Kent ISD — A professional development day by art educators, for art educators, and held in an area hotspot for the arts? The prospect was more than enough to draw teachers from all over West Michigan to the second annual Art Ed Summit, which recently took place at the Muskegon Museum of Art.
The summit was a collaboration among Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon ISDs. More than 50 teachers attended to learn about how to help students identify and pursue viable arts careers, and to participate in panel discussions with professional artists who’ve worked in comic-book illustration, graphic design, game design and more.
Du Bui, a Kent ISD STEM consultant who helped organize and oversee the summit, explained that it’s filling a bit of a gap in the professional development world.
“Art teachers don’t usually get any type of training or resource or network time that’s geared specifically for them,” Bui said. “The goal is to help teachers connect their teaching and learning more to careers, so it’s more relevant.”
Bui helped lead last year’s inaugural Art Ed Summit, which took place at Kendall College of Art & Design, and he said it was a hit with teachers.
“They love that it’s an opportunity for them to get something that was curated just for art educators,” he said. “It’s in their lane, it’s space for them to collaborate and talk to each other, and meet like-minded educators that just kind of get what they do.”
Though not an art educator himself, Bui said STEM and STEAM are an “easy on-ramp” to approach the teaching of work-related skills — also known as durable skills — like critical thinking, communication, problem-solving and leadership, which Bui said are in high demand in today’s job market, both in the arts and in science and tech.
Connection & Collaboration
During the summit, teachers had time to explore the museum. While perusing an exhibit on author and artist Mo Willems, Amanda Urquhart, an art teacher at the Rockford Freshman Center, told SNN why she chose to attend this year’s summit.
“I wanted to come because opportunities like this don’t come up very often,” Urquhart said.
She said she was excited to learn about new ways to help students think more broadly about how what they do in class could someday lead to a career.
Jeff Saltzgaber of Godwin Heights Middle School wanted to trade ideas with art educators from other districts and counties, and hear from industry professionals about what opportunities might await artistically inclined students.
“We’re just trying to find things that are relevant and enjoyable and apply to the work places and give kids the best chance to learn in a full capacity,” he said.
He added that Godwin has implemented comic illustration into its art curriculum, so he was excited to take a look at “Pow! The Art of Comics,” an exhibit now on display at MMA.
Le Tran, who teaches at East Kentwood High School, was also keen to brush up on comics, which her students can’t get enough of.
“My students are so interested in comic art — they gravitate towards it, they ask for it,” she said. “So I said, ‘I’ve gotta get here and learn all that I can and bring it back to my classroom.’”
East Grand Rapids teachers Pam Quigg and Peri Den Dulk, who serve the district’s three elementary schools, said they attended the summit last year and found it beneficial.
“We came back with project ideas to bring back to our students, we came back with visiting artist ideas, and we just wanted to build on what we did last year,” Den Dulk said.
‘Art drives everything around us’
The panel discussion featured indie game designer Cory Heald; comic artists and Kendall instructors Claudia Pimentel and Lisa Dubois-Thompson; and industry veteran Scott Rosema, who’s worked with Marvel, DC Comics and Disney.
‘The goal is to help teachers connect their teaching and learning more to careers, so it’s more relevant.’
— Kent ISD STEM Consultant Du Bui
The panelists talked about some of those durable skills Bui mentioned, like how to gracefully accept criticism and how to present oneself and one’s work.
And Pimentel noted that art careers aren’t limited to the printed page, or the digital screen display.
“Art drives everything around us,” Pimentel said.
Read more from Kent ISD:
• Bridging the tech gap for older adults
• Finding hope behind bars: GED program opens doors for incarcerated learners
