REFRESH YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Summer Studios is a dynamic, week-long, studio-based course designed for students in the Boston University Online Master of Arts in Art Education program—as well as other art educators seeking to reinvigorate their practice.
Spend a transformative week on campus in the heart of Boston, reconnecting with your own creative voice while building lasting bonds with classmates from your virtual courses. Surrounded by museums and cultural landmarks, you’ll dive into two immersive studio electives taught in state-of-the-art facilities.
Additional experiences, including field trips, campus exhibitions, and spontaneous adventures with classmates, inspire and spark fresh ideas. Group workshops, pop-up demos, and make-and-take sessions provide practical tools you can immediately apply to your teaching. After the week intensive, return home to continue your investigations. The course culminates in the creation of a teaching artist portfolio and visual journal.
Summer Studios offers an unforgettable, practice-rich experience where you can expand and renew your artistic practice, gain new strategies for the classroom and other instructional settings, and connect with a vibrant community of peers and instructors, all in the heart of Boston.
What Our Artists Say | Sample Schedule | Sample Course
Descriptions | How to Register
WHAT OUR ARTISTS SAY
“Being in these intensive studio classes, we’ve been really able to dive into those different materials and methods. I definitely learned a lot of techniques where [faculty] do show us beyond just the art style, but how we could put it into our classroom, how to work with our students on it.”
-Juliana Dennis (CFA’27), Online MA Art Education
“A lot of times I feel like I am kind of following the same routine with what I’m teaching and both studio courses I took have inspired me to branch out a little bit and incorporate different media into my classroom.”
-Madeline Wilk (CFA’25), Online MA Art Education
“Teaching printmaking is so methodical that I’m sort of guiding students from step A through to step Z, with a lot of ‘a-ha moments.’ Students may be getting a result that they weren’t necessarily expecting, but that happy accident in the print shop is usually an unexpected sort of step in a different direction that could take them even further.”
-Erin Kerbert (CFA’17), Summer Studios instructor
More from participating students
“New content knowledge for Units with my students.”
“TAKE this course! It really makes the whole program more meaningful.”
“I’m reconnected with my own personal artistic practices after a long hiatus.”
“Being present with other artists/art educators and walking through the processes together. It really anchored my other coursework in making it more meaningful.”
“I felt that I grew as both an artist and an educator in this course!”
“I learned about the world of puppetry and how this can be incorporated in the art room. Being allowed to play and explore with the different materials also gave me ideas on how I could approach adaptive arts and just general knowledge of how I could better utilize materials with students. I was happy to have had a chance to explore the technical mechanics of puppet making through lambe lambes. It really challenged me to be creative and innovative in a new way in thinking about STEAM based learning.”
SAMPLE SCHEDULE
Sunday
Monday through Saturday
Sunday
Sample Course Descriptions
Printmaking Techniques: Relief, Drypoint, Cyanotype
This course covers several printmaking techniques that can be employed in a fully equipped studio environment – or at home. The class starts with relief methods, quickly moves on to drypoint and monotype methods, and ends with cyanotype (an alternative photo technique). Basic to advanced techniques will be demonstrated, including carving, sharpening, stenciling, layering, inking, and registration, with both oil-based and water-soluble inks.
Experimenting and combining these techniques to engineer technically proficient and dynamic prints will be encouraged. Students are expected to come prepared with creative content in the form of sketchbooks, drawings, paintings, photos, collages, etc. Imbued with a graphical quality unlike other media, your visual content will be translated by means of the printmaking processes. Studio work-time takes place during class, but will also require additional use of the studio in the evening. A portfolio of prints is required for final review.
Worldmaking, Shadows, and Puppets
Bring out your inner storyteller, draw with light, and build worlds with your hands! Craft away as you explore three very different forms of puppetry that can be used at all grade levels: hand puppets, shadow theater, and Lambe Lambe. Puppetry is a wide umbrella with something for everyone. In this class, you will gain skills and confidence in this global art form, which combines 2, 3, and 4D artmaking! Puppetry is a wonderful tool for:
- Social-emotional learning
- Universal Design for Learning
- Arts integration
- Design and studio thinking
- Global and multicultural education
- Language development
- Collaborative learning
How to Register for CFA AR870: Summer Studios
Students currently enrolled in BU’s Art Education program are sent registration instructions prior to the start of the summer semester. If you are a non-degree student, please click on the button below to complete the application on that page. Note: While the page is labeled” Online,” Summer Studios will be held in person.