Cultural Society, and Dr. Azure Thompson, who uses place-based approaches in community research. Over the course of one year, I collected data in many forms, including field notes and personal interviews. I transcribed conversations and wrote journal entries based on my own observations. I discovered that these dynamic leaders consider environment as more than simply “site.” They critically analyze current spatial relationships to better understand their own professional practices, operations, and codes of conduct. By recognizing their own leadership as functioning within a hierarchical structure, these leaders challenge this structure by fostering earnest and active connections to the communities they serve.

I believe that there is a gap in existing research concerning the ways in which leadership methods inform community art practice in art education. By uniting decolonial methodologies and critical pedagogy of place theory in my research and analysis, my goal was to identify effective orientations toward and strategies for grassroots leadership in public arts organizing, thus providing future teaching artists and arts administrators with frameworks to reflect critically on their own agency as artists and leaders functioning within larger power dynamics.

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Notes

Breaking Barriers: Exploring Identities Through Artmaking

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Cristian J. Roldán Kenyetta Broughton-Floyd Arifa Ibrahim Kayla McClain Todd R. Osborne Chair: Jenna Russo 13

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Cristian J. Roldán

Kenyetta Broughton-Floyd

Master of Arts in Art Education

Master of Arts in Teaching

Politicizing the Public Space: Public Art as an Alternative Pedagogical Practice

Investigating Elementary School Students’ Cultural Differences through Hair Culture

Marginalized communities have used mural painting as a tactic to resist invisibilization, a strategy used by authorities to deny and indoctrinate. Murals’ capacities to codify ideas into a visible image makes this practice a tool for the collective production of knowledge and education. In collaboration with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and community members, I created an art project to teach local youth to do a community mural based on Paulo Freire’s notion of dialogue so that they might get a better understanding of public space, public art, and dialogical strategies in an emancipatory pedagogy.

My research questions are: How can public art transform public space into an alternative pedagogical practice? How can a public art project inform people about local social issues and preserve the collective memory for new generations? How can a dialogue-based project enable critical thinking among the youth?

The project took place in Humboldt Park in Chicago, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood. I worked with seven teenagers for six weeks. The first two weeks we had dialogues with community members, leaders, and local socially engaged artists. The next four weeks the participants developed a concept and painted the mural. Data was collected through journals, videos, photos, and documentation of the mural.

The youth noticed identity gaps they had not previously been aware of.

Noticing these gaps awakened a curiosity for their own culture and identity and for social issues in the local community. I noticed the group became a platform for the youth to create new social bonds and to meet community leaders.

I learned that dialogical transformation is parallel to public sphere politicization. Public art interventions into public space articulate and expose community struggles, identity, and inequalities. Dialogue becomes an ongoing process, constantly mutating before, during and after the mural painting.

Dialogue reveals the marginalized community’s struggles, while the art practice serves to codify these struggles so they can be seen and used to produce knowledge collectively and then to challenge the social imagination. This is in contrast to institutions where knowledge is prepackaged and alienated from the realities of marginalized communities.

“The Hair Hat Project” examined the connections between identity, culture, and how students’ understanding of hair impacts how they respond to one another.

I conducted my action research over six weeks at a predominantly Latinx urban public grammar school on the southwest side of Chicago. I designed a threepart lesson plan that encouraged the 28 students to create a self-portrait with colored pencils, design a 3D hair hat, and write a reflection on how learning about different hair cultures has impacted how they respond to different hairstyles/textures. Students were asked to recall both a positive and negative hair experience and question the importance of hair as an influencer in regard to behaviors and verbal responses.

The purpose of my research was to engage students in identifying hair styles as a cultural phenomenon that communicates meaning. Students agreed to participate in an art education action research project that investigated differences that exist in hair culture. Students contributed their artworks and opinions to this research. Group discussion, journaling, daily interactions, and observations were used as forms of data collection and assessment.

The questions that guided my research were: How do youth visualize identity?

