More than 200 UFT art teachers took part in for-credit professional development at the New York City Art Teachers Association/UFT Artworks ’13 education conference on Oct. 26 at the newly renovated HS of Art & Design in Manhattan. The conference, titled New Perspectives in Art Education, gave attendees the opportunity to network with exhibitors, museum and college art educators and their colleagues as they picked up new ideas for curriculum planning and teaching. Participants had a choice of three workshops out of 23 offered on topics such as Architectural Drawing Techniques, Managing Student Behavior, Demystifying iMovie, iPads and the DOE, and Animation. Conference-goers honored the internationally exhibited interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers as their Artist of the Year. He combines drawing, sculpture, video, original music and installation for a provocative body of work that refracts the African-American experience. Biggers presented a sample of his work during his keynote address, “which was amazingly thought-provoking,” said Joan Davidson, the NYCATA/UFT chairperson and conference coordinator. There was a juried art teacher exhibition and awards for outstanding art educators. To nominate yourself or a colleague for next year’s Art Educator awards, got to www.uft.org/art-educator-recognition-awards.