The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey offers a unique opportunity for art educators to come together, explore contemporary art, and learn new skills for their classroom. While working at the Art Center I organized seven professional development symposia that brought together New Jersey art teachers and working contemporary artists. Each program included a lecture with the artist about their practice, gallery exercises inspired by the exhibitions on view, and a hands-on artmaking workshop led by the guest artist.

In April 2016, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey held it’s annual Teachers’ Symposia in conjunction with Recharging the Image: Selections from the Mott-Warsh Collection. The program, Explore Narrative Painting, was led by exhibiting artist Philemona Williamson, who discussed her practice of creating narrative paintings that investigate the lives of adolescents of all races and genders. The group engaged in gallery exercises inspired by the exhibition, which examines the ways artists of the African diaspora explore the representation of personal, cultural and racial identity. Then Williamson led a hands-on painting workshop guiding participants to develop their own personal narrative using childhood memories. Images from the program are below.