The New Mexico Art Education Association was well-represented at last month's 2022 National Art Education Conference in New York City. The conference posted 4500+ total participants (including 25+ New Mexico-based in-person, virtual, and hybrid conference participants), as well as 17 members of our state's organization who presented sessions, shared student work, conducted studio workshops, and/or joined in different roundtable discussions.
It was fantastic to have so many first-time presenters and co-presenters from New Mexico listed in the conference program– The proposal process for national conference presenters continues to be highly-selective, and all New Mexico-based presenters need to be commended for their selection. We had a good turnout for the meet-and-greet event on Thursday evening and it was great to have an opportunity to meet so many teachers (and from all corners of the state) face-to-face after two years of virtual-only events and on-screen meetings. New Mexico's Art Educator of the Year Cynthia Hannah was officially recognized for her outstanding work at the Western Region Awards Ceremony on Saturday afternoon. I might be a little biased, but I found Cynthia's acceptance speech to be the most heartwarming, gracious, and thoughtful speech of the afternoon.
Congratulations again to Cynthia!
2022 NMAEA President-Elect Mary Durfey and I represented New Mexico at Tuesday's Delegate Assembly, which largely focused on the National Art Education Association's many different position statements (and how teachers and administrators might use the position statements in policy decisions and advocacy arguments). This work will continue at the summer leadership conference in Park City, Utah in July 2022. Finally, the National Art Education Association announced the location and dates for the next five conferences; mark your calendars and start travel planning for San Antonio, Minneapolis, Louisville, Chicago, and New York.
Looking forward to our state-level conference November 4-6 on the main campus of the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), the hope is that many of the same sessions presented at the national conference will be re-imagined and re-envisioned as session proposals for our state conference. Please look for our call for conference presenters later this spring. In the meantime, conference co-organizers Liz Olive and Michelle Sanchez St. Andre have sent out a call for art for the state conference program and we're looking forward to seeing submissions from your students. Liz has even created a workable lesson plan to help you incorporate the conference call for art into your curriculum for the semester: Check out the lesson plan here. Please remember that the competition is open only to current members and their students.