SQUAD Art Studio offers traditional and new media art experiences hosted by IUP Art Education in collaboration with The Artist’s Hand Gallery in downtown Indiana, Pennsylvania. Art Education students lead experiences during the academic year (September – May) using a process-based approach informed by the Reggio Emilia Approach, Choice Based Art Education, and the Maker movement.

SQUAD currently serves pre-service art educators and families with young children in a rural region, and as a research site for university faculty and art education graduate students working with digital technologies and new media. For both young children and pre-service art educators, SQUAD experiences emphasize negotiated curriculum, process-based art and media exploration, family/child intergenerational co-education, and the use of digital technologies as new media art.

The studio’s ArtBOT mobile Makerspace visits from the Digital Visual Study Center on the IUP campus.

Inspired by The Scribble Squad, an online collaborative of parents and caregivers who create art experiences for young children, SQUAD Jr. focuses on process art experiences for infants, toddlers, and their caregivers. SQUAD Jr. experiences are led by IUP Art Education faculty May – August.