Summer 2024 Reading List: Letter from the Editors
Daniela Fifi, Ed.D; Alison Heney, Ph.D; Kelly McKay, Ph.D, and Callie Smith, Ph.D; Viewfinder Editorial Board
This issue of Viewfinder features a selection of summertime reading recommendations from our editorial board. Each book recommendation focuses on a different subject pertaining to art education, museums, and other formal and informal educational settings. Our recommendations are founded on our professional experience, academic research, and personal interests. Cheers to warm weather, the summer, and reading!
Happy summer reading,
The Viewfinder Editorial Team
Daniela’s Pick
Detweiler, C. (2024). Honest Creativity: The Foundation of Boundless, Good, and Inspired Innovation. New York: Morehouse Publishing.
Writer, director, teacher, cultural critic, and Variety Mentor of the Year winner Craig Detweiler has mentored thousands of people in starting creative endeavors with purpose, awareness, and assurance. His students have subsequently launched festivals, businesses, and educational institutions, and penned critically acclaimed comic books. In this publication, Detweiler explains why one of the fundamental principles separating humans from robots/ AI is “honest creativity.” Apart from prioritizing ideas, readers will also learn how to create their own process for creating complete, enduring works; how to go out of their comfort zones; and how to build a network of like-minded people that inspires and challenges. By first developing their ability to innovate and then getting ready to face the feedback — both positive and negative — that is unavoidable when private work is shown in public, this ground-breaking method promises to help creators turn challenges into opportunities. Honesty in creation is a way that Detweiler honors the gift of life, and his transcendent guidance teaches us how to succeed in an act that is, at its core, both distinctly human and amazingly divine.
Alison’s Pick
Santana, C., Garcia-Guevara, A., Krupczynski, J., Lynch, C., Reiff, J., Roopika Risam, Vincent, C., & Ward, E. (Eds.). (2023). Anti-Racist Community Engagement. Boston: Campus Compact.
Conceived and co-created by a community of BIPOC academics and community members, Anti-Racist Community Engagement: Principles and Practices is a fantastic collection of essays, lessons, and case studies organized into four powerful sections intended to help readers center anti-racist principles in their educational and community practice. Each of the four sections provides insight into both the goals, and areas of lack, in building authentic, equitable spaces of engagement, including one on how to reframe institutional and pedagogical practices; another on critical reflections on systemic and structural racism; a third on anti-racist policies and assessments; and finally, a section on real-world examples of supportive and anti-racist learning environments. In addition to the printed and bound collection available for purchase, this title includes an open access digital companion with free downloadable resources including worksheets and syllabi that educators and community members may adapt and use in their own efforts to dismantle systemic racism and advance equity in spaces of learning and engagement.
Kelly’s Pick
Wood, E. (Ed.). (2023). A New Role for Museum Educators: Purpose, Approach, and Mindset. New York: Routledge.
This collection of essays, edited by Elizabeth Wood of The Huntington, offers broad coverage of a host of topics relevant to our work as museum educators and raises juicy questions for each of us to consider as we move through our practice. Seeking to produce a volume that provides a contemporary parallel to Eilean Hooper-Greenhill’s The Educational Role of the Museum (first edition 1994), Wood brings together authors from varied backgrounds and institutional contexts to reflect on the role of museum educators today. The book includes three sections, each containing essays addressing one aspect of the title: Part One focuses on the purpose of museum education in the 21st century; Part Two concentrates on methods, approaches, and techniques; and Part Three takes on the idea of mindset as a critical element of museum education. I appreciate the blend of theoretical work (e.g. Kalia Vue’s exploration of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and the mindset shift it demands) and practical tools (e.g. a step-by-step guide to audience-centered program design from Salvador Acevedo, whose essay immediately delighted me by opening with the sentence, “The museum professional rolled his eyes so hard that I thought they were going to disappear into his eye sockets”). While some readers might feel frustrated by the brevity of the individual texts — we just barely dip a toe into each topic before we’re on to the next — others will enjoy the opportunity to explore such a wide range of ideas in one volume.
