January 2011
Our new co-RDs,
Table of Contents
Letter from RDs . . . . . . . 1-2
DVD reviews. . . . . . . . . . . 2
Positions to fill/Links . . . 3
Convention scrapbook . . 4-5
Open Letter to Members . 6-7
Christmas luncheon . . . . . . 8
Bottle Cap Mural. . . . . . . . 9
Making a Big Impact . . . . 10
Jennifer Davis (left) and
Yolanda R. Brown (right)
I am excited about the remarkable opportunity to serve the Central Ohio region’s membership as the new Co-Regional Director, working
with the esteemed Jennifer Davis. My name is Yolanda R. Brown (Y.R. Brown) and I am currently a middle school Art Teacher at Ann
Simpson Davis Middle School in the Dublin City Schools District. I have taught high school art in the district, but for the bulk of my tenure
in Dublin, I have taught middle school--6th and 8th grade students.
At Davis MS I am one of two art teachers and the Art Club advisor, Scrabble Club and Destination Imagination coach. Unofficially, I serve
as the resident song make-er-up-er (stop laughing that is a real title and I take it very seriously—Wink!). I am also the teacher most likely
to have an improv dance off with a student or staff member. I am the teacher in my building with the incredible collection of ephemera
and detritus that rivals a woman’s purse at an old Let’s Make a Deal show—this is a blessing and a curse.
My Art life started in a great community, Dayton Ohio where I decided at age seven to be an Artist and Teacher. Each step of my journey
has been paved with marvelous teachers and friends of the Arts. The journey started with cutting my Art-making teeth at my grandparent’s
home—drawing with the coal that did not make it into the coal shoot in front of their house. This followed by many years of study at the
Saturday Art program at the Dayton Art Institute, basement and attic studios of Artists in the Dayton, Ohio community, post-secondary
training at colleges in Ohio and Vermont.
I have participated in the Central region as an art educator, exhibiting Artist, Co-Regional Director Elect, as a COAEA workshop leader,
OAEA convention presenter, Art History adjunct instructor at Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) and I have involved myself
in a few other sundry tasks that involved dining out and giggling.
My colleagues in the Dublin City Schools district and in COAEA are a major reason I am in my current role. During the past ten years
that I’ve lived in Central Ohio a small group of Art Educators have gleaned something unique and valuable in my teaching practice, work
ethic and personality. Their kindness, mentoring and collegial support has been invaluable. Thank you Dawn Norris, Cindy Kerr, Nancy
Magnuson, Sherri Love, Cindy Vaught, Susan Tan, Jill Markey, Chris Epstein, Camilla McComb, Peg
Barga, Saundra Boffo, Dan Schal, Sarah Rothwell, Sharon Buda, and Dan Gerdeman to name a few.
I’m looking forward to meeting all of you and putting faces to your names! Please take a moment to
introduce yourself if you find Jennifer or me at a county, regional or state event this year. It’s going to be
a bumpy ride at first as I start this new job, but I have my Spanxs, sparkling water, and great colleagues to
get me through this new adventure. Please wish Jennifer Davis and me well as we begin
our two-year tenure!
Yolanda R. Brown
co-RD
Hello, Central Region and all fellow OAEA members. I am Co-Regional Director for Central, along with the talented and vibrant Yolanda Brown. You may
remember me at the Fund-raising table during the 2010 OAEA Conference in Columbus. I was also the announcer of winners each evening. What a fun task
that was!

My teaching career began and continues at Benjamin Logan Schools in Logan County. I taught at the elementary level for eleven years and am currently in my
fifth year of teaching middle school art. Benjamin Logan Middle School consists of grades 5 through 8.

I live near Bellefontaine with my husband Jamie and daughters Jillian (10) and Josephine (8). Speaking of my children, I would like to design a workshop for
members and their families and friends to attend. Yolanda and I have many workshop ideas in the works. We are excited to implement these ideas with the
help of our Workshop Coordinator, Dawn Norris. The workshops are sure to be filled with creativity, laughs and good food!

Taking on the CoRD position has been a new adventure.  Adventures can be exciting, scary, fun and totally new to us.  Adventures are much less intimidating
when you have a friend by your side.  So as I take on new tasks, visit places I’ve never been, and delight in making many new friends along the way, thank you
to all my friends who are making this trip a bit smoother with your help and guidance.  I am forever grateful to those filling positions for Central Region, for
my new bud and cohort Yolanda Brown, and also to Joan Maxwell and Nancy Maguson for encouraging me to become adventuresome!
Jennifer Davis
Co-RD

DVD Review’s
Drawing from the Manikin – On Air Video, Inc.
In this video, you will learn how to use a wooden manikin to learn about anatomy and to practice figure drawing. The host, Larry Withers, shows how to pose and render
the manikin, and then transform the drawing by smoothing out contours, adding muscle groups and landmarks to create a life-like figure drawing. The DVD includes
several nice illustrations that can be downloaded as a supplement to the video. Overall, the video is nicely organized and well done. This video seems geared toward the
High School/College level. I think younger students might be uncomfortable with some of the depictions of the human anatomy.

