PAEA Art Educator of the Year
 James
Ritchey is the Art Department Coordinator for the
State College Area School District. As department
coordinator, his administrative responsibilities include
leadership roles in curriculum design, professional
development, and strategic planning. He also teaches
high school classes in Drawing, Crafts, Sculpture
and Ceramics. James received his Bachelor of Science
degree in Art Education from Indiana University of
Pennsylvania and his Master of Science in Art Education
from the Pennsylvania State University. He recently
became Past President of the Pennsylvania Art Education
Association.
In 29 years of teaching, James has taught a wide
variety of art classes in fine arts, graphic arts,
photography, film making, crafts and art history at
the Junior and senior high school levels. He was a
founding staff member and taught 13 years in the State
College Area School District's school by choice alternative
program and 3 years at the State College area High
School in a block scheduled interdisciplinary team
of English, Science, Social Studies, Technology Education
and Art. He has presented workshops on curriculum
development, professional development, the use of
technology in the classroom, and current issues in
art education at state and national art education
conferences. James has been a consultant at the Pennsylvania
Governor's Institute for the Arts for the past 4 years.
He has been a featured presenter at the Penn State
University Palmer Museum of Art teacher education
workshop series for the past 4 years, and designed
and taught the Central Intermediate Unit 10 In-service
Course, K-12 Art Curriculum Design and Development.
James has been a board member of several community
art organizations including the Central Pennsylvania
School of Art, the Education Division of the Central
Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, and the State College
Centennial Celebration. He is on the Advisory Board
of the Galaxy Art in Education Program of Central
Intermediate Unit 10, was a consultant for Pennsylvania
Assessment Through Themes (PATT), a state-wide performance
assessment project, and is the director of the annual
Pennsylvania Arts in Education Celebration K-12 Student
Art Exhibition. At National Art Education Association
Delegates Assembly he serves on the Professional Development
Committee. In 1998 James was the conference Chair
for the PAEA "Power of Images" conference.
He has been published in History of Art Education,
Proceeding of the Third Penn State International Symposium,
"Anecdotes That Illustrate the History of Art
Education in a Single School District," 1995,
and in Curriculum Standards, "National and Pennsylvania
Perspectives, Curriculum Standards in the Arts,"
Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
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