Summer Institutes

2023 SUMMER INSTITUTES

The Summer Institutes for Art Educators are held in the summer months that correspond to public school summer vacation schedules. The Institutes provide intensive one to two-week instruction in art education and related fields of study. The Institutes connect students with community resources and visiting artists/scholars.  The Institutes are designed to provide in-depth experiences that are unavailable through regular coursework.

Summer Registration begins on March 14, 2023

Online courses are available to in-person workshop participants only.  To take the online course you must also take the workshop. 

Available Courses:

Explore the curricular interaction between Earth Science and creative inquiry through a combination of science laboratories, field experiments and studio practices to examine the process of ‘discovery’ and integration among the disciplines. This four-day summer institute at exciting outdoor field sites and museums will provide a unique opportunity to dissolve and expand the boundaries between art and science through experiential experiences in the field and studio. Working in conjunction with an artist/art educator and scientist will provide ongoing conversation on the intersection and possibilities between the arts and sciences. Each day will consist of presentations and demonstrations, collaborative learning, fieldwork, and art making. We will take a closer look at contemporary artists that merge with significant scientific topics of our times such humans impact on the environment as a catalyst for developing curricular/art based/research to take back to the classroom or one’s art making practice. K-12 educators and educator teams of all disciplines are strongly encouraged to attend. Act 48 credits available.

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Artists, students, and art education professionals are invited to come grow with us! This institute will help you unlock the creative potential of those around you while expanding your own foundation. You will engage in exercises and strategies as you, your colleagues, and your students conquer the usual obstacles to creativity. Through art making, you will gain the concrete skills, knowledge, and dispositions necessary to help you learn from mistakes, get unstuck, and unearth brilliance. Acquire the means and attitudes to produce new ideas, disrupt repetitions, and take imaginative jumps in teaching, learning, making, and leading. The shared content and strategies are appropriate for and adaptable to all ages, Pre-K through adult learners. The institute will feature workshops, projects, presenters, and a field trip, all designed to inspire and rejuvenate creativity. The onsite workshop will take place July 11th through July 14th and offers Act 48 credits for completion. An optional 3-credit asynchronous online course, July 17th through August 7th, will build on the work from the institute and further explore ways to grow creativity.

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Discover eco-friendly methods of creating color using homegrown and foraged materials in the plants and minerals around us.  We’ll be spending time in the on-campus dye garden, a collaboration with the Rodale Institute and located at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, to talk about the art of cultivating dye plants in organic community gardens.  We will also discuss how to do low-impact foraging of wild color in other sources around us, guided by a sense of reciprocity with our local ecosystem.  Participants will learn about the cultural histories of various pigments, including how to grow dye plants and how to find wild earth-based pigments.  We’ll be making dye baths for fabric and yarn from the plants grown in our gardens, and discovering ways of shifting the colors produced by varying the mordants (used to fix the dye to the fiber), pH, afterbaths, and overdyeing.  Our mineral pigments will be used to create clay bodies and slips for use in fired ceramic art.  Each student will make a color journal with samples of the colors they produced, along with their notes and recipes.  Through engaging in this institute, educators will be empowered to create community gardens that brighten the landscape and to find sustainable sources for art materials that connect their students to a sense of history and stewardship for their environment.

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We hope you will join us in the Department of Art Education at Kutztown University this summer!

ACT 48 hours will be available!