VISUAL LEARNING IN A VISUAL CITY By Donislrn Wehb I Kl'istinu Kise,· Since 2005, the Harding University College of Art and Design provided its students the opportunity to experience real-world art on an annual trip to Chicago. Greg Clayton, a professor of art and design and Chicago native, served as one of the lead consultants for the trip. He said seeing professional a1tists in their element gave students a truer understanding of the art vvorld outside of college. "It gives them an exposure to a much bigger world than we see here in Searcy," Clayton said. "For the most part, artists and designers often see much oftheir world on the web or in books, and here we are seeing things firsthand, and that is always inspiring in ways that books and slides and websites simply are not." Brooke Tucker, a sophomore fine arts major who went on the trip in the spring, said she stuck close to Clayton the majority of the trip because of his knowledge of the city's best sites. "We tried to hang out v.rith Clayton as much as possible because he lived in Chicago, so he took us all over the city," Tucker said. "He showed us how to get around and pointed out all the best places to visit." Chicago offered one of the greatest concentrations of art galleries in the U.S. outside of New York. The students experienced renowned places such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Junior Kellie Keese, a graphic design major, went on the trip in the spring of 2014 and recalled her visit to the sculpture Cloud Gate, nicknamed, "The Bean," in Chicago's Millennium Park. "(The Bean) is different at each time of the day," Keese said. "In the morning it looks cool, but then it looks totally different in the middle of the day, and then at night it looks awesome with the sunset." Tucker aspired to be a high school art teacher and said the trip inspired her and gave her ideas for future lesson plans. "I want to teach high schoolers so it gave me a wide variety of art to build off of and see what people have done in the past and see what kind of lessons I can create for my students while tying in a history lesson of what other American artists have done in the past," Tucker said. Clayton said many students, like Tucker, benefited from both the motivational and educational aspects of the excursion. "It is as much an inspiration experience as it is an information experience," Clayton said.
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