ACADEMIC POSITIONS

2021 – today    Full Professor,  Academy of Applier Arts, University of Rijeka
2015-2021       Associate Professor,  Academy of Applier Arts, University of Rijeka
2012                 EU project Coordinator – ADRIART (www.adriart.net), Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka
2011 – today    EU project Researcher / Teacher / Curriculum Developer – ADRIART (www.adriart.net), Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka
2010–2015       Assistant Professor, Department of Graphic Arts, Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka, (Applied Arts BA and MA study programs)
2010-2011       Adjunct Assistant Professor, Film and Video Department, University of Split Art Academy,  (New Media Art I, Fall 2010)
2010-2011        Vice-Dean for Arts and Science, Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka
2010-2011        International Relations Coordinator,  Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka
2006-2011       Adjunct Assistant Professor / Croatian Site Coordinator, Projekt Oko Sokolovo, Intermedia Department, The University of Iowa
2006-2010      Erasmus Coordinator,  Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka
2006-2010      Senior Teaching Assistant,  Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka
2006                 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Painting and Drawing Department, The University of Iowa, (Elements of Art, Spring 2006)
2005                 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Painting and Drawing Department, The University of Iowa, (Basic Drawing, Fall2005)
2005                 Teaching Assistant,  Printmaking Department, The University of Iowa, (Beginning Intaglio and Relief I, Spring 2005)
2004                 Teaching Assistant, Printmaking Department, The University of Iowa, (Beginning Intaglio and Relief I, Fall 2004)
2003                 Teaching Assistant,  Printmaking Department, The University of Iowa, (Beginning Intaglio and Relief I and II, Fall 2003)
2003                 Research Assistant, Printmaking Department, The University of Iowa, (maintained printmaking studio equipment, assisted with classes: Beginning Intaglio and Relief I, II (Spring 04), Advanced Undergraduate Intaglio and Relief (Fall 03, Spring 04), Graduate Intaglio and Relief (Fall 03, Spring 04))

LECTURES / PRESENTATIONS / WORKSHOPS
2024    Artist Talk, “Doručak na travi” public event by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
2020    Book presentation and public lecture
: Responsive Art In The Public Sphere (by Nadija Mustapić and Katarina Rukavina) at University of Zadar Department of Art History
, in organisation of Student Committee of The University of Zadar – conference “Susreti: studij izvedbe”, moderator Ivana Hanaček
2020   
International Scientific and Artistic Symposium on Pedagogy in Art, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia,
October 23rd-24th 2020, Paper Presentation and Discussion: “Responsive Art In The Public Sphere – Discourses and Techniques: about inovative methods of teaching in the fiels of art
2020    Invited guest artist at the public presentation
“In the Company Of Phones and Tablets” which screened video works by a Spanish artist Carmen Roca Igual and a Slovak artist Adam Centko, Drugo more, Rijeka, Croatia
2020    Artist Talk and Public conversation with Andrea Zlatar
(during solo exhibition “2 and 2”) – Conversations in the gallery Prozori: “Are two and two four or five?”, Gallery Prozori, City Library S. S. Kranjčevića, Zagreb, Croatia
2016    Artist Talk,
Hippolyte Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2015    Talk and presentation at Big Ideas in Arts & Culture lecture series, 
SPUR Festival, Guelph, Canada
2015     Artist Talk, Titanik Gallery, Turku, Finland
2015     Artist Talk, Saari Residency, Finland
2014     Show and Tell (Artist Talk), Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
2012     Visiting Artist (Artist Talk, student critiques), Webster University, Department of Art, Saint Louis, USA
2010     Visiting Artist (Artist Talk, Film and Video Workshop), Grinnell College, Department of Art, Grinnel, USA
2010     The Rosenfield Simposium Lecturer (“Art in Croatia: Expressions of Transition”),  Grinnell College, Grinnell, USA
2010     Artist Talk (“Inclusive art practice: The Moving Crew Collective”), The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia
2010     Artist Talk (“The Moving Crew Collective”), Molekula, Rijeka, Croatia
2010     Artist Talk (“The Moving Crew Collective”), Film and Video Department, University of Split Art Academy, Split, Croatia
2009     Visiting Artist (Artist Talk, Student Critique, Master class lecture), Film, Media and Music Department, The University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
2009     Visiting Artist  (studio visits, lecture: “The waiting room as a point of departure: Croatian art in times of transition”), Intermedia Department, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
2009     Visiting Artist (lecture: “The View from Kvarner Bay: Art in Croatia”), Capital City Arts Initiative – Visiting Artist/Scholar/Curator Residency, Carson City, USA,
2009     Artist Talk, Sierra Nevada College Art Department, Carson City, USA
2009     Artist Talk,  Douglas High School, Carson City, USA
2009     Artist Talk,  McQueen High School, Reno, USA
2006     Visiting Artist (studio visits with graduate students), Intermedia Department, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
2004     Visiting Artist (Artist talk, Panelist on Career Workshop), The Coe College, Cedar Rapids, USA
2000     Assistant, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy, (maintained studio equipment, assisted with University of Iowa Printmaking Summer Course, assisted with courses: Artists-Books, Monotype, Drawing)
1996-98   Workshop Instructor, Škola mira/School of Peace, (Mrkopalj, Croatia, (taught printmaking, photography and painting workshops for children (age 6-15), organized and sponsored by the Croatian Government and the European Union to promote peace through creativity during war-time))
1994-96   Workshop Assistant, Novigradsko proljeće/The Spring of Novigrad, Novigrad, Croatia, (assisted in photography workshops during art colonies organized by Croatian Government for Croatian talented children (age 6-17))

