Turning Points

Turning Points invites readers to join in a dialogue about creating more responsive studio art pedagogies for all, following a global pandemic that forced art educators to do what many believed to be impossible: teach studio art online. Amidst this sudden shift, long-simmering social and political challenges pushed to the forefront, such as racial injustice, access to educational resources, economic inequality, and environmental degradation. As these issues compounded, art educators and art students navigated a radical shift in priorities—rethinking the materials, spaces, and relationships that form the foundation of the discipline. This collection of essays brings together international voices from across the field to share the lived experience of responsive teaching during the pandemic, and how we might rebuild a better educational ecosystem. Chapters address how new technologies, more inclusive spaces, and a heightened focus on relationships will reshape the studio art programs of the future.

Book Features:

• Synthesizes diverse cultural viewpoints from both leaders and practitioners in the field of art education.
• Focuses on the impact of the pandemic and its aftermath on studio art teaching and learning.
• Connects art education to sociocultural world issues, student wellness, mentorship, equity, and racial inequality.
• Offers suggestions for how to move the field forward to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Richard Jochum is a visual artist and an associate professor of art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Judith M. Burton is Macy Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and recipient of the Lowenfeld Award for lifetime achievement in art education from NAEA. Jason Watson is a mixed-media artist and visual arts educator.

“What the writing in this book shows is that new thinking about how we teach and learn is a necessary outcome and task: generating a new paradigm for artful inquiry that embraces social justice, empathy, compassion, and care as values to help us all thrive.”

—Teachers College Record

“Turning Points offers hope amid the social crises that have dominated the last 3 years. These compelling accounts demolish decades of mind-numbing educational policies that preferred to measure deficit learning and what students do not know, rather than what students can be. Confronting uncertain futures and unknown realities is nothing new in the art studio. Turning Points offers abundant insight into art educators’ compassion, their belief in student capabilities, and how a deep sense of community diversity can be created in digital spaces. These ‘pedagogies of change’ are educational practices well within reach in our everyday lives and studios, whether facing present turmoil or questions not yet imagined.”
—Graeme Sullivan, past director, Penn State School of Visual Arts and author, Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts

“Pedagogical shifts in practice due to the pandemic, as shared by and among the art educators in this book, will certainly resonate with those who worked hard to teach well during this upheaval. Moving forward, now may be the time to entertain radical, even revolutionary, changes in graduate art education. The contributors show how the pandemic revealed deep and profound questions that call upon our ecological, social, political, industrial, and postindustrial pedagogical imaginations to rethink the value of art; what it means to be an artist; and how, where, and to what purpose graduate art education should take place.”
—Karen Lee Carroll, dean emeritus, Center for Art Education, Maryland Institute College of Art

Contents (FINAL)

Preface
Judith M. Burton  ix

Part I: Studio Teaching During a Pandemic  1

Introduction
Richard Jochum and Jason Watson  3

Chapter 1: Pedagogy as Mentorship

Introduction
Paul A. C. Sproll  15

COVID-19 and What Became Visible
Iman Djouini  19

If We Speak, Do You Listen; If You Hear, Will You Respond?
Linnea Poole  22

Barriers Broken and Lessons Learned in Pandemic-Era Art and Design Education
Lynn Palewicz and Amanda Newman-Godfrey  25

Hyper-Personalized Mentorship as Essential Work
Megan Irwin  28

The Adventures of a Pandemic Graduate Student
Jessica Rohl  30

Mentoring as Pedagogy
Veronica Thomas  33

Chapter 2: Materials and Processes

Introduction
Aimée Ehrman  38

Dismissing the Myth of Scarcity in the Land of Plenty
Bill Gaskins  43

Pandemic Drawing: Marking in Public and Private
Sara Schneckloth  46

Rediscovering the Z in an X and Y World
Emma Quintana  49

High-Touch Practices in First-Year Design Studio Education During COVID-19
Kate O’Connor  53

If Studio Art Education Could Be Otherwise
Jun Gao  57

Chapter 3: Community and Relationships

Introduction
Rébecca Bourgault  65

Creating Community, Holding Space for Compassion in Times of Crisis
Jess Perry Martin  69

I Am . . . I Create . . . We Connect . . .
Carlos Arturo González-Barrios  72

Empathy Over Gatekeeping: Redefining the Contemporary Arts Student
Neil Daigle Orians  76

Home in/Is the Classroom: Building a Community of Artistic Citizens
Sabrina Marques  79

Chapter 4: International Perspectives

Introduction
José Galarza  83

Toward a Better Balance Between Onsite and Online Education
Sangbin IM  88

The Art Education Makerspace as a Responsive Teaching and Learning Arena
Rainer Wenrich  91

Challenges and Advantages of Post-Pandemic Art and Design College Education in Saudi Arabia
Dina Lutfi  95

The Shift—Off-Line
Rabeya Jalil  98

Interlude: A Conversation Between Judith M. Burton and Samuel Hoi  103

Part II: Road Maps for the Future  115

Introduction
Richard Jochum and Jason Watson  117

Chapter 5: Teaching Beyond the Art Studio
Ernesto Pujol  120

Chapter 6: Intercultural Education and Expanded Notions of the Studio
Tracie Costantino  132

Chapter 7: Learning How to Be a Teacher
Seph Rodney  141

Chapter 8: How to Be a Time Traveler: Possible Futures
Kimberly Sheridan  144

Chapter 9: Material Matters, Material Lives (Words of the Not-Yet, Right-Now)
Kaitlin Pomerantz  157

Chapter 10: Still to Come
Steven Henry Madoff  167

Chapter 11: Imagining Elsewise
Mick Wilson  181

Conclusion: Our Pandemic Pedagogies and How We Continue
Stacey Salazar  195

Afterword: The Immune System of Society: A Reflection on Art as a Defense Against Dangerous Ideas
Søren Obed Madsen  203

Index  215

About the Contributors  221