- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Martin to serve as ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s new Windgate Metals Artist-in-Residence

John Hill — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 13:16:03 +0000

Lydia Martin, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will serve as the new Windgate Metals Artist-in-Residence at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “I am really looking forward to getting to know the students and people at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,” Martin said. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s continued commitment to the future of education, art practices, and diverse mediums speak to my own ways of thinking as both an educator and maker. As an educator, I am committed to sharing what I know in an active dialogue with all of my students. Education carves out a space where both the instructor and students can find a greater sense of purpose and understanding within the world.” As the Windgate Metals Artist-in-Residence, Martin will maintain a robust studio practice, teach courses, oversee the metals instructional facilities, and mentor applied design students with a metals emphasis working with wood, metals, and ceramics. “With the support of the Windgate Foundation, we’ve been able to create expansive course offerings for our students,” said Tom Clifton, chair of the Department of Art and Design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “We’re thrilled that they will have this opportunity to collaborate with a working artist and see how they build their studio practice. We know that Lydia will bring enthusiasm to the classroom along with her distinctive skill set.” Martin worked as an adjunct faculty member in the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Program at Towson University as well as an instructor and program and studio assistant for the Baltimore Jewelry, a nonprofit alternative education space focused on community outreach, accessibility, and learning. “As an instructor and mentor, I have developed curriculum for and taught intro through advanced level and special topics courses,” Martin said. “I have helped with and engaged in community and educational programming. As part of the staff, I have assisted in formalizing new programs, such as a two-year teaching fellowship for emerging educators and a residency, and continue to reevaluate and restructure existing programs.” She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology, a post baccalaureate certificate in jewelry and metalsmithing from the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and a Master of Fine Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz. Martin first got started in metal work while she was a freshman in high school. A class in jewelry making turned into a first step to her future career as an artist. “I enrolled in a jewelry class, and it was the first time I had ever worked with metal and I fell in love,” she said. “It was very challenging, and I was excited to work with my hands. From there, I tried my hardest to make it happen to take any jewelry class available.” Martin’s work has been shown internationally and nationally, including shows in the Netherlands, Germany, and China. Her latest exhibition was a solo show, “In the Company of Silence,” at the Jewelers’Werk Galerie in Washington, D.C. “It was an exhibition of a continuation of a body of work that I have been making since I graduated from graduate school,” she said. “My studio practice has slowed down a little now that teaching has speeded up, but I am looking forward to getting back to my own creative work while at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” Martin feels that the artist-in-residence faculty position will serve as a stepping stone for her long-term goal of running an art department. “One of my long-term goals has been to teach in academia, and I have always wanted to run my own department,” Martin said. “I am deeply invested in the future of university arts education and my long-term professional goals include being a part of that larger conversation academically, artistically, and practically. I believe that this opportunity would allow for continued growth and development in my career that continues to develop my skills interpersonally as a maker, educator, and mentor to students at all levels of interest and commitment.”

Windgate Foundation Awards ��Vlog��ý Little Rock More Than $3 Million in Grants for Art Outreach, Art Acquisition, and Children International Education and Outreach Efforts

