Curriculum
About the Pre-Conference Institute
In this collaborative training opportunity, co-sponsored by the National Art Education Association and Expressive Media, Inc., a faculty of 11 art therapist-educators offers 16 experiential workshops specially designed for this occasion. These sessions will highlight ways in which art educators and art therapists can help students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds achieve their full potential as confident human beings through the creative process. Designed to stimulate dialogue and collaboration between art educators and art therapists, this two-day Institute will emphasize “best practice” workshops and hands-on art making. Art educators and art therapists are invited to share their professional expertise and discover new insights and practices at this groundbreaking event.
Institute Goals
- Learn novel techniques and classroom/practice skills from experienced art therapist-educators.
- Enhance your understanding of the similarities and differences between the theory and practice of art therapy and art education.
- Introduce innovative approaches to the art classes/sessions you lead with people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
Continuing Education Credits Available — Click Here
CHOOSE ONETUESDAY Morning Sessions 9AM – Noon
Promoting Social & Emotional Intelligence through Art Activities
Judith A. Rubin, PhD, ATR-BC
In addition to learning about art, aesthetics, and the visual culture in which they live, students of all ages and conditions can be helped to grow socially and emotionally in the art classroom. Workshop participants will engage in a series of exercises designed to foster competencies in these critical domains. Ways of integrating such activities with foundational learning in art, design, and art history will also be explored and discussed. Videotape examples will amplify attendees’ direct experience with materials and tasks in this hands-on workshop. Suitable for elementary, middle, and high school levels. (PCI01)
Dropout Prevention with Students At Risk: Fostering Resilience
through Creativity
Stella A. Stepney, MS, ATR-BC, LCAT
This workshop describes the characteristics of at-risk students and the uses of creative self-expression with this group. Resilience can be described as competence in the context of significant challenges to adaptations or development. Achieving resilience through creativity is accomplished by accepting the discipline of an art form in order to transform emotional conflict into a new and productive “shape.” Self-awareness is promoted through the recognition of personal strength, needs, and goals. Participants will engage in a variety of art activities that have been found to be helpful with at-risk students. Appropriate for middle and high school levels. (PCI02)
Exploring Heritage: Using Art to Share Differences and Discover Commonalities
Jodi Aker, MAT, ATR-BC
Workshop participants will experience a series of art assignments that help to bridge ethnic, cultural, or personal differences among students. These assignments include the use of symbols, self-portraits, and artifacts with a variety of media. Participants will create their own artwork to use as an example in the classroom to initiate a conversation regarding each student’s heritage. Everyone is strongly encouraged to bring along pictures, symbolic images, and artifacts related to his/her own heritage. Appropriate for those working with students at all age levels. (PCI03)
Using Art Strategies to Combat Bullying, Teasing, and Intolerance in the Classroom
Rachel Brandoff, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT
Educators today have to deal with a variety of particularly unpleasant classroom realities. Behaviors like bullying, cliques, and group-think threaten the fragile developmental space that young people already inhabit. This hands-on workshop is designed to help educators incorporate specific art therapy approaches that promote sharing, tolerance, communication, and cooperation in the classroom. If students can learn together in harmony, the classroom can become a safe place for creative exploration and growth.
This workshop will demonstrate how the arts can foster strengths within individual students, and harness them for the greater good of the group. Appropriate for middle and high school levels. (PCI04)
CHOOSE ONETUESDAYAfternoon Sessions 2PM – 5PM
Enhancing Art’s Therapeutic Potential: Guidelines for a Safe & Ethical Approach
Judith A. Rubin, PhD, ATR-BC and Sangeeta Prasad, MA, ATR-BC
Although art educators are not art therapists, there are many things they can do in the art classroom to help youngsters develop both self-awareness and self-esteem. While doing so does not require clinical training, it does require an understanding of safe and ethical ways to proceed. In this workshop, participants will experience for themselves some of the DOs and DON’Ts of inviting, doing, and reflecting on art experiences. This hands-on workshop will be amplified via video examples of safely positive and potentially less helpful approaches. Designed for art educators working with all grade levels, this workshop is also relevant for art therapists. (PCI05)
Eco-Portraits & Nature Shrines: Creating Inner Spaces
Barbara Mandel, MA, ATR-BC
In this workshop, we will use collage/assemblage techniques to create “eco-portraits,” and clay techniques to build miniature “nature shrines,” both personal expressions of one’s relationship with the environment. The session will include written reflections and a discussion of how personal shrines can connect and be integrated with other areas of the curriculum. Bring a small photo of yourself (or varied sizes of photocopies). Appropriate for elementary, middle, and high school levels. (PCI06)
Art Therapy for Art Educators: Making Art, Making Self (Session #1)
Josie Abbenante, MA, ATR-BC
What is it like to experience art therapy? Can educators benefit and how? These questions and others specifically related to self-care for educators will be explored in this experiential workshop. Bring your curiosity, your exhaustion and frustration, but also your creativity and desire for self-renewal. We will playfully engage in art therapy process, in a free and protected space, with images that evolve through our own artmaking. Combat burnout now! No previous art therapy experience required. Please note: This workshop is being offered twice, each time with different art experiences. (PCI07)
Aesthetic Empathy: Helping Students Look at and Talk about Their Art Images
Linney Wix, PhD, ATR-BC
