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NAEA Conference 2019

I had a very exciting trip to Boston last week for the National Art Education Association Conference. If you have never been to one before, you should really try to go some year. It’s quite the experience!

The conference was from Thursday-Saturday last week and it was jam-packed full of workshops, speakers, vendors, meeting friends, site-seeing and walking back and forth around the hotel/conference center. I am going to split up my experience into a few different blog posts. Here are a few highlights from my trip!

The speakers were top-notch this year.

I was able to see several really stellar speakers – Amy Sherald (who painted Michelle Obama’s portrait), Howard Gardner (psychologist who developed the theory of multiple intelligences) and Peter Reynolds (children’s book illustrator.)

I went to 3 hands-on workshops to learn new techniques.

I did a “one-step” mosaic making workshop, totally terrific tooling foil with Phyl Brown and an encaustic for elementary workshop. I will share more pictures and tips I learned in a future blog post.

The vendor hall was filled with art supplies to try and resources for art teachers.

One of my favorite parts of the conference is getting free samples! The vendor hall is full of art supply companies, colleges and companies that will show you ways to use their products.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is a treasure trove of inspiring artwork, like this Chihuly sculpture seen here.

I spent an afternoon at the MFA. What a great museum! I have lots of pics and selfies to share.

Hanging Out with Other Art Teachers

One of the best parts about the conference is getting to spend time with art teacher friends, both old and new. Some of these gals I have known online for a long time and we finally got to hang out in person. Others I have met before at conferences and we enjoyed reconnecting! It was also a blast rooming with my college friend Dawn (in the rainbow wig).

I’m looking forward to sharing more about my conference in the next couple of blog posts! Stay tuned.

Did you miss me? My blog has been on the back burner since January, because February was taken over by mountains of Girl Scout cookies! My daughter sold over 1,000 boxes of cookies and we had all the troop’s cookies stored at my house, so it was general craziness here coordinating selling cookies literally everywhere we could.

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About Marcia Beckett

Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.

One Response to NAEA Conference 2019

  1. Barb Lavery says:

    What a great time! Boston is a fun city. You seem inspired and renewed in all areas of art!

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