What happens when students engage in critical discussions about hair, culture, and behavior? How would education about differences in hair encourage learners to consider understanding or accepting difference?

I have learned that young people believe that hair plays an important part in their identity. Hair culture is a loaded area of expression and identification for youth. As youth define it, managing hair styles is central to life. Thus, we should no longer wonder why youth are so argumentative about their hair. Bullying behaviors that involve hair result from hostility concerning differences that exist amongst cultures, communities, and ethnicities. By learning and sharing their understandings and misunderstandings about hair and by identifying differences and similarities amongst people, students learned to use less judgemental, kinder words when articulating differences in hairstyles. When knowledge is shared and differences are discussed, bridges can be built that will encourage young people to see and embrace things they have in common and dispel animosity over differences.

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Arifa Ibrahim

Kayla McClain

Master of Arts in Teaching

Master of Arts in Art Education

Deconstructing Stereotypes through Artmaking

Rethinking the Involvement of Social Justice Issues in the Curriculum

My research investigated the issues within the media that reinforce stereotypes and how the media plays a role in creating cultural racism. The focus of this study was aimed to deconstruct biases that contribute to racism discrimination, and stereotypes. To do so, students constructed tunnel books to create a climate that allowed them to recognize how stereotypes may affect those targeted as well as establish allyship. The questions that this study sought to engage were the following: 1) How can students become allies to one another when they are educated about the sources that fuel discriminatory behaviors/beliefs? and 2) How can creating art that counters stereotypes provide opportunities for the creation of new, transformative stories?

The research took place at a local Chicago public high school over the course of seven weeks where, as an instructor, I was responsible for teaching four classes per day. Within the school, the demographics were extremely diverse with over 60 different languages spoken and 28% of the population being learners of English as a second language (ESL). Moreover, 88% of the population was considered low-income.

The methodology used was practical action research. I asked students to make tunnel books that allowed students to deconstruct a stereotype of their choice. The student work was captured through photos, videos, and journaling.

Tunnel books are constructed in an accordion-type fashion, which plays an essential role in exploring topics in complex ways and enforcing depth, similar to the human experience and contrary to stereotypes. Once completed, students were asked to write artist statements and exhibited their work to bring awareness to each respective issue.

This project proved to be exceptionally useful for students as it allowed them to better understand many common and possibly overlooked stereotypes both related and unrelated to their own experience. This included but was not limited to diverse gender, racial, and religious groups. Furthermore, by deconstructing stereotypes, the classroom experience was able to provide real opportunities for the creation of new transformative stories. Each student related their own experience, in hopes of relaying a message both promoting understanding and celebrating diversity.

As an educator, it was a challenge at first to create a brave space that would allow students to comfortably express sensitive issues such as those discussed through this project. It is important to be mindful of a classroom’s diversity by taking the time to acknowledge each student’s individual experience.

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Due to the epidemic of ongoing crimes against people of color my research is at the intersection of social justice within art education curriculum. Over the past few years, I have paid attention to the increase of cell phone recordings of police violence against people of color and I have turned my attention to how we process and talk about these acts in the classroom. The aim of my research is to inspire black and brown middle school-aged students to rethink racial stereotyping directed at them through a social justice lens and book-making.

My research questions sought to address the following questions: How will an autoethnographic approach of a POC teacher-in-training help shape a social justice art education curriculum geared toward young students? In what ways will the students shape my experience and teaching practice within the social justice art education curriculum?

During my research, I observed art classes in two different settings and did historical research on art and cultural projects that take up issues of racial justice. In classroom observations, for six weeks, I observed two high school art classes and two elementary art classes for kindergarteners and fourth graders. This observation was at a South Side Chicago school serving Latino and African American students ranging from grades K-12. To gather data, I recorded journal entries, developed notes from observation and readings, and recorded reflections from personal experience as a beginning teacher.

