Daniel A. Siedell

Art and Art History

97th annual College Art Association conference

The resounding theme of the panels I attended was the importance of art education leaving the confines of the traditional classroom in order to put students in direct contact with original works of art and practicing artists.

In addition to the panels mentioned and briefly discussed above, the most important and relevant presentation for my purposes occurred in the panel on which I participated, which addressed religion and contemporary art. An artist and philosopher, both on faculty at Augustana College, presented a course they team-taught, which focused on the presence of the sacred in the lives of their students. The faculty set up a website that allowed students to post photographs, videos, and other visual evidence of their encounters with the sacred. It offered the opportunity for others in the class to comment on their work.

This presentation is important for two reasons. First, it showed the feasibility of a cross-disciplinary course in which art could be taught in and with another field, in this case philosophy. This case offered a good example of what the CFAM college teaching circle is attempting to stimulate: discourse in and through a variety of disciplines. Second, the course’s website showed me how such a space could stimulate and encourage and extend learning for my students, many of whom are practicing artists, that can serve as a clearinghouse for visual and textual practice.

The panels I attended have challenged me to rethink the relationship between the classroom at UNO and the broader Omaha and regional communities and I am currently exploring how and in what ways I can extend the classroom.

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