more on brizard

got home and saw this article.  a little more on his past relationships with teacher's unions.

Walker Art Center

It took me a minute to figure out how to navigate the Walker Art Center's blog...my brain is getting a little tired and overwhelmed.

But, once I did, I immediately came across an entry regarding John Waters' project, and it sounds hilariously awesome.  Waters' is reimagining the center's current exhibition, Event Horizon- creating a "curatorial intervention".  He will be "Imagining the galleries as rental apartments, Waters sets up relationships among nearly 80 “roommate” artworks that may be friendly or belligerent, unruly or reserved, supportive or indifferent. In exploring the tensions and connections among disparate works in the Walker’s wide-ranging collection..." (from here).  


In addition:

• He will also be creating a sound installation in the art center's parking lot, featuring sounds of crashing cars and squealing tires.  
• Will document and display every financial transaction associated with his curatorial intervention.
• And he will be selling limited edition photographs of food scraps from the art center's cafe.

I love the idea of the art pieces being tenants in the museum.  Considering the work as being roommates allows for a whole new conversation about what work can be shown together.  Instead of arranging work by time period, medium, style, or regional qualities, Waters has created a way of imagining a dialogue between pieces that may not ordinarily be place together.  

You can read Waters' own description here. 

 

I would love to make the trip to Minneapolis to see this.  Who's down?  Road trip!

i started looking through the carrot revolution blog, and i didn't get far (yet) because i got totally sidetracked by an entry about an art show celebrating the 20th anniversary of twin peaks!  and i got very distracted.

now i want to spend the rest of the night re-watching that series, as it has been a long time since i last watched it.

awesomeeeeee

the dangers of cell phone use on the CTA

today we were talking about sitting on the train messing around with our phones, or observing everyone else messing around with their phones.

i have heard numerous stories of people getting their phones, ipods, ipads, iwhatevers stolen right out of their hands on the train.  you're distracted and people seize the opportunity.

then i came home and read this article.  it really is a very sad story or wrong place wrong time- but definitely puts a stolen cell phone into perspective...

"Achievement"

Thanks Sarah for sharing this article on Bill Gates and his foundation's work on education reform.

Here, in this article, and in the op ed piece Gates wrote for the Washington Post, we are hearing a lot of the same talk in regards to teachers and student achievement.  Gates is making the argument that neither seniority nor advanced degrees warrant increases in teacher salary- rather, we should focus on finding successful teachers (and by his definition, this would be teachers of students who show the most "achievement"), see what they are doing right, give them "four or five more students", and reward them with merit based pay that will come as a result of eliminating unsuccessful teachers.  Done.  Problem solved.

I can only assume that student achievement in this sense is measurable achievement, a.k.a. good standardized test scores.  So the next obvious assumption, then, is good teachers help students achieve measurable success- high test scores.  So we should find the teachers that teach to the test the best, give them even more students, and get rid of the underperforming teachers.

At this point, I don't even know what to say about all this anymore.  Yes, there are bad teachers.  I have had some of them.  There are also teachers who are really good at taking a prepackaged curriculum and making students memorize a bunch of stuff and score really well on a test that only has meaning because someone else says it's important.  There are teachers who, despite the discourse that says what they do each day is an easy part-time job, despite a staggering lack of resources, actually try and teach something beyond filling in stupid answer bubbles.

Definitely check out the comments that follow the Washington Post piece-

AREA Chicago

I spent a lot of time clicking around on this site- there's so much to read...  I really liked the City as Lab issue- there are some interesting articles in this issue.  Therese wrote a concise history of CPS as well as an article on the proliferation of military schools in Chicago.

I also really liked this- interesting stories from people who have watched the city change over the years.

Also, there is an illustration section, and this particular illustration, unfortunately, hits way too close to home...yuck.

“We like teenagers, even though they have big backpacks and are always hungry.”

Thanks Lindsay for sharing this article!

