Melissa Vandenberg, associate professor of art in the Department of Art and Design at Eastern Kentucky University, has been selected to travel to Hokuto City, Japan, this October as part of an exchange program with the Madison County International Committee (MCIC) and the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP).
Vandenberg will travel along with 15 other delegation members to the Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan to participate in delegation activities at KEEP and teach art lessons to more than 200 elementary, middle, and high school students. Students will create abstract oil pastel drawings of quilt blocks inspired by Appalachian quilt design and origami.
This past May, the MCIC-KEEP exchange brought collage artist and English teacher Kosuzu Okubo from Hokuto City to teach art in Madison County schools.
Vandenberg’s trip, Oct. 12-24, is generously supported by the Department of Art and Design, the College of Arts and Sciences, MCIC, and KEEP.
EKU faculty members and administrators who received similar honors in the past decade include Denise Discepoli (assistant professor of education), Jason Koontz (professor of music and director of percussion studies), Marianne McAdam (professor of dance and director of EKU Dance Theatre), David Mohallatee (Foundation Professor of art), Gil Smith (professor of art history), and Stacy Street (formerly executive director of institutional effectiveness and research).