WORKSHOP AT KOLAJ FEST NEW ORLEANS 2025
Collage in the Classroom: What Do You Want The World To Know?
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Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 25-29 June 2025. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend.
How do we bring collage into the classroom? As part of her work in the graphic design department at Western Carolina University, artist and illustrator Jillian Ohl has been engaged in a curricular and pedagogical push to do just that. She wrote, “Using collage has helped our students in not only breaking the false belief that graphic design only happens on a computer, but it is also an accessible method of making in Appalachia where we have limited access to resources and there is little cultural space for pretentious approaches to design. Above all, it has given students permission to use a medium they thoroughly enjoy but has been historically under-recognized and sequestered to the realm of feminine arts and crafts. Using collage in the design classroom in southern Appalachia, gives power to our marginalized students to express their creative voice.”
During this workshop, Ohl will guide participants in the making of a poster that explores the type/image relationship while also thinking about expressing a personal point of view. She wrote, “Collage is a democratizing medium that frees the participant from the intimidating world of drawing. This three hour exercise is meant to prepare the student for a larger poster design project but also opens up the possibility of analog making into their design process. For the non-design student, this is an opportunity to explore typographic principles without the use of design software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. With the broad prompt, students can choose anything from a call to action for social change, declare an interesting fact about an animal, or explore a personal anecdote.” Ohl will make a short presentation beforehand providing poster examples and quickly explaining typographic voice preps the participants for using these design elements. After the collage making, Ohl will be joined by other educators who will discuss ways to adapt this activity to their own classrooms.
New Orleans-area Educators are invited to attend this free, special event. A link to RSVP will be posted shortly.
Workshops at Kolaj Fest New Orleans
Workshops at Kolaj Fest New Orleans offer participants the opportunity to engage with their process or materials in a new way; explore subjects or themes; or practice a new collage technique to make. Over a dozen workshops take place during the festival.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Artist and illustrator Jillian Ohl holds a Bachelor of Art and Design degree from North Carolina State University’s Collage of Design and an MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture from Washington University in St. Louis. She has exhibited her work throughout North Carolina and the Southeast along with teaching courses and workshops at North Carolina State University, Appalachian State University, North Carolina Museum of Art and Sawtooth School of Visual Art. She is currently Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Western Carolina University. In addition to her studio practice, she designs stationery, prints, and surface design patterns. Most recently, her work was published in American Illustration 43. Learn more at www.jillianohl.com
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 25-29 June 2025. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend.