Celebrating the 25th Art Ed NOW Conference (Ep. 478)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by The Art of Education, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

All right, it is the week of the Art Ed NOW Conference. I wanted to do an episode today about some of our favorite things about Art Ed NOW, and of course, the perfect person to join me, my co-host at the conference, Amanda Heyn. Amanda, how are you?

I am great. Sorry everyone, if you’re getting sick of me. There’s been a lot of me here.

I feel like-

I’m having a great time.

What is this? Four out of the past six podcasts, you’ve been the guest.

Maybe.

But these are the times we need you on. These are important things. Nobody more qualified to talk about the conference than the person that does the conference with me. Okay, so as this episode comes out, we’re literally two days away from traveling, three days away from the conference beginning. How are you feeling?

Good. This is the time where I just keep saying, “Everything will be fine. It will be fine. Everything’s fine.” And it is, it is fine, and I’m really excited about this conference and I cannot believe it is the 25th conference.

Yes. Yes.

I know we’re going to get into that, but it’s very exciting. How are you feeling?

I’m good, like you alluded to, from our end, there is a lot of work that goes into putting this conference on, but all of it’s really fun. And at this point, I’m just excited. I’m ready to see everyone. I’m ready for everybody to be there. I’m ready to share these great presentations that I’ve been excited about for months now, and so I’m excited to put them out into the world. So quick introduction for everybody. Amanda, who are you?

Oh, hello! My name is Amanda Heyn. I’m the director of community engagement at the Art of Education, a former elementary art teacher and co-host of the NOW Conference.

Perfect, and I’m Tim Bogatz. I’m the events director here at The Art of Ed. So the big event coming up is one of the things I do. Also, this podcast you’re listening to is the other big thing I do. And I was a long time secondary art teacher, short time elementary art teacher, before moving to The Art of Ed. But we’re excited. We’ve done this conference together for a long time and today’s going to be a little bit of fun. So if you are somebody who’s gone to a lot of Art Ed NOW Conferences before, you’ll have a lot of fun reminiscing with us. If you have not been to one and just want to learn what Art Ed NOW is all about, we are going to do that too. But before we get into those conversations, we need to talk about the certificate program that’s new from The Art of Education University.

I introduced it last week and it has already been very popular. The episode got published and immediately I had multiple emails be like, “Hey, where can I find out more about this?” And so anyway, I want to talk about it again. The Art of Ed University, like I said, has new graduate certificates in studio art and they’re programs that are designed for art teachers who want to do more, who want to grow as artists. And you can choose to focus on 2D or 3D art. The 2D certificate lets you explore media like drawing, painting, printmaking, digital art. 3D is all about form and function with courses in ceramics, sculpture, book arts, fibers, all of that. No matter which one you choose, it’s going to be flexible. It’s going to be meaningful, relevant, professional learning. And my favorite part I think is just that it centers your own artmaking. So Amanda, I know you know a lot about these certificates, but I need to ask you, if you were doing this, I know you just got your master’s degree-

Yeah.

… but if you were excited to go back and make more art, would you choose 2D or 3D for years?

Right. Honestly, I might be excited to go do this because my master’s degree was not artmaking.

Not nearly this cool.

No, it was not this cool. This is a hard choice because they’re both excellent. I think I might go 3D, only because I feel pretty adept in 2D. That’s what I focused on in college.

I like painting, so I think I would do 3D because it would push me outside of my comfort zone.

Oh, that’s good.

What about you?

That was actually exactly my answer. My first thought is 2D is great because I love drawing and that’s what I’m best at. I was like, “I should just focus on that.” Then I was like, “Wait, do I want to get better? Do I want to grow?” And so that makes me want to take 3D, so-

Also, so in the community, community.theartofeducation.edu, if you haven’t joined yet-

Thank you.

… there is a space called the Art Gallery where people share their work and literally just today, within the last 24 hours, someone shared the coolest soft sculpture of a human heart that they made-

Oh.

… in the studio fibers course.

Okay.

And so that’s really pushing me over the edge because it was so cool and I was like, “I want to know how to do that.”

I have not seen that yet. Is it creepy at all or is it just super cool?