Using an auto ethnographic approach, I developed a critical framework around identity and the need for dialogues around race in the curriculum. During this time, I also created a graphic publication “The First Time I Got Pulled Over” aimed at youth of color. The book creates an open discussion on race geared toward youth and exposes their minds to ideas of social or cultural norms that may cause negative stereotypes. I want teachers to envision the inclusion of topics of race in the classroom and to consider the impact those topics will have on students of color.

Through this process, I learned how autoethnography can shape my own personal identity as a teaching artist within the Chicago community. From my research, I learned that curriculum in education is a significant way of representation and once we begin to identify and include topics of race in the curriculum we will then begin to identify ways to create a just society.

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Todd R. Osborne Master of Arts in Art Education

Creating Community Murals: Chicago Public Art Group’s Approach Chicago has a rich history of community-based public art, beginning with the Wall Of Respect in 1967 through contemporary works. Several of these murals have been lost to time, neglect or erasure. This research aimed to document the community murals created by Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), and provide resources for artists, teachers and students interested in engaging with this approach. I asked: What are the impacts of CPAG’s murals, and the benefits and challenges of this community-based art approach?

CPAG is a not-for-profit artists’ organization committed to creating highquality community-based public art that was founded in 1971. Research was conducted at CPAG, mural sites in Chicago, and through conversations with various stakeholders. I am an artist with CPAG and an art teacher with Chicago Public Schools, so my experience has guided this research significantly.

For three years, I have conducted historical and art-based research to create an accessible website about community murals. Historical research was culled from literary sources, photos, videos, and CPAG’s archive. I conducted artsbased research through creating photo and video documentation of projects by site visits, discussions, and interviews. This work also led to incorporating community-based murals into my high school curriculum.

This research led to the creation of an active and accessible website that was designed for colleagues interested in community murals. On this website I shared my findings, resources, documentation, and plan to continually develop its content. The research showed that these murals democratically present and address contemporary issues within the communities in which they are created, engage the public to participate and express their unique creative voices, and activate the urban landscape through the creation of dynamic artworks.

CPAG’s work has made a meaningful impact on the communities involved in its projects, as evidenced by the compelling works of art and the community responses documented in the archives. CPAG has created hundreds of community public artworks involving thousands of people. This communitybased art approach enriches the lives of participants and the audience through community engagement, beautification, activism, participation and collaboration, while developing art-making skills in a broader “non-art” context.

Documentation of this work is important to preserve the content and process of these projects and to help protect them from future loss. I hope this research and website will contribute to the community-based spirit of CPAG’s art and inform the public about this significant work.

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Notes

Cross-Curricular and Collaborative Impact: Nature, Glitches, and Monsters in the Anthropocene Andrew Laverdiere Elizabeth Friedman Lauren Ross Elin Wojciechowski Deborah Hrydziuszko 21

Chair: Martin Soto

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Andrew Laverdiere

Elizabeth Friedman

Master of Arts in Teaching

Master of Arts in Teaching

Some See a Glitch: Implementing Digital Games as Artistic Medium

Cryptozoology in the Classroom: A Study of Interdisciplinary Art Curriculum

New technologies are changing the definition of artistic medium. Affordable, readily available new technologies are changing the possibilities of art education curriculum. As software as a creative outlet becomes more interesting and desirable and easier to obtain, it is up to art teachers to embrace the possibilities of change and learn to get over the hurdles that new digital media present. This may turn out to mean turning difficulties into learning opportunities for students and for teachers.

I spent three weeks working with two Digital Media classes in a high school located in a diverse neighborhood in Chicago’s Southside. The students in the courses came from widely different educational and economical backgrounds and had a wide range of of interest in digital art. These classes had worked in a variety of computer programs, but few of the students were aware of the program that I introduced, a video game engine called “Unity”. Using a new and different program was hard work with unexpected problems on a near daily basis, but the “Unity” unit was a success and worth the many difficulties.

