What should we ask of art education?

Phyllis Wattis Distinguished Lecture
Lois Hetland: What Should We Ask of Art Education?
Thursday 2 February, 7 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA

Lois Hetland is one of the leading thinkers on teaching, learning, and visual art. She is a key member of Project Zero, the educational research group of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Few people can so powerfully make the case for the educational value of art as Hetland, who has long focused on creativity in personal development. For this lecture she considers creativity in relation to three other areas: product, process, and place. She explores the distinctive value of contemporary art, the role of cultural institutions, and the demands of the creative economy.

Hetland will begin by noting the ways in which art education is undervalued and how arts educators have attempted to justify it by extra-artistic qualities—achievement in non-arts subjects relevance to the creative economy—arguments that miss the spirit of a liberal education and, at K–12 levels, the “whole child.” Hetland will then discuss two key issues in detail: the value of Artistic Mind as the desired outcome of arts education and the wider value of creativity in society.

Her discussion will address the extended field of arts participants, contexts, and venues (including schools, community spaces, and museums); the value of basing art education on the work of living artists; and the four categories of creativity, as Hetland sees them: creative person, process, place, and product.

Her lecture will be followed by Q&A with Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, chair of the California Arts Council, and Dominic Willsdon, Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Programs at SFMOMA.

http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2026

A DAY OF CREATIVITY AT HILLBROOK SCHOOL

Art teachers and all who are interested are invited to spend the day at the beautiful Hillbrook School campus where we will share our rich history and unique programming in the arts. The emphasis will be on how a rigorous and innovative art curriculum creates a holistic educational foundation for creativity in other disciplines. Spend a relaxing and enriching day of creativity and art-making. Hands-on workshops in fine art, ceramics, woodshop, and digital photography as well as other digital media will be offered. Attendees will also visit the new Innovation Lab, and learn how Hillbrook art teachers are integrating a one-to-one middle school iPad program into their classrooms. Lunch will be served. Contact Ken Hay at
khay@hillbrook.org, or by phone at (408) 356-6116.

http://www.caisca.org/page/22436_CAIS_Events.asp?pass=2&event=254