Art Academy Convocation

Today I had the pleasure of having a conversation with incoming new students, returning students, faculty, and staff of the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Most of the first year class of students from the Art Academy participated in their Convocation, which involved welcomes and information from the Academy president and dean, information about involvement opportunities, and a speaker from ArtWorks.

Following those speakers, I spent just over an hour with the group exploring the concepts of inclusion and exclusion.  In that, we explore how we define those concepts, how we ourselves have experienced inclusion and exclusion, and ways in which we can choose to make an inclusive environment for others.  The given topic was quite broad, but the students did an excellent job contextualizing it and identifying ways in which they participated in it.

This workshop is hopefully the first of an ongoing relationship with the Art Academy.  We hope to connect again in the future on specific topics of social identity as well as specific aspects of awareness, leadership, and crosscultural communication.