The Art Education program in the UNC Charlotte Department of Art & History will presents its third annual contemporary art integration symposium, “ART CONNECTS 2017: Embracing Change,” on Saturday, April 29. The symposium will be held at UNC Charlotte Center City, with a closing reception at program partner McColl Center for Art + Innovation.
ART CONNECTS is a professional development program designed to support integrative, contemporary practice in K-20 art and design education through inspiring speakers, hands on workshops, and engaging dialogue. ART CONNECTS helps arts educators make connections to other subjects, while keeping students’ learning in art and design at the core of the learning process.
ART CONNECTS 2017 explores questions such as:
- How can we put students more in charge of their own learning and empower them as creative and positive agents of change?
- How can we support K12 educators in designing deeper learning experiences that foster students’ self-direction and creative confidence?
- How might more integrative contemporary instructional practices advance avenues for community-connected and social creativity?
This year’s keynote speaker is Anne Thulson, assistant professor of art education at Metropolitan State University of Denver in Colorado. Thulson directs the School of the Poetic City, a contemporary art camp for children in downtown Denver, and practices socially engaged art. In her presentation “The Work of Enchantment,” she will address what it means for students to “get to work” in an art classroom, highlighting strategies that contemporary artists use, how to implement them into the K-12 curriculum, and classroom cultures that foster these practices.