National Art Education Foundation Column: Summer 2023

National Art Education Foundation Board Convenes for Events in San Antonio: Highlights Include 12th NAEF Benefit Fundraising Event

Column by: F. Robert Sabol, NAEF Chair, 2022–2024

The National Art Education Foundation held its Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees on April 12, 2023, in conjunction with the NAEA National Convention in San Antonio. The NAEF Annual Meeting provided an opportunity for the Trustees to take action on several important matters, including the FY24 budget with funding for the NAEA Research Commission. The NAEF Trustees convened a strategic planning session with facilitator, Jamie Kasper, executive director of the Arts Education Partnership. Committee meetings were held in the morning prior to the Annual Meeting. Thank you to former Trustees, Kim Defibaugh and Patricia Franklin, who continue to serve on the Development Committee meeting. Former NAEF Chair, Doug Blandy, joined for a portion of the planning session. A special thank-you to Samantha Melvin and Thom Knab, whose tenures on the NAEF Board end this spring. We look forward to Patricia Franklin and Libya Doman joining the NAEF Board of Trustees following their election at the Annual Meeting.

On Saturday, April 15, the National Art Education Foundation held the 12th Annual NAEF Benefit Fundraising Event, a ticketed event open to all NAEA National Convention Attendees. This year’s featured speaker, Jon Hinojosa, president and director of innovation for SAY Sí, an acclaimed youth arts education program in San Antonio, presented a program titled SAY Sí—Transformative Change Through Creative Youth Development. A Focus on Social Justice and Change. He was joined by two program alumni—Gerardo, who is now a high school physics teacher, and Marcella, who is now a school librarian.

Guests were welcomed to the event by Bob Sabol, NAEF Chair, and Samantha Melvin, NAEF Development Committee Chair. We would like to thank everyone who purchased tickets to the 12th Annual NAEF Fundraising Benefit Event for supporting NAEF and joining us for this annual tradition.

Several additional NAEF sessions took place in San Antonio. NAEF Grants Committee Chair, Cris Guenter, moderated a panel featuring the work of NAEF grantees Kerry Freedman, Jeff Cornwall, Carrie Carlson, and Christopher M. Schulte, focused on Social and Emotional Learning in Art Education: Mapping Research With a Systematic Review. The link to the article about this research in Studies in Art Education can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00393541.2022.2116679

In addition, Bob Sabol and Cris Guenter, NAEF Grants Committee Chair, along with Kathi R. Levin, NAEF Program/Development Officer, presented a session to provide information about the NAEF Grants Program, to assist interested NAEA members to apply for a grant in the future.

[[image 9999 "NAEF Trustees with NAEF Event Speakers from SAY Sí. Top Row: Samantha Melvin, Linda Kieling, Thom Knab, Maggie Peeno, James Wells, Debra Pylypiw, Kathryn Hillyer, Kim Huyler Defibaugh, Diane Scully. Seated. Student alumni speaker Gerardo, Kathi R. Levin, Robert W. Curtis, F. Robert Sabol, Jon Hinojosa (President of SAY Sí,), Marcella (alumna from SAY Sí), Cris Guenter. Photo credit: Seth Freeman Photography."]]

F. Robert Sabol, NAEF Chair, 2022–2024