Service Learning
Community or service learning has gained increasing importance
in university education in general and for the CSU system in particular
in recent years. Several members of the Art faculty have participated
in the Community Service Learning workshops sponsored by the Office
of Community Collaboration at CSUS. The Art Department was represented
at the regional conference on service learning that was sponsored
by Campus Compact in June 2001, “The Engaged Department.”
Together with two faculty members from the departments of Design
and Music and a “community partner” (an administrator
from the Performing and Fine Arts Academy at the Natomas Charter
School), Catherine Turrill attended a two-day workshop about various
kinds of community learning activities. In October 2001, the annual
CSU Art chairs’ meeting at
CSU Northridge included a special panel on service learning that
was conducted by one of the participants in the June conference
(“Infusing Service Learning into Art Departments”).
These workshops coincided with an increase in the number and variety
of service learning opportunities for students enrolled in our Art
classes. Art faculty and students also have been closely involved
with ArtsBridge, the arts education and outreach program that sends
CSUS students out into the public schools to teach courses and
workshops in the visual and performing arts.
ART 148 (Barrio Art) has long been our premiere contribution in
the area of service learning. Its history, accomplishments, and
academic role are summarized in the proposal submitted for the annual
IRA grant (see Appendix U). The Barrio Arts Program also is described
on the Art Department website (www.csus.asn.edu/art). Other Art
faculty have experimented with service learning components, including
Elaine O’Brien, whose upper division art history students
could use a museum research paper as the basis of a half-hour slide
lecture in a local high school (last used in ART in Spring 2003),
Anna Wagner-Ott, and Dan Frye. The latter two faculty have retained
optional service learning components in their sections of ART 133;
Professor Wagner-Ott also has an SL component in ART 135.
SERVICE LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS AND PROJECTS SPONSORED BY OCC
http://www.csus.edu/occ/community/Fall2004.htm
FALL 2004 Course & Faculty Community Partner Project Description College of Art and Letters Understanding and Creating Art
ART 133
Dan Frye
(Fall and Spring Semesters) Howe Avenue Elementary School; Tahoe Elementary School; Harmon Johnson Elementry School Art education students teach art lessons that enhance elementary age children's understanding of the subject-matter they are studying in science, social studies, math, or literature. The CSUS students gain understanding of the relationship between a substantive art program, teaching through hands on experience, and learning of academic subject matter.
