Teaching & Education

*** 10/6/21 – It is now long overdue and this page needs an update. Covid-19 has changed so many things. I will be back soon with a much deeper reflection and take on the last 19 years in art / design education.

I began teaching at the college level in the fall of 2002 with a graduate teaching assistantship. I fell in love with teaching. I have been teaching various graduate and undergraduate courses simultaneously between multiple CUNY colleges (York College, BMCC & QCC) and 4 private universities (LIU Post, NYIT, Iona College & The Graduate School of Technology at Touro College) in NYC and the metropolitan NYC area. I currently hold the rank of associate professor and have completed my 18th year of teaching this fall semester of 2020. My workload varies between 6-8 courses each semester and an additional 2-3 courses over the summers. Im passionate about teaching. I love the daily variety, flexibility and opportunity to teach so many different types of courses and to share my love for the inter-relatedness of so many subjects.

I am teaching various courses in Digital Art & Design Foundation, Graphic Design, 2D, 3D & 4D design, Computer Graphics 1 & 2, Web Design 1, Art Appreciation, Communications Technology, Digital Storytelling, Sculpture 1, MFA Seminar, Graduate Design, Graduate New Media in Art, MFA Thesis: Criticism in Art & The History & Emergence of Street Art & Graffiti & Illustration. I also mentor and advise both graduate and undergraduate students at various stages of their degree programs.

I am excited to research, discover, experiment, and share new software applications and web tools in all of my courses. I am interested in pushing their limits and repurposing them for creative output and learning. With various platforms readily available for multiple forms of communication, presentation and archiving student works, interdisciplinary projects and collaborating is a frequent methodology applied in my teaching practice. Most of my courses have websites or online platforms that are used for presenting both student and course work. The course websites transparently share reflective reactionary writing, discussions, presentations and notifications about course content. The websites and blogs are indeed varied. Some are in their infancy and some of them have expanded ten times beyond my expectations. They grow, update and change regularly. They are measured and assessed each year to show the individual and collective developments of the course. Students simultaneously learn how to build, augment and navigate the platforms. They work with several tools in the process while contributing and developing their own visual online portfolios and identities. In essence, we empower and support each other to create and illustrate our own learning process. One that can easily be referred to, expanded upon and shared with others.

How do these collaborative experiences foster continued learning? The process allows for us to publicly archive and continue to contribute to our class content after the traditional 15 week semester ends. It is my intention to generate and facilitate ongoing networks beyond the traditional classroom for my students. Classes may end in the physical space after 15 weeks but with today’s available technology the learning and participation continues on indefinitely.

Here can view the individual feed of blog posts on the subject of Teaching & Art Education. 

For more information about courses taught by Ryan Seslow please contact me here.