Mark Graham

Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met

Overview

This project was designed to take students to New York City, Nepal, and Dharamsala
India in the Spring of 2015. This is an ongoing project, which continued in 2016-2017.
Three of the graduate students took part in the second round of field work, which
happened during April and May of 2016 in both Nepal and in Dharamshala, India.

Obstacles

When we arrived in New York, on the first leg of the journey, we found out that
there had been a major earthquake in Nepal. We stayed two extra days in New York,
then a few extra days in Amsterdam to work in the museums there. Because of safety
issues, the study was redirected to northern India. All field-work for the study took
place in the Dharamshala area.
The second major problem was conducting our study in a country where we had
no prior contacts or arrangements. However, Dharamshala is the site of the Tibetan
Government in Exile as well as the large Dalai Llama temple complex, and is the home of
the 14th Dalai Llama and has a large Tibetan refugee community that includes artisans,
craftspeople, and Tibetan schools. Fortunately we quickly made fruitful contacts and
had many significant research opportunities.
Academic and creative objectives were surpassed in some cases and completely
unmet in other ways as described below. Instead of studying Buddhist art and culture of
Nepal, we studied Tibetan Buddhist culture in India, which offered rich contexts for our
work. The Nepal study objectives had to be post-ponded until the following year.

Evaluation of the mentoring environment

The mentoring environment for this project was unusually productive, one of the
best I have ever experienced. Students and faculty worked closely together prior to the
field studies to gather relevant literature. The unexpected redirection of the study to
India created a series of unexpected opportunities for students to not only be mentored
by BYU faculty, but also to be mentored by Tibetan Monks, visiting faculty at the Dalai
Llama Temple, and master Tibetan Thanka painters. The group kept up a high level of
activity on our return to create the exhibitions, book, conference proposals, and
presentations.

In Dharamshala, students and faculty were able to experience Tibetan culture,
learn from Tibetan Thankga painting masters, and observe methods and curriculum in
art teaching at refugee schools. A highpoint of their five week field work in India was an
invitation to discuss art, religion, and theology with Tibetan monks within the Dalai
Llama temple, at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. There was great cultural and
religious interchange as the monks shared their experiences studying Buddhism and
living a monastic life and BYU students compared their experiences living a monastic life
as missionaries. The seven students were able to attend a teaching by the Dalai Llama
with hundred and monks and other visitors crowded into the Gyoko temple complex.

List of students who participated and what academic deliverables they have produced or it is anticipated they will produce

Clark Goldsberry, Lindsey Ruiz, Nicole Vance, and Priscilla Stewart, Rachel Barney, Pearl
Corry, Suzanna Crump.

This project was noteworthy because of its interdisciplinary character and the
diversity of the research interests and background of the faculty and students involved.
The success of the initial project is evident in the ongoing mentoring, scholarly and
creative work of the participants. Three exhibitions were mounted during the fall,
which included a series of photographs accompanied by a sound piece recorded at the
Dalai Llama temple, paintings, reliquaries, a book about Tibetan culture, and a book of
Tibetan folk tales. Nine proposals were submitted to two different peer-reviewed
academic conferences. These proposals were developed in collaboration with faculty
mentors and focused on the specific research area of each student. Five of these
proposals have been accepted. It is significant that each part of the exhibition and each
scholarly proposal involved significant mentoring of both graduate and undergraduate
students.

Scholarly and Creative Works

All students and faculty contributed to a large exhibition of photographs,
paintings, artifacts, ceramic work, and sculpture in the Harris Fine Arts Center and in the
Harold B. Lee Library. Later in the year, Clark Goldsberry created a third exhibition in the
Harris Fine Arts Center that focused on Tibetan culture.

All four graduate students and both faculty were involved in academic
presentations of their projects at the National Art Education Association annual
meeting, held in New Orleans. These included collaborative presentations involving
faculty mentors and individual presentations. As part of their presentation, the art
education graduate students included examples of how the had applied their research
to their current teaching practices as teachers. The graduate students are using this
field-work as part of their graduate thesis projects. Pearl Corry and Rachel Barney also
made presentations at the NAEA conference that focused on their areas of research.

Students and faculty designed and published a 218 page book that includes
extensive writing and photographs of the project. Each student contributed to this
project. The gallery exhibitions and the production of the book were supported in in
part through MEG funding. A copy of the book is available in the Art Education office.

Other scholarly and creative work is still in progress, since the projected field studies
were not completed until May, 2016.

Description of the results/findings of the project

This is an ongoing project, which is continuing in 2016-2017. Several objectives of the
study could not be met because of the earthquake, and the study continued in Nepal in
2016. Three of the graduate students took part in the second round of field-work,
which happened during April and May of 2016 in both Nepal and in Dharamshala, India.

Preliminary results and findings include:

Clark Goldsberry examined the holistic (spiritual) dimensions of education. His
current thesis research investigates how themes of loss and resilience could be
addressed through holistic art projects with high school students. How might curriculum
and instruction in art reflect our experiences with the beliefs, artistry, and schools of
Nepal, particularly in the areas of holistic and multi-cultural pedagogical approaches?

Lindsay Ruiz focused on building a more comprehensive multicultural education
for here students including commonalities and differences between Eastern and
Western tradition through art. This study is an important part of her master’s thesis,
which focuses on building a more comprehensive multicultural education for her
students. How might the spiritual dimensions of art, art-making, and teaching be
incorporated into curriculum? How might Buddhist religious practices inform our own
devotional practices and beliefs? How could curriculum and teaching be designed that
authentically teaches about these artistic and spiritual traditions?

Nicole Vance at the time of the study was a graduate student in Art History
whose research focuses on Indian art and architecture within the period of British
colonization. She studied the history of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in northern India
and contributed to the exhibition and book.

Priscilla Stewart studies educational programs that allow students to have
immersive types of experiences in culture and distinct ecological environments. These
topics are important parts of her master’s thesis.

Pearl Corry, an undergraduate art student, set out to study the art curriculum of
the Tashi Waldorf School, in Kathmandu. She redirected her study to the pedagogical
practices of the Norblinkha Center for Tibetan Culture in Dharamshala, and presented
her findings about using art figures at the NAEA conference.

Suzannah Crump was a student in the comparative literature program. She
focused on children literature in northern India and created an illustrated children’s
book based on her study.

Rachel Barney, a BFA Ceramics student is part of the Art Education licensure
program. She worked on the study of sculpture and ceramics of the region with faculty
mentor Tara Carpenter, contributed to the 108 cups exhibition and created a video
piece for both exhibits.

Description of how the budget was spent

Travel

Students were asked to contribute $3,400 toward travel and tuition for this project.
MEG funds were used to support travel, which included museum studies at the Ruben
Museum of Himalayan Art in New York, and in Amsterdam and the field work in India.
The project was also supported by Graduate Mentoring Grants, a Graduate Fellowship,
and a Laycock grant for interdisciplinary study from the College of Fine Arts and
Communications. Prior to departure, $18,000 was sent to Nepal for the work in that
country. About $8,000 of that money was spent on support for the 3 weeks of travel
planned in the Khumbu region of the Himalaya and could not be recovered because of
the earthquake. The remainder was used for travel and services within the country the
following year.

Creative Work

Grant funds supported the publication of the large book designed by faculty and
students, printing of photographs, framing and supplies for the three exhibitions.