{"id":105072,"date":"2023-08-12T23:46:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-13T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=105072"},"modified":"2023-11-16T18:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T23:00:59","slug":"art-matters","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/magazine\/articles\/2023\/art-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin magazine-block-editorial-leadin is-style-emphasis-on-text has-media has-box has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2118\" height=\"2560\" src=\"\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-scaled.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-scaled.jpg 2118w, https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-526x636.jpg 526w, https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-847x1024.jpg 847w, https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-768x928.jpg 768w, https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-1271x1536.jpg 1271w, https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-1695x2048.jpg 1695w, https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2023\/10\/Panchal_art-matters-828x1000.jpg 828w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2118px) 100vw, 2118px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\"><br><em>Photo of Panchal by Nirav Karelia<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">CFA Alumni<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArt Matters\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Abhishek Panchal works to elevate the arts\u00a0in India\u2019s school curricula<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar magazine-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">August 12, 2023<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/bu-author\/corinne-steinbrenner\/\">Corinne Steinbrenner<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph magazine-block-editorial-introparagraph is-style-dropcap-dimensional has-dropcap has-dropcap-color-tertiary\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph-content\"><p>From Boston to Bangalore, school art teachers share many of the same frustrations: class times are too short, budgets are too low, their work is seen as extracurricular rather than core. What these art educators need, says Abhishek Panchal, are school leaders who understand their challenges\u2014and value the arts enough to address them.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Panchal (\u201921) is on his way to becoming such a leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/gatewayschoolmumbai.org\/\">Gateway School of Mumbai<\/a> as a visual arts teacher in 2016. Three years later, after enrolling in CFA\u2019s Online Master of Arts in Art Education Program, he was promoted to arts program coordinator, overseeing Gateway\u2019s programs in visual art, music, and drama. Earlier this year, Panchal became Gateway\u2019s vice principal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI see myself leading a school in the near future,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that\u2019s next in my trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded in 2012, Gateway is a nonprofit school for children with disabilities. It offers lower, middle, and high school programs and serves about 120 students with a range of disabilities, from attention deficit disorder and dyslexia to cerebral palsy and autism. When Panchal became Gateway\u2019s arts program coordinator, he aimed to elevate the arts at the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of my goals was to bring the arts from extracurricular to cocurricular,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, if you see the vocabulary we use in our communication\u2014maybe on the website, maybe while talking to our external stakeholders\u2014the arts and physical education are \u2018cocurricular.\u2019 They support the main curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As vice principal, Panchal has a higher platform from which to advocate for the arts at Gateway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you come in with research, if you come in with the right amount of data,\u201d he says, \u201cyou\u2019re able to convince stakeholders\u2014may it be donors, may it be parents\u2014of the reasons why a child should participate in an art education program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Panchal has power beyond the walls of his own school. Gateway is an education leader in India and considers itself a \u201clab school\u201d\u2014it develops best practices and then shares them with other educators through publishing and professional development programs. When he speaks at conferences and forums, Panchal can promote Gateway\u2019s view that art is critical to the holistic development of a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote magazine-block-bu-pullquote has-image-focus-center-middle has-tertiary-theme\"><div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\"><figure><\/figure><blockquote><div class=\"container-lockup\"><div class=\"container-icon-outer\"><div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"container-text\"><hr\/><div class=\"quote-sizing\">One of my goals was to bring the arts from extracurricular to cocurricular.<\/div><footer class=\"caption\"><br\/>Abhishek Panchal<\/footer><hr\/><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Panchal gave up some teaching responsibilities when he became vice principal, but he continues to teach art and design to Gateway\u2019s high schoolers. He also maintains a personal artistic practice in a small home studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI hold a very strong opinion that art teachers should continue making their own art,\u201d he says. \u201cWhenever I\u2019m introducing my students to a new form or new media, I often experiment with that in my own practice. It helps me understand the potential breakdowns my students might have in access, and it helps me to think about scaffolds or modifications that they might require to access that particular media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Panchal wrote his CFA master\u2019s thesis on integrating Indigenous Indian art forms into middle school curricula. He and his students have explored art traditions such as Warli painting, an ancient form of mural painting using white pigment made from rice flour and basic geometric shapes to symbolize elements of nature.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Panchal hopes to earn a doctoral degree one day and pursue a role in education policy and administration. Would that mean leaving his art behind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a common misconception that being an artist is about what you do in the studio,\u201d says Panchal. But artists aren\u2019t defined by what they create, he says, so much as by how they see the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end-of-article\">\u201cI always tell my students, you\u2019re not artists because you come here and sit in the art studio and make art. You\u2019re artists because you\u2019re thinking, you\u2019re observing, you\u2019re making connections.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Panchal (\u201921) is on his way to becoming such a leader. He joined the Gateway School of Mumbai as a visual arts teacher in 2016. Three years later, after enrolling in CFA\u2019s Online Master of Arts in Art Education Program, he was promoted to arts program coordinator, overseeing Gateway\u2019s programs in visual art, music, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6310,"featured_media":105077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[191],"magazine-article-category":[372,379],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[397],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/105072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105072"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/105072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105756,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/105072\/revisions\/105756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=105072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}