Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) and Borderless Studio will present a symposium on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in conjunction with CAPE’s annual Convergence exhibition of student artwork. The symposium, titled Space and Identity in Art and Learning, will explore ways in which teaching and making art intersect to create and evolve space inside and outside schools. (register)

Taking a central idea from CAPE’s chapter in the forthcoming book Negotiating Place and Space through Digital Literacies, symposium presenters and participants will unveil how in creating space, students, teachers, artists, architects, scientists, and community members also create identity. Borderless Studio’s series of dialogues and social engagements around closed Chicago public schools also provides a model for the day.

Four themes will be featured during the day, divided into panels on Digital Space; Special Education: Public Spaces and Public Identities; Defining Social Spaces and Identities; and an interactive workshop on Institutional/Built Space.

Digital space panelists: Dr. Louanne Smolin and Erin Preston, arts education researchers, and Jeff McCarter, Executive Director, Free Spirit Media. Panelists Smolin and Preston will consider how students, using digital media as a material, disrupt space and time in order to create new identities. Mr. McCarter will look at Free Spirit’s use of digital media as catalyst for visionary entrepreneurialism leading to identity generation.

Special Education: Public Spaces and Public Identities panelists: Katie Kurisch, visual art teacher, Ray Graham Training Center High School, Ellen Trischler, teaching artist, Patricia Bonness, teacher, Vaughn Occupational High School, Jennifer Mannebach, teaching artist, and Dr. Sarah Hart, Assistant Professor of Special Education, University of Hartford. Katie Kurisch and Ellen Tritschler will discuss Ray Graham students creating public identities via art. Patricia Bonness and Jennifer Mannebach will present a student project at Vaughn that combined ideas of being public, participatory art, and framing public space. Dr. Hart will discuss special education students and transitional spaces and her work in emancipatory research.

Defining Social Spaces and Identities panelists: Andre Porter, music teacher and dean of students, Hoyne Elementary School, Jessica Mueller, teaching artist, and Andres Alvear, Executive Director, MAPSCorps. Andre Porter and Jessica Mueller will present their students’ work focusing on how Chicago is seen and publicly articulated. Mr. Alvear will discuss MAPSCorps’ work in Chicago with high school students becoming community data scientists.

Institutional/Built Space workshop leaders: Phil Cotton, art and design teacher, D.H. Williams Preparatory School of Medicine High School, Margy Stover, teaching artist, and Paola Aguirre, Borderless Studio. Phil Cotton and Margy Stover have collaborated with students since 2002, engaging together in a community-focused design process around social issues. Paola Aguirre works with neighborhoods, universities, organizations, students and more to address urban challenges using mapping and design as common languages and tools. The workshop leaders will take participants through a process to deconstruct and construct institutional spaces and identities.

The symposium is organized and facilitated by Mark Diaz, Joseph Spilberg, and Scott Sikkema, CAPE, and Paola Aguirre, Borderless Studio.

The fee for the day is $20 per person, which includes lunch and materials. Discount available per special request.

Continuing Education Credits (CPDU’s) available for teachers for attendance.

To request a fee discount or to alert to dietary restrictions, please email joseph@capechicago.org

>>> Full details about this event and tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/space-and-identity-in-art-and-learning-tickets-60169749340 <<>> More details about the Convergence exhibition at CAPEchicago.org/convergence <<<

The Great Space at UIC
400 S. Peoria, 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60607

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Tags: Andre Porter, Andres Alvear, Borderless Studio, Chicago, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE), Dr. Louanne Smolin, Dr. Sarah Hart, Ellen Trischler, Erin Preston, Jeff McCarter, Jennifer Mannebach, Jessica Mueller, Katie Kurisch, Margy Stover, near west side, Paola Aguirre, Patricia Bonness, Phil Cotton, Symposium: Space and Identity in Art and Learning, The Great Space, University of Illinois Chicago