School of the Foundation Year

I initially came to KCAI to work in the Foundations program, and that is where I taught from 2010 to 2014. During this time, I brought a process-based perspective to my classes and focused on challenging students’ long-held assumptions about their own knowledge, abilities, and perspectives. I benefited from collaborating with talented colleagues, and being involved in this essential “re-orientation” for students is exactly why I initially came to KCAI.

As the needs of the institution shifted and aligned with my interests and experience, the way was paved for my transition into Interactive Arts (formerly Digital Media). But the way I teach (focusing on the iterative process, trial and error, and challenging assumptions) was no doubt honed during those years in Foundations and subsequent Workshops.

Courses Taught:

Foundation Studio

Students work with one instructor throughout the semester; this mentor helps students to understand critiquing processes and self-reflection.

Students encounter a range of creative challenges, including perceptual drawing, 2-D design, 3-D form investigation and time-based and mixed media investigations as avenues of communication and expression.

Spring Workshops

Building on strengths and accomplishments of the fall, the spring semester presents students with entirely new learning structures.

The spring semester is divided into three sequenced, five-week workshops that focus on intellectual, imagistic and process-based learning platforms based on the instructor’s active area(s) of interest and expertise.

All of the workshops listed here are courses I developed and taught in Foundations between 2010 and 2016.