This sounds like such a cool program- not only does it get kids involved in the museum, but it provides them with an opportunity to interact with contemporary art and artists, AND they get a stipend for their participation.  On the surface, it sounds much like an ASM program, but it seems to go in a totally different direction.  The students are serving as youth coordinators in the museum, creating events, learning situations, and interactions for other teens.

They also have their own website, where the Teen Arts Council members have their own profiles and can showcase their work.

I wanna join.

oatmeal is better than nomeal

I started writing this Tuesday night, but it has taken me a minute to finish it up...

Myths, Realities, and New Visions

nights like tonight help me to begin to grasp the complexities and the challenges that lie ahead.  I felt motivated and encouraged to not just want to understand, but to act.  The power in the forum really came from the wide range of people who were speaking.  The academics, the organizers, the parents, the teachers and the students.  Early on in the evening, one of the researchers was talking about the way most educational policy focuses on the individual- the student, the teacher, the principal, the school- at the expense of looking at the whole, the system, or the collective of people that work, live, and learn through it.  Tonight, we saw that collective of people.

And then I come home- and I watch this.  The Daily Show is funny- and so is the clip- but the fact that this type of conversation is what the situation has devolved to is beyond disturbing.  I am not sure I even know what to say to all of this- it is soooooo absurd.



(edit- 3/3:  I know sarah posted it too, but I think it warrants reposting).

It is so easy right now to get swept up in coursework- thinking about a thesis, getting this reading done or that paper written, that I start to feel like I'm not doing anything real. I get really caught up in the frustration about thinking about thinking, hypothesizing about teaching, talking about the broken backwards system we are heading into.  But I understand that my responsibility, right now, is to be as informed and engaged as I can be prior to jumping in.

Sarah and Jessica's Art Genome Project (AKA Art Pandora)

Google Art Project

I really like the Google Art Project, fuzzy photos and all.  Thanks Kelsey! I think it is a cool idea, and it'll be interesting to see where they take it.

What is especially great, in my opinion, about taking these virtual tours of the museum, is getting to see the work in context with other work. Although one can access so much artwork just through internet image searches, to be able to see it in a museum or curatorial context, among other art, is something really unique.

I did find one article that paints a less than glowing picture of the project.  The author makes some valid points- I don't think anyone would disagree that seeing artwork with your own eyes can be a truly amazing experience- but to be "skeptical' about a technology (no matter how "widely available") that gives people another option to experiencing art is a bit unfair.  I keep thinking about how cool it will be to be able to project the museums onto screens in a classroom (obviously providing the school would have such resources) and being able to take students on a "tour", even if it is a pixelated one.

obsessed

because I'm full on obsessed now.
here is the link to the artist's website, Holton Rower.


i wonder if he ever does any of these pour paintings live?  i think the process is probably far more powerful than the end result.

this is why paint is the coolest stuff ever

some of you have heard me talk before about my studio work before.  I talk a lot about how much I love paint and how my ice and wax work was about paint and about painting...

I love this:

just thought I'd share.

Teachers and Blogging

I came across this today and thought it to be pretty appropriate:
Blogging Teacher

In quick summary, a teacher has been suspended (with pay) from the school she works at for posting disparaging comments about students (neither students nor school were named specifically) in her personal blog.

It raises many interesting questions beyond the obvious "what was she thinking?"
Teachers have protected rights to free speech, personal expression, and vocalized bouts of frustration.  Teachers get pissed at students, and students get pissed at teachers- I believe it's part of the deal.  However, it seems to me that any educated adult who is in the business of working with young people should be aware enough to realize that, whatever it is, WILL surface.  They are way better at the internet than most adults (well, maybe just me...who knows).  At the very least, she shouldn't have put her picture on the blog.  She probably wouldn't be in this situation if she hadn't.

I started teaching before getting a facebook, but as soon as I did, I put mine on lockdown.  Over the years students have friend requested me, and I always deny them.  Not because I don't like them, but because I don't need them seeing what I did on Friday night, or the pictures of me with a beer, or any of the numerous obscenity laden posts that wind up there.  And in the reverse, I don't need to be all in their business either.

