As an assistant professor in FSU’s Department of Art Education, Sara Scott Shields prepares art teachers for careers in public and private schools. When she learned that her students would have to meet a new requirement to earn their teaching certificates, she responded the way any good art educator would: with a creative solution.

Shields and her students worked to develop a framework and curriculum for the Art for Social Justice Interdisciplinary Summer Camp and invited middle and high school-age children to attend. The FSU students took the lead on the design of the camp and the actual instruction, which gave them classroom experience with kids in a low-pressure setting.

In its inaugural year, this two-week camp allowed participants to explore the intrinsic value of art and its importance as a catalyst for change. “Historically, the arts have been a way to give voice to issues that maybe words don’t have the body for,” Shields said.

Much of the content for the camp was developed in collaboration with Debi Barrett-Hayes, a veteran art educator at Florida State University’s K-12 Charter Research School. She has taught art at a K-12 level for 35 years and is acclaimed for her work in the classroom. She explained that “kids spent the first week of camp looking inward. They made their own journals and they had prompts every day to think about and write about.”

These included questions about identity, causes campers care about, and how they might make a difference.

FSU student Logan Pattyson was surprised by how conscious the campers were of the challenges our communities face. “I thought we’d have to feed them social issues but they know what they’re passionate about. They’ve been very open and compassionate and they want awareness to be spread.”

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