MAKING ART WITH DIVERSE LEARNERS:
A JOURNEY THROUGH PERSONAL NARRATIVE
Presented by Moore's MA in Art Education with an Emphasis in Special Populations
$25 includes light breakfast, and a full lunch.
6.5 ACT 48 hours may be acquired for an additional $10.
Free for Students
At this year’s 8th annual Art Education for Special Populations Symposium, Dr. Suzanne Duvall-Zurinsky, a university art educator whose only child has autism, shares her personal journey to fuse art education with conventional therapies for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and the amazing progress that resulted from this combination of methods. Attendees will walk away from Suzanne’s talk feeling empowered and inspired as they learn how specialized instructional techniques make it possible to reach and teach all learners.
Several hands on workshops will follow our morning keynote where attendees will get a chance to explore alternative art making processes led by artists from The Center for Creative Works, try out the hot new trend of teachers using comics as a means to document, digest, and reflect upon their day to day adventures in the classroom with local art teacher Sunnylee Mower, and gain new skills in implementing Positive Behavior Modifications with art educator Samantha Davis and behavior specialist Jennifer Grier.
Dr. Suzanne Duvall-Zurinsky is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of North Alabama who teaches courses in art appreciation and methodologies and materials for art education majors. Dr. Duvall holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Art Education from the University of Mississippi and a B.F.A. from Mississippi University for Women. While a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, Dr. Duvall worked at the U.M. Research and Training Center for the Handicapped and served as a liaison with the Mississippi School for the Blind. It was during these years that she developed a strong interest in art education for special needs students.
Upon completion of her Ph.D., Dr. Duvall taught at St. Catharine College in Kentucky before moving to Florence, Alabama, to work for the University of North Alabama. In 2000, Dr. Duvall’s only child was diagnosed with regressive autism at the age of 18 months. This was the beginning of a journey of hope, as she sought to find her son in an unfamiliar neurological landscape, reach him, and bring him home again. She educated herself extensively about autism and successful therapies and began a program of intervention that combined speech, occupational, and behavioral (ABA) therapies with a massive infusion of therapeutic creative activities in art, music and drama. The road to recovery was long, but the results were nothing short of phenomenal.
Inspired by her son’s success with this program, Dr. Duvall began sharing the knowledge she had gained with other art educators in the hope that they could use it to reach and teach their own special needs students in the classroom and help them find their way home, as well. In 2010, she was given the opportunity to tell her son’s story in the N.A.E.A. book Understanding Students with Autism through Art, edited by Drs. Beverly Levitt-Gerber and Julia Kellman. Dr. Duvall’s life has been a surprising journey that was impossible to plan for, but it led her to a wonderful place of hope. Her desire is to leave behind a legacy that inspires and empowers art educators to reach out to children struggling with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and help guide them back into a world of light and hope and love.
Special thanks to The Kennedy Center's VSA program, the international organization on arts and disability, for its support of this conference.
PARKING:
The Kennedy House is offering $7 parking for the day. Their parking entrance is at 19th & Cuthbert St. Bring your parking voucher with you to Moore to receive the discounted rate.
Note: There is construction going on in this area, so do give yourself a little extra time that morning.