Collaboration is a fundamental skill integral to twenty-first century creative arts practice and careers.  We collaborate to arrive at something we could not have manifested on our own.  Collaboration is also something that can be taught, guided, and structured so that our young artists are able to improve this crucial skillset as they grow and learn through the arts.  For this reason, the 4-year Visual Arts curriculum at NMSA embeds collaborative learning into the sequence of each year’s objectives and into each studio course taken.  Students gain insight into why working with others is beneficial and also how to navigate challenges that naturally arise within the context of a structured and instructor supported process. While on this journey, students learn to self-express, listen, compromise, and connect on outcomes that are beyond themselves and often learn to negotiate the discomfort that might accompany working with others on a shared goal. 

Collaboration takes us to new unexpected places!  This year’s “Drawing Space” specifically involves collaboration in the virtual world for a virtual exhibition.  After completing their own works, students curated compositions composed from their collective class pool of digital imagery.  Through the process of collaborative curation, these once physical works have been configured into dynamic pairings that challenge the relationship between line and space.