Arts Learning Lab (ALL)

What is ALL and why and how should we include them as a research “arm” (call Mary Ann for more details).

ALL Mission (from website)

UNM’s College of Fine Arts exists in a unique crucible of time, place, and culture. We encompass twenty-two federally recognized Pueblos, Tribes, and Nations; the history of the Camino Real; a vibrant contemporary arts scene; and national centers of innovation for science, defense, and energy. In this fertile environment, along with UNM’s designation as a Carnegie Very High Research institution, our high Hispanic enrollment (33%) and one of the highest percentages of Native American students in the nation (12%), we are uniquely situated to explore a new pedagogy for the arts that is innovative, culturally-inclusive, and of the highest artistic merit.

The College of Fine Arts embraces and reflects the multiple contexts in which we live. Over the past two years, we have been engaged in a deep and rigorous discussion about what an arts education really means – what it should include, how it influences our students, how our unique communities influence us, and how we can influence the world into which our students graduate.

The result of this introspection is the creation of the Arts Learning Laboratory (ALL) – a new model for arts education that breaks down traditional academic structures and invites the outside world into the College of Fine Arts to engage in a powerful collaborative learning model and a far-reaching redefinition of arts pedagogy.

This new model will:

• Research, develop and implement an innovative curriculum incorporating a diverse set of geographic, disciplinary, racial, and cultural perspectives. One of the key objectives of the curriculum will be the incorporation of a range of voices through community- and project-based educational experience.

• Train Arts graduates to make productive contributions to contemporary economic and cultural life through a combination of rigorous arts skills, sensitivity to diverse perspectives and fluency in interdisciplinary discourse.

• Institute a curriculum that provides a project-based educational experience that immerses students in discovery learning in varied cultural and economic communities.

• Increase the cultural diversity of the University of New Mexico through direct engagement with professional artists, scholars and communities from a range backgrounds locally, nationally and internationally.

• Expand the environmental component of arts pedagogy by collaborating with colleagues in the sciences to place students in direct contact with a wide range of local, national and international ecosystems and to explore the notion of “place” as a concept for exploration and learning.

Questions about ALL:  How is information/research distributed/disseminated?

How can we help them re-communicate what ALL is?