The Fine Art of Applied Learning
Written by Karl Hennen
Andrew Grabar is a 2014 - 2015 ALEX 'Applied Learning Experiences Excellence in Teaching Award' winner. This article provides insights into the efforts he takes to provide real world learning experiences for his students.
With diverse courses mirroring life’s palette of colors, UH Hilo Art Professor Andrew Grabar facilitates applied learning via his students’ creative self-expressions. A New York City native and son of a graphic artist, Grabar followed a similar track pursuing careers which reflected equal parts ambition, imagination, and opportunities to grow. Encouraging pupils towards success, Grabar has utilized various forms of applied learning and demonstrated how identity significantly factors into art. His grateful students bear testimony to supported catharsis reaching even greater heights to eye-opening results.
Andrew Grabar, Professor of Art
Born in New York, Grabar left home to obtain a Bachelor's of Fine Arts Painting degree from Carnegie-Melon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He later acquired a Master’s in the same field while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Grabar was inspired by mentoring Professors Murray Turnbull, Emeritus, and Lee Chesney, Emeritus, both instructors at University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Understanding art’s power when married with real-life experiences, Grabar began his career at UH Hilo in 1997. He became a full professor thirteen years later. Throughout his work, Grabar aims to connect every student-artist to what is as equally important as their art materials— their hearts, minds, and souls applied to the canvas of the outside world.
The courses Grabar offers are no less varied than mediums of expression at their disposal. One example is his Cyanotype class, Art 317, concentrating on an early nineteenth century light-sensitive photographic process employed in print-making. It’s the kind of class that is engaging, fun, and hands-on. Although Art 317 is not without challenges - it is, after all, attempting to replicate a centuries-old process - students enrolled benefit from the exposure to such experimental learning. They learn about something so radically new, it might seem out of this world. Perhaps, more importantly, they learn about themselves.
In another class, Papermaking (Art 394), pupils learn the processes behind creating handmade paper, including preparing pulp and coloring, sizing, and watermarking materials. Grabar has classrooms investigate not only more contemporary approaches to the art but cultural applications as well. Exemplifying pedagogy utilizing applied learning, students consider Eastern and Western styles alongside their backgrounds in making paper which personally resonates with them. A series of notebooks, furthermore, using materials produced by the students’ own hands, highlight the frequently participatory nature of their learning.
Notebooks created by Grabar's students.
For his Directed Studies course, Grabar’s upper division students directly propose topics in an advanced, independent study or apply to the studio. The unrestricted nature of their Directed Studies yields applied learning experiences which are tailored for a pupil’s artistic personality.
“I advocate all styles of learning; the learner determines the best method(s),” Grabar writes, on his teaching philosophy behind all of his courses. “This open-ended attitude encourages everyone to learn new knowledge in the way that suits him or her best.” He cites two notable examples from his Directed Studies.
One student, Kaimi Keohokalole, utilized papermaking to fashion a children’s book. It contained paintings on paper composed of native Hawaiian plants, reflecting Keohokalole’s unique channeling of his artistic choices. Keohokalole’s narrative, furthermore, is set during old Hawai’i during the period of King Kamehameha the Great. Keohokalole has posited the project enabled him “to feel the experience of conceptualizing, executing, and bringing to fruition an original product that is distinctly Hawaiian and potentially an inspiration to the keiki who are an important part of our community.”
Another pupil of Grabar’s, Kana Inoue, integrated Hawaiian ethno-botany, papermaking, and screen/relief printmaking for a contemporary piece embodying her Japanese heritage. In addition, Inoue is using applied learning to make her own materials. With Grabar her semester’s goals include the handmade production of envelopes and the design and fabrication of a light shade.
Even students who have not yet taken a Directed Studies course with Grabar have enjoyed applied learning experiences. They may be participating alongside the Student Art Association during the UH Hilo/HawCC Earth Fair to educate the public about papermaking through demonstrations and lectures. Doing so allows UH Hilo art students a chance at real-life opportunities to use their knowledge outside of classrooms.
Art students assist community members in paper making at the 2014 UH Hilo/HawCC Earth Fair
“These courses and experiences provide undergraduates the opportunity to apply their knowledge in their careers and entrepreneurial aspirations beyond college,” describes Grabar. He elaborates where he wishes to see his students go, regardless of how they may employ his direct, experimental, and hands-on classes. “Hopefully in whatever path they choose in life, students will choose to enhance their opportunities and interactions with art.”
Successful alumni from Grabar include Joe Laceby who graduated from UH Hilo with a Baccalaureate degree in Art. Laceby learned how to master cyanotype with Grabar’s support; he also attributes his ability to maintain a youthfully creative vision through his training under Grabar. Laceby was the recipient of the Acquisition (purchase) Award by the Hawaii State Foundation Culture and Arts in 2012. An Honorable Mention and First Place Enthusiast award winner via the Hawaii Photo Expo for 2010 and 2009, respectively, Laceby has had works eatured in the Volcano Art Center Gallery and Waiamea’s Firehouse Gallery earlier this year.
There are many individuals, however, who already see the value in what Grabar has offered to men and women attending UH Hilo.
“Professor Andrew Grabar helps UH Hilo Art Department students to walk the professional walk through rigorous training in esoteric media: Cyanotype and Paper Making,” explains Art department chair Micheal Marshall in a written testimony for Grabar. “For many years these specialized courses have inspired excellent undergraduate research that provides a solid foundation for career and entrepreneurial aspirations to take root in real life– beyond college.”
Drawing on customized applied learning experiences to guide UH Hilo students towards individualistic creations, Professor Grabar has facilitated their acquisition of artistic, community-relevant, and professional skills. Whatever future pupils envision, it will be a success they design. Art employs human imagination and hands to decorate, fabricate, paint, photograph, mold, sketch and more. Professor Grabar’s applied learning testifies such dreams of students are surely within their grasp.
