A must read article for artist/activists

This is an excellent article I ran across in Utne Magazine that I think emphasizes the importance of creative protest strategies in today's world. The article features designers, artists, and actors who reach their audiences through non-traditional forms of protest.

http://www.utne.com/2007-05-01/Politics/ProtestIsDeadLongLiveProtest.aspx

New Artist/Activists Links

Thanks to the students currently taking SOC 310: Art and Activism, I have been able to add links to some new artist/activists. The students this semester did a great job of choosing an interesting range of artist/activists for their midterm presentations, and as always, I learned a lot from looking at the different kinds of approaches that these talented artists take to addressing issues they were or are passionate about. Check out the new links on the right side of the page!

Help for Haiti

The students and faculty at the Academy raised a grand total of $260.50 for a donation to the American Red Cross for Haiti. Behind the Canvas kicked off the effort with a bake sale, and other contributions came from a bake sale held by Sarah Kaiser and her fundamentals students and donations made following Tom Herzberg's lunchtime lecture about his trip to Haiti.

We are happy to be able to contribute toward this cause, and appreciate all the students, faculty and staff who donated.

Funds for Haiti

Behind the Canvas held a bake sale last week with the intention of donating all proceeds to the American Red Cross to provide aid to earthquake victims in Haiti. The group raised $133, making this the most successful bake yet! We have asked the school to match the funds raised, and are waiting for a response to this request.

Faceless at Harper College

A special exhibition and event is coming up at Harper College in Palatine, IL on March 11, 2010. This event, Faceless, was started under the leadership of Ali Hussain, a graduate of the American Academy of Art, and a former student of mine in Art and Activism. Ali's charisma and passion for tearing down barriers of race and religion inspired him to propose the exhibition at Harper, where he is currently taking classes in web design.

Below are the details about the exhibition as posted on the Facebook group:

This is a group made for artists and spoken word poets who are interested in showcasing their work for a gallery on March 11th at Harper College.

The event is called Faceless and it is to showcase the true face of humanity and peace. Artists and poets have the ability to shape this world with their gifted talents and Faceless is an event giving them the opportunity to do just that.

The overall theme for the show is to allow viewers to see what the true face of "humanity" looks look like, by showcasing various styles and methods. 100% of the admission fee ($2 a person) will go to charity.

If you are interested in more details, join the group on Facebook, or contact the sponsoring group at faceless786@gmail.com

Helping Haiti

Behind the Canvas bake sales are back! The first bake sale of the semester will be held this Wednesday during the lunch hour in the second floor stairwell. The students are raising funds to contribute to the American Red Cross to provide assistance in Haiti. We hope to make this our most successful fund raiser yet, with the support of faculty, staff and students at the Academy.

New Year, New Books!

Last fall, Behind the Canvas held a very successful waffle sale and bake sale, and decided to present the proceeds to the Irving Shapiro Library for the purchase of new books, chosen by the students. The new books will be arriving in the library this week, and we are all very excited to see some new materials on the shelves. Students selected some books on tattoo art, legal issues for artists, anatomy, and animals, and Behind the Canvas was able to shop wisely and throw in a few surprise titles, too.

New Year's Resolutions

This year, I WILL update this blog on a regular basis.

The fall 2009 semester went by in a blur. With seven classes on my schedule, I had very little time for thinking or writing. This semester my teaching schedule is more manageable, and I hope that will help me to keep this blog up to date a bit better.

Great things happened in the fall. I had a small class with only four students, but four brilliant ideas came from the group dealing with the issues of autism, immigration, homelessness, and arts awareness. Once again, the students continue to amaze me with their creativity and passion for improving the world around them.

Today I met my new class for the spring semester. I always feel that I cannot adequately describe what to expect from the class. For many students and for myself, it tends to be a transformational experience, but one that is impossible to predict. Some students find that moment early in the class from readings and discussions, some find it in the midst of doing their own research, some find it in other artist/activists they discover. I look forward to seeing how this class evolves over the next few months.

