Community News from Art Education: February 2022

The National Art Education Association publication “Translations” remembers Dr. Melanie Buffington‘s influence on the field of art education in their latest issue “Remembering Dr. Melanie Buffington: Three Reflections on Her Impact and Influence.”
“Dr. Melanie Buffington’s influence on the field of art education can be both acknowledged on a large scale through her history of scholarly publications, and felt on a more intimate scale through the countless emerging scholars and preservice teachers whose practices she shaped through her mentorship and pedagogy. In this piece, three emerging art education scholars and practitioners—a former student, a former mentee, and a former teaching assistant of Dr. Buffington’s—reflect on the impact Dr. Buffington had on their own practices. In articulating her scholarly and pedagogical practice, Dr. Buffington emphasized a feminist ethic of interdependent work that created transformational knowledges and practices through collaboration, mentorship, and care.”

BFA student Susu Johnson‘s piece titled ‘Delicate’ was selected for the Crossroads Art Center Black History Month 2022 Exhibit. Susu’s oil painting was created in ARTE 310 during the Fall 2021 semester.

MAE+ graduate candidate, Jazmine Beatty, was a 2022 recipient of the VCU Department of African American Studies Black History in the Making Award.
“The faculty of the Art Education department nominated Jazmine Beatty, a MAE+ graduate student. Jazmine is committed to cultivating children’s wellbeing within Black communities through collaborative art projects. Her thesis topic explores the benefits of a collaborative artmaking process to underinvested Black students. Last semester, she conducted a collaborative bookmaking project with children at a local Title I school to foster positive self and community images. Through the project, her students learned about how their individual identities and experiences related to one another and how they could enable community care. In terms of academic excellence, Jazmine goes the extra mile for the course assignments by finding additional sources and offering thoughtful insights into the topics under discussion.”