No, it’s just cool. Well, I like that sort of thing, but it’s not creepy. It’s just beautiful and cool.

I love it. Okay, so anyway, if you’re interested in seeing that, go to the community or if you’re interested in learning more about the certificate, you can go to the AOEU website or you can click in the link. Guess where that link is, Amanda?

Is it in the show notes?

It is in the show notes. Just like we always say, all of links you need will be in the show notes. Okay, let’s dive into Art Ed NOW. It is just days away, and I guess before we start reminiscing, I would love to talk about just the conference now, things that are happening this weekend. And so I guess the biggest thing, do you have a couple reasons, I’m going first by the way, but I would love for you to think of a couple reasons people should come to the conference. First one I put down was that I think just obviously the learning that goes on.

Yes.

Everybody’s thinking about the school year. Everybody’s thinking about new ideas to bring in, and we have a lot of new ideas, which I think are really, really cool. We have an entire presentation on teaching Gen Alpha, a live Q & A, which I think is going to-

Yes.

… be really interesting. We have presentations on classroom management, on how to make your own sketch books. We have a ton of artmaking things, how to experiment with materials, and just all sorts of new ideas that are exciting and invigorating as we go back into school this year. So what about you? What do you think people should be excited about or why do you think they should come?

Yes. Okay. Before I get to my reason, I need to go back to the Gen Alpha presentation-

Yes.

… because I thought I had a handle on the language and I don’t know, there’s a new Instagram, a new to me Instagram account that I’ve discovered. I think his handle is Vincent Van Nope.

Oh, yes, I’ve heard of him. I’ve seen him.

He’s an art teacher. Oh my gosh, so great. But he did a real with all of the new lingo, and I watched it and I was like, “Oh no, I don’t know any of it.” I felt comfortable with Skibidi Toilet.

Right.

I felt comfortable with aura points. I felt comfortable last year, but now this year-

Oh, no.

I don’t know.

No, seriously, in the matter of weeks it changes, and so it’s impossible to keep up.

So anyways, I’m so excited about that presentation.

Okay, good.

Okay, of course, if you’ve attended the conference before, you know that I am most excited or equally excited, I’ll say, about the prizes.

Of course.

Of course. So we’re doing things a slight bit differently this year. If you are registered, everybody gets access to discounts, raffles and premium digital swag from AOE, including many games that you can play in your classroom and tons of trivia that you can use in your classroom during the first couple of weeks of school and throughout the year. So that’s amazing. If you come live, you have the opportunity to win from over $15,000 of cash and prizes.

[inaudible 00:08:31] this is the most we’ve ever had, right?

The most we’ve ever had.

By a bit, yeah.

Yes. The 25th conference, just we needed more, and why would more prizes be worse?

Exactly.

So if you can’t come for the whole time, don’t worry, because we’re giving away hundreds of dollars every single hour. There’s cash, $500 cash prizes, [inaudible 00:08:54]-

Every hour.

… of those. Yes.

Yeah.

There’s access to flex curriculum and pro learning. There’s scholarships from The Art of Education University, and we also have some incredible sponsor prizes including-

Oh, yes.

Can I tell the people about them?

Oh, I was going to tell them.

Okay.

I was excited, but no, I would love for you to go ahead.

Okay. Sculpey is giving away a $500 prize pack. Nasco has a huge set of art materials, paints, brushes, papers, et cetera. Wacom is giving away a tablet. AMACO is giving away printing [inaudible 00:09:28] and glazes, and sculpture tools. Blick is giving away a ton of artmaking prizes at the kickoff. It’s just so many fun things.

So many great things to be given away.

Yes.

So yeah, those prizes are going to be amazing.

Yes.

I’m excited about that.

Me too.

Okay. The other one I was thinking about for my other reason that people should definitely come is artmaking. We had Joel Scholten on the podcast last week, talking about his artmaking presentation and just the idea of getting something started at the beginning of the day and just working throughout the day, creating as you learn. And I think that’s awesome. We have great opportunities at the kickoff to do artmaking too. Jackie Jablecki is doing some cool drawing stuff. Jonathan Juravich is doing some very cool drawing stuff. So we can start out Friday night with that, and then at the main event too, you can start with Joel and then you have multiple opportunities after that too to create as well. So I think that’s going to be great. No matter what type of art you want to do, we’re going to have options for you to make and create. And just that dedicated time to put into your own artmaking is really valuable and something art teachers don’t get enough of. So I’m really excited that we can provide that at the conference.

