Recognizing Greatness in Our Own Time

Abstract

Scrolling through YouTube recently, looking for new music to listen to and/or inspire me, I came across the band Papa Roach (2017) singing “We're not nameless, we're not faceless; we were born for greatness.” In the midst of so much global negativity, those lyrics really spoke to me and, consequently, loosely helped frame this introduction. With the vitriol that is so often flowing in the media today, I proffer that we take more time to talk about greatness: the greatness in nature; the greatness in innovation; the greatness in knowledge; the greatness in us; the greatness in those individuals around us who currently might be nameless or faceless, but perhaps should not be. There is a chance that they were born for greatness, and we just haven't taken a second to realize it. In that vein, Visual Arts Research (VAR) is taking the dedicated time to recognize several qualities of greatness from multiple authors discussing various topics. In fact, VAR is devoting this whole open issue to showcasing their greatness, or “the quality or state of being important, notable, or distinguished,” and also “the quality or state of being powerful or intense” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/greatness).The title of this piece is a bit of a double entendre, in that it can be read in two different ways, both appropriate to my intention. “Recognizing Greatness in Our Own Time” can be read as recognizing the greatness of individuals in our contemporary moment, or the current here and now of the year 2023, and not waiting to recognize people until long past their accomplishments. This is true. Visual Arts Research is recognizing greatness in authors who are currently producing notable works. Additionally, “Recognizing Greatness in Our Own Time” can also be read as recognizing the greatness of individuals in a slightly belated manner (e.g., a bit delayed; our own time) due to publishing decisions made in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In other words, because of several guest-edited special issues of VAR in a row, we did not have opportunity to reward the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award winners with their promised publication in the open issue of VAR in the year of their award. Recognizing them in our own time means that we are devoting most of this current issue to their works, along with the Eisner Award runners-up of the past 3 years, 2020–2022, as we finally have the opportunity to do so. While we are admittedly a bit late recognizing a few winners, an unforeseen advantage of having them all together in one issue is that their textual proximity illuminates the recent state of play of research in the field of art education in one place. However, because this issue of VAR also includes several other authors exhibiting greatness outside of the context of the Award, I will begin with short synopses of their papers and conclude with the five Eisner Award authors.At the beginning of this editorial, I included two related dictionary definitions of greatness. Here, I focus on those authors being powerful or intense in their works that are published within this issue. First, in “Black on Black on Black on Black: An Interview with Artist-Scholar Dr. Blair Ebony Smith,” I talk personally with one of my art education colleagues who recently helped curate and exhibit in a multi-sensory experience at the Krannert Art Museum on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from September 24, 2022, through December 10, 2022. “The collaborative exhibition . . . explore[d] Black identity, collectivity, positionality, healing, innovation, and education as explored via a multi-leveled/multi-dimensional immersive, critical, and openly reflective space” (Hetrick, 2023, p. 7). The greatness showcased in the four participating Black artists’ works was inspired by Black Quantum Futurism and exudes being Black, being artists, and being powerful. Through guided interview questions, Smith shares the intensive planning process, inspiration for her work of remembering, the choice and use of materials in her installation, and the overwhelming responses to the exhibit.Next, in “Pitfalls and Possibilities of Reciprocal Community Engagement: A Call to the Academy as a Platform for Activism,” Yoon-Ramirez shares that with predominant research practices and community service that reinscribe colonial relations and maintain the status quo, becoming a community-engaged scholar does not simply mean a scholar who works with or for communities. It entails a strong intention to subvert the hierarchical relationship between the academy and community, challenge the colonial politics of knowledge production, and to redefine the academy as a platform for social change and activism. (Yoon-Ramirez, 2023, p. 14)Yoon-Ramirez is unpacking the hierarchical power and intensity with which some academics approach their communities in the name of research whilst inadvertently re-inscribing colonial relations. She is calling on the academy to refocus its power and intensity toward actual social change for those in the community being researched.In “Collage as Epistemology: Construction—Deconstruction—Reconstruction,” Graham and Gussak explore the power and intensity of “collage as a cyclical epistemology for art therapy and arts-based research practice” (Graham & Gussak, 2023, p. 29). Furthermore, they conjecture that “together, deconstruction and collage suggest methods for arts-based research, propose