Joshua Graham, assistant professor in the University of Utah Department of Art & Art History, recently traveled to Turkey to present at The International Society for Education through Art World Congress 2023. 

The presentation followed a recent publication of Graham’s article “Strange Pedagogy: An artist-led educational model,” in inSEA’s official journal, the International Journal of Education Through Art. The cover image of this issue featured Graham working with students at the Great Salt Lake. 

Participating in this conference gave me a platform to present my work on community-engaged education methodologies that foreground a place-based approach to art teaching to an international audience 

“The International Society for Education Through Art (inSEA) World Congress is one of the world’s largest art education conferences and is held every two years at various locations around the world,” Graham said.

“This year it was held in Canakkale, Türkiye, a port city southwest of Istanbul where I was invited to present a current project titled, ‘Research through Artmaking on the Shore of the Great Salt Lake.’ The presentation highlighted a University of Utah public school collaboration that explores the culture of land use in Tooele County and its impact on the ecology of the Great Salt Lake.”

“In my role as Assistant Professor in Art Teaching, I create new knowledge, intervening in scholarly conversations on contemporary issues in art and education. Participating in this conference gave me a platform to present my work on community-engaged education methodologies that foreground a place-based approach to art teaching to an international audience. The four-day conference was both inspirational and intellectually enriching. Engaging with brilliant art education scholars in a beautiful coastal city halfway across the world was a truly wonderful experience.” 

inSEA also hosts a virtual art exhibition in conjunction with the conference, which featured Graham’s work, titled “Death by Landscape.”