Yes. Okay, I have one more thing I’m excited about before we get in to it.

Yes. Let’s do it.

Okay. The After Pass. So the After Pass is always great. If you don’t know, you get access to all of the conference presentations plus additional bonus presentations for a whole year in what we call the After Pass. But this year, again, for the 25th conference, we’re putting 25 extra presentations in the After Pass. And these are handpicked by you and me, our favorite past keynotes, our favorite past presentation. So if you know, if you’ve been to the conference, you lose access after a year, but we’re bringing them out of the vault, if you will.

Yes. Yes.

And this is so exciting to me, so-

And like you said, you and I curated some of our favorites from the past.

Yes,

And so it’s all great content.

Yep. So I’m excited about that.

… best of the best.

It’s very exciting. Okay. Now, I also, as promised at the beginning, I thought we should reminisce because you and I have both been involved in this conference for a long, long time. So I’ll ask you in just a second to think about your very first presentation at the conference, but then also your first time hosting.

Okay.

Okay, so I was going to tell you real quick as you brainstorm, my first appearance I think was in 2015. And then I was asked to present, and my very first presentation was about printmaking and these, I don’t know, crazy things that I was doing with printmaking, like taking those battleship roles of linoleum and having kids create three foot long prints and just-

Fun.

… all sorts of fun stuff like that. So it was cool. I got some good reviews from my ideas, and they asked me back again, and just snowballed, and I just kept presenting and kept helping out. And then 2016, after I started working full-time at The Art of Ed, started helping with the lineup and putting together the presentations. And then I started hosting a little bit and hosting a little bit more, and then all of a sudden, a year later, Jessica, one of the founders of Art of Ed, she’s like, “Well, I think I’m done hosting, Tim. So it’s yours now.” And yeah, I’ve had some amazing co-hosts for all of those years and it’s been a wonderful experience. And now, Amanda, you and I have been doing it together for quite a while now.

Mm-hmm.

So, okay, what was your very first appearance at the conference?

Okay, I was trying to think about this and a quick search in Google Drive has unearthed a presentation from 2015.

So same year, which is funny.

I opened it, which was humbling. [inaudible 00:13:30]. I just looked so bright-eyed and fresh, but I stand by that presentation. It was about the stages of drawing development, and I remember-

Oh, I remember that one. Yes.

Yeah. I did a lot of research for that, and I spent a lot of time putting that together, and it was great. So that was my first, I think, official appearance.

Yeah.

Hosting, if we want to talk about that, you have to come back with me to a bleak time, which is 2020.

Oh, yes. Yeah, I remember now. Yep.

And I was trying to think about this. I can’t remember the exact timeline, but I had been put in charge of the conference as a whole, as part of my role, I think shortly before that.

That sounds right.

They took you from kind of important to really important, if I remember right.

Oh, thanks. Yeah, more responsibilities. And we did a bunch of COVID webinars. So COVID hit in the spring and we spun up a lot of live learning.

Hey, I will stand by those. We did a great job with those.

Yes. Yes. Incredibly quickly, lots of long hours for us. I remember sitting in my basement because whatever, everyone was home, and that’s the only place I could host from.

Yeah, [inaudible 00:14:50].

Anyway, so we decided that worked really well. That was the first time you and I had hosted anything together, and we were like, “Oh, this is great. Our energies play well together.”

Yes, for sure. For sure.

Maybe a yin and yang, you would say. And then we were like, “Okay, well, let’s do this for the conference.” And that also is when we turned up the heat on the conference, and we did the Conference Kickoff and-

… there were just… Everyone was stuck at home, so the energy of that conference was very-

Oh, it was great.

… very amazing and intense.

Yes.

And I felt like I was nervous, but also really excited, and it was just extra special. So that went really well, and we’ve been doing it that way ever since.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Can we talk about that first kickoff, because that was super fun?

Yes.

Well, I think we called it the pre-conference back then-

We called it the pre-conference.

