UrbanGlass in October!

I will be kicking off the second day of the 2017 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass on Issues in Glass Pedagogy: “Curriculum and Career” in Brooklyn, NY in mid-October.. My talk emerges from my coursework at AU and my collaboration with studio faculty in the Division of Sculpture.

The talk is entitled, “Critical Discourse, Professional Practice.” I hope to see some of you there!

Here is my abstract:

The need to expand and deepen art historical analysis in glass pedagogy can be combined with non-traditional research projects that afford students a practical guide to best practices. I will offer a sampling of lectures that engage contemporary issues and debates in glass art. Further, I will present specific class projects that help prepare students for life after their degree.

I will draw on my experience as a modern and contemporary art scholar who has developed lectures that strengthen my students’ articulation of their studio practice within various theoretical frameworks. Additionally, through a series of short, carefully designed workshops and follow-up assignments, students increase their professional network, critique their digital presence, and hone their art writing. This partnering of critical discourse and professional practice is witnessed in my courses, including: “Glass in a New Light,” “SILICA: Contemporary Glass and Ceramic Art,” “In, Of, and Around Contemporary Craft,” and “Contemporary Projects in Art.” (Attached are two current syllabi.)

Art history courses are often taught in a manner that requires studio students—graduate and undergraduate--to make implicit links to their practice; however, explicit connections can be made evident in the classroom. My lecture will offer a variety of benefits that emerge from an open, sustained dialogue between glass faculty and their colleagues in art history.