LIST OF COURSES:
Fall 2016 – today –

Teaching courses at BA-level study programmes: Art Education, Applied Art

  • Spatial Theory and Practice
  • Elements of Art

Fall 2015 – Spring 2016
Courses at MA-level Media Arts and Practices study programme:

  • Intermedia module / Intermedia (Explore), Intermedia (Define), Intermedia (Focus);
  • Transformations of Space: Time-Based Media Installation,
  • Word and Image,
  • Collaborative Strategies,
  • Responsive Art in the Public Realm

Fall 2010 –
BA-level course at Film and Video study programme:

  • New Media Art I

Spring 2010 – Spring 2015 –
courses at BA-level Applied Arts study programme:

  • Applied Graphics I,
  • Applied Graphics II,

courses at MA-level Applied Arts study programme:

  • Applied Graphics A,
  • Applied Graphics B,
  • Master Thesis Preparation,
  • Master Thesis,

courses at BA-level Art Education study programme:

  • Printmaking I,
  • Printmaking I (Elective),
  • Printmaking II,
  • Printmaking II (Elective),
  • Printmaking III,
  • Printmaking IV

courses at MA-level Media Arts and Practices study programme :

  • Intermedia module / Intermedia (Explore), Intermedia (Define), Intermedia (Focus)
  • Transformations of Space: Time-Based Media Installation
  • Word and Image,
  • Collaborative Strategies,
  • Responsive Art in the Public Realm

Fall 2006 – Fall 2012 – Adjunct Assistant Professor/Croatian Site Coordinator for Projekt Oko Sokolovo, School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa, Intermedia Department:
On-site coordinator for Projekt Oko Sokolovo/Project Hawkeye  – studio semester abroad for MFA Intermedia students.

Fall 2006 – Fall 2009 – Senior Assistant at Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka:
Assisted and taught courses at BA-level Fine Art programme:

  • Printmaking III,
  • Printmaking IV,

Assisted and taught courses at BA-level Applied Arts study Programme:

  • Applied Graphics I,
  • Applied Graphics II,

Assisted and taught courses at BA-level Art Education study programme:

  • Printmaking I,
  • Printmaking I (Elective),
  • Printmaking II,
  • Printmaking II (Elective),
  • Printmaking III,
  • Printmaking IV

Fall 2005 – Spring 2006 – Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa, Painting and Drawing Department:
Taught BA-level courses:

  • Elements of Art,
  • Basic Drawing

Fall 2003 – Spring 2005 – Teaching Assistant (Instructor of Record) at School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa, Printmaking Department:
Taught BA-level courses:

  • Beginning Intaglio and Relief I,
  • Beginning Intaglio and Relief II.