John Hill — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 16:25:59 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received more than $3 million in grants from the to support art education at the university, acquisition of art from working artists for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s permanent art collection, and support of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Children International’s education and outreach programs. “These three grants from the Windgate Foundation will go a long way to support art education and outreach programs in our community,” said Chancellor Christina Drale. “We are thankful to the Windgate Foundation for their continued dedication to artists, art educators, and students across the state.” Windgate’s first grant will provide $1.56 million for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Children International, which serves approximately 2,100 children and youth in central Arkansas. The first $1.5 million will create an endowed fund to cover operational expenses. Children International will receive $60,000 as a bridge grant to use in the next year. “We are impressed by the efforts of the hard-working staff of Children International to provide education and outreach activities for children in the Little Rock School District,” said Pat Forgy, executive director of the Windgate Foundation. “I’d encourage others to consider supporting their work to help children become healthy, educated, and self-reliant. There is so much more Children International could accomplish with additional help from the community.” Now in its 27th year, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Children International offers a variety of school- and community-based programs, including after-school and summer programming, cooking classes, emergency food assistance, and college preparation and career training. “We’re grateful for the continued support of the Windgate Foundation,” said Ryan Davis, director of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Children International. “This endowed fund will allow us to plan further, dig deeper, and reach higher in our work with children and youth in central Arkansas” The second grant provides $1 million to create an endowed art acquisition fund. The funding will be divided equally, with $500,000 going to acquire contemporary craft art from living artists and the other $500,000 to acquire art from living artists. “The Windgate Foundation has been a champion of the gallery program for 10 years,” said Brad Cushman, director of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Gallery Program. “Their financial support of exhibition programming and acquisitions began in 2011. The Windgate Foundation has granted acquisition funding to major museums and art institutions across the country. They have certainly put the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Gallery Program and Permanent Collection in prestigious company.” With this grant, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will acquire more art for the university’s permanent art collection, which holds over 1,700 items, and provide a broader range of exhibits for the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Gallery Program. “Windgate’s support has allowed us to bring more contemporary craft into the collection,” Cushman said. “Their support has also helped us to diversify the voices represented in the collection to include more women, Black, Hispanic/Latino, LGBTQ, and other artists.” Additionally, Windgate has awarded ��Vlog��ý Little Rock a multi-year additional support grant for the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Art Outreach Program. Windgate originally awarded ��Vlog��ý Little Rock a grant of more than $750,000 in November 2018 to establish a series of educational art workshops for Arkansas high school students and art teachers.

Woodworking Professor Peter Scheidt assists visiting art educator Loni Rainey as she builds a small Shaker table during the artWAYS furniture and woodworking program in the Windgate Center of Art and Design. Photo by Ben Krain.

The additional $470,713 grant will continue to support art education outreach efforts for high school students and art teachers in Arkansas through December 2024. The final payment for 2023 is contingent upon an increase of students in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Art and Design Department. “We appreciate the opportunity that the Windgate Foundation has given the department,” said Tom Clifton, chair of the Department of Art and Design. “Sharing our expertise with the community of art teachers has been an incredibly fulfilling experience for the department faculty. We’re looking forward to providing more programming and meeting new participants in the future.” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock was unable to hold the high school student visits and workshops for K-12 art educators during summer 2020 due to the pandemic. With social distancing procedures in place, the Department of Art and Design continued programming this summer with seven week-long workshops for art educators from across the state. Faculty members Kevin Cates, Jeremy Couch, Joli Livaudais, and Peter Scheidt taught workshops on drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, and woodworking. Art Outreach Specialist Andrea Tompkins reports more than 50 teachers from 33 Arkansas schools attended the workshops and earned 30 hours of professional development credit each. In summer 2022, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock plans to offer two camps for art educators and one camp for highly motivated high school students who are considering majoring in the visual arts. The workshops are free to high school students and art teachers. The Windgate grant will cover on-campus housing, meals, supplies, and instructional materials. In the upper photo, a group of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Children International students display their denim artwork during an Art in Action Camp taught by Lorria Eubanks of A Different Stroke of Art.

Hood Named New Art Education Professor at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

John Hill — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 13:26:51 +0000

Dr. Emily Jean Hood will join the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in the fall as the new assistant professor of art education. “We’re looking forward to welcoming Dr. Hood to the Department of Art and Design,” Chair Thomas Clifton said. “Art education is an active program with a significant number of students and a substantial employment success rate for our graduates. I’m sure Dr. Hood’s extensive experience in secondary education and her research will be a valuable asset to the program, the department and the community.” Hood’s duties include teaching undergraduate courses in art education, coordinating the art education program, including content and curriculum development, advising undergraduate art education majors, program coordination with the School of Education and local school districts, and supervising student teachers. “Teaching and art are truly magical,” Hood said. “I know I will learn so much working with up and coming art educators at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. I can’t wait to meet my students. I’m also excited about experiencing the broader ��Vlog��ý Little Rock community and making connections and collaborations with folks all over campus. The art and design department has access to a lot of great resources from facilities to travel abroad opportunities.” Hood, a native of Grants, New Mexico, has been interested in art ever since her mother encouraged her to create. “Art has always had such a big positive, even transformative, influence in my life, and art education gives me a way to pass that on to others,” she said. “My mom always encouraged me to make stuff even as a young child. As an undergrad, I was actually interested in art therapy. In a senior humanities class, I wrote a research paper about art therapy and realized that there are similarities between art therapy and art education, so I eventually opted to get a master’s degree and certification in art education.” Hood earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Lubbock Christian University as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in art education, both from the University of North Texas. Prior to joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Hood served as a visiting assistant professor of art education at Appalachian State University, where she was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award this semester. She also worked as a visiting assistant professor of art education at Texas Woman’s University, a teaching fellow at the University of North Texas, and an art teacher at three Texas K-12 schools. Her research focuses on amplifying voices that have been left out of art education scholarship and pedagogy in the past. Hood said that she’s looking forward to revitalizing the art education program at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “The new program will focus on emergent and child-centered pedagogies where art is situated as a path for inquiry and exploration,” she said. “Art classrooms are often inherently relational spaces, so the new courses will focus on engaging materials, social and cultural differences, and fostering differentiation and inclusion for all members of any given art learning community.”

