More than 150 educators and art education students from across the state will work together to rethink ways to reuse junk as Columbus State University’s Department of Art hosts the 2015 Georgia Art Education Association Professional Learning Fall Conference this week in downtown Columbus.
 
Titled “Rethunk Junk,” the conference runs Thursday, Oct. 29, through Sunday, Nov. 1, and will address issues of sustainability and the use of recycled, reused and readapted material in the development of creative projects at the Columbus Georgia Convention & Trade Center and CSU’s Corn Center for the Visual Arts.  

“GAEA continues to provide a tremendous level of support to the art teachers throughout the state,” said Bret Lefler, CSU art education program coordinator and the 2013 GAEA Higher Ed Division Teacher of the Year, who is helping to organize this year’s conference. “CSU’s Department of Art is honored to have been selected by GAEA to host their annual fall conference. We look forward to showing off Columbus and working with GAEA on an outstanding conference.”
 
The conference also will feature workshops, panel presentations, demonstrations, vendor displays, an artist market, and a juried members’ exhibition in the Corn Center’s Illges Gallery open to the public.

GAEA is a professional organization affiliated with the National Art Education Association, the largest organization devoted to Art Education programs ranging from K-12 to higher education.

Participants also will receive the opportunity to visit the Columbus Museum and Pasaquan, an environmental art site based in Buena Vista and currently undergoing restoration by the Kohler Foundation.

In addition, the conference’s keynote speakers, Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang, will introduce participants to their “eco artwork.” The artists are known for their projects involving the collection of plastic detritus washed up on 1,000 yards of Kehoe Beach on the Point Reyes National Seashore.