Art Talk Conversations with Working Artists- Crystal Productions

This is a nice collection of artists interviews. It features several artist’s working in Aspen, Colorado. Many of the artist’s are influenced by the environment of this region.
The artist’s share their processes, inspirations and techniques in this video. Each segment is about eight - ten minutes long. You can show the whole video or just show
certain segments. I shared this video with my 9 -12 Art Survey students and it they appeared to be engaged and informed throughout the video.
This video features Ceramist – Allegheny Meadows, Sculptor – James Surls, Totem Carver – John Doyle, Painter – Bayard Hollins, Sculptor – Nancy Lovendahl, Painter –
Tania Dibbs, Sculptor – Mark Cesark, Painter – Carrie Kaplan, and Glass Artists -Spiro Lyon.

The Art of Charley Harper A Retrospective View – Dan Hadley Productions

I bought this video after attending a small gallery show of Charley Harper’s artwork. Charley Harper narrates this video and shares his life’s work. The video highlights
works of art that he created in his childhood and art school years. Charley shares some of his early professional work and features work from his years working for Ford
Times. A large portion of the video shows his paintings and prints of animals.
Many of his artworks from Ohio are featured in this video. I think students at of all grade levels would enjoy this video. The video runs for 1 hour and 12 minutes.
Dawn Norris

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Yolanda and Jennifer would like to thank the Central OAEA members that are filling many important roles for the region.  The
next time you are in contact with these educators, thank them for the time they give and their wonderful work that makes our
region great!  These extraordinary people working for Central Region are:

Advocacy/Public Relations Chairperson - Sherri Love

Awards - Donna Cornwell (2010) and Terry Nelson (2011)
County Contact Coordinator - Nancy Magnuson
Exhibition Coordinator (YAM & YPAE) - Cindy Kerr
Exhibition Coordinator (High School) - John Scott
Historian - Donna Cornwell
Membership Chairperson - Nancy Magnuson
Newsletter Editor - Kris Kolb
PR/Social Media Coordinator(s)- Cindy Kerr (Email & Blog)
Camilla Combs (Facebook)
Students’ Representative - OPEN POSITION (Your name here!)
Workshop Coordinator- Dawn Norris
 

The Central Region needs a few more leaders to help us create a team of Art Educators that can keep in communication with
one another and attend some fun-filled events together! With your help we can continue to work together as we advocate for
Art Education and strive to make wonderful art programs for our students. We need the following positions filled:

Student Representative - Please contact Jennifer Davis for more information at davisj@benlogan.k12.oh.us

Individual County Contacts for each of our 13 counties - Please contact Nancy Magnuson for more information at
mcmag@yahoo.com

Jennifer and Nancy will gladly send you job descriptions for these jobs. We hope that you will become a part of our team!

Useful links:

The www.oaea.org website will hopefully be functional soon, with it’s new facelift.

Need a membership form?

Click here: http://oaea.org/data/cms/uploadedfiles/file/forms/Membership/201011MembershipFlyer.pdf

To find COAEA information on FACEBOOK, search for ‘Central Ohio Art Education Association’ or at http://coaea.blogspot.com/ 
This is where one can view the newsletter online since there is no current link to it on the OAEA webpage.

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 Convention Scrapbook
My workshop: “The Art of South Africa & Teacher Travel
Opportunities Abroad,” was the result my participation in
a Fulbright-Hayes Group Project in South Africa.  I was
there for a month this past summer, studying
South African arts, culture, society and history, and
working with schools.  I also was able to travel in SA
and had many amazing experiences; it is truly a land
of extreme contrasts.  At the workshop I displayed
many artifacts, examples of my student’s  African
inspired works, and discussed  travel opportunities
for teachers.  The workshop participants created
a folding box, made from a recycled 2-liter soft
drink bottle.  This project was based on a box I
discovered in an African arts store.   

