SICA 2024

Sustaining Practice, Sustaining Ourselves:  

Health, Wellness, and Resilience through Art 

August 7-9, 2024 

 

The Pennsylvania State University | School of Visual Arts (link)

Palmer Museum of Art (link)

 

 

The 2024 Summer Institute on Contemporary Art (SICA) is a professional development institute at Penn State dedicated to sustainability and a philosophical and moral call to social action through artistic practice. Our efforts follow the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, increase the call for social action in response to environmental and human rights concerns, and amplify the Land Grant origins of Penn State through the arts. 

Our 2024 focus considers how visual art and artmaking practices inform UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. We will explore through seminars and studio practice advancements in arts in health, visual storytelling, and care. Exploration pathways will consider impacts to curriculum and classroom practice and cultivating resilience through art making.  

SICA programming will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions hosted at the Palmer Museum of Art at The Arboretum. Morning sessions are informed by readings, discussions, presentations by visiting scholars, and Penn State’s Palmer Museum of Art collection and grounds. Afternoon sessions will be open studio time. 

Act 48 credits are available. Preregistration is required. To register and for more information, please contact Aaron Knochel at adk176@psu.edu.

 

SICA Leadership Team

Dr. Aaron Knochel (SICA Director and Associate Professor of Art Education, Penn State School of Visual Art)

Brandi Breslin (Director of Education, Palmer Museum of Art)

Dr. B. Stephen Carpenter, II (SICA Co-Founder, Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean, College of Arts and Architecture, Professor of Art Education and African American Studies)

Lead Facilitators

Dr. Ann Holt (Assistant Professor of Art Education, Penn State School of Visual Art)

Fouz Aljameel ( Dual-Title PhD Candidate in Art Education and Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design)

 

SICA is possible thanks to the generous financial gifts from the Brown Family, Harold & Susan Quinque, Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art, and the The Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Endowed Dean’s Chair in the College of Arts and Architecture.