UTM professor attended the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities on Jan. 12-15.

Professor David McBeth attended and participated in the conference. McBeth gave his presentation, “A Report on Classroom Results from the Joining Together of Art and Literature in a Lesson on Handmade Illustrated Storybooks.”

Over 800 people from 30 countries attended the conference, which was sponsored by the University of Hawaii and held at The Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in Honolulu.

The goal of this conference was to, “provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various Arts and Humanities related fields from all over the world to come together and learn from each other,” said the conference coordinator, Kwok Ho.

McBeth used research conducted during a 3-session book-making workshop for a fifth grade class at Martin Elementary.

During these sessions the students wrote poetry, created illustrated books and discussed the project. The results of this project and the work of UTM graphic design students to illustrate the use handmade techniques and computer technology in creating books, said McBeth. The purpose of this report was to increase the importance of books for students, said McBeth.

He believes that students are replacing books with television, computers and video games.

McBeth, who has taught in the Visual and Theatre Arts Department for the last 10 years, said that the most beneficial aspect of the conference was the diversity of both cultures and disciplines. The conference included multiple disciplines in the category of arts and humanities.

McBeth has been able to incorporate one of the topics of Richard Wollheim, the keynote speaker of the conference, in his current Aesthetics class.

“If a society does not have a word for art in its language, can that society create art?” McBeth said Wollheim asked in his speech.

While at the conference, the greatest apparent cultural difference was that “non-Americans” tend to be more globally aware than Americans. Generally speaking, the American population is more focused on the United States and less aware of the rest of the world than citizens of other countries, said McBeth.

After the conclusion of the conference, McBeth landed in Nashville at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 16. It took 14.25 hours to get from Nashville back to Martin due to snow that day, said McBeth.

McBeth said that he will be submitting a report on the influence of medieval Japanese ceramics on well-known American potters for next year’s conference.