With a broadened scope, along with some help from Wilbraham & Monson Academy, Fine & Performing Arts Department Chair Paul Bloomfield has become one of the leading advocates in Massachusetts for adjusting how art and global issues can be taught to high school students.
Mr. Bloomfield was a presenter at the Massachusetts Art Educators Association Conference Nov. 13 at Lesley University in Boston. The theme of this year's conference, which drew more than 100 teachers from throughout the state, was "Redefining Art Education."
Mr. Bloomfield has been teaching art for 12 years. During that time, his view on how art should be taught has changed to now encompass local and global issues students feel strongly about, particularly current hot topics.
"In the early part of my art education," Mr. Bloomfield explained, "I thought art should speak to the individual about self-expression ... expression in terms of abstracts and more esoteric parts of how we think and believe, perhaps even spiritual.
"Then I slowly began realizing that is just one aspect, and there's another aspect that has meaning and maybe a more tangible approach to get people connected to what they are doing, so their choice of colors all relate to how they build the picture, which is how they communicate that message. The choice of the background, the text color ... all of these things lead to a message that you can start to transmit ideas that you think are important."
Communicating personal beliefs regarding social issues has become part of Mr. Bloomfield's teaching, and that approach has struck a cord with his students, who now feel they have their own voice within their work.
"It's easier to connect to students in more tangible ways, such as what's going on in the world and what are the major issues and what should be changed," he said. "Those are the things that they respond to really well. Everyone seems to have an opinion on something, and there are opinions on things I don't think about, and that's good because it brings it back to them. We can use art in a way that can create a reflection upon themselves and the society they are living in."
Mr. Bloomfield was awarded a Global Educators Grant from WMA to travel to Cambodia in the spring of 2016. There, he met with non-governmental organizations and documented artwork with a goal of showing how transformative art can be in the lives of young people, particularly in economic and socially challenged areas.
After displaying his art from Cambodia in Boston as a member of the MAEA, which was intrigued by his approach, the organization asked Mr. Bloomfield to be a presenter at its 2016 conference.
"I think it went well," Mr. Bloomfield said. "It was an opportunity for me to continue to do my own personal work while also having an understanding that it might be valuable to someone else. At the center of it was part of the Global Educators Grant I got from the Academy."
"Paul has been a leader on our campus, infusing his international experiences into the art studios," Dean of Faculty Wally Swanson said. "His work as a teacher and as an artist is widely respected. His sharing of experience at this conference and others continues to put the WMA Art Department and the Academy at the forefront of bridging globalism and traditional curriculum."