Pamela Lawton, associate professor in the Department of Art Education, was selected by the National Art Education Association to join their new Commission on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. The 10 commissioners, who join Lawton from both public school systems and universities around the country, will work to create “an inclusive art education professional community open to all.”
Lawton has devoted much of her career to advancing the tenets shared by the commission. Her long-running Artstories project bridges generational gaps through storytelling and common creative interests. She’s held Artstories workshops in Nicaragua, Mexico, New York, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, and in the summer of 2019 she brought the project to London as VCUarts’ second Tate Exchange associate. That opportunity coincided with the publication of her new book “Community-Based Art Education Across the Lifespan: Finding Common Ground.”
The EDI commission was established through the recommendation of a national taskforce to the NAEA Board of Directors. The commission held its inaugural meeting in December 2019.