Olivia Gude
Olivia Gude is an artist and educator who has created many award-winning collaborative mural and mosaic projects exploring themes of community, nature, anti-racism, and justice. She is the author of the Americans for the Arts white paper “Intertwining Practices of Public Art and Art Education.” Gude is the Angela Gregory Paterakis Professor of Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as Professor Emerita of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her educational research and writing combine reimagining the underlying structures and assumptions of art education curriculum with examples of art projects generated in innovative art and culture programs, including UIC’s Spiral Workshop (1995-2012). Her influential articles include Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Century Art Education, Principles of Possibility, Art Education for Democratic Life, and the 2014 National Art Education Association’s Manuel Barkan “article of the year” New School Art Styles: the Project of Art Education.
A NAEA Distinguished Fellow and recipient of the Viktor Lowenfeld Award for significant contributions to the field of art education, Gude gives presentations and workshops on contemporary art education and community arts practices in museums, universities, school districts, and art education conferences in the U.S. as well as in Canada, Denmark, Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore. In recent years, Gude has united her work as a community artist and as an art educator by creating participatory spaces in which teachers question, investigate and re-invent social practices of art education, including organizing Skeptical Assessment Society events at Art Educators of Iowa, Missouri Art Education Association, New York State Art Teachers Association, and NAEA conferences.