TAC Teaching Bio 2016
Katy DeMent has been a teaching artist for over 30 years. She worked for Woodruff Arts Center / Young Audiences of Atlanta for 15 years while traveling the east coast presenting her handmade paper artworks at hundreds of outdoor art festivals. She holds many awards for this body of work.
Relocating to Pittsburgh in 2011, she infiltrated the K-12 Artist-in-Residence programs through Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and Gateway to the Arts. DeMent’s residencies bring hands-on STEAM-centered programming with hand papermaking as a means to an end. She leads professional development courses through Savanna Collage of Art and IUP. In addition to the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, where she develops sustainable environmental art related programs and outreach. She also works with adult and special populations through Society of Contemporary Craft, and Creative Citizen Studio. In her spare time she is a gardener and bee keeper.
Student Work
University of the Arts Capstone Residency
#1 Goals
Students will be able to construct a Map of the Earth that demonstrates their knowledge of geographic tools and how they are used to organize and interpret information about people and their environment. Skills students learned in recycled papermaking will be transferred into first-hand experiences with water cycles, the transformation from liquids to solids, as well as paper’s role in the history of communication. Each class will conduct scientific investigations using artifacts and technology, partaking in guided research in support of 3rd grade World Geography and Ecology standards.
3rd Grade’s collaborative efforts will culminate in the creation of an Illustrated World Map, 4’× 8’, crafted from paper that students will have hand made using recycled paper collected from their school. This large art work will be permanently displayed in a prominent location at the school. Handmade paper surfaces will be embellished with graphic illustrations in a variety of media to define young cartographers’ explorations of the physical world, including land cover, political borders, cultural and physical landmarks. Student’s collaborative illustrations will be accompanied by age-appropriate writing at presentation that describes their world research. Personal research journals along with photography and classroom display will artistically document students experiences, describing their research and scientific exploration.