… because we wanted to give everybody the warmup and turn this into a bigger thing. And that’s been great because people love getting together. And we, if I remember right, we did Price Is Right for the first game, right?

Okay. Yeah. Yes, I think so.

[inaudible 00:15:58] again, we put a lot of time into that, like-

I’m so proud of that slide deck. I’m sure our creative team is horrified by my graphic design skills, but I used brand colors. There was a reveal. It was great.

Yeah. It was a fun game and we got to give out a lot of prizes, which really has been the goal every time since then. And then I remember we split up and that was the first session of artmaking [inaudible 00:16:29] people do sketchbook stuff. But we also played Pictionary. I think we played bingo. I think I did a trivia thing. Just wanted fun things for people to get together and do. Those all went well. And then I remember we were all going to go into a chat room and watch a Netflix show together, and we went from hundreds and hundreds of people to seven people stuck around for that. So-

We also, at that time, it was three hours, and I think what we learned is it should be two hours.

Nobody wants stick around for that long, so two hours is plenty.

Yes.

So we’ll do that. Okay. Also, like I said, we gave away a ton of prizes at The Price Is Right. I remember just giving away so many Blick gift cards.

Yes.

And then I don’t remember if it was trivia or somewhere else, but we had a teacher named Pilar.

Oh my gosh, Pilar.

I hope you’re listening, Pilar, but she had come on camera and she was very excited when prizes were like, oh, if you get this question, you’re going to win a subscription to the FLEX Curriculum and PRO Learning. And she’s like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve wanted this for years-

Right.

… my district can’t afford it. We can’t get it.” And she got it. She won, and she literally started crying.

It was the best.

It was, it just all the feelings and it was wonderful. So it was good. But yeah, that was the first iteration of what Art Ed NOW has become. And I feel like we’ve built on that. We’ve made it better, but still those ideas of fun and prizes and artmaking are still there.

Right.

So I don’t know, other thoughts?

Well, I just like, the drink menu was great. We did that for a while, like-

… Rum and Hoch, the Mocha Lisa.

Then we were like, “We don’t have time. Maybe we should be spending our time on the actual conference.”

Well, I feel like I’ve run out of drinks and run out of artists.

Right, if anyone has any ideas of a drink that we could feature-

Any art.

… that’s an artist pun.

Mm-hmm, art history puns for drinks.

Let us know. Also, I feel like one thing that’s really evolved is I always wanted to wear a costume from the beginning-

Oh, yes. Right.

… and you never wanted to wear a costume, but I think we’re going to talk about some of our favorite moments, and I think the Password kickoff really unlocked something in you. And so can we maybe move into some of our top highlights from the past years?

Yeah, I did ask you to do a little homework and come up with your top three highlights. I don’t know. I don’t know if I agree with the phrase, that unlocked something. I feel like it’s still a begrudging acceptance that I do these costumes, but [inaudible 00:19:23] for you.

Yeah, but you do them. Okay, so one of my top highlights is Tim’s mustache. If you know, you know. We were playing Password, which is a game that’s set in the ’70s. So we decided to dress up and I was very into my outfit. I even put on flair jeans and clogs, even though you cannot see-

Oh, yeah, it was a full ’70s costume.

It was a full outfit. You couldn’t see that on Zoom. But in my brain, I was like, “I can’t put this suede vest on with regular pants.”

And I looked, if I do say so, I looked very cute. My hair, it was so… Just everything was coming together for me that day. And [inaudible 00:20:08] you went a different direction. You had, do you want to tell people what you were wearing?

Yeah, I went full ’70s with a really, really bad wig, just the most unflattering thing that you can picture. And then some weird tinted glasses-

Aviators.

Yeah, very 1970s.

Yeah.

And then I had a mustache and it looked terrible.

Right but the mustache kept falling off.

Right, if I were just posing for pictures, fine. But every time I talked, the mustache would move or half fall off.

It would go askew.

And as someone who’s hosting an event, I can’t not talk. And so every time, every time it just looked more and more ridiculous. And I was getting completely roasted in the comments, and it was so funny and so ridiculous at the same time.

It was-

I loved it.

I’ve never seen anything funnier, and the funniest part is it was our CEO’s first month at the company.