I documented the project using video by a student volunteer, field notes, and student-made journals on their thoughts, interests, discoveries and decisions through the creative process. As students worked to learn a new program, they engaged in creative problem solving.

As educators we have a duty to evolve with new mediums. I believe my experience and research can help those entering the field and those who want to update their curriculum.

It is my goal to share with educators how to avoid the obstacles that can be avoided, roll with the ones that can’t, and learn how to turn others into strengths. There are shortcuts to support new digital projects such as using Google slides for documentation and sanity-saving strategies to work with in a public school’s digital confines. There are also ways to structure teaching that encourage peer learning for those with less enthusiasm for a new program.

Some see a glitch; some see an opportunity.

My thesis explored the combination of art and biology in the art classroom, utilizing Hetland and Winner’s studio habits of mind and practices of arts integration. Students were introduced to the theory of cryptozoology.

Cryptozoology is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as the search for and study of animals whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the Loch Ness monster or the yeti. It is important for students to understand the difference between science and pseudoscience, especially with today’s internet where anyone can make anything seem legitimate. By using cryptozoology as a starting point, students began to see that pseudoscience is all around them. This type of critical thinking is important because of the prevalence of social media, which is rife with misinformation.

My research was conducted with middle school students, ages 13-15 in an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs of Chicago. The lesson taught used biology, traditional illustration techniques, and critical thinking to help students understand the role that art plays in the world of science. Research was conducted for six weeks.

The lesson asked students to combine both art and personal writing to create a realistic illustration of a personal imagined animal or “cryptid”. Data was collected through student interviews and writing, recordings of the lessons and progress reports done at the time of teaching. I found that students are reluctant to think about the art classroom as much more than simply a place for creating images. Almost every student focused more on their illustration than they did on conceptualizing and writing about their personal cryptids. Students were prompted with questions about the physical design of their animals throughout the six weeks. While students were able to answer these questions on the spot, they did not seem to consider this information important enough to include in their written artists statements.

I found students to be resistant to the idea that art is anything other than the visual product that comes out of the classroom. I believe that this is one of the reasons students were so resistant to thinking scientifically about their creature. Students may have thought that if what the creature eats and where it lives is not part of the actual drawing, it is not important to consider. I believe the combination of art and science is something that is important to explore, especially with the extremely polarized views of science in the current world.

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Lauren Ross

Elin Wojciechowski

Master of Arts in Teaching

Master of Arts in Teaching

Student Choice, Voice, and Collaboration in the High School Art Classroom

Making Monsters: An Exploration of Connections, Identity, and Character Creation

Through this project I investigated the possibility of a student-directed high school art classroom that centered student’s voices and made room for student choice in lesson planning. The guiding question that informed and directed my action research was, what happens when students are given the agency to plan their own project in the high school art classroom? Further, I considered: how can I, as an emerging art educator, reconcile my belief in the importance of sharing expertise with my equally strong conviction for the necessity of student choice?

Alongside my mentor teacher, I taught a mixed-media class for seven weeks at a public high school on the northeast side of Chicago. The class consisted of a group of thirteen sophomores in a fine arts magnet program. The students in the class come from a diverse range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, representative of both the school and the neighborhood.

For the project, students generated “complaints” to inspire art making.

Students worked together to decide on a collective class theme derived from their complaints. Each student then spent time creating a personal artwork using a wide-variety of artmaking techniques and mediums that responded to the collective theme. Throughout this project I took field notes and kept a photo-journal to document the events of each day. Periodically, I asked the students to reflect on the project in writing, taking time to reflect on the process and consider their developing thoughts about the theme and the process of artmaking.

It was my hope that the project would foster collaborative planning between the students and teacher, as well as among the students themselves. I saw students work through difficulties together, help and inspire each other’s artworks, and work successfully as artistic collaborators. This research gave me insight into the power of student choice in the classroom. I found that when students participate in conversations about their own art curriculum, it creates possibilities for exciting and engaging content that is more relevant to students.