NAEA site

shout out to John Ploof for pointing out the best part of the NAEA website to our Eth & Ped class last semester- the Digital Portfolios!

This is an amazing resource- lesson plans, teaching philosophies, images of student work, etc.  It is really great to be able to see what other art educators are doing- and sharing...

Also on the NAEA site, 10 Lessons the Arts Teach
What a great, concise list of some of the most important functions of arts education.  While each point speaks the truth, I am particularly interested in #10 in relation to my previous post about CPS and art education
#10 reads "10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young 
what adults believe is important."

If our schools (and the adults that run them) disregard the arts as important components of the curriculum, then the potential exists for youth to disregard the arts as well...

Chicago's Next Mayor and an Agenda for the Arts

Thanks Devan for sharing this article:
Next mayor needs arts agenda
I agree- our next mayor (seems like the election has already been won...but that's another discussion) needs to ensure that Chicago is a viable and thriving center for the arts- it's in everyone's interest.
However...
I have a difficult time reading articles like this- ones that laud Daley as being an "unparalleled booster for arts and culture", while at the same time, arts education (for our future arts and culture producers) is cut from our schools.
I turn your attention to this article from a past issue of the Reader (with a great quote from our own Therese Quinn): Those Can't Do
Daley runs CPS.  As it stands now, our next mayor will also control our public schools.  The article points out that CPS "puts only one half-time art teacher in each school with 750 or fewer students, and only one full-time art teacher in each bigger school, failing to provide even one art class a week for most students—and educators are the villains? "

Here's hoping our next mayor understands that to become the center of culture we want to be, we need to begin in the schools, valuing our arts education (provided by arts educators...) as much as we value achievement on standardized tests.

Free Choice Learning

Okay- I couldn't remember it in class last night, but I found the post from museum 2.0 that I was trying to reference.  I had said something about Nina Simon and non-traditional learning methods- and I was trying to remember a book she had talked about in the post.  The book is called How Children Fail by John Holt- he is a proponent of the "unschooling movement".  In the post she talks about free-choice learning and user directed learning.

Here is the link: Where I'm Coming From

I feel better now that I found it.  I sounded crazy last night.

Museum 2.0/Arts & 21st Century Learning

"Reading" for class in this manner is an entirely different experience.  The sites have much content present, it can be overwhelming when you know you're expected to have something to say about them.  In contrast to opening a book and starting at the beginning, there is no expectation that one will view a website in a linear fashion- you can begin at the end and move back and forth.

With that being said, I chose to start Museum 2.0 with the "about" section- I guess I should know what I am looking at.  Nina Simon provides a link to what she calls the "Core Museum 2.0" ideas, and I think this is an immensely helpful tool.
Museum 2.0 Core Ideas

I was particularly interested in her idea about the content provider vs. the platform provider.  And I definitely see classroom connections- The Future of Authority: Platform Power
Museum/Authority is the content provider is the same as Teacher/Authority is the content provider.  Simon would argue that the museum should function as the platform provider- creating the conditions to have an experience.  I fully believe that is the art educator's, all educators really, role as well.
This idea also speaks to the ideas present in the article Emily shared-  that the ability to have creative/generative experiences enhances education.
The author writes-
"The fact is, we too often teach students to perform without their actually learning anything."  
Teachers/Schools/School systems/etc.  functioning as content providers not platform providers and  "perhaps all that can be accomplished is replication—not learning, much less understanding."

Art and Technology

Blogging is kinda weird.

After Tuesday night's class, I started thinking about work that I have seen that incorporates visual art and technology, and I remembered Siebren Versteeg.  While in undergrad, he gave a lecture and I remember being really blown away by his work.  I find his website to be a bit tricky to navigate, but there's a ton of cool stuff on there.  I particularly like his work that combines video/projection and real time internet happenings.  Plus, he was a student at SAIC.

Siebren Versteeg

And a video interview...

Getting to know me, digital style.

most visited site...
Foodgawker! Yum!