Art and Design Education-News and Events

• State Superintendent Appoints Commission on Arts Education
  The State Superintendent's Commission on Arts Education submitted its interim report to the State Superintendent in December. The Commission heard presentations from each of the state professional education organizations for music, dance, theatre, and visual arts education and reviewed volumes of written materials about arts education. They also reviewed the results of a survey on the status of arts education in Wisconsin conducted by the St. Norbert College Survey Center. They also met with national figures including Harriet Fulbright, director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in Washington DC and James Catterall, prominent researcher from the University of California in Los Angeles.

  The Commission held hearings across the state beginning at the Summit Conference on Arts Education February 24-25 in Madison. The Commission's charge is to study the status of arts education in Wisconsin and to make recommendations regarding what works, what doesn't work, and how to improve arts education. They will submit their final report in June, 2000.

• Wisconsin Receives NEA Grant for Design Education
  The Wisconsin Art Education Association received a $65,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to develop design education programs in Wisconsin. NEA Chairman William Ivey announced the grant at the National Art Education Association Conference in Washington, DC, in spring 1999. This two-year grant is being used to provide designers and design educators at conferences and workshops throughout the state. So far the grant has helped provide presentations by Meredith Davis, author of "Design As a Catalyst for Learning;" Mary Sinker, professional children's museum exhibit consultant; Ginny Graves, director of the Center for Understanding the Built Environment; and Ab Gratama, associate professor of design at the University of Iowa. The grant is also being used to develop a video, a newsletter, and a web site (www.designeduction.org) about design education that will help educators introduce the concept of design education in their schools.

• Task Force is Writing Design Education Curriculum Guide
  A twelve-person task force is spending a year writing a Guide to Curriculum Planning in Design Education for Wisconsin. There are ten task forces working to develop new curriculum guides in a variety of subject areas for the Department of Public Instruction.

  Task force members come from different parts of the state and represent technology and art educators from elementary through college. Some have worked as professional designers and all teach design subjects to their students. Members of the task force include. William Chandler, UW-Whitewater; Stacy Lewis, Mt. Horeb Intermediate Center; Karen Lindholm-Rynkiewicz, Muskego High School; Richard Marks, Marshfield High School; Doug Marschalek, UW-Madison; Sharon Miller, Patrick Marsh Middle School, Sun Prairie; Laura Reichenbach, Black River Falls Sr.High School; Sue Sheldon, Burlington High School; Robert Tarrell, Edgewood College; Anna McNeil, Marshall School District; and Robin Vande Zande, UW-Milwaukee Art Education Department.

• Museum of Advertising and Design to Open in Milwaukee
  The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design will be opening the William F. Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design in November, 2000. It was built with funds from the late founder of the Eisner Advertising Agency and will be operated by MIAD. It will be one of the few design museums in the country.

  Chuck Sable is the curator of exhibits for the museum. Sable teaches the history of design and has already arranged for several exhibits to be featured when the museum opens. One exhibit features the highly successful Burma Shave advertising campaign that placed rhyming signs along the highways across the country.

• Art and Design Education Workshops to be Presented at NAEA Conferences in Los Angeles and New York
  A variety of art and design education programs and practices will be presented by Wisconsin art and design educators at the National Art Education Association conferences in Los Angeles, March 31-April 4, 2000 and New York in 2001.

• Monona Terrace Hosts Terrace Town 2000
  Twenty 4th grade classes participated in the construction of a huge Box City at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison on January 21-22, 2000. Ginny Graves, director of CUBE (the Center for Understanding the Built Environment) presented workshops in October 1999 to help teachers prepare for teaching students the Box City process. Installation of the Box City, called Terrace Town 2000, was done by students on Friday, January 21 and a public day was held on Saturday, January 22 for parents, students, and the public to view the exhibit and take part in a variety of hands-on experiences. See Article for information

• Mars Millennium Project Presents Design Opportunities
  The Mars Millennium Project is an opportunity for students in grades 1-12 to design a colony for 100 people to live on Mars in the year 2030. Completed projects must be registered by June 1, 2000. This program is sponsored by the US Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the White House Millennium Council.

  The Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education will be supporting the Mars Millennium Project in Wisconsin by providing workshops and technical assistance to schools interested in participating.

• Independent Student Media Offers Courses in Movie Making
  High school students interested in making movies can take part in an on-line course in moviemaking being introduced in Wisconsin. This three-month, three-day a week, after school, on-line course is available for production teams of five students taught by professionals in the Hollywood film industry. Tuition is about $400 per student but scholarships are available. Check out the Independent Student Media web site at www.i-s-m.net.

• Wisconsin Students Invited to Design a Centennial Park
  The Wisconsin Parks Department is making plans to develop a new state Centennial Park and they are asking for input from citizens across the state. The Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education is sponsoring a "Centennial Park Design Project" for students in all grades across the state. WAAE will host workshops and provide technical assistance to teachers interested in having their students develop ideas for a new state park in Wisconsin.

• 3D Learning Program Strives to Make Schools More Like Children's Museums
  The 3D Learning Program is designed to help teachers work with students and design professionals to design and create interactive exhibits to make schools look more like children's museums. Working with architects, interior designers, exhibit designers, and education consultants, the 3D Learning Program shows how schools can convert the two-dimensional textbooks and desk work into educational and entertaining three-dimensional interactive exhibits that help students learn and parents understand what is being taught in their schools.

For questions about this information, contact Melvin F. Pontious (608) 267-5042

Last updated on 2/25/2008 1:42:32 PM