Arkansas teachers learn new skills at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graphic design workshop

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 13:24:20 +0000

Stacy Owens, an art teacher at Pinnacle View Middle School, found the opportunity to take a free graphic design workshop for teachers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this summer serendipitous, considering she will begin teaching graphic design again this fall after many years of not teaching the course. “I was a graphic designer for 10 years before I was a teacher,” Owens said. “I decided this was a kismet (destiny or fate) thing that right before I was supposed to teach design again, this workshop became available.” Kevin Cates, associate professor of graphic design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, taught a free week-long graphic design teacher workshop in June in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Windgate Center of Art and Design. Participants learned principles and practices that are helpful in building a foundation for innovative graphic design trends. The workshops are funded by a $754,108 gift from the Windgate Foundation in January 2019 that enabled the university’s Department of Art and Design to establish a series of free educational art workshops for art teachers and high school students in Arkansas and surrounding states. “These sessions will be designed not only to instruct or train participants in a particular technique or process, but also to introduce them to our highly skilled Department of Art and Design faculty and the up-to-date equipment and facilities of the Windgate Center of Art and Design,” said Thomas Clifton, chair of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Department of Art and Design. Owens found the workshop a good way to reboot her skills and to come up with some lessons for her students in the fall. “It’s been the reboot I’ve needed,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s good to get a clean start and see what others are doing in the field before you get too comfortable. I’ve really enjoyed the program, and I’m making sure I’m first on the list for next year when the new classes and workshops are posted. I’m going to modify the exercises we’ve learned to a middle school concept for my students.” In the upper right photo, art educators from around the state participate in a free professional development summer workshop for graphic design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Photo by Ben Krain.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock students study art and architecture in Germany

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 15:03:40 +0000

Seven University of Arkansas at Little Rock students traveled to Germany this summer for a unique opportunity to experience the art and architecture of Germany. Dr. Lynne Larsen, assistant professor of art history, led the July 2-17 trip, where students studied Rococo, Neoclassical, modern, and contemporary styles of art and architecture. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students who participated in the study abroad trip include Athena Bodini, a studio art major; Cassandra Christ, an art history major; Tatiana Correa, a studio art major; Grace Lytle, an art history major; Jana Miller, a graduate student studying art history; Katie Wilson, a graduate student studying art education; and Gege Zhang, a studio art major. While in Berlin, the group visited famous sites and museums, including the Charlottenburg Palace, Museum Island, and the Jewish Museum, and took a tour of the street art of Berlin. Outside Berlin, the students took trips to visit Dresden, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II and was previously known as the Jewel Box for its Baroque and Rococo city center, and Potsdam, the capital of the German federal state of Brandenburg that is site of several palaces. Larsen, who has previously lived in Berlin, said it was a memorable experience to revisit some of her favorite spots in Berlin with her students. “It was exciting to go back to these places that I know and love and to see them through new eyes and to see my students be awed by this architecture and art,” Larsen said. “It was an exceptional group of students who were super engaged. This trip opened the world for the students and empowered them.” In the upper right photo, the study abroad students visit the roof of the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament. The group (L to R) include: Astrid Bodini, Tatiana Correa, Jana Miller, Grace Lytle, Gege Zhang, Cassandra Christ, and Katie Wilson.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Martin to serve as ����Vlog��ý Little Rock’s new Windgate Metals Artist-in-Residence

Windgate Foundation Awards ����Vlog��ý Little Rock More Than $3 Million in Grants for Art Outreach, Art Acquisition, and Children International Education and Outreach Efforts

Hood Named New Art Education Professor at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock