Spring Break!

Always time for Art

When people go on vacation, I am sure their goal is to get away from their jobs. It is my experience that when Art Teachers go on vacation, their main priority is to find the Art wherever they are. My Spring Break started with the opportunity to tour the Cincinnati Art Museum. In all my years of traveling south for this vacation, I had yet to visit this place. I am excited to say that is no longer the case. 

Driving up to the building that overlooks the city, I got to play one of my favorite games: guess the artist. It is this silly thing (and probably obnoxious to some) I like to do when I see a piece of art from a distance. I simply guess who it is before I see the tag/plaque and then check to see if I am correct. 

To my delight, I saw the giant statue of Pinocchio and instantly knew it was by Jim Dine, a native of the city. There is something so fun about reaching within your own knowledge base and testing it out in new environments. I was able to do this time and again as I saw works by Miro, Chihuly, LaMonte, and Warhol throughout the space. 

If you have yet to tour this space, I cannot recommend it enough. The staff are friendly, the fee is free, and the collection is well balanced with a mix of pieces from historical periods as well as contemporary works. One of my favorite things I saw while I was there was the positioning of the education area as well as interactive tablets for people to use as they explored the collection. It is clear that this museum prioritizes the experience of their viewers and wants kids to get into the action and start learning about, appreciating, and interacting with art at a young age. I was also inspired by the layout of their space in the education area and will try and find some ways to bring that back into my own classroom sometime soon. 

Take a Hike

A lot of people use Spring Break to catch up on sleep, catch up on their tans, binge-watch their favorite shows, or hike up a mountain. I am thankful I have the ability to venture to places like the Smoky Mountains and use the resources available to better connect with nature and in turn, myself. I have been hiking up mountains for almost two decades and each time it is a challenge. I am thankful I have the ability to keep climbing and the will to complete each trail. Remember, you can sleep when you are dead.

In the RAD

In addition to our hiking adventures, we also took time to enjoy art in Asheville, North Carolina. I was fortunate to be able to plan a meet up with my friend and fellow art teacher while we were there and we enjoyed the vast array of Street Art and studios located in the River Arts District (RAD). 

If you get a chance, visit this art-filled place and enjoy the visuals (they also have a great array of eateries to try, too)!

Spring break was a time to connect with nature, with art, and even with colleagues. I am very thankful for the opportunities I have and use them to help make me a better teacher in my classroom for my students. 

More from NAEA

After a week to really go over materials and the variety of items I brought back with me, I have a few key take-aways from this year's conference:

Stop Searching for Perfect Solutions

One of the most impactful presentations I attended was actually the first breakout session I went to about Design Thinking. In this presentation, they discussed a concept I haven't really thought too much about before and that was the idea of finding a solution. 

As they shared their stories about students working with materials to develop items that could help communities in the developing world, they stressed the idea of using resolution rather than solution to discuss the end game with design thinking. By saying solution, we infer that there is only one ending that will work and in reality, there are many. In addition, solutions are impacted by resources. 

Through this presentation, I started to think about my own approach to making art and how I might need to approach it with my students as they are making art. If I stress a single solution to a problem, rather than the best was to resolve it, I may be shutting the door for some students on their thinking and ability to push past roadblocks in their own learning. Learning is about a continuous path. There is not a straight line that goes from one thing to the next. There are peaks and valleys and short cuts and long hauls. This presentation helped me refocus on that and I am excited to bring it back into my classroom.  

People Make the Difference

For me, the conference is not just about sitting and getting information. It is about the interaction with my colleagues and hands-on engagement that occurs through discussion, creation, and presenting to others. I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to attend this year and had the opportunity to learn from my colleagues about how they adapt learning for their students. This was done in many of the medley's and conversation with colleagues sessions I attended. 

It was also done in the session I had the joy of presenting in with my fellow Middle School Art teachers. Every time I have presented with this group, I learn something new. Because we come from diverse areas, we are able to share our unique perspectives with an audience of teachers as well as with each other. 

In addition, being able to connect with various vendors and see product demonstrations and hear from those who know best is so valuable for my own understanding and what I can bring back to my classroom. I am so appreciative to the vendors for their generosity (both of time and materials), which help advance my ability as an artist and teacher. Working in the exhibition hall with make and takes and other samples is also a great way to connect with other teachers and share tips and tricks that we use with various products in our own classrooms. 

​These personal connections are what makes a conference successful and it is why I am so thankful I was able to attend in person this year. 

I am so lucky to be able to connect with other teachers from other schools at the conference. Being able to experience the sights with friends I have made as a result of my participation in MAEA and NAEA is something that has helped me grow as a person and better serve my students. It is so awesome to be able to spend time with other people who get it. They understand what it is like to be obsessed with Art and they share that obsession in the most unapologetic way with you during these events.

Collaboration Is Key

I have been a big fan of collaboration for a long time. It is silly to work in isolation and it is unrealistic to expect our students to always work alone when they are creating art. It was awesome to go to places this the Seattle Art Museum and the Chihuly Garden and Glass to see that spirit of collaborative work in action. 

One of the pieces I was most moved by at the SAM was the large installation by John Grade, titled "Middle Fork." Rather than explain it, here is a video short that explains the work and how it is still in progress and still being created by a collaborative effort.

There were a lot of favorites during this conference. One of them included going outdoors and viewing glass artists at work in the hot shop at Chihuly Gardens and Glass. Again, working collaboratively to create large works is innate to artists and I will be sure to keep that in mind as my students begin their final collaborative STEAM project when we return from break.

Here are some additional Art sights from both places:

As a final note, I wanted to share some of the goodies I brought back and awarded to students who had completed a coding challenge from CSFirst. Finger feet and the Seattle Art Museum pen that looks like a paint tube for the win!