April 26, 2023
Author: Emily Herbein
Renee Jackson, Assistant Professor and Program Head of Art Education, will publish a board game with TU Press at the end of this year, Tales of Woo and Woe, which is now on display in the Charles Library as part of the exhibition Game On! Design and Play for a Sustainable Future. She discusses her practice, pedagogy, and the importance of connecting critical yet imaginative thinking to the world around us. The exhibition, featuring works by Gabriel Kaprielian, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Tyler, and Matt Shoemaker, Head of the Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio at the Charles Library, is on view now through October.
What is the concept of Tales of Woo and Woe and what inspired you to create it?
Read More
February 22, 2023
Author: Emily Herbein
Tyler alumni Princeton Cangé (BFA '19), Laura Igoe (PhD ‘14), Victoria Ravelo (MFA ‘21), and Jennifer Zwilling (MA ‘01) held a panel titled “Museum Life: Careers in Arts Management” moderated by Dean Susan Cahan to discuss their backgrounds in art education, curation, making, and administration.
Read More
February 7, 2023
Author: Emily Herbein
Cecilia Secaira (MEd '23) works as a graduate assistant and peer advisor in Tyler's Art Education program. With a varied background across several fine arts disciplines ranging from ceramics to textiles, Secaira says her time at Tyler has opened her eyes to her love of art education. Through her practice, which settled in the crafts space, she uses making as a form of self-discovery, research, and communication. Her latest work, "inter/liminal lingering," is a rhizomatic cloud sculpture that employs a/r/tography research techniques and critical thinking skills, all while encouraging viewer engagement and self-relfection. Below, Secaira reflects on her practice and work ethic.
Describe your artistic background.
Read More
November 30, 2022
Author: Emily Herbein
Assistant Professor and Program Head of Art Education Renee Jackson, PhD, delves into this year’s The Art of Student Teaching exhibition, on view this month from November 30-December 4. Last year, the department celebrated 30 years of student teaching shows, originally created by Art Education Professor Emeritus Jo-Anna J. Moore.
Curated by Tyler student teachers through their work in their field placement classrooms, as well as “peer share” session with Jackson, “students learn to emphasize the importance of the work that is meaningful to K-12 students,” Jackson says. Many of the works explore themes and share ideas about everyday life, provide opportunities for their voice, stories, and perspective to be shared, and offer space to learn about the world, themselves, and each other through the process of creation.
Read More
October 11, 2022
Author: Emily Herbein
Tyler alum Mike Smaczylo (MEd '20), a teacher at Kensington Health Sciences Academy, was recently profiled by The Philadelphia Inquirer about his exhibition Reimagining Monoliths, which explores his vision of Philadelphia through 10 silk-screened posters, currently at the Da Vinci Art Alliance. Smaczylo calls his work "a testament to the disinvestment in public schools," writes Kristen Graham, and features McClure Elementary in Hunting Park, Tilden Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia, and Ellen Elementary in Germantown.
Read More
April 5, 2022
Author: Emily Herbein
Art Therapy major Kianna Cooper (BA ’22) unwinds a length of black thread, snips it and knots an end around a colorful, twisted wire-and-glass bead object. Then she eases up a ladder and loops the other end around the exposed coil innards of a full-size mattress.
Cooper is adding final tendrils to a mobile-like installation title Hope Springs, conceived by Graduate Assistant and Peer Art Education Advisor Ali Ruffner (MEd ‘22) and executed with Art Therapy Program Head and AECAP Department Chair Dr. Lisa Kay as a project to uplift Tyler students, faculty and staff alike as they returned to in-person learning last fall from the imposed separation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read More
February 21, 2022
Author: Emily Herbein
Assistant Professor of Art Education David Herman Jr., PhD, believes past perceptions shape the way we examine the present. He will explore this theme as part of the Testimony: Visual and Embodied Gateways to Black Histories series, presented by the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University. Herman, a lens-based artist, will give a virtual lecture titled "Witnessing Gestures: Spatial Aspects of Black Visualities in the Cinematic Image" on Wednesday, February 23. In this Q&A, he discusses the influences for his lecture, what he hopes will resonate with the audience, and why social topics like this are relevant and important. Registration information can be found here.
How did you choose the topic of your lecture?
Read More
November 12, 2021
Author: Emily Herbein
Scout Cartagena, (BFA ‘22), a 2021 DaVinci Fellowship recipient, is currently showing a collection of new works titled “You Have Their Eyes” at the DaVinci Art Alliance until November 24th, and themes of identity, memory, and connection play important roles in each piece. Recently profiled in the Philadelphia Tribune, Cartagena discusses their primary influences and how working as a Black non-abled person has defined their practice.
Read More
October 22, 2021
Author: Carin Whitney
How can art teachers help children and adolescents cope with stress and anxiety from traumatic experiences, and what techniques can provide resilience to both students and teachers?
Lisa Kay, Associate Professor of Art Education and Art Therapy, notes that while art teachers are not therapists, they are in a position to help children cope with adversity and trauma. Kay works at the intersection of art education and art therapy, specifically with resilience and artmaking with adolescents who have experienced trauma. Kay and co-author Donalyn Heise recently shared their research in the National Art Education Association’s publication, Translations.
Read More
November 11, 2020
Author: Zachary Vickers
Renee Jackson, assistant professor and program head of Art Education, is the recipient of the 2020 Pennsylvania Art Education Association (PAEA) Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator Award at the PAEA Conference (October 16–17, 2020) for her research and teaching related to social justice art education and the integration of game-design and game-play as collaborative art forms and learning tools.
“I am very proud and honored to be recognized by PAEA, the largest state art education association in the United States, fueled by dedicated, passionate art educators,” said Jackson.
Read More
