Liz Trosper, new media painter and assistant professor of instruction at The University of Texas at Dallas, joined the Nasher Sculpture Center in leading a workshop for middle and high school art educators.
Trosper, who teaches digital media practice and video at the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at UT Dallas, taught a class on video experimentation to more than two dozen teachers at the Nasher Sculpture Center on June 13.
The three-hour class was part of the 2024 Museum Forum for Teachers, a weeklong summer program presented by The Warehouse, Kimbell Art Museum, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Nasher Sculpture Center, and Dallas Museum of Art.
The program aims to connect educators with thematic explorations of collections, resources, and staff of each museum. Running from June 10 through June 14, this immersive summer program was designed to help teachers develop strategies to interpret and use works of art through group discussions and creative activities.
“The Nasher is such an inspiring place to be, so the opportunity to work with the teachers in the Sarah Sze exhibition was wonderful,” Trosper said. “Having the chance to support the teachers in trying new things and experimenting with technologies was important to me as well, and I think they came away with new skills.”
At the Bass School, Trosper specializes in teaching mixed media – the creation of artworks developed by combining different media or materials, such as painting, collage, assemblage, and recycling, often employing a wide range of tools and techniques, incorporating oil and acrylic paints, pastels, ink washes, markers, as well as photographs, video projections, and augmented reality to enhance their creations.
During the workshop, Trosper provided an informative session on cinematography and video editing, offering valuable insights into the art and technique behind creating compelling visual stories. After the lecture, she read a poem that served as a thematic foundation, guiding the educators in their creative endeavors.
“At the Nasher, we strive to create opportunities for educators to engage in rich dialogue about modern and contemporary art and connect with artists like Liz Trosper who can deepen that engagement through project-based learning,” said Anna Smith, curator of education at the Nasher Sculpture Center. “Through Museum Forum for Teachers, we work with our partner institutions to highlight the wealth of cultural resources here in North Texas.”
Following the reading, the teachers ventured into filming with their smartphones. The subsequent editing session, conducted on their laptops, allowed them to refine their footage and craft cohesive video pieces that reflected the poem’s themes.
About the Bass School
The Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at The University of Texas at Dallas is a community of artists and scholars committed to courageous creativity and disruptive discovery. The Bass School offers academic programs in animation and games, communication studies, critical media studies, emerging media arts, history and philosophy, humanities, Latin American studies, literature and languages, and visual and performing arts. This commitment is a continuation of the tradition for which The University of Texas at Dallas, a Carnegie R1 Doctoral Institution, is known, and it is what sets the Bass School apart.
About the Nasher Sculpture Center
Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world, featuring more than 500 masterpieces by Brancusi, Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Basquiat, Hepworth, LeWitt, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, Serra, and Shapiro, among others. The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for children 12 and under and members, and includes access to special exhibitions. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
###