Holly Ruggles

Photos by Kris Kolb

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 Photos by Kris Kolb
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 Open Letter to the Central Members
Greetings and Happy New Year, Central! We are your new Co-Regional Directors for the Central region—Jennifer Davis and Yolanda R. Brown.
We come to this appointment with open hearts and minds. It is our hope that this service post will allow us to connect with colleagues in new and interesting ways.
We feel excited, exhausted, exhilarated and overwhelmed and ready for the adventure. As two Virgo women (our birthdays are nine days apart) there will be a lot of
list making and double-checking.
To date we’ve received phenomenal support from our colleagues In OAEA and the Central region. The collaborative work that we’ve done in the past month will inform
the growth and development for the region the next two years. As we go forth we’d like to share some of our initial goals and plans for activities in the Central region the
next two years. Please see a short list below:

Expand the Central regions membership numbers by 10%

We will need you to promote OAEA and some of the benefits of your OAEA membership in the region:
• Three exhibitions opportunities for your students
• Annual holiday and summer luncheons
• Workshops that actually are tailored to you with C.E.U. certificates
• Workshops led by Art Teacher leaders in your region
• Online news and inter activity with your colleagues

We want to have more FUN…

a. We are thinking of introducing a series of networking events at Central Ohio
Eateries, schools and teacher’s homes—Look out for the Nosh & Network events (working title)
b. Summer Art Institute for Art Educators
c. Travel for Art sake. One idea is a trip to Kentucky to the 21C Hotel (www.21chotel.com) and the J.B. Speed Museum (www.speedmuseum.org)
d. This summer we are hosting a Friends & Family Art event with Sax Arts/School Specialty Art Consultant, Kathryn Cahill. Look out for more details soon in
the spring.

Create an exhibition opportunity for Art Educators in the region. There are discussions underway with a gallery in Delaware, Ohio. We may be able to establish a biannual
exhibit to showcase our creative talents.

Increase our Social Media networking activities. An online presence for the regional membership is vital to our growth and development. We are happy to welcome Dr.
Camilla McCombs as our new Facebook Coordinator. Dr. McComb will be working with Cindy Kerr our Online PR Coordinator (PR/Advocacy) on content for Facebook.
Cindy Kerr will continue to work with Sherri Love (PR/Advocacy) regarding political, professional and creative news for our membership. Cindy Kerr will continue to
develop and publish content for our email “blasts” and the COAEA blog.

Provide professional development through COAEA that offers C.E.U.s and/or graduate credit. We are in the discussion phase regarding partnerships with Ashland University
of Dayton and other post secondary education providers regarding the possibility of graduate credit for COAEA workshops, etc. Our professional development plans thus far
include:
• GIMP II Workshop with Nancy Magnuson. The tentative date is Saturday, April 9th at Bellefontaine Middle School. “GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image
Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can
be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format
converter, etc”. The cool thing “GIMP is free and does not need to be registered or activated.”
• Photography, Plein aire painting and drawing at the Sanctuary for The Arts facility in Sunbury, Ohio (Delaware county) http://sanctuary-for-the-arts.com/
• Raku Workshop (2 part) with Holly Ruggle at Bellefontaine High School (continued on page 7)

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(continued from page 6)
More opportunities to be together where you live and work.
We want to provide more meetings, workshops and gatherings across the Central region. These activities will be crafted in part by the County Contacts,
Workshop Coordinator and Membership Chair—read on for more information. We hope that the county based opportunities will help to limit travel time and
expenses that many incur coming to most COAEA activities in Franklin county. The county based meetings, workshops and gatherings will also broaden our
membership base, allowing more teachers to participate as a teacher leader and/or participant at COAEA events.

Reestablish the County Contact positions—13 posts.

With the help of Nancy Magnuson our new Membership and County Contact Chair we will fill the thirteen positions! Please look forward to an email from
Nancy regarding this job opening. We really need your help to expand the opportunities for Art Educators in the region and taking a county contact/liaison post
or suggesting a competent colleague will help us increase membership, member involvement and advocacy for visual art in your school, district and in Ohio.
Read more about the County Clusters (CC) below.

We’ve created four County Clusters (CC) in the Central region to better serve the membership where they live and work. We’ve divided the Central region
into four clusters to expand the activities/events across the region. This new format will allow us to develop programming that better meets the needs and
interests of our members. We will be the working closely with Nancy Magnuson the region’s Membership and County Contact Chair on coordinating the
efforts in the counties. Jennifer Davis will be the liaison for County Clusters #1 and #2, and Yolanda Brown will be the liaison for regions #3 and #4. The liaison
for your cluster will usually attend and/or help with events and activities. See the breakdown of the counties for each County Cluster and the corresponding
color(s) we will use for mailings, etc.:
County Cluster #1(Green): Logan, Marion, Champaign and Union
County Cluster #2(Orange): Clark, Madison, and Fayette
County Cluster #3(Blue): Delaware, Franklin, and Licking
County Cluster #4(Pink): Pickaway, Fairfield, and Ross

Create new partnerships with other OAEA regions…We will partner with OAEA regions on the borders of our region, thereby expanding the meetings,
workshops and gatherings that COAEA members can attend. So, if you miss an event in Central region, there will surely be an event near you that you can
attend.

