Dear Colleagues and Friends in Art Education,

Coming away from the outstanding PAEA Conference 2004 in Lancaster gave me a heightened sense of pride and enthusiasm around the people, the mission, and the vast potential of our organization to contribute powerfully to personal and professional growth in art education. I cannot imagine a better location for a conference themed around blending the past with the present than Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Brilliant!

It was great to see so many friends and colleagues from across the state present and joyfully engaged in new learning and sharing during those three wonderful days in late October. It was richly rewarding to meet so many new people and to gain new insights through the extremely diverse range of quality workshops, presentations, and keynotes that gave shape, form, texture (and even color!) to the conference. I am deeply grateful for the numerous and extraordinary contributions of the presenters to the conference program’s content as well as for the truly outstanding efforts of the collective Conference 2004 committee. Wendy Sweigart and Mike Rupp proved to be exemplary conference co-chairs whose dedication, vision and organization served as a matrix to bind together success across every dimension of the 2004 conference experience.

I am optimistic that with your help and support I will be able to identify and confront many key challenges facing the continued strength and vitality of our organization over the next two years. To my eye these include: developing leadership opportunities to prepare younger members to step up and take their place in PAEA’s long line of leadership, expanding and extending our outreach to be more inclusive and welcoming of art educators in varied learning settings across Pennsylvania, advancing professional development opportunities for our members as both teachers and artists, closing the regional “divide” by moving the board meetings around the state and integrating distance technologies for conducting association business, and streamlining the PAEA Executive Board structures for both meeting schedules and member participation. I feel that I will be strengthened in my efforts by building upon the good foundations laid by others who have come before and by the experience and support that I know surrounds me from many of you in the general membership and on the board. Lastly, it is of the highest priority for me to continue to develop and expand collaborations and partnerships with other arts and education shareholders while continuing to nurture our existing ones with loyal partners such as the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Art Education Association.

I write from a place of profound pride, enthusiasm, and optimism, as your new president. Know that however imperfectly I may execute my leadership over the next two years, I will always strive to do what is best for the advancement of art education for all Pennsylvanians. So please join me on this journey, and thank you in advance for your trust, support, and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Randy W. Granger