Behind the Canvas -- new semester, new missions

Behind the Canvas is back this semester -- with a vengeance! Free Ice Cream Day was a huge success with the student body, and many students expressed interest in joining the club. New members came to our weekly meeting today, and we plan to open the invitation to the students who signed up for our email updates at Free Ice Cream Day.

With the increased number of members, we hope to take on even more projects, events, and initiatives. Lots of great ideas were presented in today's meeting, so stay tuned for updates on upcoming activities.

Free ice cream day! How is that activism?

Behind the Canvas is back and ready to take on a new year. Last year the club was formed by a group of students in one of my Art and Activism classes with the purpose of improving community at the Academy.

The club held two bake sales during the spring semester, and donated all of the proceeds to the student body by purchasing items suggested by the students. The first donation was five first aid kits, distributed to some of the studio classrooms and the front desk receptionist.

At the second bake sale, students asked for ice cream. So the club decided, why not? Don't we all need a little ice cream now and then?

On Monday, September 21st, the Behind the Canvas club will be handing out free icecream sandwiches to students in the student lounge on 3rd floor. We plan to purchase about 400 icecream sandwiches, or at least as many as we can fit into the coolers we've been able to borrow.

We hope many students will come and enjoy this event, and perhaps consider joining the club.

Quote of the Day

As I was re-reading an essay that the Art and Activism class covers early in the semester, I came across this passage that I had highlighted. I think this is a succinct explanation of why art is so important to society.

"The more that is hidden and suppressed, the more simplistic the representation of daily life, the more one-dimensional and caught in the dominant ideology the society is, the more art must reveal. In form and content its aggressive refusal to sustain society's illusions, demonstrates the "limits of immediacy." Art refuses to be easy."

(Carol Becker, "Presenting the Problem" in the introduction to The Subversive Imagination)

I believe this is why art often engenders such heated debates. It divides those who want to get deeper at the truth of reality from those who desperately want to keep the truth hidden, particularly when the truth doesn't line up with the reality they want to believe in. Art often shows us painful or dark things, but it is only by revealing those things that we have any chance of healing them.

Fall 2009 -- New semester, new adventure

Wow. Fall is here again. I really dropped the ball on updating the blog about all the great projects that students completed in Art and Activism in the spring semester, but they once again far exceeded my expectations. Teaching this class is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my life. I am constantly inspired by these young artists who have a real passion for making the world a better place. I hope that this class will give them some of the tools and inspiration that will help them to do that wherever their future may take them.

I have been slowly working my way through Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed over the summer. I know the title makes it sound depressing, but that could not be further from the truth. I have to read it in small chunks just to absorb all the ideas that Freire presents. I love the book. I strive to make transformational education the core of my own teaching philosophy -- the idea that education should empower students to understand, control, and change their own lives and the world around them.

I have a small class this fall -- five students in one section and two independent study students. I don't know if that will change the way the class works or not, but the last time I had a smallish class, Behind the Canvas was born, and it continues to make positive contributions to the welfare of the students at the school. I love the mystery of a new semester, and the anticipation of what can happen when artists apply their creativity to the needs of the world around them.

State budget cuts eliminate Dreamcatcher grant

Well, if you've been following the blog, you know that three departments at the Academy had been working collaboratively on a grant from the Illinois Library Association to provide additional post-graduation resources for our students. We were very excited about the proposed stArt program, and all of the great information it would have brought to the students, and we felt confident in the quality of our proposal.

Unfortunately, in the week we were to find out who the grants were awarded to, we instead received notification that the funds for this particular grant had been cut. What a disappointment! It is hard to put so much work into something and then have the rug pulled out from under you.

We plan to keep all of the grant materials just in case the grant is revived in the future so that we will be ready to update our proposal and resubmit it.

In the meantime, the Academy has added many updated career books to the library collection for artists seeking employment in all fields. We are happy that we can offer these resources to the students, and hope that they will take advantage of it as they pursue employment in a difficult economy.

