Katherine Schwartz's award-winning career in art education began on an Alaskan king crab boat. OK, she took all the right courses and later earned her Ph.D. in art education; but there's nothing like being in the right place at the right time. After teaching in public school in Hampton for a year, Schwartz traveled to Europe and returned to the states to drive to California and see friends. "I had a contract to teach in Hampton that fall, so I thought I'd enjoy the summer," she says. "My friends and I were talked into traveling to see the beauty of Alaska, and a few weeks later I found myself in the mad dash of seasonal king crab boats. You never come to shore during season, and there's not much downtime. It's really an adventure."

During her summer as a crabber, Schwartz met a man in a flannel shirt who asked her what she did. Learning she was a teacher, he asked what she'd think of teaching in a northwest arctic school.

"I asked for a contract thinking that I'd never hear from him again," laughs Schwartz. "He turned out to be the superintendent."

Schwartz's 27-year career in the Alaska school system began. She flew into remote areas, learned to communicate (and survive) via technology, served as an art teacher, grant writer, basketball coach and sometimes a plumber. She culminated her career in Alaska as art specialist for 30 schools and in the Kenai Peninsula Borough school district. In 1983, Schwartz earned Alaska's State Art Education Award. She served on the board of the National Art Educators Association, the leadership committee for the Kennedy Center's Alliance for Arts Education Network and has contributed to the development of national standards and assessments for teaching the arts.

When a position in art education opened at JMU in 2000, Schwartz returned to her East Coast roots. Her parents live in Northern Virginia, and she wanted her two daughters to be near their grandparents.

Schwartz brought to JMU the same enthusiasm and advocacy for art education that she delivered throughout in Alaska. This year, she was named the National Art Education Association's Virginia Art Educator of the Year for higher education.

"My early work in Alaska was on the front lines," says Schwartz. "When I worked with the Selawik Iñupiat people, I learned about diversity. Every village has a different dialect and culture. You learn to immerse yourself in the language. You learn language over coffee. I worked with my students to create prints about their culture. They took oral histories from elders. It was there that I formed the idea that teaching art is teaching culture."

As professor of art education and director of JMU's Art Education Program, Schwartz directs undergraduate and graduate programs in art education and the K-12 licensure programs. She partners with the JMU Center for School Leadership and the Madison Collection to do outreach programs like an annual summer institute for 600 teachers. "Everything we do is for student learning -- learning to collaborate, learning to self-assess, learning the importance of integrating art into the curriculum," Schwartz says. 

"We go through the student-teaching experience step by step with our students -- mentoring them," says Schwartz, who supervises art education student teachers in the field -- up to five official visits per semester, per student. She also places 24 students in practica like community outreach programs and JMU's Saturday art programs for children.

"A perfect example of implementing the best possible student teaching experience is our natural partnership with the Madison Collection," says Schwartz. "Students work with elementary school children under a certified teacher. They tape their lessons and have 'how did it go' sessions to evaluate how they are doing as teachers."

These future teachers join Schwartz as advocates for art education across the curriculum.

"Studies have shown that reading comprehension soars if a child connects a word with an image," says Schwartz. "I've always been intrigued with ideas and that ideas can be conveyed through the arts. Every idea conveyed in discursive language can be shown in a picture or musical composition or dance or poem. It is important today to integrate art across the curriculum to develop higher order thinking skills, enhance learning and preserve culture. Everything we know of history, we've recorded in an art form."

Schwartz instills that point in her students through their work in the Summer Art Program. JMU students assist a certified art educator in leading children in developing artistic skills and learning about various cultures through art.

Teaching in Alaska's remote villages also forced Schwartz to become an expert in technological communications. The result was her award-winning interactive Web site that provided teachers with tools to increase cultural literacy, develop global citizenry and create
classroom environments that promote lifelong learning. ArtfulMinds won a silver award in ThinkQuest's Tomorrow's Teachers Competition in 1998 and earned recognition at the Alaska governor's conference on the arts in education.

Schwartz applies her technological expertise in her work with future teachers. After her student teachers create professional portfolios, document their experiences working with children and build resumes, they learn to represent themselves digitally. Students take the art education courses and compile digital lessons and portfolios.

"They can represent themselves digitally and their content knowledge becomes even stronger," says Schwartz. "We have a tremendous art education program because the content area is strong; we partner with the College of Education's Education Support Center to house student records, including lists of what is needed to be licensed in Virginia; and we partner with the Madison Collection to illustrate the importance of integrating art education across
the curriculum."

Schwartz's system does more than develop artful minds. Her students are so well prepared that many get hired prior to their final student teaching experience.

Story by Michelle Hite ('88)