Professional Development Articles

Conferences and Vendors

Conferences and vendors are two very different resources for staff development that have a great deal in common. Generally, where you find conferences, you will find vendors. Both offer art educators wonderful opportunities to develop greater skills, explore unique processes, and discover new products.

Art Education Association Conferences

Many different conferences are available to art educators. The most common, art education association conferences, take place at the local, state, and national levels. These conferences have offerings for all art educators, including:

• workshops
• seminars
• lectures
• panel discussions

All these activities and other staff development sessions are designed by and presented for art educators at every level of education. The length of the workshops ranges from 45 minutes to a full day. The average time of a presentation is between one and two hours, and the topics vary.

Advantages to attending art education association conferences are:

• learning about the latest topics in art
• meeting well-known members of the art community
• interacting with other art educators

Smaller, local art education association conferences may offer only a few options, but the presenters may be local experts who do not attend state or national conferences. Local conferences are usually tailored to meet the needs of the community they serve.

Other Conferences

Many arts and educational organizations provide workshops and seminars for art educators. Such organizations include:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

• museums
• national and state teacher associations
• state education agencies for fine arts
• National Endowment for the Arts/state commissions on the arts

You may also want to attend a conference that is focused on general education topics and not specifically on art. One benefit to attending such a conference is that it affords educators a broader perspective. Curriculum and assessment, instructional strategies, and brain-based research, to name a few topics, are relevant to all fields of education.

Vendors

Vendors not only attend and have booth space at conferences, but they also provide services geared toward staff development. Vendors are incredible resources for art educators. In addition to the art supplies, textbooks, and other art-related materials they sell, vendors provide services that include:

• funding and sponsoring art education conferences
• presenting new products at their booths
• supplying free samples to art educators
• offering presentations and workshops in local communities
• sponsoring art shows and exhibits

Vendors often have Web sites that art educators can use to further their own professional growth. Vendors are one of the best advocates of art educators.