Westfield Middle School
Bloomingdale, Illinois

This year I’m doing a community project (Cake Challenge for Charity) were I teach about artist Wayne Thiebaud, have a local cake artist do demos at my school and then have students (with adult help) create a cake to raffle off with all proceeds going to our town food pantry.
This year the visiting artist demonstration is April 7th, 2014 with various sessions throughout the day and then the actual cake challenge display is during our “Portfolio Night” April 24th, 2014.

Last year the event was a great success with a packed house! There were 54 cakes that raised over $500.00 in just one hour! I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out which is why I am trying it again this year. You can see the cakes individually by clicking here or see photos from the event by clicking here.

“Gear Up and Go” mini-conference was a huge success. On August 8th the IAEA NE council presented the mini-conference to a group of arts educators. Participants had the opportunity to experience three workshops from a choice of; fiber art -Karen Popvich, IPad for Art – Tricia Fuglestad, Gelli printing – Joan Mills, Prismacolor- Diana Garrett, Tuning Protocols – Evan Plummer, What is REACH and what does it mean for assessment – Ray Yang, and CPS Arts Education Plan – Ray Yang, Evan Plummer. Many thanks go to Columbia College department of education for providing the meeting space and morning coffee, Sargent Art, Gelli Art, Dick Blick, Prismacolor/Sanford, on site volunteers Cheryl Gold, Robin Marcus and the conference planning committee Donna Davis council treasurer, Angie Bader Neczek council secretary and myself Joan Mills council VP.

View Gear Up & Go Conference November Mosaic Article

View Gear Up & Go Conference Photos in IAEA Flickr Stream

Submitted by Joan Mills Northeast Council Vice-President

On Saturday February 23, 2013 the IAEA Northeast council presented a workshop in collaboration with the Schingoethe Museum in Aurora, Illinois. Museum director Meg Bero arranged for a presentation by Native American artist Bunky Echo-Hawk for workshop attendees. Those in attendance were treated to an amazing presentation and discussion session by Bunky as he described his development as an artist and his current work. It was an inspirational talk as he mentioned the guidance he received from an art teacher to find his own voice, “art invokes our individual voices” and his focus on contemporary Native American issues. To learn more about Bunky visit http://beatnation.org/bunky-echo-hawk.html. Meg also shared the Native American resources available for check out through the museum. In addition to the artist session two hands-on activities were presented, Easy Isms by Robin Marcus and Symbolic Self-Portraits by Donna Davis and Joan Mills.