VCU news

By Sarah Retchin
VCU Communications and Public Relations

Photos by Leila Ugincius, VCU Communications and Public Relations

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Summer Workshop Series attracts hundreds of educators from across the country who come for fresh ideas to take back to the students in their own classrooms.

The program, which began in 2003, is coordinated through VCU’s Division of Community Engagement and offers participants a concentrated, weeklong learning experience in various subject areas. This year, classes were held June 23 through Aug. 1.

"The Summer Workshop Series offers new and engaging ways for the teachers to approach their students to help the students become interested and keep them interested in the subjects they teach," said Edward Howard, director of Continuing Studies, Division of Community Engagement.

Although initially focused on science, in 2006 the series expanded to include history, economics, foreign languages and art.

Art workshops were especially popular this year. Figure drawing, bookmaking and painting workshops were offered the week of July 21. By the end of the week, participants had built a portfolio of artwork, incorporating new ideas and techniques to share with their own students.

“The workshop is a great way to get the teachers fired up about subjects they teach and transfer that enthusiasm back to students in their classrooms," Howard said. 

Art workshop participants met for a week of studio work, lectures, discussions and visits to museums, galleries and artists’ studios.

Henrico High School visual arts teacher Megan Maddox put in long hours during the mixed media figure drawing workshop.  Her program met daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with optional studio time offered until 10 p.m.

“We make the same amount of work [in one week] as in a semester at VCU,” she said.

While the figure drawing workshop emphasized the role of drawing and experimentation in developing a body of artwork inspired by figurative themes, other workshops, such as the mixed media/bookmaking course, explored the many approaches to creating unique book sculptures and mixed media pieces.

Instructor Ginna Cullen started making books as art nearly 20 years ago.

“The book is art,” she said.

Cullen encouraged her students to experiment with the concept of bookmaking, to incorporate personal artistic styles and to use a wide variety of conventional and unusual materials.

“Artists, by nature, love the stuff they work with. Here’s an opportunity to use media in a different way,” Cullen said.

However, teachers are not the only ones who will return to their schools in the fall armed with new ideas and techniques to help students.

Mary Ruth Reynolds, a psychologist with Martinsville City Public Schools, took the bookmaking class because “books are collections of ideas and can really be anything,” she said. “I am interested in children’s literacy and an opportunity for expression is important.”

Bev Dodge teaches marketing at Midlothian High School in Chesterfield County. She plans to incorporate the new skills she learned in the painting class into her marketing and design classes.

“I want to encourage kids to be more creative in the advertising area,” she said.