Free Teacher In-Service Workshops Offered Jan. 27

Watkins College of Art, Design & Film is hosting a free Teacher Training for K-12 art teachers on Friday, January 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Focusing on contemporary artists who utilize narrative in their work, this in-service day will be an exploration of personal, social and cultural histories embedded in works of art, and include clay, drawing, printmaking and collage. Teachers will be able to sign up for two workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with breakfast and lunch provided. 

There is no cost to attend but advance registration is required: email [email protected].  Deadline is Friday, January 13.

“With the positive response from the teachers who participated in last year’s in-service workshops, Watkins was determined to offer this professional development opportunity to K-12 art teachers again,” said Stefanie Darr, director of community education.  “Through a generous grant from The Memorial Foundation, the Community Education department is able to offer this upcoming day free of charge to these dedicated teachers who often have limited access and funds for opportunities that celebrate them as artists and help further their creative development.  Our Community Education instructors will lead the teachers in hands-on workshops, which will focus on the narrative in art, and will present new ideas and techniques for them to incorporate into their classrooms.”

Teacher In-Service Training for K-12 Art Teachers: The Narrative in Art
  

• 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
• 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Workshop
• 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Lunch (compliments of Watkins)
• 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Workshop
• 3:00 p.m. Watkins Presentation

Teachers may pick two of the following workshops:

Historical Visual Narratives
Instructor: David Hellams
After considering the work of contemporary artist Amy Cutler—both the
techniques she employs and the subjects she chooses—participants will
complete a mixed media artwork that tells a story. Combining drawing, collage
and gouache paint on paper, teachers will create their own visual narratives
with elements of personal history alongside elements of art history.

Abstraction and Narrative
Instructor: Sarah Meador
This workshop will provide teachers with a variety of project ideas related to
narrative in contemporary art based on Arturo Herrera’s artwork. Herrera’s
images are fragments of the past, seemingly familiar but pushing towards
abstraction. Teachers will learn a variety of low - and high - tech digital imaging
techniques for enlarging and abstracting images that can be taught in the
classroom, as well as leave with a variety of tools for teaching abstraction and
narrative in contemporary art.

Lore and Tradition
Instructor: Amanda Dillingham
William Kentridge is a South African multi-disciplinary artist who tells stories about
the world around him through the use of printmaking, drawing and animation.
This workshop will concentrate on Kentridge’s charcoal and torn paper
animations, with a focus on bringing local heritage, such as folk - lore and folk
tradition, into the art making process.

The Fantasy of Narrative
Instructor: Doug Stevenson
Petah Coyne’s melding of the figure and abstraction, along with her use of a
diverse range of materials, speaks to literature, culture and her own
experiences. The objects she creates interact with each other, composing an
imagined and fantastical world. In this workshop participants will have the
chance to work three-dimensionally using different media, including clay, wax,
paper and wire. Learning skills to create extraordinary, whimsical, perhaps
absurd, figural objects, teachers will leave with the ability to invent, and teach, a
fantasy land of narratives.