James Barany

Above, Project Identity in Zionsville, IN 

Embracing  Pedagogy within

the Arts

Barany's embrace of pedagogy within the arts was deeply rooted by the early mentoring of his Grandfather and Secondary Principal, James Skarda. Their discourse of pedagogy was often at the root of lengthy conversations throughout Barany's entire collegiate experience. Within these conversations with Skarda is where Barany began to forge his knowledge of teaching, modeling, developmental assets, and classroom motivation. Skarda, who was also a student of Master Educator Madeline Hunter, paid those lessons forward as Barany began his early experiments with arts education in the early 90's at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

At MAM is where Barany was woven into the tapestry of the Education Division under the leadership of Barbara Brown Lee. Under Lee's awe-inspiring mentoring, Barany was able to continue his pedagogical training by applying Skarda's theories to a wide-ranging cohort of students at the Museum. Lee constantly challenged Barany to improve upon all of his skill sets, and to best incorporate the lessons that the Museum's collection offered on a daily basis. Through her modeling, Lee showed Barany how to integrate and juxtapose all of these elements and effectively deliver this content to a diverse body of students.

Above, Barany and students with Project Identity in Ocala, FL 

Below is the full interview with Barany from 2008 on Milwaukee Public Radio's Lake Effect regarding Project Identity.

Project Identity at the Ethan Allen School for Boys, Wales WI 

MAM directly overlapped Barany's early teaching during his Graduate work in Drawing and Painting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. At UWM is where Barany continued to practice his pedagogical development, this time with a strictly collegiate audience. James began to embrace the art of teaching to post-secondary students under the mentoring of numerous faculty including Kay Knight, Leslie Vansen, Dennis Sargent, Tom Uttech, Lee Ann Garrison and Adolph Rosenblatt. 

Upon the completion of his MFA Barany embraced a life-changing opportunity by accepting an Arts Specialist position at Urban Day School; a new K-8 charter program in Milwaukee's North West corridor. Under the leadership of Principal Wendy Sondrol, Barany was able to pay forward all of the lessons that he had learned thus far in the studio, and attempted to deliver this knowledge of the arts to an under-privileged audience; one that was hungry for the experience.

At the same time Barany was reabsorbed into the culture that his alma mater offered at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. MIAD had given James adjunct teaching opportunities to help adjust to a new booming collegiate population. After several successful semesters and with bittersweet overtones, Barany stepped down from his Urban Day position and fully embraced the collegiate experience at MIAD. James joined first as a Counselor, and soon after the ranks of the Full-Time Faculty within the Foundations Division. At MIAD, under the mentoring of Jan Feldhausen is where Barany began to spread his pedagogical wings and quickly expanded his repertoire in subject matter; more fully embracing the use of curricular integration and technology within the arts.

Since his Full-Time appointment in 2000, Barany has taught across divisional boundaries in Drawing, Figure Drawing, Painting, Integrated Studio Arts, Illustration, Animation, Video, Visual Dynamics, 2D Composition, Color Theory, Research Practice + Methods, TBM History, Visual Statement and Understanding the Visual. Barany has taught all levels of students at MIAD and during the summers extends further by engaging both Pre-Collegiate students in MIAD's Majors programming, and Graduate-level participants through MIAD's Creative Educators Institute.

Barany's professional quest to embrace an understanding of pedagogy has helped him to develop a sincere respect for a group of who he considers his biggest influences and Master Educators including: Madeline Hunter (Instructional Theory), Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences), E.W. Eisner (Criticism and Connoisseurship) and John Dewey (Interaction, Reflection & Experience).

James has lectured on Drawing, Technology and Integration within Foundations-based symposiums with Foundations Art Theory + Education (FATE), Wisconsin Art Education Association (WEAC), the National Art Education Association (NAEA), the Rockford School District and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (UWM). He is currently an Associate Professor of Foundations and is also serving as the Co-Coordinator of Understanding the Visual at MIAD in Milwaukee, WI.