AlumniReview32014_0

ACE students
take part in a
dance workshop.
Students explore
art forms outside
their own
specialization
in order to
give them an
understanding
of all arts.
campus
sCene
The artist as educator
Thirty years ago, the Queen’s Faculty of Education
introduced its unique Artist in Community
Education (ace) program. The goal of ace was to
provide practising artists with the teaching tools
they needed to pursue classroom, community outreach
and arts leadership careers. “The program
was started by Martin Schiralli, whose field was
aesthetic education, and David Kemp, thenassociate
dean of Education [and former head
of Drama],” says program coordinator Aynne
Johnston, a 1986 ace alumna herself, and associate
professor in the Faculty of Education.
Of the impetus to start the program, David
Kemp now says, “it was the sense that there were
a large number of creative artists with tremendous
work experience who could contribute greatly to
the education system.” From the start, the program
was deliberately small and its programming multidisciplinary.
“I liked the idea of a medieval university,”
he says, “when one’s studies ranged across a
number of disciplines. When you specialize too
early, you lose that breadth of understanding.”
“The program still is the only one of its kind in
Canada. It recruits talented professional artists and
certifies them to become artist educators,” says
Johnston. “A student coming into the program may
be a highly talented musician. But he may not necessarily
know how music translates into the classroom,”
she says. The program attracts primary-junior
and intermediate-senior teacher candidates,
PAUL VERNON, FACULTY OF EDUCATION
as well as artists who wish to explore career opportunities
outside the classroom. ace remains small,
usually accepting no more than 25 students each
year.
ace students come into the program trained in
visual arts, drama, film, creative writing, music or
mixed media. Because they come from a variety of
backgrounds, they receive intensive training in aesthetic
education. “If you come in the program as a
writer, you will leave having learned about painting,
dance and other art
forms from your classmates,
the instructors
and the artists-in-residence.
Introverts learn
from extroverts, and
vice versa,” says Johnston.
“The artists form
strong bonds with each
other, becoming a
close-knit community.”
In the online Review
(bit.ly/QAR31248), Andrew
Stokes, Artsci’13, MA’14,
interviews ACE grads
Ju-Hye Ahn, Jo-Anne
Lachapelle-Beyak and
Dean Armstrong.
The bonds reach across the years as well, she
says, pointing to an active ace Facebook group
that helps current and past ace students network,
share project ideas and connect each other with
career opportunities.
Strategizing for the job they want is something
ace students practise in the classroom. Johnston
prepares them with an exercise she calls “rejecting
rejection.” Students open up to their classmates
about their dream jobs, and then experience being
rejected, often in very colourful ways.
“I’ve often used Shakespearean insults to make
the exercise more creative. The students get rejected
eight times by their classmates before they
finally get accepted,” she says. By then, firmer in
their convictions, they can better articulate their
goals and refine their pitches.
Students have found the exercise good practice
when negotiating practicum placements as well as
in their later job searches. “Our students have acquired
placements at some of the most prestigious
arts institutions all over the world. They have
worked at the Whitney Museum of American
Art, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Canadian
Opera Company and the Shaw Festival, to name
just a few,” says Johnston. These placements help
students understand the type of work they can do
as artist educators, give them practical hands-on
experience and often launch their careers in new
directions.
B Filza naveed, Artsci’13, mA’15
with additional files by Andrea Gunn, mPA’07
10 Issue 3, 2014 | alumnireview.queensu.ca