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At Columbia College Chicago, students in the Art Education MAT program get the chance to go to the Illinois Art Education Association Conference, which is a great opportunity to network, meet vendors that sell the art products/ materials that you use, listen to lectures/speakers about different art techniques and lesson ideas, and even go to workshops to make art.

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One of the many lectures I went to at the conference was titled, Mural’s, Mosaic’s, and Art Advocacy with Children, and was given by Elizabeth Bure, Dawn Stanislawski, Tom Root, and Alexis Barath-Siddons.

In this lecture, they discussed how children, teachers, and the community members collaborate to create large public artworks in Barrington, Illinois. They also went into detail about process, materials that work, logistics, and the end results of various mural and mosaic projects.

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Another lecture I attended at the conference was titled, Perspective, It’s Elementary, given by Steve and Monica Wright. In this lecture, they discussed how to use perspective in a comprehensive unit for the elementary level.

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In their examples of students work, it amazed me how much they focused on perspective at the elementary level.  Usually, to my knowledge, elementary education focuses on understanding foreground, middle ground, and background.  In addition, they are introduced to the terms of horizon line and perspective (things farther away get smaller).  However, this lecture opened my eye’s and gave me great idea’s, such as teaching one-point perspective at 1st and 2nd grade.  Then, teaching a lesson on two-point perspective for 3rd-5th graders.  Overall, I feel I gained a lot of knowledge and perspective…on how to create challenging art lessons that I can use when I start student teaching in the spring.

For more information on lectures and resources (such as handouts and PowerPoint presentations) at the IAEA Conference, visit the IAEA Wiki.

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Another interesting part about the IAEA conference is that they have amazing keynote speakers such as the artist, Jay Ryan.  For a little background,Jay Ryan graduated with a painting degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana in 1994.  After school he moved to Chicago to pursue his love for drawing and music.  Later, in 1994, he worked at Screwball Press print shop under Steve Walters where he learned Steve’s special printmaking.  It was there that he began to combine his passion for drawing and music to recreate album covers for artists such as Andrew Bird.

This quote from Jay Ryan I find very inspirational in the sense that art should be made to be enjoyed.

I hope the younger people will be as stubborn as I have been in refusing to do ‘real work,’ and find ways that they can enjoy what they do on a day-to-day basis, making work which connects them to other people.

 

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Want to know more about Jay Ryan! Check out his artwork at his website: www.thebirdmachine.com