Naming Play for Artmaking

NAMING PLAY FOR ARTMAKING

Dr Sydney Walker, Professor of Art Education in the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy at The Ohio State University gave a thought provoking talk entitled Naming Play for Artmaking before an audience of graduate students and community members in RISD's Chace Center Auditorium on Tuesday, October 6th.

Dr. Walker holds a Ph.D. in Art Education from Florida State University and an MFA in Painting from the University of Alabama. Currently she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses related to artistic practice and contemporary theory. Her research into artistic practice has led to authoring the book Teaching Meaning in Artmaking as well as numerous journal articles exploring issues of artistic practices in contemporary context. Her current research engages Deleuzian philosophy as a lens for understanding play and the artmaking process.

Dr. Walker's research interests also include curriculum theory and practice sevring as a curriculum consultant on a national level and director and faculty member for numerous art teacher curriculum institutes. In 2005, based on curriculum work with the Annenberg-Getty Challenge, she co-authored Rethinking Curriculum in Art Education, with Dr. Marilyn Stewart. Most recently Dr. Walker served as Senior Editor for Studies in Art Education and in 2010 she co-edited with Dr. Michael Parsons a special issue of Visual Arts Research focused on a Lacanian psychoanalytic theory for art education.