In this project, I experienced the challenges of a student-directed art classroom and through trial and error I began to learn how to balance the freedom of choice with class norms and structure. I am eager to think about the next steps and the bigger challenges that might be faced in a student-directed art classroom and am looking forward to continuing this line of inquiry during my first year as an art educator this coming school year.

There is a long varied history in pop culture of the monster archetype as a symbol for something grander beyond its usual trappings in film and television.

Whether they represent something personal or something abstract, these types of characters act as conduits for ideas.

In this thesis, I explored this concept with a class of students from a public high school on Chicago’s South Side. My classroom consisted of over 30 students, primarily from Latino or African American backgrounds. The ages ranged from freshmen to seniors. For many, this was the singular art credit they needed to graduate and would be their only art experience in high school. Every day for fifty-five minutes, we explored the basics of art and artistic technique. The class I had taken over was originally meant as an introduction to art so it allowed for open exploration into niche topics.

Over the course of two and a half weeks, the students explored character design by creating an individual monster that represented something personal to them such as a memory, fear, or a particular emotion. This brainstorming led to a final design which was then transferred onto rubber blocks to allow the class to try block printing for the first time. I documented my time teaching through informal talks with the class and formal self-reflection via a digital journal.

Throughout my observation, time constraints and and a lack of interest in class-wide discussions caused me to cut out part of the original thesis plans.

Originally there was more of an emphasis on a historical exploration of monsters and identity and how they are often a figure of sympathy, especially with minority populations. As I began to know my class, I chose to place more focus on block printing technique as that proved to be the most engaging.

Overall, I deemed the project a success with all students learning a new printmaking form with an introduction into character design, especially with the personal connections put forth by a number of students. My original core vision did not turn out as grand as I originally hoped, but I never strayed from my core concept of monsters as evocative representational figures. It is my hope that my students gained appreciation of the craft and thought put into the types of characters they encounter in media everyday.

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Deborah Hrydziuszko Master of Arts in Teaching

Integrating Environmental Awareness and Art Education Though many artists have focused on environmental concerns since the 1860’s, traditional art educational systems have been slow to adopt eco-art education paradigms. My hope is to become part of a growing movement that places sustainability and environmental awareness at the forefront of art education.

My research investigates creating a zero waste “painting” while exploring the harmful impact traditional artist paints have on the environment. I asked the following questions: How can students reflect on human impact on the environment in relation to artistic practices? How can I integrate environmental education into art education in order to bring awareness of the implications of art materials on the environment? How can a curriculum project develop meaningful connections between human impact on the environment and art to encourage ecological stewardship?

My research took place during a seven-week apprentice teaching placement with five students enrolled in an advanced painting class at a high school located in an affluent Chicago suburb. The 10th through 12th-grade students involved had previous painting and studio practice knowledge. We spent approximately three and a half weeks developing and creating the zero-waste painting project.

Ironically, our work time was curtailed due to usually severe weather school closings caused by the 2019 Polar Vortex.

My action research included gathering evidence through direct observation, personal journal reflections, written student responses, and recorded classroom discussions.

I discovered that students are engaged and concerned about the state of the environment, but more time would be needed with the students in order to ground environmental awareness in relevant knowledge and in making connections to their everyday lives. This would have allowed for more in-depth connections to emerge where students would be conscious of their selection of materials and methods for developing works of art.

The zero-waste painting project has encouraged me to continue to explore new ways to inspire and empower students by building a foundation to address human impact on the environment and art education as a way to bring about environmental awareness. The aim of my future research will be to create opportunities for students to create meaningful artworks that are grounded in environmental awareness. I hope to stimulate students’ interests in relationships between the cultural and natural worlds so students, teachers, and communities can work towards a more sustainable future.