Keep the Faith

In the fall 2008 semester, two students in my class, Heather Leininger and Jen Brazas, did an extensive study on the health and saftey policies at the Academy, including a survey of student and faculty knowledge of these policies. They uncovered that most of the students and faculty were unaware of current policies and had no first aid or CPR certification. After presenting a proposal to improve these areas at the school, we lost hope after waiting months for a response.

I am happy to report that as part of the opening faculty meeting of the fall 2009 semester, a Red Cross trainer gave a two hour presentation covering basic first aid for emergency situations. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

I guess we lost hope a bit too soon. Just a reminder that you never can tell the long-term effects of your attempts to do something good.

Dreamcatcher Grant Progress Report

This week the Irving Shapiro Library, Career Services Office, and Humanities and Sciences Department submitted a letter of intent to apply for the Dreamcatcher grant offered through the Library Services and Technology Act administered by Illinois State Library. The letter of intent consists of a short description of the program that the grant funds would be used to provide. Here's what we're hoping to do if we are awarded the grant:

The American Academy of Art’s stART program will expand students’ palettes of post-graduation possibilities by introducing them to creative strategies for starting their careers. The library will partner with the Career Services Office and the Humanities and Sciences Department to present a series of guest speakers and programs that teach students how to identify and pursue non-traditional career paths, creative sources of funding, and other opportunities. Library resources that support these programs will be purchased and added to the permanent collection so that students can research the paths that best complement their interests and skills.

How sweet it is . . .

Behind the Canvas raised over $72 at their first bake sale on Friday the 13th. Thank you to everyone who consumed our calorie-laden delectables. A few students left suggestions for how we might best spend the money on the student body, and we will be taking them all into consideration.

Health policy update

Here's where I'd like to give an update on changes being made to the health and safety policy at the Academy, but unfortunately, there is nothing to report. Heather Leininger and Jen Brazas are still waiting for a response from the administration to the proposal they presented in January.

In the meantime, most of our student body still doesn't know where to get a band aid or what to do in the case of a medical emergency.

Jen and Heather have been presenting their research in the current Art and Activism classes, and have done great work at raising awareness about the need for more widely publicized policies and improved services for students in this area.

Behind the Canvas Bake Sale!

Behind the Canvas is introducing a new kind of bake sale to the American Academy of Art. On Friday, March 13, students CAN have their cake and eat it, too! Members of the club will be selling yummy, sweet, sticky and chocolaty stuff and using all proceeds to purchase a gift for the student body. Every student, staff, or faculty who makes a purchase will also be able to make a suggestion about how the money collected should be spent. The Behind the Canvas staff will consider all suggestions and select the best one within the price range of what we collect.

Behind the Canvas Black Light Launch

Behind the Canvas launched its Facebook and Myspace presence as part of the Spring Arts Festival on February 26. This student organization, started by students in one of my Art and Activism classes in fall 2008, was formed out of a need for students at the American Academy of Art to have a forum for discussion of events and issues at the school.

Part of the launch took place in a blacklight room with a chalk mural where students were welcome to add their own artwork or answer a question posed by the group, "If you had a room dedicated to you, what would be in it?"

The group also set up a video confessional room where students could say their opinion of the school on video, to be edited and posted on YouTube by one of the students in Behind the Canvas. Sadly, very few students would participate in the video project. Most were afraid to voice their true opinions on video, even after we offered to blur faces and alter voices. I was saddened by the fact that so many students are afraid to say what they think on a student forum.

Our hope is that Behind the Canvas will help to show students that they are not alone and give them the courage to speak up and advocate for positive change.

Something to Look at

Believe it or not, we are in the midst of midterm papers and presentations in Art and Activism. I moved the midterm assignment due date up this semester to allow more time for the research project in the second half of the class.

The presentations have been informative and inspiring so far. I love this assignment, because I always learn about artists and issues that I didn't know about before. I'm slowly adding links to blogs and websites for many of these artist/activists to this blog, so I hope you'll check some of them out.

Enjoy!