student membership issue || the inter-collegiate student conference

National Art Education Association

The Inter-Collegiate Student ConferenceAuthor(s): Michael F. Andrews and Kishio MatobaSource: Art Education, Vol. 16, No. 7, Student Membership Issue (Oct., 1963), pp. 14-17Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3190486 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 07:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ArtEducation.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.60 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:32:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=naea

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3190486?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


THE

INTER- COLLEGIATE

MICHAEL F. ANDREWS / KISHIO MATOBA

Michael F. Andrews, Dual Professor of Art and Education; Kishio Matoba, Dual Instructor of Art

and Education, Syracuse University

A CONTINUING problem in art teacher training is to cause the students to look out-

ward from their academic concerns to the concerns of the profession as they exist. A lecture or even first-hand research of the real entity of the art teacher is still too often couched in scholarly

atmosphere. The psychological orientation is still

essentially academic and the stigma of "theory" even permeates practice teaching experiences. No matter how diligently and thoroughly instructors in art education structure the program, the over-

coming of this attitude is most difficult, and

although this effect may not in any way be un- natural in the maturation of students toward the

profession, it needs to be reckoned with. One of the more obvious means to the psycho-

logical transition is to establish a group structure

ostensibly detached from curriculum and class activities. Such are student organizations which are formed for a variety of avowed purposes and toward that end, the Syracuse University Art Educa- tion Program has traditionally encouraged an

honorary society of art education major students.

This group, Sigma Chi Alpha, Alpha Chapter, goes back many years and includes illustrious alumni such as the past president of NYSATA, Otto Edkin; Dr. Stanley Czurles, Director of Art Education at State University, Buffalo; Dr. Ed-

ART Education

I I I I

I I

14



mund Feldman, Director of Art Education at State Teachers College, New Paltz; Dr. Lambert Brit- tain, Cornell University; and Stanley Witmeyer, Director of Art, Rochester Institute of Technology.

Several years ago, Sigma Chi Alpha spent con- siderable time exploring the possibility of chapters being established on other campuses. In their study and discussion they concluded that the most effec- tive initial step was to actively present the poten- tials of such organizations rather than to make verbal contacts with other schools. Furthermore, as other colleges began to establish a student core annually concerned with inter-collegiate activity, the activity itself might be moved to various campuses. This would seem to encourage organization of Sigma Chi Alpha chapters in host universities and colleges.

Thus in the spring of 1961, they planned and presented their first annual Inter-Collegiate Student Conference on Art Education and invited student delegations from a number of universities and colleges which offered established programs in Art Education. The area included all New York State, northern Pennsylvania, and the Boston area. The response was enthusiastic but the problem of student attendance and costs limited actual participation to delegations from Pratt Institute, State University at Buffalo, and Skidmore College.

The first conference was held on March 17-18, 1961, at the Lowe Art Center and Sadler Hall on the Syracuse University campus. The theme chosen was "The Complete Art Teacher."

The program was launched by an 8:00 a.m. informal coffee hour followed by registration, a general assembly, and three discussion workshops. Professor Merlin Pollock, renowned teacher and painter from the School of Art at Syracuse Uni- versity, spoke as the guest authority for discussion Workshop I on the topic The Art Teacher as an Artist. Marion Rosenfeld acted as student moderator. The role of a teacher as artist may appear to be self-evident, reported Pollock, yet in reality it is perhaps the least understood of all teaching duties. At first glance one might assume that to teach art all one rieeds to know is how to draw, paint, or model; but nothing is further from the truth. The teacher must know what he presumably advocates - the creative process. He must be capable of teaching others the ways of objectifying an accumulation of past experiences, and putting attitudes and interpretations in a given medium so that it reflects the uniqueness of their individual being. "The first requisite of an art teacher," says Pollock, "is that he himself be a creative artist."