Oh, yes.

Maybe week.

No, I feel like he started February 1st and then the Art Ed NOW conference was February 4th or something like that.

So this is his first introduction.

And in Slack, which is our chat platform we use at work, he just wrote, “Tim’s mustache is making me emotional.” Anyway, it was the best. Okay. What’s your top memory?

Okay, I had a few, but if we’re talking about dress up, I really enjoyed a couple years ago when we went with the Barbie theme because everybody got in on that. Because I feel like we had an idea that was kind of like, eh. We had something going but didn’t really love it. And then the conference is scheduled for the end of July, but at the beginning of July, the Barbie movie came out and it was so huge. And we were just sitting there. You and I were brainstorming and I was just like, “We need to do a Barbie theme for Art Ed NOW, don’t we?” And you’re like, “Oh my God, we do.” And so we got these Barbie backgrounds. I broke out my bright pink tie and it was incredible. And you had a great costume as always, and then so many people dressed up too, and so they came on Zoom with these Barbie outfits, with these Barbie hats. [inaudible 00:22:46] just amazing thing. I’m like, people were so excited about it. And I just loved how into it everybody got.

Yeah. Also, we gave away an Art Teacher Barbie as a prize.

Tim:

I remember that.

That was really fun.

Okay, I have another memory to share.

Yeah, let’s do it.

Okay. Again, I can’t remember the timeline. I think it was pre-Barbie, because I think it was maybe, also maybe COVID era. Anyway, we decided to play Is It Cake?

So remember when Is It Cake? became a thing on social media and we were like, “Okay, this is great.”?

Yes.

We can get two cakes and then we can get people to vote on photos as a poll. As just a funny poll for the conference, is it cake or not? And I remember you just giving me updates like, “I’m trying to tell the bakery what I need.” [inaudible 00:23:38]-

Right. This was a cake shop that had no concept of what Is It Cake? actually was. And I showed them videos. I took my phone and I was like, “Hey, watch this. Isn’t this fun? This is what we’re trying to do.” And they just could not get it.

Right. So you were like, “I think I have it in a good spot.” You were getting-

Yeah. I think on my third trip there-

Right.

… I was like, “Okay, I think we’ve got it down.”

We’re feeling fairly confident. We asked them to create a Chipotle burrito to commemorate our collective love of Chipotle-

… and an AOEU-branded winter hat.

Yeah, that was a stocking cap that we sent to all of the attendees. Yeah.

Right, and they were like, “How many people does this need to feed?” And you were like, “No. No, it doesn’t need to feed any people. Just make it the size of the object.”

And so the whole point was to hold it up to the camera, and I remember there were two cake boxes and you just shook your head. And I opened the box, and these cakes were 12 times the size of the objects. So, whatever, it didn’t really work, but when we held the cakes-

It was-

Go ahead.

I’m just going to say, it was an entire sheet cake that just happened to look like a burrito. I had to pack my trunk differently to drive to the conference because the cakes were so big.

Right, so we go through the whole exercise and then we show the cakes to the audience. And I was crying laughing.

It was uncontrollable laughter from everybody. They were all dying.

We said, “Hey, we have this game planned for you. Here’s what we’re going to do.” And then the reveal was like, “This is what the cake shop actually gave us.” And I couldn’t even fit the entire cake on screen, it was so big.

Right. It was so funny.

Yeah, it was hilarious. That was incredible.

Okay.

Okay. Memory number two for me was a lot less hilarious. Winter of 2021, we’re not in lockdown, but still so many precautions from COVID. But we’re like, “Hey, let’s go meet at AOEU headquarters. We’ll drive there. We’ll just social distance. We can meet from across the office and do whatever.” And then as we solidify these plans, a giant blizzard decided to come through.

Yeah.

And so I was like, “Oh my, I can’t travel in this. I have to leave a day early.” And so I drove to the middle of Iowa and just waited out this blizzard in the hotel room. I literally could not go anywhere. And then you were supposed to drive down from Wisconsin to Iowa-

Well-

… and almost died 10 minutes from home.

Well, yeah, I started driving and about an hour into the four-hour journey, I called you crying. And I was like, “I’m-

I don’t think I can make it.