Participants in this workshop will examine approaches to helping students make, look at, and talk about their art in the context of art therapy and art education. Workshop participants will create, observe, and discuss their own images in order to practice ways of talking about work that encourage "close noticing" of whatever is present in their pictures. The concept of aesthetic empathy will be explored in the context of caring for the art of elementary and middle school students, and supporting them as art makers. Implications for, and connections with the academic curriculum will be discussed. (PCI08)
TUESDAY EVENING 7PM – 10PM
Expressive Media Film Festival
Join us for a selection of classic and contemporary films from EMI’s extensive collection, including rarely seen footage of expressive arts therapists and adaptive art specialists at work with students in school settings. Introductory comments will be made by EMI co-founder and award-winning filmmaker, Judith A. Rubin, as well as other Pre-Conference Institute faculty members. FREE ADMISSION
CHOOSE ONEWEDNESDAY Morning Sessions 9AM – Noon
Helping the Whole Student through Art: Deciding What to Do & How to Do It
Judith A. Rubin, PhD, ATR-BC
This experiential workshop will focus on choosing tasks and media for classroom art activities, keeping the needs of the whole student in mind. Participants will learn to use a decision-making matrix that takes into account the goals of the activity, the developmental level of the students, and the variables available to the educator in designing and implementing effective art experiences. Attendees will learn these concepts through making art, discussing the experience, and viewing video examples. Suitable for all grade levels, and for art therapists working with people of all ages. (PCI09)
Keeping Your Sanity in the Art Room: Problem Solving through Adaptation
Frances Anderson, EdD, ATR-BC and Susan D. Loesl, MA, ATR-BC
In this hands-on workshop, we will explore pragmatic ways to adapt art media, physical space, and instructional methods for elementary, middle, and high school students. Pre-registrants will be surveyed in advance via e-mail regarding their most pressing challenges in working with individuals with disabilities so that these issues can be addressed directly in the session. Psychological as well as practical issues facing art educators will be addressed through discussion and by making art. (PCI10)
Emphasizing Creativity: Expressive Approaches to Teaching High School Art
Jodi Aker, MAT, ATR-BC
Art educators will learn how art therapy is integrated into a Visual Art 1 (Foundations) art class to promote appropriate behavior, foster interest in school, and provide healthy outlets for feelings. Workshop participants will create their own art, based on several lessons that encourage personal expression. We will also explore the differences between art therapy and art education, and how some art therapy tools can be used in the classroom with support from school counselors. Appropriate for educators working with high school students. (PCI11)
Using 3D Computer Animation to Enhance Adolescent Development and Skills
Brian D. Austin, MPS
In this workshop, we will use three-dimensional computer animation to create a group virtual environment. The session will include detailed demonstrations of how three-dimensional computer animation can be used to engage adolescents in creative and life-enhancing processes, including job-skill development. Through discussion, demonstration, and some hands-on computer work, this workshop will reveal how the skills needed to create 3D computer animation can support adolescent development. Appropriate for middle and high school levels. (PCI12)
CHOOSE ONEWEDNESDAY Afternoon Sessions 2PM – 5PM
Unleashing the Power of Metaphor through Animation: Resistance-Proofing Your Art Room
Brian D. Austin, MPS
In this workshop, participants will co-create a short, animated digital film. After collaborating on a storyboard, drawings created in the workshop will be incorporated into an animation sequence. The session will include detailed demonstrations of how individual drawings can be used to facilitate group cohesion. Discussions and demonstrations will illustrate how life issues can be processed in a fictional mode. Although the technique of computer animation tends to be irresistible to most adolescents, specific metaphor and narrative “hooks” will be discussed as ways to engage especially resistant students in the process. Appropriate for middle and high school levels. (PCI13)
Art Strategies for Students with Emotional and/or Sensory Challenges
Susan D. Loesl, MA, ATR-BC
This workshop focuses on art materials, techniques, and strategies to engage students with emotional and/or sensory challenges in the artmaking process. In this session, we will discuss the varied types of challenges that hinder these students from using art materials or interacting effectively with their peers. We will also learn ways to prepare the art room environment for successful creative experiences, as well as discuss behavioral strategies for working with these populations. Participants will create artwork and support materials to use in their classrooms, and view examples of student art. Appropriate for art educators at all grade levels, and for art therapists who work with children and adolescents with these issues. (PCI14)
Art Therapy for Art Educators: Making Art, Making Self (Session #2)
Josie Abbenante, MA, ATR-BC
What is it like to experience art therapy? Can educators benefit and how? These questions and others specifically related to self-care for educators will be explored in this experiential workshop. Bring your curiosity, your exhaustion and frustration, but also your creativity and desire for self-renewal. We will playfully engage in art therapy process, in a free and protected space, with images that evolve through our own artmaking. Combat burnout now! No previous art therapy experience required. Please note: This workshop is being offered twice, each time with different art experiences. (PCI15)
Folding & Unfolding: Creativity and Content in Fold Books
Linney Wix, PhD, ATR-BC
Fold books have great potential for use in both art education and art therapy settings, and can be used with a broad age range of students and clients. This format offers a structure for creating various types of content including both text and image. Artists engaging in this activity may be surprised to discover new insights when they read their work, whether one page at a time, or unfolded like a scroll on one or both sides. This bookmaking workshop is suitable for both art therapists and art educators seeking a creative process that offers potential for both intimate reflection and psychological distance. (PCI16)