Dr. Thomas E. Clayton, Director of Inter-Uni- versity Teacher Education Program and Professor of Education, spoke as guest authority for the Dis- cussion Workshop II on the topic The Art Teacher

as Educator. Sue Peterson served as student moderator. It was at this time agreed that one of the most important qualifications required of an artist- teacher is that he be a person of exceptionally fine character comparable to any other professional member of our society. He must possess the characteristics worthy of respect of all, children and adults alike.

"It is recognized," said Dr. Clayton, "that the personality of the artist-teacher is frequently much more influential to student development than course content." Among the special personal qualifications of an artist-teacher discussed were: a sense of humor, flexibility, courage, personal securi-

ty, justice, open-mindedness, self-control, kind- liness, sympathy, enthusiasm, perseverance, deter-

mination, and authority and good health. Dr. Hobert W. Burns, Chairman of Cultural

Foundations Education at Syracuse University, spoke as guest authority for the Discussion Work-

shop III on the topic The Art Teacher as an In- dividual. Carol Junior served as student moderator. Art education is the result of many forces that have played upon it, molding its form and deter-

mining its characteristics, and, like most facets of man's life, it is a reflection of his ideas of the whole of life, reported Dr. Burns. The individual who aspires to use art as a means of educating the

young will do well to acquire a philosophy of life, endeavor to understand his students, to know some-

thing about the learning process, and to be pro- fessionally prepared.

The conference was received with such enthusiasm and proclaimed by so many as an important contribution to the exchange of ideas and professional preparation of college students, that the conference committee felt compelled to continue the conference.

On December 4, 1961, a representative committee of Sigma Chi Alpha and their advisor met with students and faculty advisors on the campus of the New York State University at Buffalo to plan the Second Annual Inter-Collegiate Student Confer- ence on Art Education. After much discussion the

joint student committees and faculty advisors de- cided to have as much student participation and

supervision as possible, rather than to rely on the

faculty guests. The conference committee, com-

prised of students Joanne Leiser, Arlene Braver, and Barbara Sprinz of Syracuse University and Michael Fox, John Kontos, and Vena DiBernardo of Buffalo State University, outlined an overall format based on the premise that the presentations would be visual rather than verbal. The thesis was based on the idea that, first, concerns in art most often originated in sensory perceptions, and, second, that art education proposes certain articu-

lating reactions to sensory experiences. If this were

October 1963 15



true, there did not seem to be a necessity for verbal stimulation toward verbal ideation.

A second planning meeting was held on the

Syracuse University campus at which time the overall plan of the conference was detailed and each college group outlined their part of the presentation. Rhoda Goldberg and Martha Deming, students at Skidmore College, joined the group in planning.

The conference, now on the theme, "Approach," was held on April 7, 1962, at Flint and Graham Halls on the Syracuse University campus. It

opened with coffee hour and registration and the general session began by calling the group together with a simple greeting. No mention was made of the nature or meaning of the "Approach" presentations.

The first presentation was conducted by students from State University, Buffalo. It was a series of

episodic pantomimes which ranged from simply causing the audience to individually get up and

change seats, all directed by gestures and apparent-

ly for no reason other than to demonstrate such possibility; to a more extended sequence which seemed to involve an art teacher person and two student persons who react and respond quite differently to the imperative mime of the teacher. The teacher in turn seemed to respond differently if not appropriately to the action of the students. Other symbolic elements such as all subjects being dressed in crisp white laboratory coats, one person carrying a basketball with him constantly, and certain stylized mime seemed to be deliberate.

The second presentation, planned and executed by the Syracuse group, followed the first with no verbal transition. This presentation centered around a reverse projection screen built into a large panel behind which students activated the effects. Also in view of the audience was an oscilloscope which had been responding to back- ground music during the registration and coffee hour but which had been turned off during the first presentation.

