Carolina Blatt, PhD, MA

A tightly cropped headshot of Carolina Blatt against a white stone backdrop
Faculty

Art Education (MAT)

Art Education Program Director Carolina Blatt is an art educator, arts administrator and scholar who seeks to catalyze the arts within and beyond the classroom. Her inquiry into social, affective and embodied cognition fuels her dedication to participatory artmaking. Often community-driven and socially engaged in nature, large-scale collaborative projects are the hallmark of her work.

Biography 

Blatt earned a PhD in Art (Art Education) from the University of Georgia in Athens; an MA in Art History from the Savannah College of Art and Design; and a BA from Juniata College in Huntington, Pennsylvania. Her research has been presented internationally and published in a range of scholarly journals, including Studies in Art Education, Arts Education Policy Review, Journal for Learning Through the Arts, and International Journal of Education & the Arts, as well as popular press, including CNN.com.

Experience

  • Previously, Blatt served as associate professor at The College of New Jersey in Ewing Township, where she coordinated the Art Education program and authored the Arts Administration program, and at Georgia Gwinnett College, where she pioneered the school’s public art collection through student-driven collaborations and cross-campus partnerships.

Awards & Accolades

Blatt has been recognized for her work through numerous honors and awards, including

  • National Art Education Association School for Art Leaders (2022),

  • High Education Division Award Art Educators of New Jersey (2021),

  • The David Rago and Suzanne Perrault Endowment Award (2021), and 

  • a NJM Urban Innovation Award (2018).

 

Through participatory artmaking we can expand access to the arts and amplify both beauty and justice.

 

A black and white sign that describes the Inside Out project in Trenton and the full text is in the caption below
Inside Out Is a global street art project founded by French artist JR in which people share their untold stories and transform messages of personal identity into works of public art. Each Inside Out group action around the world is documented, archived and exhibited online. Over 260,000 people have participated in 129 countries, including TCNJ [The College of New Jersey] students enrolled in AAV 370: “Community Engaged Art.” The following is their statement.

The portraits in this project aim to capture the true essence of the people of Trenton and how they come together to make the city a home. The coming together of a community can be symbolized by the connecting pieces of a quilt, which highlight every individual piece while simultaneously binding them together with the threads they share in common. This thread is the fabric of Trenton, the pride of being from Trenton, the dedication to its well-being and the hope to continue growing as a community with every new piece added to their legacy.

 

Black and white public portraits of some of the citizens of the city of Trenton in New Jersey that are hanging in a public outdoor green space
Three students working on a fabric mural made of multicolored squares and rectangles with the words You Belong Here in large white type on blocks of orange and purple color
An abstract indoor mural comprising multicolored squares and rectangles of differing sizes, on a wood wall