DARE to Educate

DARE (which stands for Digital Art Resources for Education) is an online education resource for contemporary international visual arts, which developed through the Digital Arts Education Research Initiative from 1998 to 2001.

The resource is aimed at a broad educational audience and is divided into four of areas:

Digital - This section includes a periodically changing selection of contemporary webart projects made specifically for the Internet.

Art - "Art" takes visitors to DARE's main resource area, where images and ideas of a diverse range of British and interntional contemporary artists are examined through themes of play, space + place and translation. The section also contains several ideas for project work and critical studies discussions as well as an image gallery of each artists' works, without contextualization.

Resource - Here, additional resources are listed. These resources include a compilation of related books, journals, CD-ROMS and education packs. Text and image resources' full bibliographies are included in this section, as is an extensive list of links to international contemporary artists organizations, galleries and education projects.

Education - The "Education" section has an overview of the approach to teaching and learning about contemporary art and critical studies used by DARE. There are also links to schools who have used DARE since its pilot phase.

DARE's unique in its mission to "ease the flow" between contemporary art practices and current art education. DARE aims to lessen the lack of teacher resources within formal education that teach critical and creative practices of contemporary artists from a diverse range of cultures. The website allows contextual issues to be considered while examining how artists have made their work. It also allows users to access and view work by artists who have not traditionally been looked at in the formal curriculum.

The School of Lifelong Learning and Education hosts DARE's website.

Art&Education

Art&Education, established in New York in 2006, reaches an international network of over 70,000 visual-art professionals and academics on a daily basis through its website and email list. The website posts announcements and distributes information on the world's most important contemporary art exhibitions, publications and symposia taking place within educational contexts and lists current academic employment opportunities in the visual arts.

Recent announcements and job listings include:

The Arts University College at Bournemouth: The art institute has posted a call for applications for the post of Head of School of Design and Associate Dean.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum: The Washington University's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts' museum in Saint Louis presents "Allison Smith: Needle Work." The artist's works are critically engaging and convey popular forms of historical reenactment. Using sculpture, fabrics, ceramics and other traditional crafts, Smith seeks to "redo, re-stage and re-figure our sense of collective memory."

School of Visual Arts 2010: The school is calling for applicants for its Arts Abroad Programs. Limited space is available for programs in the following places: Barcelona, Florence, Milan, Rome, Puerto Rico, Southern France / Provence, Shanghai, Venice.

UC San Diego, Visual Arts Department: UC San Diego's Visual Arts Department is hosting a series of lectures and panels investigating contemporary theories, practices and debates in the making and reception of public culture as they move through the visual sphere.

Click here for news from art&education.

Click here for art&education's impressive archive of papers, essays, and articles

Click here to subscribe to art&education's newsletters

A Useful Resource for Chicago Artists

Chicago is one of America's largest cities and contains a thriving (and growing) art scene. From the world-renowned Art Institute of Chicago to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, there is so much to see and do, it's almost overwhelming. For Chicago-area artists, I suggest visiting the Chicago Artists Resource, an extensive website that offers useful links, articles, and advice for visual and performance artists and contains a plethora of information regarding business, careers, resources, education, opportunities, etc.

The resources section (under "Visual Arts") mentions relevant issues and current articles -divided by topic - related to artists. One such article (under the "Health / Wellness" topic) deals with health care, one of the nation (and world's) most pressing issues and something that affects everyone from politicians to housewives.

The article, titled "Artists United for Health Care," discusses the organization's partnership with the Center for Cultural Innovation and Leveraging Investments in Creativity and their collaborative launching of a united artists' health care reform website. As the article states, the website's goal is to give artists the chance to get directly involved in advocating for meaningful and real reform. To read the entire (important) article, click here.

Other topics included under the "Visual Arts" Resources section include suppliers and services (read how to use the Internet to Market Your Work), advocacy (find out more about the Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Initiative) and networks (split up into sub-topics like neighborhood organizations, religious artists, artists with disabilities, and many more).

For a list of current and upcoming exhibitions and other art-related events in Chicago, click here.

For a comprehensive list of Chicago's art museums and galleries, click here.

How to Shoot a Jane Bown Portrait

Guardian Photographer, Eammonn McCabe gives a lesson on shooting the perfect portrait, Jane Bown style (in honor of Bown's November exhibition at Kings Place).

Click here to watch the video, describing how to make sure you:

• Get the background right
• Make sure you have good light in the eyes
• Think about hands, do you need them?
• Create a relaxed atmosphere
• Try uprights as well as landscapes
• Try different lenses
• Think about black and white
• Watch the light
• AND FINALLY... never admit you don't know what you're doing!

Creating a Portfolio to Get Into Art School: A "How To" Guide

While most college-bound students research schools and apply to those that fit their preferences (such as location, programs that match interests and future career paths, those that correspond to academic achievement thus far, etc), art students have the additional daunting task of putting together a flawless art school portfolio - one that showcases the artist's best work, while also displaying the variety of talents and unique skills of the perspective student.

There are many decisions to be made when gathering a portfolio, and Karyn Tufarolo, an admissions counselor at Philadelphia's University of the Arts, has written a detailed article about preparing an admirable portfolio (which is extremely important for art students wishing to get into BFA programs).

Generally, she states the following characteristics that should be included in and noted when preparing a noteworthy portfolio:
1. drawing from observation
2. work in color
3. design work
4. other media
5. requirements for a particular school

To read more about what admissions officers look for, what to expect during the application process, and some of the "dos" and "don'ts" associated with applying to and getting into art school, click here.

Kickstarter

Inventors of every kind know about the trials and tribulations associated with financing their projects. While it is frustrating to be so passionate about an idea - but be roadblocked by the inability to fund its production, I recently came across a resource that may be of some use called Kickstarter.

Kickstarter calls itself a "funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, investors, explorers..."

This innovative website, which is based in Brooklyn and was founded by five men residing across the U.S., gives creative people the opportunity to put their ideas out there, get funding, and yet, still maintain 100% ownership and control of their ideas and inventions. Although some aspects of the process are a little daunting - it's all or nothing (i.e. if an artist needs $5,000 in funding and only $4,999 is pledged, that artist gets nothing) - this resource is a novel approach for inventors struggling to find a way to fund their projects.

Current popular projects that have received over 100% funding include: "Designing Obama" (a book of art and design from Obama's campaign), "Robin Writes a Book" (A detective story set halfway between San Francisco and the Internet), "OpenIndie: 100 Pioneering Filmmakers Embrace Modern Cinema" (a project for a user generated film screening website), and "Poorcraft: A Comic Book Guide to Frugal Urban and Suburban Living."

Read more about this exciting resource here.

Friday Nights at the de Young

Artists (and art lovers) around the Bay Area should take advantage of de Young Museum's extended hours and special programs offered on Friday Nights. The museum's eclectic activities include everything from jazz performances to mask making. The programs attract diverse audiences that come together in an artistic and creative atmosphere. Check it out!