Art Education at City College of New York

Skylar Gerken an artist and educator in our program, shared her thoughts on art education, experimenting with art, and exploring sculpture. "The most meaningful thing that has emerged from the CCNY's Art Education program is that making mistakes is 100% okay. Coming from a BFA background, we were usually busy harshly critiquing each others' work with too much of a critical lense. This made me a very jaded and judgemental of my peers' artmaking. Since pursuing Art Education, I... have become a more open and accepting person when analyzing artworks. This is also reflected in my own personal work, the idea that it is okay to stop being extremely harsh with myself. Art Education has even changed my perspective of what works I think are most interesting in cultural centers such as museums, galleries and other art spaces." "I feel pursuing Art Education has helped me to become more forgiving to myself. . I always want to strive for my best, but that doesn't have to be pure perfection. It is okay to take some time and experiment while making, knowing the outcome won't exactly be "perfect."" "For years I strictly worked in a 2D way of creating. I have a BFA in Drawing so I really enjoyed creating art on flat surfaces, anything from drawing, illustration to all forms of printmaking. It wasn't until about a year and half ago I started to make more sculpture driven works. I currently work full time at an art store so I am surrounded by different kinds of materials everyday. One time while I was walking around at work I just stopped in front of the clay section and a little light bulb went off inside my head. That's when I really started to try to experiment with different kinds of air dry clays. Early this year I started creating works that are rooted in a narrative of a haunted or spooky forest. I still love to make drawings and prints along with working with my newest medium of air dry clay. Most of the time I can mix the media which creates some pretty cool combines."

Our program's art educators share ideas and inspiration even through the screen!

CCNY Art Ed new YouTube channel!

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