Callie’s Pick
Dewhurst, M. (2023). Social Justice Art Education: A Framework for Activist Art Pedagogy (2nd ed.). Harvard Education Press.
In a recent Viewfinder editorial meeting, Alison Heney said something to the effect of, “When it comes to social justice, I feel like people think it is too big or too heavy of a subject and may ask themselves, ‘What do I have to offer?’” Alison’s statement resonated with me as I often wonder if the work I am doing as an emerging museum educator is impactful in the service of a more equitable world. I selected Social Justice Art Education: A Framework for Activist Pedagogy by Marit Dewhurst because I was looking for guidance and for a model of social justice art education in action. Through prompts, example activities, and thoughtful analysis, Dewhurst provides a wealth of resources that I found immensely helpful and applicable to the many facets of my role as an educator.
In this second edition of her groundbreaking 2014 text, Dewhurst returns to her original case study from 2008: an activist art class for teens that she facilitated at a large art museum in New York City. The chapters are structured around the students’ work and Dewhurst’s observation of and reflection on their creative processes. She identifies three stages in activist art pedagogy: connecting, questioning, and transforming. If effective, everyone involved in the activist art process — facilitators, students, and audiences — participate in making personal connections, questioning existing power structures, and transforming their connections and questions into artwork and conversations that create change.
Dewhurst emphasizes that social justice art education is not a topic, it is a mindset and an ongoing commitment to shared power. This requires that educators do the work of learning about the communities in which they live and continually question their practices and assumptions so as not to replicate oppressive structures. I’ll leave you with a prompt Dewhurst provides that I found useful when evaluating myself as an educator striving to do social justice work: “Reflect on your definitions of success. Where did you get these ideas…Who embodies the idea of success in your community? What values are embedded in these examples?”
Dr. Daniela Fifi, Ed.D (she/her) is an art educator and curator who has worked in museums and galleries in the Caribbean and The United States. She is a doctoral graduate in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, New York, and a Master of Arts in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Manchester, UK. Her doctoral research focuses on Caribbean art and intercultural programming in museums. Daniela has been awarded several fellowships and awards during her career, including the New York State Assembly — Caribbean Life Impact Award, The Museum Education Research Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Samuel H. Kress Interpretive Fellowship. She has taught art education, world art history, and human development in the arts at The City College of New York and New Jersey City University. She served on The Art Education Journal's peer-review board, which is the official journal of National Art Education Association (USA). Daniela enjoys listening to music and being in nature in her spare time.
Dr. Alison Heney (she/her) is the Vice President of Learning and Public Programs for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach CA and a researcher in literacy and cognitive development with over 15 years of experience in designing and executing arts curriculum for academic and community enrichment. Her area of specialization is in K-12 education and Latin American/Latinx/Chicanx art. Alison also serves as a program co-chair for MuseWeb, the largest international conference dedicated to technology and innovation in the cultural heritage sector.
Kelly McKay, Ph.D (she/they) is an arts educator and museum interpreter with a focus on visual arts, performance, and movement. Kelly currently serves as Museum Learning Manager at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis. Kelly previously held roles as Academic Programs Manager at the Boca Raton Museum of Art and Lead Educator at the Walker Art Center. Kelly holds a PhD in Theatre Historiography and a MA in Performance Studies. Kelly is also a musician, performer, and very amateur bird-watcher.
Callie Smith, Ph.D. (she/her) is the Museum Educator and Public Programs Manager at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art. She is a creative collaborator who seeks out and facilitates community-centered experiences. Her doctorate in English, MFA in Creative Writing, and bachelor’s in English Secondary Education give her a versatile skillset. Her research interests include museum studies, social justice, animal conservation, ecology, and poetry. When she’s not in the galleries, you can find her going for a run or hanging out with her cats.
