Art Teacher Suspended for Recommending Figure Drawing Classes

The case of Pete Panse takes the cake and makes our own DC area's antipathy towards nudity in art seem tame by comparison.

Pete Panse is a High School art teacher in Middletown, NY whom we are told uses traditional techniques to train his students.

Last December Mr. Panse was suspended from his teaching job for apparently recommending (that's right: recommending) that some of his advanced students consider taking figure drawing courses that included nude figure drawings.

Panse was suspended from his teaching job pending hearings. Depending on the outcome of these hearings, he may be permanently fired, ending a 25-year teaching career. Panse is a National Board Certified Teacher (in Adolescent and Young Adult Art), the highest level of certification that a teacher can achieve in America. He is also one of only two National Board Certified Teachers in his New York District, and "is a trained Facilitator for helping teachers explore and pursue the requirements needed to achieve National Board Certification."

According to this excellent summary by Brian Yoder:

"In his discussions with students Mr. Panse mentioned several options for advancing their figure drawing skills; the local community college, a nearby frame shop that sponsors art classes, and the prestigious New York Academy of Art. He also described pre-college figure drawing programs at several other New York City art schools, and a highly successful art college prep program called the Mill Street Loft.

In addition to these established courses, Mr. Panse also indicated that he was considering the possibility of offering an intensive figure drawing program of his own (8 hours a day every Saturday for 35 weeks). This proposed course would also be open to area art teachers, and would have required that parents serve as chaperones to ensure a strong adult presence. Ultimately, Mr. Panse was unable to locate inexpensive space for a studio and was prevented from carrying out his plan because of the controversy that erupted over the proposal.

Panse told his students that if his own figure drawing class materialized, he would be obligated to submit any advertisement to the school principal for approval, and that a denial might preclude him from offering the course to his own students, for their consideration."

It was the mention, or discussion of the "possibility" that Panse would offer an intensive figure drawing class, that apparently got him suspended and may get him fired.

As Brian Yoder points out in the article:

"This seems particularly odd, since the ninth grade art history survey course includes dozens of images of nudes. Mr. Panse's students had completed that unit previously, and are now upperclassmen.

Moreover, art teachers are required to speak of career options in the art field, what training is required, and how students might prepare for art school, so according to the official school policy, art teachers are required to show nude images to their students and are required to tell them about nude figure drawing courses that they might enroll in."

And Yoder further clarifies that:

"Just to be clear about the charges in this case, it is worth mentioning what Mr. Panse is not being accused of.

He is not being accused of recommending that these students attend these classes without parental permission or without proper supervision and chaperones.

He is not even being accused of carrying out any figure drawing courses, only of recommending them and proposing that he offer such a course.

Nobody is accusing him of forcing anyone to go to these sessions and indeed, neither the four students who attended the sessions last summer nor their parents have any complaints at all about the experience.

Nobody is claiming that anything unsavory was going on in any of these figure drawing sessions, involving Mr. Panse, Academy instructors, his students, the models, other artists, or anyone else."

What can we do?

Write Letters of Support: Letters of support (especially if you have some kind of professional qualifications) will help bolster Mr. Panse’s case. In order to prevent a flood of mail from overcoming Mr. Panse, Brian Yoder has volunteered to collect the letters and deliver them to Mr. Panse in bulk. You can send letters to him at:
Brian Yoder
972 Cornell Road
Pasadena, CA 91106

Write to the Board of Education:
Middletown School District Board of Education
223 Wisner Avenue
Middletown, NY 10940

Sign the online petition:
ArtRenewal.org has created an online petition at this website for supporters to sign. Add your name to the petition as I will.

Read the entire Brian Yoder article here.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

Studio space

The folks over at ArtDC.org have been working hard to get studio space for area artists and Jesse tells me that there is now a great space available.

If you are looking to find studio space and have several artists to work together, then visit 411 New York Ave, NE DC 20002 and ask for Gail on the 4th floor. Be sure to tell them that the ArtDC group with Steve Mead sent you.

It's between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet. Prices up to $1500 a month. It's a great deal for this area. Bathrooms included and space has just been renovated. 4 to 5 artists could fill it well in a building that already has other artists' studios.

Email Jesse for more info.

New art space

87Florida is a new art venue located at 1st and Florida NW, and their grand opening reception is Saturday, March 11 from 5-7 pm.

DC artist Ceci Cole Mcinturff recently purchased the building and it houses her studios upstairs and on the mainfloor she has an exhibition space. There she will host a series of fine art exhibitions, musical events, digital mixed media events, as well as some "Art in Community" events.