a theoretical perspective for art therapy, and provide an ontology and epistemology to guide research, leading to meaning-making, potentiality, and a desirable ongoing state of impermanence” (Graham & Gussak, 2023, p. 29). As two art therapists, Graham and Gussak encourage readers to reconsider collage as more than just a mode of art making or creation, but also as a way of thinking and communicating. Immediately after their paper, this issue of VAR transitions to spotlighting the Eisner winners and runners-up, awarded from 2020–2022. While VAR has not previously awarded the runners-up with publishing invitations, as all of the current co-editors of VAR, Hetrick, Lucero, and Travis, were past winners or runners-up of this prestigious award, it was unanimously decided that the journal will highly consider these additional yearly invitations going forward.As mentioned in the introduction, I included two related dictionary definitions of “greatness.” Here, I turn the focus to those authors exhibiting greatness by being important, notable, or distinguished. Specifically, the distinguishing factor is being a recipient of the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award, as the winner or runner-up, for having the most important or notable dissertation in their respective year, as nominated by their doctoral advisor, and awarded by an outside committee. For those that may not know the specifics, “this award recognizes the value of doctoral research to the profession of art education and its related disciplines, advocates on behalf of such research, and fosters continued support of doctoral research in art education” (National Art Education Association, 2022, p. 2). As part of the reward package, Visual Arts Research offers an invitation to publish in the open issue that year. As I alluded to previously, due to pandemic publishing decisions, VAR is retroactively recognizing those authors whose years have already passed. This recognition is done in chronological order, starting with the winners1 of 2021 and 2022, then segueing into the runners-up of 2020, 2021, and 2022. As noted earlier, readers may want to consider the papers’ textual proximity as illuminating the recent state of play of research in the field of art education.In the article “‘If a Black Woman Had Done It’: The Beliefs and Attitudes of Black Women K–12 Art Educators’ Curricular Experiences,” 2021 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award winner Indira Bailey uses her own subjectivity and positionality as catalysts to [re]consider curriculum experiences in K–12 art education. In her own words: “Through a Black feminist perspective, I critically expose, analyze, and identify Black women K–12 art education curricular experiences. In their narratives, I reveal the reality of how race influences who writes the curriculum and who is the target audience of learners” (Bailey, 2023, p. 45).Next, in the article “Bringing Pieces of Myself Home to Myself,” 2022 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award winner Nicole Lee uses arts-based research to share a personal experience that impacted her life. She includes some of her resultant art works in the paper. In her own words: “This writing presents a methodological framework for advancing concepts through artmaking and philosophizing in tandem. Each movement encompasses an exploration of a concept, an accompanying art practice, an experience that emerges, and a resultant learning” (N. Y. S. Lee, 2023, p. 58).Going forward, in “Dispelling Myths: A Decolonial Framework to Engage Marginalized Histories,” 2020 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award Runner-Up Felix Rodriguez examines how the work of Paulo Freire and Chela Sandoval “can inform historical research in art education. Although a critical historical inquiry informed by these thinkers does not entail a prescriptive set of guidelines, the author identifies . . . five principles that can inform marginalized histories in art education” (Rodriguez, 2023, p. 73). Next, in “Art as Pedagogy: A Multiple Case Study of Participatory Socially Engaged Art,” 2021 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award runner-up Eunji Lee shares that the art works examined in this study serve as models of transdisciplinary art for learning and teaching social justice issues and civic engagement. Moreover, the results of this study encourage collaboration between artists and educators, as artists’ approaches diversify pedagogy and conversely, educators play a critical role in enhancing the learning experience of participants. (E. Lee, 2023, p. 88)And finally, in “More Than: Art Education and the Promise of Wholeness,” 2022 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award runner-up Jody Stokes-Casey proffers “that art education through its mobilization as more than offers a promise of wholeness. Oral history quotes from the research site, a community art center in the Mississippi Delta known as CARE, offer illustrative folds throughout the article” (Stokes-Casey, 2023, p. 107). To conclude, as I suggested at the beginning, in the current state of being surrounded by so much negativity, I encourage us to dwell on the greatness in us and the greatness in those individuals around us. While some of the authors may have been nameless or faceless to you before reading this issue of VAR, they are no longer so. In the pages that follow, they will show readers that they were born for greatness, and now we have the chance to realize it.