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Notes

The Agency of Awareness: Creating Empowering Spaces Chase Kaiser Nina Dorries Yaan Gao Ashley Lamb Saskya Fun Sang 29

Chair: Nika Gorini

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Chase Kaiser

Nina Dorries

Master of Arts in Art Education

Master of Arts in Teaching

Raising Awareness for LGBTQ Seniors: A Pedagogical Video Project

Home, Space, and Creative Community: Developing Space for Creativity Within the Classroom

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer, (LGBTQ) seniors (ages 65+) inhabit a unique intersection and face prejudice on multiple fronts. They are scrutinized as members of the LGBTQ community, and encounter ageism as senior citizens. While historians and academics have thoroughly documented landmark events in LGBTQ history, little research has been conducted within the LGBTQ senior community. The purpose of this study was to galvanize a group of LGBTQ seniors to create a video with the purpose of raising awareness for their community. My research questions were, what are the outcomes when LGBTQ seniors collaborate to raise awareness for their community by creating a video?

How will LGBTQ seniors represent their community? What can be learned from the narratives of LGBTQ seniors?

The project was advertised to members of the Center on Addison, the senior department of the Center on Halsted, Chicago’s largest LGBTQ community center, as well as Town Hall apartments, a senior citizen housing facility in Boystown. Our team consisted of five volunteer videographers/instructors, as well as five LGBTQ seniors. PVR (participatory video research) was the perfect methodology for this project as data could be collected from both, behind the scenes footage from our meetings, as well as the final video created by the participants. By conducting a PVR project, new data and literature were produced by members of LGBTQ senior community.

Over the course of five months, our LGBTQ seniors met at the Center on Addison and collaborated to generate a video concept that resulted in LGBTQ seniors trying popular dating apps, such as Grindr, Tinder, Jack’d, Bumble, and OKCupid. We employed the help of young members of the LGBTQ community (ages 21-26) to guide the seniors through these apps, which allowed for conversation and intergenerational friendships to form. These interactions took place on camera and this footage comprised our final product. Our video was screened at a celebratory event at the Center on Halsted’s theater, where the LGBTQ senior participants were honored for their work.

Three conclusions were drawn from the PVR data. The first being that LGBTQ seniors want to be visible, not as victims, but as vibrant, thriving people. The second was that, despite ageist stereotypes, LGBTQ seniors are technologically savvy and interested in their extended education. The final, and most significant conclusion, is that LGBTQ seniors do desire companionship, regardless of their age, and, most importantly, are very deserving of love.

How do we shape our surroundings to help us accomplish our goals? Are we aware of what it is that motivates us to succeed, or what it is that hinders us? I began my research by asking the following questions: How can teachers help students recognize the individual necessities they require to feel brave enough to take on challenges in learning? How can teachers use creative design to allow student agency in the creation of their own visualization of their creative spaces? How can student agency and understanding of creative and “brave spaces” as defined by Arao and Clemens become a collective bridging of creative communities within and beyond the art room?

My research was conducted at an urban college prep school on the Southside of Chicago. Many of the students had no prior art experience. They were required to obtain art credits to graduate. Through guided visualization, critical discussions, and art making, my project aimed to help students realize their ability to create personal and collaborative creative spaces and community, functioning as creative thinkers in order to achieve their personal goals as selfmotivated learners.

I began my action research project by introducing students to contemporary artists, including Theaster Gates and Andrea Zittel. Students developed hypothetical “bags” in which they carried the essential things they needed to be productive and to feel creative or inspired as self-motivated learners. For this, students illustrated a visual “inventory” of these essential items and wrote about why they felt they were essential to their needs. These included anything from the tangible, such as their favorite place to think, to the intangible, such as their family’s encouragement.

From there, we moved on to the concept of memory and emotion and how they relate to space. Students participated in critical reflection and visualization exercises where they focused on a memory of a place that evoked a strong emotion. They recreated these places in the form of 3D tunnel books. Similar to the inventory of their hypothetical “bags,” students paid particular attention to the objects and details that made up these spaces. At the end of their project, students were challenged to photograph their tunnel books using camera and lighting in ways that either enhanced or transformed the space, allowing them a sense of agency over their memory.