The Syracuse presentation began with a series



of color slides being reverse projected on the screen in the panel. The first few were immediately identi- fiable as trees or segments of landscapes. The quality of slides gradually changed to less identi- fiable macrophotographs and closeups of natural elements such as plants, minerals, seashells, and terrain. At the same time, there was a developing intrusion of a silhouetted shadow of a hand into the projected image which began to partici- pate in seeming to touch, caress, and grasp the visual identities in the projections. Also developing with these factors were sound effects appropri- ate to the activities of the hand silhouettes in tap- ping, flicking, scratching, and plucking at visual elements. These sounds were electronically trans- mitted to the oscilloscope which graphically demonstrated ongoing sounds. This complex of sight and sound, visual and psychological identities, tapered off quickly to a recall of slides similar to the original ones and so ended the presentation.

The audience was immediately and quickly divided into small discussion groups, each having a cross section of attending persons which included college students in art education, several art teachers and high school students, and college personnel in art education. In all the sections a most vigor- ous discussion developed in which there seemed to be particularly significant meanings beyond those which had to do with the interpretations of the presentations, although this matter obviously was the content core. Two points, neither of which were anticipated fully, were that because the presentations did not involve or directly imply con- clusions, each person, from high school student to college professors had significant ideas and ques- tions to contribute to the discussion, and, because of the audience's involvement through sensory channels rather than verbal exposition, the discussion groups were virtually self-moderating. Every person in discussion insisted on sticking to the subject and on developing a continuum of meanings.

The conference was then served luncheon at which time each discussion leader presented his group's direction of inquiry. Again, an unantici- pated quality was manifested in that each section did pursue very worthwhile directions but those directions were clearly in diverse directions and scope. One section discussed the meaning of sym- bols and symbolism in communication; another examined art and the ramifications of the presentation content to art; yet another discussion centered on implied qualities of education toward teaching art. Other groups found even other areas to explore.

The final test of this conference was yet to come. The student master of ceremonies, in an im- promptu attempt to culminate the day, abruptly called on specific persons for one-sentence sum-

maries. She called on people who would represent a cross section of attendance from college fresh- men to directors of art schools and several others at random. In most conference general sessions this would be catastrophic but an amazing response ensued in which each person pointed out personal and group accomplishments with clarity and lucid- ity, each in specifics and each in differing aspects of meanings.

The students involved in this particular conference should be given due credit for a pioneering concept in group action. They refused to be bound by traditional formats of practicing art educators. They clearly demonstrated the basic bias and illogic of the necessity of verbally ideated stimuli for visually oriented people and that sensory experiences are too subjective and undisciplined for common group concern. They have declared in essence that if those in the profession can validly propose prototype creative experiences for children segment of our population, these art educators must be challenged to accept such prototype experiences for themselves in their own context. The point was made in full measure at this conference.

The Third Annual Inter-Collegiate Student Con- ference was held on Friday, April 26, 1963, at the Hotel Syracuse in conjunction with the 14th An- nual New York State Art Teachers Association Convention. Dr. Charles Dorn, Executive Secretary of the National Art Education Association, spoke to the students, their faculty advisors and art teachers on the proposed action taken at the Na- tional Art Education Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, to establish NAEA student chapters in the various colleges and universities which have art teachers in training. One of the major objec- tives discussed by Dr. Dorn was to satisfy the felt need of prospective art teachers to belong to a professional organization, to have an opportunity to exchange ideas with other students and professional education on a national and regional level, and to be introduced to their professional journals as a source of new ideas and an in-service program.

The advantages of professional student organizations in art education are many. Values derived from their association with other students, from the free exchange of ideas between participants who are genuinely interested in what art education has been, what it is, and what it should be, can lead to professional growth. Student organizations are capable of extending opportunities to hear specialists in art, education, and related fields; to discuss professional problems of mutual interest with their colleagues; and to become acquainted with the current problems of art education. Fur- thermore, their youthful sense of inquiry and urgency might very well show the way in experi- mental attitudes and activities in art education.

October 1963 17



student membership issue || the inter-collegiate student conference

Documents