OUR PROJECTS
SOCIAL JUSTICE CURRICULUM WITH VIDEO
ARTrageous ONLINE
EDUCATION
April 2020 - Present
Montgomery Media Arts Institute collaborates with West Valley Arts, producing short videos and curriculum for the ARTrageous Online! Education Program. We identify local thought leaders who are passionate experts in their field, and who have valuable ideas and experience to share. Through video interviews, we introduce 7-12th grade students to the presenters, and the curriculum we design around the presentations includes low-tech and high-tech option arts integration activities. This is available, free to all, on the ARTrageous website and on Canvas.
The eclectic group of thought leaders include artists, entrepreneurs, activists, scientists, educators and more. Our features so far include artists like Pilar Pobil, a painter in her mid 90s who lived through the Spanish Civil War; actor, activist, and jazz singer, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin; Marian Howe-Taylor who advocates for Black history awareness and a Beloved community; Bonnie Baxter who heralds the ecosystems crisis of Great Salt Lake; and treetop canopy biologist, Nalini Nadkarni, who to save trees convinced Mattel to design a line of Barbie scientists.
In the pipeline for Fall 2024 is Angela Brown, the chief editor of the underground SLUG magazine; Stan Clawson, an artist and advocate for disability awareness and inclusion; Lily Havey, now in her 90's, she was sent to a Japanese internment camp as a young girl. Her watercolors, stained glass, and sculpture often communicate the pain. Make sure you check out the unit on Dr. Rob Davies, a Utah State University physicist and science communicator whose talent is talking about climate disruption, in story, laying out so clearly the scale of the risks we are facing and the scale of the response that is going to be required to meet this challenge. He puts all of this into a broader context of global change and offers a mindset that he believes such a response can emerge from. Check out what participants are saying about this engaging project.
MEDIA ARTS TEACHER TRAINING AND CURRICULUM WRITING
ARTS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
Ongoing
GRANITE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Ongoing
Elementary school teachers taking a fine arts endorsement run by Brigham Young University. This two year program helps teachers integrate all 6 fine art forms into content instruction as well as enhance their personal growth. The institute provides the media arts instruction and writes all the media arts curriculum, which is also hosted on the website.
The Institute is currently providing Granite School District Fine Arts teachers with media literacy through media arts professional development. The workshop series is called, "Media Literacy Education Professional Development." The series helps teachers navigate and excel in online teaching. Workshops range from understanding copyright, to how to film and edit student performances, to simple web design for digital portfolios. Each course is designed as a 14-hour experience with 6-8 hours of instruction; a short independent project; and a presentation or exhibition session. Upon completion, teachers receive 1.0 USBE Lane Change credit, though teachers can choose to forfeit the project and receive relicensure credit for participating in the class instruction.
IN-CLASSROOM / VIRTUAL PRESENTATIONS
NAVIGATING COPYRIGHT
Ongoing
The Institute is currently offering a 2-hour copyright class: Navigating Copyright. This is for teachers who want to brush up on the Teach Act and be able to in turn teach students the ins and outs and how to comply. We will teach you the process of how to answer your own copyright questions, discuss changes since the shift to online; and leave you with ample resources.
PODCASTING COURSES
FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS
A 10-session course taught by three Salt Lake-based professional radio women. We will take you through the process from start to finish and you will be assigned a mentor who will guide you along the way. Our courses are affordable, interactive, and simply fun.
Ongoing
PODCASTS WITH INCARCERATED YOUTH
MISSION STEMCAP
March 2019 - March 2020
(Discontinued due to COVID-19)
Youth in custody have limited access to cutting-edge scientific research and understanding of the pathways and opportunities to address the environmental and social challenges that society faces. The University of Utah collaborates with the Juvenile Justice Service, the Utah State Board of Education, and a team of artists and scientists to work with youth in each of five different facilities, holding discussions and workshops to frame a single environmental challenge, such as extinction, biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution, or overconsumption. Students explore and reflect on the science around an issue through film analysis, painting, podcasting, poetry and more.
We produced a 9 min piece on Nalini Nadkarni, who founded MISSION STEMCAP who has been bringing science to the incarcerated for the last 15 years - she is VERY entertaining if you have time to listen.
Recent University of Utah article about the STEMCAP project