This year I attended the 2017 National Art Educators Association Convention in New York City. I have attended this convention more than a few times and every single year is amazing. Not only do I take home lots of art goodies, I take home new ideas and inspiration for my teaching.
Aside from attending a fabulous convention, I am blessed with opportunities to visit different cities and make friends with people from all over the world! There are so many benefits from attending the NAEA convention!
There are always awesome pre-conference workshops to attend, so I arrived a day before the convention started to attend the Journal Fodder Junkies workshop! Eric Scott and Dave Modler are two very talented art educators and wonderful people. I really enjoy seeing them every year, and following their artistic journeys! This workshop was a great opportunity to explore materials and learn new techniques for journaling.
I was blessed to stay at the Warwick hotel with a few of my colleagues and other amazing art educators! We had such a fantastic time learning and exploring NYC! My dear friend Linda made us beautiful friendship bracelets and took us on a perfect tour around the city. It was Saint Patrick’s day weekend so we ate lunch at an Irish pub called the Pig and Whistle. It was delicious!
I was able to be a vendor at the Artisan Gallery this year. There were many amazing artists selling their works! Its so awesome seeing art educators with their creations, very inspiring.
There were 7,000 attendees this year at the convention, the most ever! The exhibit hall was packed! This year, the hall was divided into three sections which I feel made it a lot easier to navigate around all of the people! There were wonderful make and take learning stations and many new art supplies to experiment with… and a few famous people I had to take photos with ..
The middle school round table session was one of my favorite sessions. We were able to see 7 different art educators and learn about their favorite art unit and receive resources.
My most favorite part of the weekend was the Caucus on the Spiritual in Art Education Issues Group studio event with Peter London. This was EXACTLY what I needed. The whole weekend was not only a great professional experience, but it was also very spiritual and eye-opening for me on a professional and personal level. The session was a hands on experience that allowed the participants to open up and see art education from a more holistic perspective.
The last night I was able to meet up with friends I made back in New Orleans in 2015, when I attended my first #K12ArtChat on twitter! I simply love these beautiful souls, Matt and Laura Grundler. If you are on Twitter, you should check them out!
All of this was packed into a 4 day weekend, full of learning, growing and building lasting relationships with amazingly talented artists.
To all of my old friends and new, thank you for being you
<3 Raine Dawn