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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to maintain an artist once he grows up." -- Pablo Picasso



A 4-day Alumni Weekend Program of the
Florida Center for Teachers




I N D E X
      Sixty-five Florida teachers, selected by application from around the state, attended a four-day seminar examining the nature and value of art in everyday society.

      Participants were provided all materials, housing, board, and in some instances, travel stipends. They were among the first to enjoy the brand new Florida Teachers Center located on the St. Petersburg campus of the University of South Florida.



Seminar Leaders


KRISTIN
CONGDON
 The alumni weekend seminar was directed by Dr. Kristin Congdon, from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and Susan Lockwood, Director of the Florida Center for Teachers. This four-day program served to reassert the value of the humanities in the K-12 curriculum.

A wide variety of stimulating topics were explored, ranging from folk art, graffiti art, Buddhist art, and earth art; all reinforced by visits to several galleries and museums. A visual sampling of the seminar highlights follows below, offered in hopes that more Florida educators will become aware of these high-quality programs, and may choose to apply in the future.


SUSAN
LOCKWOOD
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Art Evaluation Exercise
Session 1: Thursday, 7:00 p.m.

    Dr. Kristin Congdon introduced us to the new ways of thinking about and relating to art. She set the stage for our investigation this weekend with an interactive experience designed to extract meaning from an art object.

    Photo on the right: One group presenting their assessment of several randomly assigned art objects.
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Graffiti Art
Session 2 :Friday, 9:00 a.m.

    Tampa artist Derek Washington brought the controversial subject of graffiti art to the table. We learned how this form of urban expression is connected to the hip hop culture and how it evolved through various mainifestations.

    (Left) Several members of the group pose with Mr. Washington in front of one of his works of art.

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Buddhist Art
Session 3: Friday, 1:30 p.m.
    Dr. Daphne Rosensweig, art professor at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, introduced the group to the world of Buddhist art. She explained the various cultural manifestations through a slide show and examination of several sculptures and objects.
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Museum Visits
Friday 3:30 - 7:00 p.m. p.m.


St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts

St. Petersburg Museum of History
    Our first visit was to the Museum of Fine Arts for a deeper appreciation of Buddhist statuary in the Poynter Gallery. Next, we headed over to the St. Petersburg Museum of History located next to The Pier in St. Petersburg.

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Earth Art
Session 4: Friday, 7:00 p.m.

 During the evening session, the focus shifted to earth art as the group learned about Cuban American performance artist, Ana Mendieta, well known for her interactive earth sculptures.

Photo at left: An example of earth art: a resculpting of the earth by Andy Goldsworthy.

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William Wegman Exhibit
Session 5: Saturday, 9:00 a.m.

    This session began with a morning visit to the Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Dr. Margaret Miller, Director, offered a slide presentation and a tour of the Wegman exhibit.

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Folk Art
Session 6: Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

    Dr. Congdon focused the afternoon session on exploration on Art and the Everyday as the group learned about various folk artists and their work.

Many sessions ended with an opportunity to socialize in the new FCT Courtyard.

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Art & Community
Session 7: Saturday, 7:00 p.m.




    This evening's session brought us back full circle to the street culture of the South Bronx that spawned hip hop, break-dancing, and graffiti. New York sculptor Rigoberto Torres who recently made his home in Kissimmee, Florida, joined us for this interesting demonstration. His work, found in leading museums, exemplifies the important connection between art and community -- it celebrates daily life. Torres treated us by actually creating one of his castings and taking us through the process using latex and plaster on the model to the right.

    Additional information on this artist can be found at The Web Gallery NYC.


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The Weekend Mosaic
Session 8: Sunday, 9:00 a.m.

Dr. Congdon concluded the seminar as the participants took a look at the exploration of art and artists encountered over the past three days.

The final session featured Technology. Consultant Richard Wedig, an FCT alumnus, as he presented a slide show of the seminar, demonstrated how to build a web page, and discussed web publishing as an art form. Suzan Wedig displayed the web page chronicling "Art and Community: A Celebration of the Everyday". The group was provided with a disk of images and files useful for creating their own web pages.

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Seminar Participants


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    Attention, participants:
    Your collaboration is invited!   Please contact Richard Wedig with suggestions, corrections, or your own materials to add. Submit your photos in .jpg file format, text files in .txt or .html format.

    Created by: Richard & Suzan Wedig, Sebring, FL.
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