2009-2010 Grant Proposals

Adam Lampton
Participation in 2010 "Fotofest" conference
Pedagogy Travel Grant

Project Proposal: The "Pedagogy Travel Grant" would help me travel to and participate in a large educational and professional conference of photographic artists. "Fotofest" is a well-established international conference, symposium and portfolio-review in Houston Texas. It is a huge event that runs workshop and talks for educators (see notes for an example of some offered this year) a biennial exhibition of photography, and portfolio reviews where curators, educators, and colleagues give you feedback on your professional work.

I would travel to the conference for four days (March 12-15th) during Stonehill's Spring Break. I would be participating in the portfolio review, talks and workshops. The portfolio review is a chance for my personal work to be seen by museum curators, gallerists, and publishers which would be beneficial to my own career as an artist- and therefore an art teacher (one who claims to do what he teaches). I have participated in portfolio reviews at other similar conferences and always found them invaluable, not just as a way of understanding my own work, but as a way to make professional contacts and further my career as an artist.

Further, the workshops and talks would address specific curricular and technological issues that are part of teaching photography. For example, a workshop on digital and print media technologies would allow me to bring those skills back to Stonehill where we are just moving toward a new digital capability in the department. The challenge of the transition (besides funding) is how to make a curricular jump in the understanding of the medium.

How does one go from teaching in the darkroom to on a computer and how does that fill the needs of the department's larger curricular goals? These questions need to be addressed quickly (because there will be no option other than digital soon). The conference will be full of educators and institutions all wrestling with this question. As the sole photography teacher this fall I feel the responsibility rests with me to attempt to find directions forward. I think it would be useful to share what I learned at the conference- see how other schools modeled this transition and then actually involve the department in a discussion via a slideshow during one of our meetings. I would also write an article on "the current state of photographic education" on the "Class Notes" blog. I hope bringing awareness to the larger Stonehill community would allow us to gain traction in our effort to substantially change the photographic capabilities at the College.

**Some workshops and talks offered this year include:
Multi-media Storytelling - Narrative and Conceptual Art" ; "Two symposia looking at curatorial practices today. Panelists for the symposia are nationally known museum and online curators, collectors and commercial gallery owners."

Budget: 

$820- conference registration (this includes workshop and portfolio review fees
which are all bundled together- you can't pay for one and not the other)
$320- coach plane ticket to Houston
$200-car rental
$200-food, travel exp.
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total $1540