Profile

My instructional practice includes a focus on arts education and curricular development for pre-service teachers and community arts programming, and Freshman Seminar of the First Year Programs. Teaching and art is a journey comprised of many adventures.  I love a good adventure and usually try to take a geographic one at least once a year to see the world and experience, in person, events, places, and cultures to gain contextual knowledge through lived experiences. 

These travels, along with my appreciation of artists and artistic processes, as well as my own creative explorations, help to inspire and inform my teaching.  Facilitating and encouraging others to take adventures, and explore and play with possibilities, is what draws me to teaching and particularly teaching in and about the arts.  Having had a lifelong connection to the visual arts through family, college education, teaching, and personal pursuits, I have taught preschool through college and worked twenty-plus years in the Eugene community with teachers and artists.  I am passionate about the importance of the arts in education, community, and the lives of young people.

In my courses students are offered a range of assignments aimed at providing a dynamic balance of structured and open-ended creative problem-solving. Through these, the goal is for students  to gain experience, knowledge, and tools that help them explore and tell their own stories as well as appreciate the stories of others. Areas of interest and expertise: Arts Education in both K-12 and non-school settings Curricular Development, Professional Development for Teachers and Teaching Artists, Collaborative Program Development, Arts Integrations.

Courses taught:
AAD 430/530 Youth Arts Curriculum and Methods
AAD 250 Art and Human Values
AAD 199 Controversies in the Visual Arts

Arts Management and Instructional Experience

Lane Arts Council, Eugene, Oregon, YouthArts Director, 1993 –2005
Oregon Public Education Network Clearinghouse, Albany, Oregon. (Linn-Benton ESD), Support for Teachers in Art statewide project manager, 1997 – 2003       
Punahou High School, Honolulu, Hawaii (arts instructor) 1992 – 1993
Chairperson and teacher, Art Department, Star of the Sea School (K-12) 1982 – 1984                         

Degrees:

Doctor of Philosophy (Art Education), 1990, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.
One Year Diploma (Art History), 1985, New Academy for Art Studies, London, England.
Master of Education, 1982, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.
5th Year Professional Diploma (Elementary Education),1982, Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Bachelor of Arts (Art History), 1976, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.