PAUL SPROLL

risd connection: Professor + Head, Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

professional practice: The primary focus of Paul Sproll’s work is teaching and learning in and through the arts in schools, museums and community settings. He is especially interested in the erosion of the boundaries between these contexts. His work is grounded in pedagogy for arts education in which the domains of creation and interpretation intersect and in which ideas, feelings and values are the catalysts for creative expression. Sproll is a longtime advocate for the study of design (products + things, words + images, places + spaces) in elementary and secondary schools; he views design education as a potent strategy for empowering students to make critical judgments regarding design and the visual text[s] of everyday life. He is a regular presenter at national forums on art and design education and frequently serves as a curriculum consultant and arts organization panelist.

the road to risd: A native of Bath, England, Sproll combined studies in painting and printmaking with training as an art teacher at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham. He taught for two decades in high schools in England and Wales before a year-long Fulbright Teacher Exchange led him for the first time to the US and to a high school teaching position in Maine. This experience, combined with an offer of a teaching associateship from Ohio State University, prompted him to return to the US to pursue advanced studies in art education. His graduate research focused on the relationship between government, art, industry and education in Britain and the United States. In 1990, Sproll completed his Masters and PhD degrees at Ohio State and came to RISD, and in 1992 he was appointed head of the department.

making a mark: In 1992 Sproll founded RISD’s Center for the Advancement of Art + Design Education, creating an institutional infrastructure to support the professional development of K-12 teachers and, more recently, programming for high school students. The Center’s work comes to life in RISD-sponsored summer academies, workshops, studios, lectures and institutional collaborations. Support for these initiatives has come from both private and public sources, including the Health & Education Leadership for Providence (HELP) Coalition, the Rhode Island Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the US Department of Education. Sproll directed RISD’s High School Student Initiative, a three-year project funded by the Surdna Foundation designed to provide urban high school students with greater access to RISD programming. In 2003 he spearheaded an ongoing partnership between RISD and Hope Arts High School, a Providence public school undergoing significant curricular changes.

education
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, PhD, Art Education, 1990; MA, Art Education, 1988
Open University, England, BA, History of Art & Design, 1980
Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, England, Certificate in Education, 1966

recognitions
Eastern Region Higher Education Director, National Art Education Association, 2005
Panelist, National Endowment for the Arts, 2005
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), 2004
Marantz Distinguished Alumni Award, The Ohio State University, 2002
Education Committee, Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, 2002
Rhode Island Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, 1999
President’s Commendation, International Interior Design Association, 1998