The initial exhibition, titled "Little Differences," features the work of Melissa Glasser and runs through March 20, 2006. The reception is Saturday, March 11 from 5-7 pm. There are also viewing hours Fridays 4:30-7:00pm, Saturdays 1-6:00pm, Sundays 1-5pm and Mon-Thurs by appt.

Wanna go to a couple of openings tomorrow?

"Stretchted Tight" is a painting exhibition juried by Dr. Jack Rasmussen, (Director and Curator of the Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington, D.C) and opening tomorrow at the Target Gallery in Alexandria. The exhibition goes through March 26. The opening reception is Thursday March 9 from 6 to 9 pm.

Dr. Rasmussen selected the following artists for the exhibition: Aaron Bowles, Anna Davis, Francoise Dureese, Heidi Fowler, Kurt Godwin, Pat Goslee, Kimberly MacArthur Graham, Arlette Jassel, Felice Koenig, John Mattson, John Alan Nyberg, Cara Ober, Victor Pytko, Bonnie Ferrill Roman, Amy Royce, Arielle Sandler, and Laura Yang.

Also new works by Ed Cooper at Susan Calloway Fine Arts. Opening reception is Thursday, March 9, from 6 - 8:30pm.

Gordon Parks

I just received word that Gordon Parks passed away today.

He once said that he "picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty."

Las Placitas

Last night I juried the Capitol Hill Arts League show (will post prize winners later) and had two other things happen.

I got there a little early, and I found a primo Doris Day parking spot on the side street just a couple of minutes from the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. And so I parked, as I was (a) early and (b) ravenous, I decided to walk around 8th Street SE and look for a good, and new place to eat.

I ended up at Las Placitas Restaurant and it was superb!

When I got there it was quite early, and I was the only other person in the whole place, so service was immediate and good.

The chips and salsa were OK, and although the salsa was not the best I've ever had, it was fresh and tasty and I did scarf down the whole serving of chips and a second serving of salsa.

I then ordered a plate that they call "El Tipico," which in Spanish means that it is a typical Salvadorean dish. I also had a Tecate and then a Tamarind Juice drink.

I will admit that until I arrived in the DC area (first between 1987-1989 and then again for good in 1993), I had never tasted Salvadorean food.

El Tipico consisted of fried sweet plantains, a chicken papusa, fried yucca, white rice, black beans and Salvadorean style cole slaw (very spicy) and a dollop of sour cream for the plantains. It was a massive plate of food for about $10.

The food was good, plenty and fresh, and while I was there I noted a constant procession of people who had called their order in and were picking it up. It was obvious that La Placita is a "neighborhood" restaurant which does brisk pick-up business.

I also witnessed the sort of business acumen that makes one feel good about hard-working immigrants doing good in our nation.

This tiny lady came in and placed an order of shrimp salad to go. She sat and waited, and while the order was being prepared, the owner (I assume) chatted with her in broken English. It was soon evident that she had never tried "flan" and magically a flan appeared on the house, for her to eat while she waited.

As I listened in to the conversations between the owner, and the wait staff, two things became apparent:

(a) Someone called "El Gordo" had just quit from working in some nearby establishment because that establishment's owner was mistreating the staff.

(b) The restaurant pays $55 for a box of 20 chickens.

The chicken papusa was one of the best I've ever had, and whenever I eat one, I always wonder: just how do you make a papusa?

Essentially it is a stuffed tortilla, right?

I mean: do you make a circle of dough, then spread the stuffing on that disc of dough, and then place a second disc of dough on top, seal the edges and then quick-grill it on the pan? That seems to be a lot of work for essentially getting a papusa for a buck in most places.

But I digress; by the time I left, the place was fairly full of a very diverse crowd of locals eating what looked and smelled like delicious food.

Mine was!

P.S. I almost forgot; by the time I got back to my van, after jurying the show, I found a nice parking ticket from the city, as I had overstayed my two hours on a DC residential street.

Art Donations for BRITE Auction

Irvine Contemporary's Heather Russell is curating artwork donations for a fundraiser for BRITE in NYC.

The event will be held on April 5 at the Scandinavia House at 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street in New York City from 6.30-9:00 pm. You can learn more about BRITE here.

All donations of artwork are to be dropped off to Heather here in DC at Irvine by March 29th. Works on paper, sculpture, painting, photography, digital prints, and original works encouraged in the $500-$1000 retail range. Works can be mailed or hand delivered to her at the gallery. Flat works must be framed or matted. As this is an organization for supporting children, she kindly asks that each artist keep that in mind when selecting a work to submit!

Please email jpegs and bio to Heather directly at heather@irvinecontemporary.com.

She has 17 accepted submissions already, and is limited to about 30-40 works of art, so hurry! All artists are invited for free to the event itself and their personal contact info will be listed that night, available to collectors and patrons.

I intend to donate and hope that many of you do as well.