Ecology and Environment Interest Group (EEIG) Column: Summer 2023

The 2023 NAEA National Convention in San Antonio, Texas, marked the second anniversary of the Ecology and Environment Interest Group (EEIG). Since being founded in 2021, EEIG has blossomed to over 280 members. Within our first 2 years, EEIG has developed an online presence with a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account, as well as presented a NAEA Webcast titled Artists, Ecological Issues, and Activism. Our members have presented a total of 11 NAEA National Convention sessions, including two sold-out ticketed events. As we move into our 3rd year together, we wanted to highlight the newly elected EEIG officers, the inaugural EEIG award winners, and give a special thank-you to our founder, Joy Bertling.

Newly Elected Officers

During the open business meeting at the NAEA 2023 National Convention, EEIG voted in new officers. This was a scheduled vote as the EEIG bylaws state that officers serve 2-year terms. We are happy to announce the newly elected officers as follows:

Co-Chairs: Alice Wexler and Nicholas Leonard
Chair-Elect: Michelle Tillander
Secretary: Allison Rowe
Treasurer/Membership Chair: Amber Ward
Vice Chair of Best Practices in Ecological/Environmental Art Education: Linda Nelson Keane

The new officers are excited to continue the much-needed work of supporting ecological and environmental art pedagogies and advancing scholarship surrounding ecological and environmental art education. Finally, the position of Vice Chair of Technology will have a delayed online vote, which will be emailed to EEIG members.

Inaugural Award Recipients

During the 2022 NAEA National Convention, a vote was held to introduce four rotating awards. These awards were accepted and published both on the EEIG website as well as in the Fall 2022 NAEA News column. The first two awards, the Outstanding K-12 Project and Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis, were presented during the 2023 NAEA National Convention EEIG Business Meeting. The Awards Committee evaluated the multiple nominations for both awards and identified the following as recipients of the inaugural EEIG awards:

Outstanding K-12 Project: Elizabeth Burkhauser
Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis: Heather Hudgins Silver

The Outstanding K-12 Project award recipient, Elizabeth Burkhauser, was recognized for her work through the Transforming Conflicts Hexagon Project. These collaborative projects engaged teachers and students from across the country to address environmental issues, such as the causes and effects of agricultural pesticides and raw sewage pollution in local waterways affecting the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the environmental concerns associated with mine outfalls in Pennsylvania.

The Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis award recipient, Heather Hudgins Silver from the University of Georgia, was recognized for her dissertation titled Attuning to the Natureculture of Schooling in the Anthropocene: Ecologically-Responsive Art Provocations with Elementary Students. Her research explored how a feminist, new materialist art education pedagogy can foster a heightened sense of attunement to respond to ecological crisis. A key finding from Silver’s work was the effect of a Reggio Emilia–inspired practice of provocations that allowed students to explore their curiosity about the environment, producing more caring behaviors that can attend to the ecological crisis.

[[image "EEIG Officers Jody Stokes-Casey, Mark Graham, Nicholas Leonard, and Joy Bertling with Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis Award winner Heather Hudgins Silver. Photograph by Tracy Callas."]]

Thank You

In a final celebration of the 2-year anniversary of EEIG, we want to thank our group’s founder, Joy Bertling. Joy identified a need within NAEA to directly address ecological and environmental concerns through art education. In 2020, she took action by gauging interest and gathering signatures to propose what is now EEIG. Her hard work has directly influenced every aspect of EEIG, from writing the bylaws document to helping organize various committees for developing social media content and assigning awards. As she assumes her new role as immediate Past Chair, we want to thank Joy for her passionate and relentless support for ecology and environmental arts education and for creating this national platform for the cause. We also want to celebrate Joy’s (2023) upcoming book, titled Art Education for a Sustainable Planet: Embracing Ecopedagogy in K-12 Classrooms, which will further support the overall mission of EEIG.

Reference

Bertling, J. (2023). Art education for a sustainable planet: Embracing ecopedagogy in K-12 classrooms. Teachers College Press.

Column by:

Nicholas Leonard and Alice Wexler, EEIG Co-Chairs