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Art in Special Education (ASE) Column: Summer 2023

NAEA News Summer 2023

We Have a New Name!

Column by: Lauren Stichter, ASE Interim President

Since 2001, our Interest Group has been called Special Needs in Art Education (SNAE). Over the past several years, we began to discuss the desire to update our name to represent the changes we are seeing in federal laws like IDEA that support equitable education, and more specifically the language updates that we were seeing within the Disabled community.

The term “Special Education” is still currently the language of the field, so we have updated our Interest Group name to Art in Special Education (ASE), with the understanding that we will continue to partner with members of the Disabled community and “strive to use language that is free of bias and avoid perpetuating prejudicial beliefs or demeaning attitudes” (American Psychological Association, 2022, para. 1).

More information regarding our name change and updated bylaws can be found at https://www.artinspecialed.com.

2023 Art in Special Education Awards

[[image Karen "Karen Donnelly, 2023 NAEA, CEC, VSA Peter J. Geisser Art Educator of the Year Award"]]

Karen Donnelly is a special needs art educator who teaches at the Y.A.L.E. School Ellisburg Campus in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She works exclusively with students who have emotional and behavioral disabilities and/or autism or developmental exceptionalities. She teaches students ages 5–21, including students in her school’s young adult Standard 9 transitional life skills program. She teaches elementary and middle school art, and 21st-century life and career skills at all levels. She also coteaches elementary science classes through a STEAM problem-based learning lens. Karen specializes in helping students develop career-ready skills with creativity and confidence.

[[image Jean "Jean Carmody, 2023 NAEA, The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), VSA Beverly Levett Gerber Lifetime Achievement Award"]]

Jean has been a visual arts teacher with the Cranston Public Schools in Cranston, Rhode Island, since 1989. She has taught students ages 3 through 12 in preschool through 6th grade, as well as special needs students ages 3 through 12 through individual classes and inclusions. Her special needs students have varied in disabilities such as physical, behavioral, and learning.

Please consider nominating someone from your Region for next year’s NAEA Art in Special Education Awards. We love celebrating folks from across the country each year.

2024 Larry Marone Grants Applications Are Open

This year ASE is offering three $500 grants. This grant is a $500 cash award provided by the membership of ASE, an Interest Group under National Art Education Association that centers its work in art in special education. Grant applicants/recipients must be current members of both NAEA and ASE. This academic year (2023–2024), ASE is able to award three grants. Grants have a timeline of 1 year from receipt to completion.

The application form is posted online each year, and it is linked at the end of this section. The 2024 grant application deadline is November 15, 2023.

You can find more information about updates to our groups name, awards and grants at our new interest group website: https://www.artinspecialed.com

Apply for the Larry Marone Grant here.


Reference

American Psychological Association. (2022, March). Bias-free language. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language


Mikaela Bachmann, ASE (formerly SNAE) President-Elect
Email: mikaela.bachmann@gmail.com

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