AAA Teaching Labs, an ongoing partnership with Hong Kong schools and teachers, is an annual professional development series designed to help teachers build a supportive professional learning community to address the challenges they face in teaching contemporary art and introducing it in the classroom.

Teacher Workshops

This year, Teaching Labs' workshops will focus on art writing, a growing concern for art teachers. Art writing has become a critical component of the Senior Secondary School Visual Arts curriculum, both in the Research Workbook of the school-based assessment and the Art Appreciation and Criticism session in the examination, as a result, teachers are finding it challenging to facilitate lessons for students with different writing abilities. Teaching Labs workshops will help teachers develop strategies for improving teaching and learning about art writing in the classroom. To strengthen participants’ teaching implementation and confidence, workshops will also incorporate in-depth peer group discussions moderated by experienced educators.

Hong Kong Conversations 2014

In addition to more focused professional development tools, Teaching Labs aim to provide a platform for teachers to enhance their knowledge of contemporary art by offering resource materials and networks to encourage the development of multiple perspectives in understanding and teaching art. Preceding each workshop, a series of talks entitled Hong Kong Conversations will frame the field of art writing in the broader context of Hong Kong’s art ecology. Invited artists, writers, and scholars will explore how art writing embeds itself into multiple platforms, generates propositions, and circulates among different audiences.

 

Session 1

Sat, 26 Apr | 11am–1pm

Hong Kong Conversations:

Constructive Contention - Hot Spots in Hong Kong Art Criticism

Constructive Contention: Hot Spots in Hong Kong Art Criticism

Written critiques and reviews provide more than just descriptive and evaluative components for artworks and art events; they expand the domain of art, and become a means of connecting it to wider audiences. In this talk, art writers from different backgrounds and generations will come together to share their experiences and discuss changes in the environment, audience, and methods that Hong Kong art writers have faced from the 1970s to today.

Panel Chair

Tang Siu Wa, poet, writer, and cultural critic

Speakers

Oscar Ho, art critic and educator
Mui Chong Kee, art writer and artist
G Yeung, journalist and Curator of the Culture Section of House News

Written response

Chan Sai Lok, Columnist of City Magazine

2–6pm | Teacher Workshop: Decoding Art Writing

Teacher Workshop: Decoding Art Writing (Part 1 of 2)
Teacher Workshop: Decoding Art Writing (Part 2 of 2)

This workshop will incorporate various exercises and techniques that will help teachers to explore and break down art writing into different components. Participants will learn to recognise and teach effective skills that students can use to express their ideas and reflect on artworks.

Facilitator

Tang Siu Wa, poet, writer, and cultural critic


Session 2

Sat, 7 Jun | 11am–1pm

Hong Kong Conversations:

Diminishing Gaps? Public (Art) Museums in Hong Kong

Diminishing Gaps? Public (Art) Museums in Hong Kong

Museums build stories around the works they collect and share these stores with multiple art audiences through their exhibitions and programmes. Museums are thus sources for producing content and framing the main subjects of art writing. This talk examines the case of the Hong Kong Museum of Art (founded in 1962 as the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery) as the primary public institution dedicated to the development of art in Hong Kong, and asks how the establishment of newer museums such as the Heritage Museum (founded in 2000), and more recently, M+ (to be open by 2017), enrich and complicate the landscape for art museums in Hong Kong.

Panel Chair

Eva Man Kit-wah, Professor in the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University

Speakers

Louis Ho, Leader of Cultural Studies and Communication Programme, Community College, Lingnan University
Tina Pang, Curator (Hong Kong Art and Culture), M+, Hong Kong’s new museum for visual culture

2–6pm | Teacher Workshop: Classroom Implementation*

Teachers will participate in in-depth peer group discussions, led by experienced art educators, to equip them with tools to develop and improve lesson plans.

Facilitators

Florie Tse, Visual Arts Teacher, Jockey Club Ti-I College
Peggy Kwan, Visual Arts Teacher, Tang Shiu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School

 

Session 3

Sat, 28 June | 11am–1pm

Hong Kong Conversations:

‘Mona Lisa’ at Home: The Roles of Parents in the Art Ecology

‘Mona Lisa’ at Home: The Roles of Parents in the Art Ecology

The family home can be the birthplace of an interest in art, but in Hong Kong, many families find art to be distant and mysterious, and rely on outside sources, both formal and informal, to teach their children about art. This can have the unfortunate effect of segregating the experience of art from daily life and family. And while there has been an increase in the number of supporting platforms and media’s interest in contemporary art, the enhanced presence of art in the city is not reflected in changes of attitude at home. Is it possible to domesticate the studying, creating, and appreciation of art? How can our homes be homes for art, existing within the wider cultural framework?

Panel Chair

May Fung, artist and former Deputy Supervisor, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity

Speakers

Lam Tung Pang, artist and art educator
Ricky Yeung Sau Cheuk, artist and art educator
Justin Wong, column artist

2–6pm | Teacher Workshop: Classroom Implementation & Participant Presentations*
Experienced art educators will share their knowledge and experiences, and offer participants constructive feedback on their lesson plan presentations.

Facilitators

Florie Tse, Visual Arts Teacher, Jockey Club Ti-I College
Peggy Kwan, Visual Arts Teacher, Tang Shiu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School

Respondent

Oscar Ho, art critic and educator

 

Eligibility

In order to bring together an energetic, engaging, and diversified peer-support group, the Teaching Labs programme is looking for teachers who are passionate and interested in learning about Hong Kong’s cultural ecology, visual arts, and art writing and who are ready to be involved in an engaging and participatory series of workshops. No prior knowledge of art history is required.

Due to limited capacity, priority will be given to applicants who can participate in all sessions. A certificate will be given to those with full attendance. To apply, please fill out this application form and email it to learn@aaa.org.hk or fax it to +852 2815 0032. Successful applicants will be contacted individually before 15 April.

 

For more information, please contact:
Chloe Ting, Learning & Participation Coordinator
Tel: +852 2815 1112
Email: learn@aaa.org.hk 

*These Teachers Workshop sessions are presented in collaboration with the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence Teacher's Association.

AAA 2014 Learning & Participation programmes are supported by The S. H. Ho Foundation Limited

Relevant content

Shortlist | The Dispute Over Art Criticism
Shortlist | The Dispute Over Art Criticism: Politics, Public Affairs, and the Search for Identity (Hong Kong)
LIKE A FEVER | Essays

Shortlist | The Dispute Over Art Criticism: Politics, Public Affairs, and the Search for Identity (Hong Kong)

Recommended readings on the politics of art writing and criticism in Hong Kong since the 1970s

HongKongConversation_2014_list
Hong Kong Conversations 2014
Programmes | Hong Kong Conversations

Hong Kong Conversations 2014

Sat, 26 Apr, 7 Jun, and 28 Jun 2014