Kean University Partners with New Jersey Workshop for the Arts for Summer Programs

This summer, the New Jersey Workshop for the Arts (NJWA) will partner with Kean University's Fine Arts Department and Art Education Program to offer the inaugural session of a dynamic new three-week summer arts intensive for young people entering grades 9-12. Founded in 1972 by Executive Director Theodore K. Schlosberg, the NJWA's stated mission is "to enrich lives by providing opportunities to develop creative talents and encourage a greater appreciation of the arts through both instruction and performance." The inaugural NJWA Fine Arts Academy, in residence at Kean University from July 8-26, will fall under the larger umbrella of the NJWA Summer Workshop (originally known as the Westfield Summer Workshop), and feature a faculty comprised exclusively of graduates of Kean's renowned Art Education Program. Kean alumnus Shawn McCabe is at the helm.

McCabe, who has worked as a middle school art teacher in Bergen County for several years, first became aware of the NJWA as a child, when he attended their Summer Workshop. He went on to serve as an assistant while still in high school, and eventually taught for the program for a number of years before being named Director of the Fine Arts Academy last year. McCabe credits the unequivocal success of last summer's Junior Academy for 7th-9th graders - which employed Kean alumni and graduate students as faculty - with the NJWA's decision to exclusively hire graduates of Kean's Art Education Program for the Fine Arts Academy this summer. "Every single [Fine Arts Academy] educator is coming from Kean going forward," said McCabe, who noted that the NJWA has begun to incorporate Kean's student-centric approach to many of its other programs, with faculty of diverse backgrounds and disciplines - including music and dance - now exploring ways to apply the Kean philosophy.

Students attending the Fine Arts Academy's inaugural session this summer will choose two of six courses offered. Courses include: Impossible Reality, a drawing class focusing on optical illusions; Emotion in Motion, a painting class encouraging students to use their emotions; The Mind's Eye, a conceptual art class;Deceiving is Believing, a sculpture class; and two contemporary art classes that will include industrial projects and utilize alternative materials, Urban and Earthy and Mechanical Apocalypse. Classes are two and a half hours in length, and limited to a maximum of 8 students to ensure each student receives the full attention of his or her instructor. The length and intense focus of each class is intended, in McCabe's words, "to mimic the instruction you would get in a college."

"We are trying to provide young artists - particularly high school students - with that above-and-beyond experience they crave, and struggle to find," said McCabe, who stressed the necessity of his and other summer arts programs in building esteem and validating creativity that "might have been stamped out during the school year... [We] want students to know they can be creative; that it is important. It matters." McCabe also emphasized the importance of encouraging students enrolling in the Fine Arts Academy to choose courses - and experiment with media - outside of their traditional comfort zone or prior expertise, characterizing the Academy's basic governing philosophy as a passionate "desire to guide and help creative minds" find their own personal means of expression - the same student-centered approach to art education embraced at Kean.

McCabe described this approach as transformative for both educator and student, engaging children from "start to finish" and often counteracting entrenched behavioral problems. "It's authentic, it's meaningful; it's not about telling a student what to do, or how to do it," explained McCabe. While the Fine Arts Academy - led by its Kean-educated faculty - will seek to "elevate and fine-tune the skills" of its students over the course of three weeks, McCabe suggested the training program's larger goal could be encapsulated in just three little words: "Discover your expression."

"[We're] not saying technique isn't important," McCabe clarified, acknowledging there may be "a misconception that we are ignoring the skills." Rather, Kean's student-centric approach places an equal emphasis on empowering children to develop their individual creativity. It is McCabe's intention that the Fine Arts Academy will ultimately sharpen skills and bolster students' confidence in their voices. He also hopes that the students' exposure to a college environment will instill a newfound sense of professionalism, introducing young artists to the opportunities available at Kean, and reinforcing the value of higher education.

Applications for the 2013 NJWA Fine Arts Academy at Kean are now being accepted, and are available online at the NJWA website: http://www.njworkshopforthearts.com/. Interested students are encouraged to contact NJWA Fine Arts Academy Director Shawn McCabe at njwaacademy@gmail.com for more information. The deadline to apply is May 24.

To post a comment, you must register and login.