Digital Conference Program:
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From urban cityscapes, across suburban communities and rural towns, art educators have always led the charge in inclusive practices, seeking cross curricular opportunities and multiple pathways to the art making experience. As innovative specialists and champions of access and equity, art educators are bravely facing this new future with agency and a renewed commitment to include all members of the arts community.
Message from the PAEA President Leslie Grace:
Art educators, welcome back!
Last school year presented many challenges to visual arts teachers including but not limited to; how to get supplies into our students hands, how to teach effectively through virtual platforms, how to connect with our students and keep them engaged during remote learning, how to stay united and connected to your colleagues and faculty while being remote, and how to be in two places at once while teaching hybrid with students in the classroom and students logged on at home simultaneously. We have learned to divide our time with synchronous and asynchronous learning, and we have become masters at making demonstration videos. Art teachers and art leaders overcame the roadblocks to remote learning, and are all champions of creativity! I have no doubt art educators will continue to lead the way in ingenuitive ways of reaching our students through our “new post pandemic normal”.
In addition to the pandemic, we also have been experiencing a racial reckoning, and as educators we are examining our own biases, exploring new ways of navigating education from an anti-racist standpoint, and re-examing our curriculum for equity, diversity, and inclusivity. We are working hard to make sure our students' voices are heard and represented, and to raise the voices higher of those who have been traditionally marginalized. This is not work that will be finished anytime soon. This work can be uncomfortable at times, but is necessary. Through it all, PAEA will be here for you to help ask questions, find answers, and to understand how we as educators still have room for improvement for the sake of our students' creative and social emotional growth.
When I reflect on the theme for this year‘s conference, The Art of Agency: Equity and Access, I think about the power we hold in our roles. We are agents in our classroom to deliver our content to our students and find ways to make sure we are reaching every learner and being equitable to every student. How do we create access to the visual arts in our school, in our communities, and beyond? How do we make sure that we are equitably delivering information to our students and giving them the chance to succeed as much as possible? How are we teaching in ways that are inclusive and making art experiences more innovative in this brave new world. How do we take what we have learned last year to move forward into our future and to better ourselves as educators?
We gather together this weekend to continue our professional growth, and to reflect and discuss such issues of relevance amongst like minded folks. I urge you to take this time to be fully present, meet new people, discover new perspectives, engage in discourse where you may experience discomfort, and to accept and expect non-closure. And don’t forget to enjoy being in each other’s company again! On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank this year’s conference committee Lynnette Brown and Lauren Stichter, for their hard work and planning of this conference, and for the outstanding theme to help guide our important work.
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