Northampton Community College

NCC’s Smith to travel to West Africa

Anthony Smith, Northampton Community College art professor, will be part of a 2023 Faculty Development Seminar travel to Dakar, Senegal, Africa. There will be lectures and events focused on life in Senegal and West African culture. The two-week workshop in Dakar, capital of Senegal, will also include visits to other locations rich in culture, art and history.

The seminar, administered by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) in collaboration with the West African Research Association and its member center in Senegal, chooses recipients from a large pool of applicants from across the United States and internationally. CAORC funding for this program is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The aim of the seminar is for attendees to develop new or improved course materials and bring what they learned into the classroom.

Smith’s specific interest in attending the seminar is to incorporate other methods of creating and teaching art. Smith said he feels his teaching and creative practice favor a Western “arcadian” approach. He wants to add contemporary and historical West African artistic aesthetics into his coursework and practice. Ultimately, his goal is to create a course on non-western artmaking practices at NCC.

Smith brings years of teaching experience to NCC from institutions such as Lehigh University, Parsons School of Design, Princeton University, and others. “I have had the privilege of observing Anthony interacting with his students in a classroom environment. His pedagogical objectives are to help his students develop their individual creative voices, which allows them to build on their existing creative and technical skills,” says NCC Art Department Director, Tom Shillea.