University/Organization
Department of Art and Design
Middle Tennessee University
Laredo, Texas
Title
Art in A Vacuum: The Struggles and Rewards of Teaching Life Drawing to Socially Conservative, ESL, First Generation Students
Synopsis
This paper will focus on the experience of teaching Art to First Generation ESL students, with a specific emphasis on Life Drawing. I taught Life Drawing in Laredo, Texas for 9 years. The Laredo community is socially conservative, highly religious, and had extremely limited access to the Arts. We will discuss some of the issues that arise in teaching Art within these types of communities and some of the techniques that are most effective in communicating with this demographic.