Joanna Black is a Professor of Art Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and is cross appointed as a Professor to the School of Art. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education OISE/UT. At OISE/UT she developed an interest in digital technologies pertaining to video, animation, web design, photographic compositing, desktop publishing, and new media productions in relation to art education teaching and learning. Her current research involves examining the impact of artistic digital media to advance education practices in our current era. Her research areas also include creative art digital technologies, artificial intelligence in art education, human rights education, new media art education, youth social media practices, arts based and visual research, creativity and technology in relation to visual art teaching and learning. Prior to her doctorate, she obtained her Master of Arts from Concordia University in Art Education; her Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto; and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Guelph, Canada in Visual Arts and English.
Joanna Black has worked as an Arts Educator for three years at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as a curator for two years at the Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, and as a public school teacher at the secondary level for close to twelve years in the Toronto District School Board in two specialized arts education programs called “Art Advantage” and “CyberARTS”. Moreover, for three years, Dr. Black worked as an Art Director for the “Inner City Angels”, a private artist in the schools program in which she was responsible for overseeing 150 artists placed in 250 elementary schools in the Metropolitan Toronto area. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Print and Drawing Council of Canada, the Ontario Society for Education through Art, The Manitoba Association for Art Education, the Cobb Arts Council, the Children’s Discovery Museum of Toronto, and she has been on the Steering Committee for the Toronto Coalition for Arts in Education. For both the Ontario and Manitoba Arts Council’s Creative Artists in the Schools Programs she has served as a jury member. In addition, Joanna Black has co-chaired three conferences: the annual convention for the Ontario Society for Education through Art; a provincial conference called, “Arts and the Environment”; and the national Canadian Society for Education through Art Conference. She has served on the Art Education Technology (AET) committee, a subgroup of the National Art Education Association (NAEA).
Dr. Black has received awards from the National Art Education Associations’ (NAEA) Art Education Technology (AET) for Outstanding Research Award; the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba; The Manitoba Education Research Network’s (MERN) Research Achievement Award; and the Provincial Affiliate Art Educator Award from the Canadian Society for Education through Art. She has recently co-written a book, along with Juan Carlos Castro and Ching-Chiu Ling entitled, “Youth Practices in Digital Arts and New Media: Learning in Formal and Informal Settings.”