Teaching Philosophy
After some time of my experience as an educator (20 years), in my work with students I started approaching each course as a project, in the same way I approach my art project, as a unique process that simultaneously works towards completion, a closure of a concept, and towards opening of all layers that bind together to make the concept. Each new course does not only represent a set of skills or a block of knowledge that needs to be acquired or digested. As a ‘learning unit’ a course is also being (re)presented by a teacher and students (every time it is being delivered anew), through a mutual exchange of questioning, negotiating and arriving to common conclusions about the course’s subject through individual and joint efforts.

Much like in an art process, within a process of delivering course’s aims and objectives, different (but equally important) factors come in play when it comes to reaching success: accessibility of materials and resources, improvisational skills, patience, dedication to (various) research, understanding of relevant discourses, histories and disciplines, level of social skills, ability to re-(self)evaluate one’s own achievements, ability to connect and place things in new relations, communication… Teaching/learning any course materials requires developing new strategies to work with or around those many factors.

And much like in the process of maintaining own artistic continuity through life, the process of learning/teaching consists of easier and more difficult phases. I have come to enjoy all phases equally, in my artistic and teaching or learning practices. Being an art teacher to me means being involved in a social act of creation that strengthens individual and cultural views on the world and our societies, and in that light it is important to me to help my students find that impulse that guides them through the easier and the more difficult learning phases towards persistence and responsibility towards own views.

It is usually a need for self-expression, joy of creativity and stubborn pursuit of own ideas that draws students towards studying art, but art students also need to develop an awareness of how intrinsically interdependent their personal motivations are with social, cultural or political contexts that surround them. They need to understand that the meaning and impact of art is in it’s public realm and its ability to communicate across cultures and languages. I like to structure classes in ways that viewings, readings and critiques lead towards wider discussions about contemporary culture. I find it important to methodologically break down the students’ artistic processes in phases of gradual research and development, understanding thus art-making as a continuous experimental process of discovery in which many forms of materialization of artistic thought lead into different outcomes (products). I challenge students into questioning their own expectations of those outcomes. Sometimes they end up embracing discoveries that initially they discarded too quickly, but such turn-arounds can happen only if students really brought their experiments towards various phases of completion. I find it crucial for the students to break out of their preconceived ideas of what their art products should be and to try different working methodologies during their process. Class assignments such as presentations of cultural events they attended, presentations of works-in-progress, of artistic routines or artistic influences help students contextualize their motivations and goals. I often prepare reference lists for students to research or even bring to class examples of artistic practices specifically chosen for each student. Nevertheless, I always make a point that students should begin with their own interests and bring in class their own sensibilities, subjects, forms or media choices – their own inputs from which we will start developing personal language, voice, message.

I have experience in teaching more traditional academic studio-based classes such as drawing or printmaking-oriented visual art courses, and that background influences certain aspects of my experience in teaching the less traditional coursework. I believe students need to learn ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ as well. Craft, use and control of media – ‘how’ it does ‘what’ we want it to do – is inevitable part of teaching and most of my classes involve some levels of technical instruction that enables students to individually deepen their use of technology when required so by their project needs. Students should have an awareness of how quickly tools and software become obsolete and that technical research is artists’ continuous task. Since I have been teaching intermedia, time-based media and courses grounded in conceptual practices my emphasis has been less on technological aspects and more on analytic and critical approach to contemporary art practices.

I think I learn from my students as much as they learn from me, we build, tear, re-build and communicate our ideas of artistic process together in our negotiations of learning/teaching dynamics and priorities.

My degree and teaching experience in Croatia, where higher education learning environments lack certain resources (mainly of financial nature), has taught me to rethink turning ‘less’ into ‘more’ by cultivating that drive that should enable art students to persist in their disciplined process, regardless and in spite of the odds of living/being artists in a country where arts/artists do not get supported. My degree and teaching experience in the US has taught me that ‘more’ should never be taken for granted, no matter how relative it might be, because more resources can mean higher stakes – an artist’s privileged opportunity to reach wider audiences.

Regardless of working circumstances, my goal as a teacher is to actively influence and be influenced by creative and intellectual ideas of generations of students as they are becoming versatile practitioners.