Addressing Gender and Sexuality through the Arts

Join an interdisciplinary team of Columbus education leaders for an interactive exploration of strategies K-12 educators can use in approaching gender and sexuality issues through the arts. This two-part workshop uses artworks in two current Wexner Center exhibitions, Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation and Glenn Ligon: Some Changes, as points of departure. In the first part of the workshop, Jim Sanders (a professor in Ohio State's Department of Art Education's Cultural Policy and Arts Administration program) moderates a panel discussion with Mollie Blackburn (an associate professor in the College of Education, a specialist in adolescent literacy, and the cochair of Ohio State's Sexuality Studies Program), Mindi Rhoades (a doctoral candidate in art education who specializes in working with adolescent girls and new technologies), Angie Wellman (executive director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center, a youth service organization serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning young people), and a guest appearance by artist Sadie Benning.

You'll work with the exhibition content in the galleries with Wexner Center educators, and after a lunch break (on your own), the workshop will conclude with a practical working session during which participants will critique existing curriculum materials and develop ways of utilizing contemporary and historical artworks to address gender identity and social justice issues with K-12 students.

Call (614) 292-6493 or e-mail edweb@wexarts.org to register or for more information.

image credits

Sadie Benning
untitled, 2001
Flashe paint on canvas
81 x 66 in.
Courtesy of the artist

Glenn Ligon
Malcolm X, Sun, Frederick Douglass, Boy with Bubbles (version 2) # 8, 2001
Flashe paint and silkscreen on paper
23 x 16 1/2 in.
Collection of Gregory R. Miller, New York