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mikewindy
alter egos & ego altering
Though I have taught a wide variety of classes from 2-D Design, Digital photography, Art History, 3-d Design, Sculpture 1&2 as well as Steampunk Sculpture a class I created my mission in teaching is always the same; to impart to students the tools and permission to begin to navigate their immediate art community. Connecting to what is going on outside of their classroom always reinforces and informs what they do inside of it. Students will buy into the research of contemporary practitioners when they feel they are becoming one. It’s easier to have a conversation about the craftsmanship of a piece of art when students have interaction with an audience about it in a public exhibit that they organize and publicize using social media, sending out a press release and securing the location for the exhibition.
I facilitate an interdisciplinary approach in my classes by encouraging students to look not only to artistic influences in their life but invite them to consider the broader world and how it can inform their creative process. To this end I organize guest lectures from a variety of fields such as archeologists, victim’s rights advocates and local artists to expose students to ideas they might not think of addressing in their art or life. My Foundations of Design classes have visited Casa Azafran to collaborate on a community art project and the Civil Rights Room of the Nashville Public Library to work with Andrea Blackman about using April 19, 1960 as a conceptual departure point for a group design project.
Many students have no idea of how they will use their art degree and still operate under the old myth that artist will most certainly be poor. I work hard to dispel this myth by exposing them to websites like www.creative-capital.org, visiting with museum professionals like Emily Harper Beard of the FRIST, collaborating with artists like Jamaal Sheats, visiting fashion designers like Amanda Valentine’s studio and discussing various strategies for success after graduation. My hope is that students leave my class with not only a deeper understanding of art history, artistic techniques and processes but of the role they must take in their own professional success.
Here are some blogs from my teaching experiences;
www.twodornottwod.blogspot.com