ASU ArtSpace is a transdiciplinary arts and design afterschool serving the Phoenix area and establishing a new model of arts educational experience aiming to ensure that its students are self-confident, successful in school and proactive in making a positive impact in their community. ArtSpace was launched in Fall 2008 by a partnership between the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture and the Arizona Department of Education. The ASU ArtSpace program places graduate students from all Schools within the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at eligible schools to provide transdiciplinary programming focused upon their disciplines and thesis. The graduate students design their own transdisciplinary curriculum in teams of two based upon a global theme such as Time, Place, Communication or Storytelling under the guidance of Melissa McGurgan, the ArtSpace Program Coordinator.
ArtSpace classrooms are treated as creative spaces where students are exposed to a multitude of artforms, skills and collaborative processes and the graduate student instructors are able to test and develop experimental teaching methods, techniques and learning processes incorporating art, design and technology. The pilot semester of ASU ArtSpace took place in Fall 2008 and is now serving 12 schools during the 2009-2010 school year. The ASU ArtSpace program exemplifies the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s charge for universities to form partnerships with local school districts and create a new generation of teachers while establishing ASU as an accessible educational entity which embraces new thinking and approaches to art and design to hundreds of children, families, educators and communities throughout the Valley.
