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NAEA Research Commission Column: Summer 2023

NAEA News Summer 2023

Moments of Thanks and Gratitude

“How might our everyday modes of artistic research and artmaking change if we were to focus on the thingliness of all objects by assuming that all forms of matter—human and non-human, people and things—have material vibrancy and agency?” (Hood & Kraehe, 2017, p. 33).

Materiality as the interplay between materials’ embodiment, as well as what possibilities lie beneath the surface, is a fitting metaphor for leaders. Artist engagement with the materials often involves pushing, prodding, and stretching as imagination and play envision the possibility for something new, something different, something that might just provide a new way of seeing, feeling, and being.

As educators, researchers, artists, leaders, and facilitators of the arts, I see the materiality of leadership as the ways individuals also stretch, push, and envision possibility, doing the work, making things work, working as part of a larger collective to create and shape a shared purpose.

With this in mind, recognizing the individuals as part of this collective are essential for the work done and the work to come.

Thank you to the entire Commission for your contributions to our work throughout the past year. Each Commissioner is an integral part of the collective work of the Commission and organization by providing time, energy, and insights into the many initiatives of the Commission. I think it is important to recognize that each individual chooses to serve as a volunteer over 2–3 years, contributing countless hours that support sessions at NAEA, the Preconvention, working groups, fostering liaisons, creating and providing resources, webinars, webcasts, and much more.

As we welcome new Commissioners, I want to take a moment to recognize the contributions of Lisa Stuart Whitehead, who served as the Supervision and Administration Commissioner, along with Dana Carlisle Kletchka, who served as the Museum Education Commissioner. I am grateful for perspectives shared, and for the initiatives you each undertook during your tenure on the Commission.

I want to thank everyone below for their contributions and welcome two new members:

Aaron Knockel, Associate Chair
Sara Wilson McKay, Past Chair
James Rees, At-Large
Christina Bain, At-Large
Tina Atkinson, Elementary
Jennifer Bockerman, Middle Level
Justin Sutters, Preservice
Robin Vande Zande, Higher Education
Gino Molfino, Supervision & Administration
Kathryn O. Hillyer, NAEF
Marissa McClure Sweeny, At-Large
Rina Little, Museum Education
Phaedra Byrd, Secondary

Welcome to Our Newly Elected Commissioners

Gino Molfino, Supervision and Administration Commissioner

Gino Molfino has served as an artist, teacher, advocate, and education leader in Maryland for the Howard County Public School System over the past 23 years. He has collaborated to develop state, national, and district fine arts policies and practices that cultivate innovation in public education programming, curriculum development, and professional learning for educators that honor the teacher as artist and promote contemporary practices in artmaking.

As the current coordinator of fine arts for the Howard County Public School System, he is responsible for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the fine arts curricula, assessment materials, professional learning, and instructional supports for more than 200 preK–12 fine arts (dance, theatre, and visual arts) educators. Gino is the past recipient of a Fulbright Award to study contemporary Latin American performance art and culture, and he has twice received the Excellence in Education Teacher Recognition from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, as well as the Teacher Recognition Award from the U.S. Department of Education and the Commission on Presidential Scholars.

Rina Little, Museum Education Commissioner

Rina Kundu Little is an associate professor in the School of Art and affiliated faculty with women’s and gender studies at Texas Tech University. She has worked at the Wexner Center for the Arts and at the Smithsonian Institution. Her research addresses performative acts of inhabiting space, particularly how ideas and concepts within new materialisms and place-conscious education can be used to ask questions about what kinds of relations we seek with others. She approaches works of art as a movement capable of creation and creative transformation, shifting away from art’s solely representational functions and zooming in on art’s creative potential and its material becoming. Here the arts are sensation, and this sensation makes thought possible. She is also interested in the critique of humanization and its emancipatory promise; in material and relational entanglements and affects; and how places can be altered and connected to sites of struggle. She has published articles and chapters in Art Education, International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, and Studies in Art Education, among others.

And…

A huge thanks to Dennis Inhulsen for his service and leadership throughout the past year as I began my role as Chair. Dennis has been a steady and consistent presence, often behind the scenes, providing a foundation of support to the Commission. I am grateful not only for his work with the Commission, but his mentorship and guidance over the past 14 years!

Welcome to…

Laura Grundler, NAEA staff member who will be supporting and serving the Commission in her role as the Director of Learning and Program Development. I look forward to our work together!

Thank you to the entire NAEA staff, Mario Rossero, and the NAEA Board for their support of the Commission’s work. As I’ve shared before, I believe in the power of the collective, and this work could not be accomplished without the dedicated individuals committed to supporting, building, and fostering a culture of research within NAEA.

Happy Summer,
Amy Pfeiler-Wunder


Reference

Hood, E. J., & Kraehe, A. (2017). Creative matter: New materialism in art education research, teaching, and learning. Art Education, 70(2), 32–38.


Column by:

Amy Pfeiler-Wunder, Research Commission Chair
Professor and Graduate Co-Coordinator, Art Education and Crafts Department, Kutztown University. Email: wunder@kutztown.edu

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