Yeah. I was like, “I’m fine and I’m not coming. I’m turning around.”

Yes.

But obviously we made it work and we made it happen, and it was fine. The show must go on.

It was kind of fine because the reason we go to headquarters is they have incredible internet. It’s great for hosting. And literally 15 minutes before the conference was supposed to start-

That’s right.

… the internet went out, and so-

I think this is repressed in my-

I was going to say, you may have blocked this.

And so I packed up everything and drove back to the hotel.

The hotel.

And I literally hosted from my hotel room.

That’s right.

And it was not great, but we got through it.

We got through it, and everyone was so understanding.

Yes, absolutely.

That’s why our attendees are the best.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, third favorite memory or highlight from you?

Yeah, third and final favorite memory was probably just hanging with Devon Rodriguez in New York City.

Mm-hmm, yes.

Just one of the best hangs.

Just the nicest guy.

Ah, of all time. We made a funny Reel on the subway where we parodied… He draws people off the subway.

But actually, if anybody doesn’t know, Devon Rodriguez is, what? The most followed, most famous artist on Instagram and TikTok.

He’s the guy who draws portraits in the subway or now and just travels around and draws people’s portraits.

Yep. Right. So at the time, he was still doing the subway stuff. So I, quote, unquote, “drew you on the subway,” and then I glued two googly eyes to it.

And then, anyway, he thought that was so funny, which was great. But just literally, like I said, one of my favorite hangs of all time. He was so nice. He let me hold his YouTube award, which just [inaudible 00:28:42]-

Oh, yeah, he had the 10 million subscriber award. Oh, it was beautiful.

Yeah. It was beautiful. It had a giant gem in the middle. So talented, so down to earth, and really resonated with our teachers. And then I remember back channeling him, Slack, not Slacking, Instagram messaging him the day of the conference, during the conference. And I was like, “Hey, do you want to come on camera?” And he was like, “Oh my gosh, yes.” He’s just so on Instagram all the time. And so we surprised our attendees with a live Q & A with Devon Rodriguez, and it was so fun. It was great.

Yeah. Super cool. So that’s fun, because my third memory was actually meeting somebody cool, which was Sir Ken Robinson.

Oh, yeah.

And I don’t know if the young’uns remember Sir Ken, but he is just, I don’t know, a brilliant man who talked a lot about creativity, about what our schools should look like, just an educational hero of mine. And just getting the chance to meet and interview him to do a podcast with him was absolutely incredible. He gave a great presentation. He gave a great interview and was just a lovely, lovely man. And then at the end of the interview, we were closing up and I said, “Thank you.” He was like, “You know, Tim, you’re not a bad interviewer at all.” And I was like, “That is the nicest thing to hear from him.” So very, very cool, and yeah, that was a fun one. But that was, what? Eight years ago now, I believe.

Yeah, R.I.P.

For sure. Okay. Looking forward now, we have our conference coming up. What are we looking forward to at big number 25 here, Amanda?

Oh my gosh. Okay. I’m really looking forward to our featured presenter, Lisa Congdon.

Yes. Another great interview, by the way.

Yeah.

She was wonderful to talk to.

Yeah, I’m excited for everyone to see that presentation. Our theme for NAEA actually this year was, you belong here, which feels serendipitous because if you know Lisa’s work, that’s one of her most well-known pieces, says those exact words. And it’s true, you do belong here. We’ve really seen the community take off in such an exciting and extraordinary way over the past year. And Lisa’s presentation just feels like a celebration of that. So I’m looking forward to that.

Yes.

And then in the same vein, just getting to hang out with our community members. I cannot tell you how fun it is to be able to look into the chat and actually know the people there. You know what I mean?

Yes. Yes.

It’s always been really heartwarming and really exciting to get to chat with everybody, but now that we have our community, we know you.

Right. Right.

I’m always like, “Oh, I know her, right? I know him. I know them.” It just makes it feel even more special. So again, if you haven’t joined the community, please do that. And there’s actually an Art Ed NOW space in the community. So if you’re there and you haven’t found that yet, please join us there. There’s some fun behind the scenes posts going on up until the conference.

Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. Anything else that [inaudible 00:31:54]?

