Elisa Gargarella
Title: Associate Professor, Art Education Area Coordinator
Dept/Program: Art Education
Office: Folk Hall 105
Phone: 330–972–8325
Email: gelisa@uakron.edu
Biography
Elisa Gargarella, Associate Professor of Art Education, began teaching at UA in 2001. She earned a PhD in Curriculum and Instructional Studies from the University of Akron; an MA in Education from Chatham College; and a BA in Communications with a Minor in Studio Art from Denison University.
Dr. Gargarella serves as the only tenured faculty and coordinator of the Art Education degree program at The University of Akron (UA). She is responsible for all undergraduate and graduate art education curriculum, program and licensure development, program assessment and accreditation, student advising, resource management, adjunct faculty supervision, and coordinating service and field learning experiences. In addition to her full-time faculty work, she has a long history of building education programming that fosters cross-disciplinary learning in areas of arts, sciences, creative entrepreneurship, and more. She is the founder of two major community-based art programs she operates through UA. Arts LIFT is an urban youth arts apprenticeship program for Akron Public Schools. Art Bomb Brigade is a mural arts program that facilitates site specific public art created by university art students. These programs have generated over 50 works of public art and other place-based initiatives in the region.
Outside her academic position, Gargarella is co-founder and co-director of Sabertooth Public Art, LLC, a woman-owned creative placemaking business centered on public art, education, and community outreach.
Dr. Gargarella’s research is based on community-based art education, creative placemaking, learning on location, social justice education through the arts, pre-service teacher engagement, and urban revitalization through public and school arts partnerships.
Education
Ph.D. University of Akron, MA Chatham College, BA Denison University
Research
2025 Arts LIFT wheat paste & Risography project with resident artist, Micah Kraus
Art Bomb Brigade