Art Educators Learn Book Making Skills at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

John Hill — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 13:06:09 +0000

Arkansas art educators learned the fine skills of book making during an intensive artWAYS summer workshop at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Peter Scheidt, assistant professor of woodworking and furniture design, taught the workshop on basic book making July 11-15 at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Windgate Center of Art and Design. “I really enjoy teaching other art educators,” Scheidt said. “It’s a fun, low-key atmosphere but I’m still always amazed at the level of production and amount of energy they approach every day with. Everybody created a lot of work and was also able to connect with the other participants to share stories and strategies from their own classrooms. I personally find it valuable to connect with educators from all over the county and state (even Texas this time!) and learn about the programs that are feeding into ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” The artWAYS workshops, which are funded by a generous grant from the Windgate Foundation, provides a weeklong immersive visual arts summer program for art educators and high school students. All housing, meals, and art materials are free. At the end of the workshop, educators typically receive 30 hours of professional development and a certificate of completion. The participants included Maribeth Anders of Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School, Heather Beckham of Pinnacle View Middle School, Delexious Curtis of Sylvan Hills Junior High School, Sarah Higgins of Episocopal Collegiate Middle School, Paola Lozano Ruiz of Pinnacle View Middle School, Katherine Purcell of Bryant High School, Catherine Rodgers of Catherine Rodgers Contemporary Art, Chris Swaty of Joe T. Robinson High School, Jessica Taverna of Little Rock Central High School, Matt TerAvest of Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School, Gina Utley of Atlanta High School, Jared Welborn of Little Rock Southwest High School, and Sean Williams of Maumelle Charter High School. The goal of the summer program is for art educators to take the skills they learned with art professors at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and implement them back into their own classrooms. Several of the teachers are also participating in the , which provides funding for teachers to purchase equipment and supplies needed to add bookbinding to their classrooms and programs during the next school year.

Teachers and educators work on a project during an artWAYS workshop program featuring book making at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Windgate Center for Art and Design. Photos by Ben Krain.

“I hope participants learned some skills to take back to their own classrooms, but I also hope the class was personally enriching for the participants,” Scheidt said. “As a teacher it’s a super valuable experience to return to a student mindset and recharge creatively, especially during the summer!” During the weeklong program, participants learned six different types of handmade book structures and then used those skills to create their own versions and combinations. They learned how to construct pamphlets, accordion or folding books, Japanese stab stitch bindings, long stitch binding, coptic binding, and built slip covers for books. “Bookmaking is a really scalable and approachable way to get into craft,” Scheidt said. “It can be approached from lots of different angles with all sorts of tools and materials. Books are such a tactile object they offer all sorts of opportunities for sculptural approaches, not to mention adding content. There’s definitely the ‘right way’ to build a book, but there doesn’t have to be a ‘wrong way.’”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock receives more than $750,000 to expand art offerings

Janea Snyder — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 17:11:11 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Department of Art and Design will expand its art outreach with a $754,108 gift from the Windgate Foundation. Part of the gift will enable the university’s Department of Art and Design to establish a series of educational art workshops for high school students and art teachers around the state and in contiguous states. “The Windgate gift will help us promote excellence in the visual arts by exposing students to both traditional and contemporary arts and bringing students and art educators to experience our program and our facilities,” said Joseph Lampo, director of development and external relations. “Ultimately, we want to help those students who show promising talent become well-trained artists and makers.” New outreach activities will take place during the school year and during the summer at the Windgate Center of Art and Design on the campus of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Beginning this summer, the university will offer workshops for junior and senior high school students and art teachers. “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. A $20.3 million gift from in 2015 enabled ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to construct the Windgate Center of Art and Design, which opened in 2018. The center houses a fine arts foundry and specialized areas for ceramics, digital fabrication, graphic design, jewelry making, illustration, metal fabrication, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpting, woodworking and space for art history and art education. The state’s only programs in furniture design and metalsmithing also are housed in the center. “The Windgate Center of Art and Design is a state-of-the-art facility with an accomplished and passionate faculty, and we are pleased to continue our partnership with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for their art outreach program,” said Pat Forgy, executive director of the Windgate Foundation. “We encourage high school students and art teachers in Arkansas and beyond to take advantage of this exciting opportunity to visit campus and explore workshops in areas such as woodworking, metal and digital fabrication, ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing and more. Through these workshops, art teachers will learn the latest techniques and students will be able to discover the numerous possibilities available in pursuing a visual arts education.” During the academic school year, high school art students and their art teachers will be able to spend a day in the department’s studios. Participants will work with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and have a day of college-level classes. The sessions will begin in fall 2019 and be offered on select Fridays during the semester. Art teachers will have their own summer workshop in which they receive instruction in current art techniques. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Art and Design Department is partnering with the , which will assist in recruiting teachers for the workshops. Teachers who participate in the summer workshops will receive support from Thea Foundation for the following school year. Beginning in summer 2021, the university will offer on-campus housing at no charge to students and teachers attending the summer camps. All workshops, including supplies and instructional materials, will be free for students and teachers. Transportation costs will not be covered. “We want this opportunity to be accessible to students and teachers in central Arkansas and beyond,” Lampo said. “By offering residential opportunities, we hope to encourage students and teachers who may not be able to participate otherwise. This is just one way we are expanding our collaboration with the arts community and helping nurture promising careers in the visual arts.”

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

Art Educators Learn Book Making Skills at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock receives more than $750,000 to expand art offerings

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

Art Educators Learn Book Making Skills at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock receives more than $750,000 to expand art offerings