Partner with Art organizations in the region. We think that connecting with arts organizations in the region will expand the COAEA brand and possibly
provide new streams of support and members for OAEA and COAEA. Perhaps our partners will advertise in our newsletter, provide reduced tickets to events
for our members; share their space for meetings and workshops, etc. If you are a member of an art organization in the region that has worked with your school,
church or club and you think they may be a good fit for COAEA let us know. The first partner for COAEA is the Columbus Artmobile.

In closing, thank you all for your confidence in us and the many kudos that you’ve showered us with so far. Please think of us often, send us good vibes,
coffee, sparkling water, B12, and chocolate. Don’t forget to Volunteer, Recruit, Attend, Rinse and Volunteer, Recruit, Attend Again. See you at the YAM,
YPAE and Central receptions!

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 CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON
On December 11th, Central Region held the annual Holiday Luncheon at Schlegel’s Coffee House in Historic
Downtown Chillicothe. About thirty members enjoyed a delicious lunch capped off with an ice cream sundae.
During the luncheon, we had the opportunity to view Suzi Cunningham’s latest show “Just Another Day in
Paradise”. Suzi’s bright, colorful work added to the festive atmosphere. Throughout the lunch, the members
had the opportunity to show off artwork, exchange cards and gifts, and swap ornaments. After the luncheon,
many members explored many of the other galleries and shops downtown. Overall, it was a fun and festive
event to celebrate the holiday season.

Photos courtesy of Nancy Magnuson

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 Bottle Cap Mural
“Bountiful Bottle Caps Make Beautiful Art” was the name of a grant project developed by Central OAEA member, Jennifer Davis, middle school art teacher
at Benjamin Logan Schools. The grant for $1000 was awarded by the Logan County ESC and Logan County Solid Waste Management District. The
middle school students began collecting plastic bottle caps and lids during the summer months of 2010. Students brought caps to school during the months
of August, September and October. Art Club members, consisting of 7th and 8th graders, painted three full sheets of plywood in preparation for the bottle cap
mural. The scene consisted of a tree with the four seasons surrounding it. Sculptural artist Michelle Stitzlein visited the school on October 19th and 20th. The
visit began with a slide presentation from Michelle that showcased her amazing artwork, style, media and also inspiration. Following the presentation, every
student in the middle school joined Michelle in creating the mural. Small groups of students worked along with Michelle, Jennifer and parent volunteers as
they used electric screwdrivers, approximately 9000 screws, bottle caps and plastic lids to create the mural. The artwork evolved into a colorful and textured
mosaic of caps. The mural is now a permanent artwork in the middle school for the students, staff and community to enjoy for years to come.

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 MAKING A BIG IMPACT
Each year the Dublin, Ohio community hosts a MLK luncheon in January. Displaying artwork at the luncheon became a new feature of the event
in 2006 [and this] changed the whole tone of the event. Every year there is a theme for the luncheon event, based on a speech, sermon or the conceptual issues around
the work of Dr. King.

This year’s theme was “In What Small Ways are You Making A Big Impact”. My 8th grade students created
mind maps around the theme. From our mind maps, the students generated a list of ideas of things that they do,
big and small to make an impact on their family, sports and academic teams, place of worship, school, etc. This
year we used the hand shape as our metaphoric icon, because the hand represents giving and doing, sharing and
caring, etc. I wanted the images to be easy to read, vibrant and have a visual punch

The students produced hand designs that illustrated their efforts to help their parents and teachers. Some
showed tree planting or recycling in their home, community and schools. Many students created illustrations
that spoke to their faith practice and how that helps them and others. One student…created an illustration of her
philanthropic efforts [that have] raised $5,000 for breast cancer research! Other illustrations revealed student
interest in reading, music, dance and visual art.

The resulting artwork is fresh, clean, vibrant and hopeful. While the artwork was created for a classroom project, I see this kind of project as a service learning
exercise, too. I often involve my students in creating works that can hit many areas and expand their 21st century skill set: collaboration with peers, brainstorming,
service to others, production of multiples that can be sold for fund raisers, etc. I stress using art as a tool for service to others and as a vehicle to work through personal
concerns.

I like doing these kinds of projects and I encourage the

COAEA membership to share with all of us the group
projects that you have are currently working on or past
projects. We’d love to have an article that you’ve written in
our newsletter and pictures too.

Y.R. Brown

Please feel free to send articles and/or photos for the next newsletter to Kris Kolb at:

hyland_kolb@columbus.rr.com

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