Cohorts Continue to Empower Arts Educators Across Minnesota

February 21, 2025

This month, three cohorts returned to Perpich Center to further their practices in Visual Arts or Media Arts. Jeremy Holien, Visual & Media Arts Education Specialist at Perpich Center, described the experiences, saying that “these cohorts serve as collaborative learning spaces where teachers—regardless of their training background—can develop strategies, refine their artistic practices, and explore innovative teaching methodologies.”

Elementary Art cohort participant

The Elementary Art cohort includes both elementary art specialists and classroom teachers. In the most recent session, educators engaged in hands-on exploration with texture Books, architectural STEAM-based printmaking, and spatial drawing approaches, all tied to concepts that foster creative thinking and deepen development of conceptual understandings. One teacher commented how she is taking away new ideas for building more authentic art lessons. She emphasized that this would not have been possible without the cohort and the group efficacy that is emerging as educators grow and support each other.

For many educators in the Media Arts Level 1 cohort, this year marks the first time their schools have offered a media arts course. This month, these teachers, from elementary through high school classrooms, worked in the areas of animation, digital storytelling structures, and assessment practices. They used cut paper, claymation, and cel animation to explore how to transfer traditional art concepts into digital and moving-image formats. They also analyzed case studies of animators, including those from Minnesota’s Indigenous communities, to develop more ways to make media arts culturally responsive and engaging.

Media Arts cohort participants

Participants in the Media Arts Level 2 cohort have expanded their practice through hands-on exploration with experimental video, nonlinear editing, and short-form storytelling. This month, they explored techniques such as glitch art, time manipulation, and self-portraiture in digital media, focusing on how media arts can shape and disrupt personal and collective narratives. In the next session, teachers will continue to refine the new units they are constructing and layer in additional steps in cinema and animation. This growing network of educators is laying the groundwork for sustainable, impactful media arts programming in schools across the state.

The visual and media arts cohorts are facilitated by Jeremy Holien, Visual and Media Arts Education Specialist at Perpich Center. Holien leads standards implementation, professional development, best-practice in curriculum and assessment strategies, arts teacher evaluation processes, and arts program development. He is responsible for professional learning, networks, and innovative initiatives in visual and media arts education. He regularly consults with school teacher and administrative teams, and works with post-secondary teacher preparation programs. Holien is a co-author of the National Core Arts Standards in Media Arts and co-author of both the 2018 & 2008 Minnesota Academic Standards in the Arts. He draws on his K-12 visual and media arts experience in the US while presenting at local, regional, national, and international conferences on topics that include: the cognitive value of arts education, artistic literacies, technology integration, curriculum/assessment, arts leadership, and professional learning. Holien is an esteemed visual and media artist and has been recognized for his arts education leadership with the 2015 Art Educators of Minnesota Distinguished Service Within the Profession Award, 2015 PBS Digital Innovator Award, and the 2006 TIES Exceptional Teacher Award. He has studied both visual and media arts at Minnesota State University Moorhead and Bemidji State University. He is a 2015 graduate of the School of Arts Leaders with the National Art Education Association. Holien served as the Director for the National Art Education Association’s Supervision and Administration Division from 2021-2023.