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Renee Sandell, PhD
Recently named 2013 National Art Educator of the Year, Dr. Renee Sandell is Professor of Art Education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia where she developed and directed Graduate Art Education Programs from 2004-2009. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Art Education from The Ohio State University. Her research and teaching interests include visual literacy, museum education, gender issues, studio pedagogy, art and healing, and the professional development of teachers. Co-author of two books on gender issues in art education, Renee Sandell has published numerous articles, book chapters and designed elementary and middle school art curricula. Her recent articles include “Seeing the Big Picture: The Visual Arts” published in the March 2011 issue of Principal Leadership and What Excellent Visual Arts Teaching Looks Like: Balanced, Interdisciplinary, and Meaningful as part of the 2012 NAEA Advocacy White Papers.
Renee Sandell’s active professional record comprises presentations and leadership as well as national honors and awards, including the 2008 Invited Studies Lecture on her Form+Theme+Context (FTC) methodology. Her Form+Theme+Context (FTC) is a practical approach that rebalances and integrates learning content for critical thinking skill-building and deeper student engagement within diverse educational settings. Designed as visual organizers that balance formal, thematic and contextual considerations, Sandell’s FTC Palettes can be used to decode and encode any learning content, ranging from works of art, literature, lesson plans, and cultural institutions such as museums which is a major component of the SummerVision DC experience.
A Distinguished Fellow of the National Art Education Association, Dr. Sandell has served as a consultant to various school systems, museums, and cultural organizations. She incorporates museum studies in her teaching as well as writing. While teaching at MICA from 1991-2003, she and her students collaborated annually with the Baltimore Museum of Art to create unique, object-specific tours for families. For the past five years, Sandell has facilitated Artful Adventures university-museum partnerships in Washington DC, connecting preservice art educators with original art works at The Kreeger Museum http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/8075, The Phillips Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum http://news.gmu.edu/articles/2693 and the National Portrait Gallery http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/13443.
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Photo: Renee Sandell, PhD, and NAEA Past-President, F. Robert Sabol, Award Presentation at the 2013 NAEA National Convention, Fort Worth, TX
