ISSUED: 19 October 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — About 100 K-12 and university art educators from across the state and region are expected to attend the West Virginia Art Education Association (WVAEA) annual professional development conference at Shepherd University on Friday, October 27, and Saturday, October 28 at Shepherd University. The conference is open to nonmembers who want to register and will offer one event that is free and open to the public.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Kit Grauer, professor emerita from University of British Columbia. Grauer will speak at 1 p.m. on Friday, October 28, and anyone interested in hearing her talk will need to be registered for the conference.
Grauer’s husband, Peter Scurr, will present a workshop that is free and open to the public and does not require conference registration on Sunday, October 29, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Center for Contemporary Arts, room 115, on the Galiano Relief Printmaking Project. Anyone interested in attending workshop is asked to email David Modler, associate professor of art, at dmodler@shepherd.edu to reserve a spot in the workshop, which is limited to 30 participants.
The Galiano Relief Project started seven years ago when the art education department at the University of British Columbia donated the 40-inch wide surplus relief press to the studio of Grauer and Scurr for their studio on Galiano Island, British Columbia. Grauer and Scurr had been providing a space for art educators to do creative artwork for 20 years, and the addition of the press meant a fresh new set of possibilities to build creative community through collaborative printmaking. Scurr has been handing out print blocks to art teachers at art conferences since then. Grauer and Scurr have completed prints based on seven themes using the blocks carved by the art teachers—Font, Under the Sea, a Walk in the Forest, Up in the Air, Built Environment, Earth Wind and Fire and Lino Selfie. The printing takes place on the last week of June when art teachers and others can visit Galiano to spend the day printing.
In addition to the keynote address and Relief Project workshop, the conference will offer more than two dozen presentations and workshops, including several by Shepherd art education majors. To register for the conference, visit www.wvaea.com.
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