RSVP for Wisconsin Arts Integration Symposium

press release: Making and engaging in art is vital to the human experience—especially so for children who communicate through artistic expression early in development. In the classroom, art challenges students to learn how to see the world and themselves through different points of view, providing opportunity for empathy and self-reflection.

The need for arts integration has never been more evident in today’s schools, given the current challenges facing teachers and students as they traverse teaching and learning during a global pandemic. The Wisconsin Arts Integration Symposium, hosted by the UW­-Madison Community Arts Collaboratory, provides educators with a community that will help shape the future of arts-integrated learning.

When: February 13 and 17, online. Program Fee: $200; sign up by Feb. 12.

UW–Madison Community Arts Collaboratory Operations Manager, Stephanie Richards, is leading the creation of the symposium. Her goal for the symposium is to provide a safe forum for educators to engage in experiential training with peers through practice, advocacy, and empowerment.

“Art is the ultimate way of knowing and doing,” Richards said. “It shouldn’t be a separate part of life. It should be integral to who we are as people.”

The symposium’s themes include social and emotional learning, culturally relevant and anti-racist arts strategies, virtual arts learning, and safe, in-person arts strategies. This interactive professional development will benefit all educators, teaching artists, and administrators, providing tangible strategies for implementation in educational settings.

Keynote: We Gon’ Be Alright, But That Ain’t Alright: Abolitionist Teaching

Dr. Bettina Love’s keynote will discuss the struggles and the possibilities of committing ourselves to an abolitionist goal of educational freedom, as opposed to reform, and moving beyond what she calls the educational survival complex. Abolitionist Teaching is built on the creativity, imagination, boldness, ingenuity, and rebellious spirit and methods of abolitionists to demand and fight for an educational system where all students are thriving, not simply surviving.

Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia. Her writing, research, teaching, and activism meet at the intersection of race, education, abolition, and Black joy. In 2020, Love co-founded the Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN). ATN’s mission is simple: develop and support teachers and parents to fight injustice within their schools and communities. Love is the author of “We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom” and “Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South.” Her work has appeared in numerous books and scholarly journals, including the English Journal, Urban Education, The Urban Review, and the Journal of LGBT Youth.