Etsy Artists of Color: March 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Black Studies in Art and Design Education Conference 2011

I had the pleasure of attending the first international conference on Blacks Studies in Art and Design Education this past weekend. The conference took place at Parsons The New School of Art and Design in New York City. This two day event was organized by interdisciplinary artist and author Coco Fusco and designer and scholar Yvonne Watson both staff members at Parsons.

The conference was made up of several panel discussion, which each discussion in themselves could have lasted the whole duration of the conference.

Hot topics I was especially interested in was curricular reform and the black student experience in and out of the classroom.

Keynote speakers: (Day one) Dr. Leslie King-Hammond and (Day two) Dr. Noel Mayo.

Panelist included to name a few Michele Washington, Craig l. Wilkins, Susan Cahan and Stephen Burks.

Attending this conference was a valuable experience for me. I left feeling more motivated to continue my studies, show my work and to teach. One of my passions and goals is to teach young children to think creatively and become problem solvers, through art workshops.

Food for thought:

How can I use my craft and creativity to address the world’s problems? I know that heavy!

I feel this is my responsibility to use my life to make a contribution for positive change.

I am an artist and maker. How can I use these skills in art, craft and food to create a better life for myself and others.

I would love to be apart of creating a scholarship fund to help people of color go to art school.

Leslie king–Hammond mention the book The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind in her speech. And she shared several wise saying and proverbs including this one:

“Take what you have and make what you want “ Gullah proverb. Noel Mayo gave reference to Banker To The Poor by Muhammad Yunus.

The conference raised some huge issues and points that could not be answered in just the two days. Overall, I think the myth of becoming a starving artist is not a myth at all but a reality. We have to create strong networks so that we can be aware of job, exhibition and educational opportunities. I feel art and design education has to be pared with business and entrepreneurship training as well. When I graduated from art school I had no idea what I was going to do. I remembered my ceramics teacher in high school telling me strait up "the only way you can make money with this is to teach."

I would love to hear thoughts and comments on this topic from The Etsy Artist of Color Community (members, supporters and readers)!