The first course I took during the Summer term of 2026 was Reflective Practice. That is where this blog came into play. I began enjoying this reflective practice much more than the first term. I enjoyed the topics and had fun creating new ideas. I do wish that the blog posts could have been spread out over the entire summer instead of just within the first half to give more time to think about things I might want to do or include. Overall, it has been a good experience.
The second course I took was Art, Place, and Praxis: Geographic and Spatial Approaches to Art Education. This was one of my favorite classes in the program thus far. It was engaging, had assignments and readings that made you think critically and allowed us to create a bit of art ourselves. Each week had several videos and at least one reading to complete before beginning the assignment and participating in the discussion. We would discuss how space could be cultural, political, racial, and equitable or not. We discussed how art can take up space and be experienced in various ways.
One of the first readings we had for this class was Evaluating Urban Green Space Inequity to Promote Distributional Justice in Portland, Oregon. At the beginning of the article, it described it as - "This research establishes a process to assess intra-urban green space inequities, as well as identify data-informed and spatially explicit planning priorities to promote health equity and environmental justice." (Elderbrock et al., 2024) The article discussed the health benefits of urban green space and how environmental justice should include equity assessments. It showed that there is a common disparity between predominately white neighborhoods and those with more ethnic diversity and how much green space and trees those neighborhoods have. The article broke down the statistical data and showed how green space equity required that statistical data and planning. Their findings were able to help identify those disparities and work towards a plan into identifying spaces that could be turned into green spaces and fixing those disparities in the area.
Elderbrock, E., Russel, K., Ko, Y., Budd, E., Gonen, L., & Enright, C. (2024). Evaluating urban green space inequity to promote distributional justice in Portland, Oregon. Land, 13(6), 720. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13060720
The final class I took was Special Topics: Arts-Integration. This class incorporated creating art, creating lesson plans, and discussing how we can incorporate art cross curriculum. Every week we had several reading and videos to watch. It was engaging and fun. We had to do a group project in the middle of the class which included creating a dance. It was something that was very much out of my comfort zone but I learned a lot and it ended up being a great experience.
One article that we read during the week that we were required to go view art out in our community was Hamlin & Fusaro’s Contemporary Strategies for Creative and Critical Teaching in the 21st Century.
Throughout this article, they discuss how contemporary art methods push students to broaden their skills and connect locally and globally to their communities. It discussed bringing contemporary local artists into the classroom and how art can be a political act. It discusses how art is made through real life experiences and how important it is to being art into schools and how art can even help students score higher in other areas because of the ability to think creatively. It went on to discuss the importance of student centered learning and how important creativity and play is. It discussed how art can be political and how students really want their art to mean something. It was an involved and meaningful article that is worth the read to anyone who is passionate about the arts in their schools.
Hamlin, J., & Fusaro, J. (2018b). Contemporary Strategies for creative and critical teaching in the 21st century. Art Education, 71(2), 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2018.1414529
Another article we read was from the week of our dance presentation. This article is called Dance in America: From Tradition to Innovation. This article discussed the evolution of dance in America throughout history and the changes and effects that dance had on the art community. The article highlighted several artists and then went on to explain how dance is healing. It shows how dance can be used in therapy and how learning to move our bodies can also help to process our lives.
Dance in America: From tradition to innovation. (2026, January 28). National Endowment for the Arts. https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2026/dance-america-tradition-innovation
A video we had the opportunity to watch in this class was related to the previous article, Dance in America. This video focused on Edward Villella. Edward was one of the first popular ballet dancers in America. He was able to jump and perform in ways that were previously unseen on stage. His athleticism in ballet opened the idea to many more artists that boys and men could perform ballet. His dancing was a catalyst for the ballet movement for men in America. To this day, he still assists in teaching and instructing ballet dancers at a school in New York.
National Endowment for the Arts. (2016, September 9). Edward Villella [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg_3V1idn2o
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