Yeah, so I’m also really excited, we talked a little bit about Joel Scholten, but I’m excited to see what he does to open the conference. If you’re not following us @theartofed on Instagram, please do, because Joel has been making the funniest Reels this summer. I think you talked about it a little bit with him on the podcast, but I just, I’ve never laughed harder. They’re great.

So he’s very entertaining, and like you said at the start of this episode, it’s a really great way to make some art for yourself. And just, we always pick something that’s open-ended and able to be done with whatever you have at home so you can follow along. And I’m just really excited about that. What about you? What presentations are you looking forward to?

Well, actually before presentations, the kickoff is something I’m looking forward to.

Oh, yeah.

You just said, “Artmaking,” and that got me thinking, Jackie Jablecki is doing these super cool surrealism drawings and Jonathan Juravich has a surprise for you. I don’t know if he wants me to tell you exactly what’s going on, but it’s going to be super fun.

Okay. We love that.

So I am looking forward to Friday night. It’s always fun and great games. Yeah, just looking forward to all of that and the artmaking. And then on Saturday, presentations, I think Melinda Moen’s going to be super [inaudible 00:33:11]. She’s got one in the secondary hour about making your own sketch books, which I think is going to be really cool. We have a lot of great ideas for people to start your year. As I said at the beginning, everybody’s looking forward to do school. I don’t know if people are looking forward to school, but you know what I mean.

Yeah, yeah.

But just ideas that you can bring in immediately, simple ideas that can get you started well. So Don Massey, Yvonne Lopez Taylor, Stan Dodson, all have really, really good ideas for things along those lines. And then I’m also excited about Lindsey Bailey. She’s got an artmaking idea that’s kind of fun, kind of weird, super creative, and I think people are going to like that one. So those are some presentations that I think people should look out for.

Absolutely.

All right, Amanda, anything else before we wrap up? Any memories, any advice, anything else that you want to share about the conference before we go?

My advice is, if you haven’t signed up for the conference, you got to get on it, my dudes. There’s not very much time left.

There’s a couple days and you don’t want to miss it. Again, I think the learning that we have curated for this conference, coupled with the best of the last 10 years, is a really good reason to make sure that you are there this time.

Yeah, couldn’t say it better myself. And also, we have a link to sign up in the show notes, so follow that!

In the show notes.

… check the show notes for the community, and the signup, and the certificate programs, and anything else that we talked about today that might be of interest to you. But we would love to see you at the conference this weekend and we’d love to see you getting into the After Pass with those 25 additional presentations throughout the year. So we’ll look forward to doing that all in just a couple days. Amanda, thanks for coming on. Thanks for reminiscing and thanks for having this conversation with me.

Absolutely. See everybody soon.

All right. A big thank you to Amanda for coming on, and reminiscing with me, and sharing what she’s excited about. And honestly, as we’re getting ready for the 25th Art Ed NOW Conference, I just, I hope that today’s episode gave you a glimpse of how much excitement, and how much energy we have for this conference and everything that goes into making this event what it is. And whether you’ve been to a dozen conferences or you’re coming for the first time, there is something for everyone. Whether you’re looking forward to the artmaking, the inspiration that you get from presentations, just being a part of the community, or getting excited about giveaways and prizes and what kind of fun stuff we have in store at the kickoff there, there’s so much there. And I think we just enjoy reflecting on how far the conference has come, and honestly, we’re super excited about where it’s headed to.

So if you haven’t registered yet, now is the time. You do not want to miss out on this. It’s a great experience, great giveaways. It’s just the best professional development that you’re going to be able to do, the most fun at least. And don’t forget about the After Pass too. Like we said, you have an entire year of access and 25, our favorite 25 curated presentations from years past. It is the widest ranging lineup we have ever had. So everything you need, including links to register and learn more about the conference, or the certificate program, or whatever else, everything is there for you in the show notes. But thank you for spending the time with us today, taking a walk down memory lane, and we cannot wait to see you at the end of the week at Art Ed NOW.

Art Ed Radio is produced by The Art of Education with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. As we said, check the show notes to register. If you have not, please hurry. We want to see you at Art Ed NOW, but time is running out. So click on those links, go register, and we will see you at the conference.