Thursday, August 15, 2013


OAEA President-Elect Randy Maves and I (Christopher Shotola-Hardt, OAEA President) attended the annual NAEA Pacific Region Leadership Conference in Vancouver, B.C.  Pacific Region Vice President Penny Venola has allowed me to post her summary of this summer's productive session.  Please read on:

 REPORT FROM NAEA PACIFIC REGION SUMMER LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 2013

Dear Pacific Region Presidents,

For those of you who were able to attend the Summer Leadership Conference in Vancouver, you know what an awesome time was had by all.  For those of you not able to attend, I will try and cover some highlights and information that emerged.

Many, many thanks to the awesome committee in Vancouver who wore us out sharing highlights of this gorgeous city and providing a great venue for our meetings.  The Leadership report has been sent to Reston. Following are things of a helpful nature or just to jolt your curiosity.
The three top topics for future position statements are:
§  The need to change STEM to STEAM.
§  The need to write a new position statement starting where race-based mascots stopped, to make it more inclusive.
§  Concern about awards and nominations being limited to people in jobs for 51% of their time, eliminating people in more than one job setting or qualified people not allowed to run for an office because of their job.
If you have any input, please send it to me as the national board begins working on the new position statements for the March 2014 Convention.
           
Other topics that came up and may turn into position statements are:
§  Need for NAEA membership category and division for other art education providers such as:  Artists Guilds, Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, Assisted Living Groups, Y’s, Community Centers, Artist-in-Residence, Senior programs.
§  Future topics for leadership conferences: design, SES diversity, reaching out to alternative arts programs, services to NAEA after retirement.
§  Leadership conferences need time to discuss legalities for state associations such as: IRS reports, maintaining non-profit status, audits, insurance, board members’ legal responsibilities.
§  Address inequities in funding for technology to keep programs current, equipment maintained, and staff trained.
§  Need culturally relevant pedagogy: art methods vs. general methods, cultural awareness of student demographics.  Criteria for national and regional positions needs to include “retired.”
Again, if you have any input, please send it to me.
Upon returning home, I just had time to do laundry, sleep, and leave the next morning for the Super Summer Summit in Reston, Virginia.  Your national staff is a marvel.  Only eleven people service the needs of the entire organization and they do so with joy in their work, efficiency, and a wonderful camaraderie.
A highlight of the meeting was the presence of a GRAPHIC RECORDER who graphically recorded every discussion.  He then changed hats and became a GRAPHIC FACILITATOR, explaining the process and suggesting two books to use in our classroom work to make note taking more visual:
      Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
      Sketchnote handbook by Mike Rhode

Another handbook that has been mentioned before as being of great help in organizing your state boards is:
      The Source 12:  Twelve Principles of Governance That Power Exceptional             Boards.  This is available at www.boardsource.org.

Thoughts and ideas worth sharing:
o   Highly functioning teams do not allow each other to fail.
o   Always volunteer to promote art education.
o   Perseverance pays off.
o   Evaluate everything through the lens of member experience.
o   Put money saved from not mailing newsletter into postcard blasts inviting all school art teachers to become members prior to next convention.  Or, giving scholarships to elementary teachers to attend.
o   Identify future leaders by sending out postcards/letters saying, “You’ve been           nominated as an emerging leader to____________________.”  Invite them to participate in a specific way.
o   If you are having difficulties holding state board meetings, you might try online conferencing.  Oregon has used it with great success.  Contact Christopher Shotola-Hardt with specific questions. : cashoaea@gmail.com
o   NEW AWARDS GUIDELINES are posted on the NAEA Home Page.  Remember that the deadline for awards nominations is OCTOBER 1ST.  We want all our catagories filled!
     
James Catterall has two books worth investigating:
      Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art: The Effects of Education in                               the Visual and Performing Arts on the Achievements and Values of                           Young People
      Next Generation Creativity Survey Handbook: Assessing Creative                                       Thinking, Behaviours, and Motivation in the Arts

Another informative read is The Secret Lives of Frames: One Hundred Years of Art and Artistry by Deborah Davis.  It is inspired by the hundred year history of Lowy, the premier fine arts services atelier in New York.  If you are ever in NY and want a treat, visit Lowy’s and they may be able to give you a tour of the six story premises if you explain that you are an art teacher.  View their site online.
Deborah Davis is also the author of Strapless, the story of the painting of Madame X by John Singer Sargent.  Utterly delightful!

If you are ever in Southern California, The Huntington Library and Gardens is on all tourist information sites.  Along with the spectacular library and gardens are four venues for art shows, both permanent and changing.  What is less well known is that they house one of the largest collections of ART EDUCATION MATERIALS from the Diana Korzenick collection.  If you, or anyone you know is interested in art education research, you can obtain information on using the collection by going to:  Huntington.org/LibraryLink/Usingthe library.  Use of the research library is by application only.  The application is on the website.

Here’s to a wonderfully rewarding school year.  I will leave you with this from Emily Dickenson.  “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches on the soul.”  What a lovely thought to retain throughout the year as we work to strengthen our state boards and make a difference in art education.

Looking forward to seeing you in San Diego.  If there are any questions you have not received answers to, just email them to me, again.

Penny Venola
Pacific Region Vice President


     





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