Our Experiences with Experiential Learning: Collaborations across Studio Art & Art History at Norco College

Inspired by a 2024 Achieving Equity in Guided Pathways Summit and funded by a Title V grant, the Norco College Studio Art and Art History disciplines launched an ambitious collaboration: to design an “experiential learning project” that would bring together our disciplines and provide our students with a practical, career-oriented outlet for applying their coursework to the kind of professional work that takes place within the art world.

The project involved students in Professor Megan Lindeman’s ART 18: Intermediate Drawing class collaborating with students in Dr. Meghan Chandler’s AHS 6: Art Appreciation class. Working together, they created an equity-focused exhibition designed for our College Library’s study rooms. Specifically, ART-18 students worked in groups as “commissioned artists” to create large scale, mixed-media drawings depicting a diverse range of historical figures in the style of important contemporary artists (Kenturah Davis, Tyler Ballon, Nina Chanel Abney, Richard Wyatt Jr., and Phumelele Tshabalala), while AHS-6 students worked as “curators” to create engaging and educational wall text “chats” to aid viewers in seeing aspects of form, context, and bigger-picture ideas within each piece.

After the successful launch of this first iteration, we have continued to expand this capstone “experiential learning project” to include further collaboration with our on-campus Art Gallery to purchase the student-produced artworks and develop collections management coursework surrounding it. Our ultimate goal and continuing mission is to provide our Studio and Art History students with dynamic, enriching experiences — the kind that can be uniquely offered by small liberal arts colleges.