The spaces that the students had created, along with their artist statements, showed that students intuitively understand how the spaces they gravitate towards, or the spaces that linger in their memories, affect their emotions and productivity.

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Yaan Gao

Ashley Lamb

Master of Arts in Teaching

Master of Arts in Art Education

Narrative Exchange: Within the Sewing Circle

Mindful Making: Confidence and Skill Building with Women through Woodshop Education

My curriculum project, The Gift, investigated the use of sewing circles to exchange the gift of stories. As I began learning about the history of sewing circles, I looked at how an art educator could connect contemporary art by culturally relevant artists with the tradition of sewing circles. I investigated how an art educator could build a curriculum that addresses empathy, while considering topics of gender, race, and political issues in their lives. I considered what the outcomes could be when students used sewing to present their exchanged stories.

To conduct this research, I created and taught a curriculum in a public high school in Chicago with the support of a mentor teacher. The school’s student population was 44.1% African American and 37.2% Latinx. I worked with sixteen students in 9th grade for seven weeks.

I wanted students to learn, not only embroidery skills, but also different ways of storytelling and about histories of women sharing life experiences while sewing. My curriculum project started by asking students to recall and exchange stories with someone in school or in their families. Students used these stories to design pillows to document the shared stories and the associated feelings.

Because a pillow is a personal and intimate object, it can be an ideal carrier for stories. Students used each side for different aspects of the story--one side told the story, the other side showed the response to the story.

By engaging in this process, students identified the different sorts of stories that mattered to people. I also found that my students had a wide range of experience with fiber art from different traditions. I had to give differentiated instruction based on their ability to engage with this art form. Students learned different ways of expressing themselves and gained patience to overcome frustrations and challenges in the process of making a communication. Through students’ sewn objects, they shared a combination of cultural knowledge, personal ideology, previous experience, and identity. At the end of the project, I was very pleased to see the many different manifestations of empathy and symbolic understanding through the storytelling.

Sewing is about making connections, taking time to slowly put things together. The process of this project asked students to slow down and connect their hands with their minds. It was a great opportunity to engage and heal communities through sewing and telling stories together.

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Understanding how a woodworking class taught for and by women affects students’ comfort level and confidence in approaching the traditionally ‘male’ spaces and practices of woodshops and woodworking was the focus of my research. I developed and taught a series of 101 woodworking classes called Mindful Making with my collaborator Lesley Jackson at the ReBuilding Exchange in Chicago. My interest in creating a space for women to learn woodworking skills has stemmed from my own experience and observations as a woman working in industrial shop spaces. My research questions include: How does gender affect one’s desire to participate in a shop class? What were students’ motivations for taking a shop class? In addition to shop skills, what do students gain through this experience?

Lesley Jackson and I have taught three sessions of Mindful Making together.

Each session met once a week for three hours over the course of five weeks. Each class had three to seven adult students who identified as female. Each student completed two projects, creating a shelf and a bench or stool. The curriculum covered how to use common stationary power tools and hand tools, best safety practices, and the properties of wood. In addition to technical skills, students gained knowledge of terminology used in hardware stores and industrial shops.

Our goal was for students to feel a sense of belonging in a woodshop and to gain the confidence and knowledge to work independently by the conclusion of each session The data we gathered included discussions between Lelsey and I regarding our observations and personal experiences, journal entries, photographs, and the results of a survey taken at the end of the five-week sessions about students’ experiences and learning outcomes.

Our students often reported that they felt more comfortable asking questions in an environment created for and by women. They were not embarrassed by their level of experience, rather they felt at ease learning alongside one another and formed a sense of community in so doing. Students reported that they gained confidence and pride in their abilities through learning fundamental woodworking skills in a supportive and nurturing environment. Many students expressed a desire to continue to build on the skills they learned in class. A version of this class will continue to run at the ReBuilding Exchange. Lesley and I will also develop new curriculums that expand upon the projects and ideas we explored in the development and implementation of Mindful Making.

