Eastern Michigan University’s School of Art & Design hosted free, on-campus spring art workshops for high school students on Saturday, March 16, with two morning workshops running from 9:30 a.m. to noon and two afternoon workshops running from 1-3:30 p.m.
The workshops allowed high school students to receive individualized instruction from EMU art professors and toexperience what it’s like to study at a university. Students had the opportunity to pick and choose which workshops to attend based on which best fit their interests. The workshops offered were in photography, ceramics, metals, and game design.
EMU art professors Jason DeMarte, Margeaux Claude, Brian Nelson, and Phillip Cardon each led a workshop. Each professor aimed to introduce their mediums to students in hands-on, easily digestible formats. For example, photography professor DeMarte led a Pinhole camera workshop.
“Many high school students do not have any experience working in a traditional darkroom. This was a crash course on how to work in a darkroom and the magic of the silver process,” DeMarte said. “I hope students gained an appreciation for the history of the medium and the analog chemical nature of its beginnings.”
This initiative began in early January with winter art workshops, and it was successful; however, the workshops were only open to high school juniors and seniors. This time around, registration was open to all high school students. 22 high school students from nine area high schools registered for the spring art workshops. The School of Art & Design plans to offer art workshops again this upcoming fall and next winter.
“If I can use an analogy, often, when we buy new clothing, we like to try it on first to see if it’s a good fit. Selecting a college is a bit the same,” Cam McComb, Ph.D., an EMU associate professor of visual art education, said. “By coming to campus and working with our artists and designers high school students have an opportunity to try on college. They have the opportunity to see what it feels like to study in the facilities we provide and to work with our talented faculty.”
