By Melody Weintraub
I recently attended the NAEA Southeastern Region Leadership Conference in Richmond, Virginia (June 23-26, 2021) led and coordinated by our current NAEA Southeastern Region Vice-President Catherine Campbell and Vice-President-Elect, Cheryl Maney. It was sponsored by the Virginia Art Education Association (VAEA), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), NAEA, Blick Art Materials, NASCO and Davis Publications. There were around 30 state leaders from all across the southeast who also attended. The focus of the conference was “Cultural Competence.” Our keynote was NAEA President-Elect, Wanda Knight, who shared the updated NAEA Strategic Vision and Goals for ED&I. She also highlighted elements of her research on Racial Inequities and explained in simple terms how we can better understand the need for achieving a more equitable and diverse organization. We also heard from the NAEA Cultural Competency Committee, led by Mary Conage and which also includes TAEA’s Past-Past President, Janis Nunnally and Evan Thomas of New Jersey who is the president of NAEA’s Independent School Art Educators. Our pre-conference cultural day featured a walking tour and bus tour of some of Richmond’s most impactful murals including those which grew in response to bettering racial understanding with the “We Need to Talk” series. We also visited the historical, “Hollywood Cemetery,” where several US Presidents are buried including Presidents Monroe and Tyler. The bus tour in Richmond was narrated by VAEA Past-President, Linda Conti. Our tour of VMFA began with seeing Kehinde Wiley’s monument, “Rumors of War.” We learned that he designed it in response to the (since-removed) Confederate Statue of J.E.B. Stuart. We were also able to view the permanent collection as well as the visiting exhibition, “Dirty South,” through the generosity of VMFA who issued vouchers, presented lectures and provided space for our meetings.
On the first day of the conference, state leaders shared a state report. I was so proud to share all that our organization has accomplished in the last year; the establishment of our ED&I board position under the leadership of James Wells including our recent board training and organizational audit provided by Libya Doman, our successful YAM activities under the leadership of Melanie Anderson, the Art of Outreach Podcast initiated by Mike Mitchell, our new STARS Elementary Art Exhibition coordinated by our new Exhibitions Chair, Virginia Nix, our visibility improvements initiated by David Reynolds’ new social media campaign, the celebrity-delivered Awards Night creatively-coordinated by President-Elect Dr. David Meade, our meaningful and impactful state and regional conferences as well as our plans for our upcoming conference coordinated by Kathy Dumlao and our conference planning team. The SE Regional Leadership Conference agenda also included time for us to examine, discuss and make comments regarding NAEA position statements which are now under consideration and revision.
These leadership conference meetings always provide rich and meaningful content, which can be shared and implemented to help our own state organizations become more vibrant, but equally meaningful and impactful are the informal conversations which continue as we meet together for dinner and establish on-going conversations virtually in the days ahead.