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Saskya Fun Sang Master of Arts in Art Education

Mujeres Difíciles: Learning About Feminism with Ecuadorian Women Mujeres Difíciles was an artistic and educational project that sought to create awareness among women-identified Ecuadorian individuals about feminism and its potential as a tool for empowerment. Through consciousness-raising art making workshops, this project explored the ways in which feminism is discussed and understood in Ecuador. I wanted to know in what ways such a workshop could influence understandings of feminism, as well as how a project like this could impact my own teaching/artistic practice and views about feminism.

To answer these questions, I developed and organized a month-long project in Quito, Ecuador. Using Participatory Action Research, my goal was to learn alongside the other participants. In feminist participatory research specifically, the distinction between the researcher and those who participate in it disappears, allowing for a horizontal dynamic among those involved in the study. Through an open call shared on local newspapers and social media, a group of 19 creative women participants was convened. The project included a curated reading list with texts about feminism, female experience, and women artists in Latin America; art-making workshops where participants created work informed by the readings and discussions; talks with local artists/educators whose practices deal with feminism in the local context; and a public exhibition at +ARTE Galería Taller.

The data I gathered consisted of recordings of conversations and reflections with the participants, the artwork produced during the workshops, the participants’ thoughts about feminism before and after the project, and my own personal reflections and observations.

The project was structured to enable the participants to equally share their voices and experiences. This had important impact and resulted in profound reflections about their bodies, their position as artists in the Ecuadorian context, and as women who want to learn and share more about feminism as a tool for empowerment, liberation, and education.

Participants in Mujeres Difíciles created a network, learned new art-making practices, developed work informed by the experience, and acquired new information about feminism and female artists’ practices in Latin America.

They agreed that spaces created specifically for women are still needed in Ecuador and that sharing information related to women, artists, and the female experience in the local context is helpful to educating themselves and others about the importance of feminism.

The Mujeres Difíciles project can be seen as a model for creating safe and educational spaces for creative women, and may be modified as needed to continue building a chain of information and empowerment.

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THANK YOU! To the Department of Art Education Faculty & Staff

Olivia Gude Chair of Art Education Adam Greteman Director of Master of Arts in Teaching Andres L. Hernandez Director of Master of Arts in Art Education

FULL-TIME FACULTY

ADJUnCT AND PART-TIME FACULTY

Steven Ciampaglia Adam Greteman Olivia Gude Andres L. Hernandez Drea Howenstein Nicole Marroquin John Ploof Sarah Ross

Cheryl Boone Salome Chasnoff William Estrada Cheryl L. Gold Samantha Goss Jerry Hausman Rebecca Keller Lavie Raven Laura Sapelly

STAFF

Kathleen Mary McGrath Senior Administrative Director Kristi Moynihan Administrative Assistant

AFFILIATED FULL-TIME FACULTY

Valerie Vasquez Licensure Specialist

James Elniski Linda Keane

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT SAIC OFFICE OF THE DEANS AND DIVISION CHAIRS

Welcome, Senn Arts students:

Jackson Burress Christian Cano Jax Cigarroa Ontiveros Davilyn Cole Madeleine Ecclesine Alejandro Guerrero Sandy Guzman Daniela Laurentin Maya Lupescu Quinlan Moreno Penelope Padilla Sophia Ruiz Esra Senyuz Alyssa Shirley Ruby Vogelsang Tyshaun Zollicoffer & teacher, Casey Murtaugh Thanks for your creative participation in SAIC curriculum research.

THANKS TO FIRST YEAR MAT AND MAAE STUDENTS FOR SERVING AS PANEL CHAIRS:

Nika Gorini Anagha Prasan Jenna Russo Martin Soto

GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER

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Jean de St. Aubin, Executive Director

PROGRAM DESIGN BY : Giselle Mira-Diaz

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DEPARTMENT OF ART EDUCATION

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

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