Summer Institutes

2021 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 15, 2021

Institute Fee Breakdown

Institute Online Registration

Institute Mail-in Registration Form

Available Courses:

Workshops must be taken with the online course.

ARU 541: Teaching Contemporary Art Issues: Book Arts as Social Activism

In this workshop, participants will create a variety of traditional and non-traditional book forms to express a current social justice topic relevant to their own lived experience. Bookmaking will become a catalyst for developing lessons using book structures to provide learners opportunities to express voice and choice in making and presenting. Participants will use the online platform of the course to engage in dialogue and reflective exercises on what it means to continually grow as a culturally relevant educator. The institute will include a field trip, interactive presentations, guest book artist and studio encounters.

ARU 572 Collaboration, Teaching & Learning in Art 

A Collaboration with Gary Giordano Workshop

Collaboration Through Collage Workshop

Art teacher and teacher collaboration happens when members of a professional learning community work together to enhance their teaching and bolster student learning. In this four-day interactive institute, discover the many benefits of collaboration as well as best practices when it comes to engaging in the collaboration process. How can we use collaboration as a tool for professional and artistic growth in partnership with our learners? How can we develop genuine collaborative teams in which we engage in equally constructive professional learning, share goals, use shared resources to increase student achievement and advance our own skills, knowledge and dispositions related to student learning? This institute will answer these questions and more while engaging in collaborative and artistic encounters aimed at tapping into various perspectives and shared responsibility for our students’ learning leading to optimum student success. The institute will feature guest speakers, workshops, and a possible actual or virtual field trip. The on-site, hybrid or synchronous workshop could be followed by the online class which builds on the work from the institute and further explores collaboration, teaching and learning in art. 

ARU 543: Beneath the Surface  Course is full - closed

Explore the meaning and potential of a range of ceramic surface design techniques during this two-week in person and online institute.  Starting with clay forming techniques, we will examine how mark making and additive and reductive texture can help convey subject matter.  Then, we will study and use surface design techniques and materials to see how they convey meaning and expression when used in different ways.  We will use clay slips, underglazes, glazes, overglazes, and other raw materials and will explore processes like sgraffito, inlay, trailing, printing, resist patterning, and more.  The goals of this institute are for teachers to build their repertoire and connect their lessons to art history while also encouraging experimentation and building contemporary relevance in their students’ artwork. 

100% on-line summer II class - This course is not an Institute
July 6 - August 6

Course Description and Dates

ARU 571: Jump-Start Your Artwork; How to Get Going Again! 
Professor Rick Salafia

Biologists, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, art educators and writers (among others) have studied the human behavior resulting in what we call “creativity.”  This summer we’ll look at a range of theories and conclusions that they have developed. We’ll apply these ideas to your own studio practice to broaden and improve your creative (and teaching!) skills. 

Register through MyKU starting March 15th.