Teaching Artist Podcast

Mike talked about his winding path to art education and the myth of the art professor with abundant studio time. He shared how he fits in studio time in the gaps and how rich and fulfilling this winding path has been.

Mike also shared a project he does with students that provides useful data for teachers in assessing student learning, being able to offer data to administrators, while also letting students see their own growth. He talked about thinking in similar ways within his studio practice to shift to a growth mindset as an artist. I loved the idea of differentiating for yourself, realizing that you can’t be fantastic at everything, and recognizing your own growth as an artist. I also loved the mindset shift from “I’m not good at art” to “I’ve been underserved as an artist.” Thanks, Mike, for a new way to respond to “I can’t draw.” 

Mike talked about many artists he admires and loves to share with students. I’ll link to their work in the blog post, so go check that out.

mikewindy aka Mike Mitchell is a cohort 3 member of the Educator's Cooperative and the Kids on Stage Art Director of Mount Pleasant Schools in Maury County, TN. He is a 2020 Makey Makey global ambassador and the 2022 Mid-region Educator of the year awarded by the TN Art Education Association. He hosts The Art of Outreach podcast with the TN Art Association and facilitates discussions through the Educators Cooperative.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-90-mikewindy

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Lionel Cruet spoke about his teaching practice as well as his exhibit, Rhetorics of an Uncertain Future, which is in its third iteration at Play + Inspire Gallery. He talked about the process of developing the exhibition in all three iterations, from private viewing at Yi Gallery in NYC to exhibit at El Lobi in Puerto Rico to online at Play + Inspire. The title was chosen carefully to encompass the writing that accompanies the exhibition, while also exploring the visual arts as a mode of persuasion, a mode of rhetoric. We talked about how apt the idea of uncertain futures feels in this moment.

I loved hearing about how Lionel’s process begins with drawing and watercolor and then expands into digital media, video, and transmedia storytelling. He talked about collaboration and how he works with fellow artists, curators, sound designers, and animators to bring his ideas to life. He also shared advice for artists and educators.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-89-lionel-cruet

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Eric Anthony Berdis shared his story of finding refuge and courage in art. He talked about imagining a queer space and how he creates that imagined space. He also spoke about the idea of being a parallel player alongside his young students and his continual work to move away from facilitator or director in the classroom. I loved hearing about his process and all the research behind his work. I also loved how he is able to incorporate play and whimsy among all the references and context that goes into his work. If you can, take a look at his work while you listen!

As a queer maker, Eric Anthony Berdis (Erie, PA) continuously finds ways to imagine and embody joy through his practice. Navigating the new normal as an elementary school teacher, and studio artist working. He finds himself working in the hours from 5-11 pm.  His work embraces a maximalist aesthetic of archival research, personal secrets, and pubescent gay boy glamour. Entering their installation, the audience is transported to a new world. Thrift store castoffs and hobbyist craft supplies are reassembled into a cast of characters that blur the lines between ghost, creature, and friend.

For Eric, the studio becomes a haven in periods of instability, insecurity, and oppression. Happiness, play, and pleasure are not only sought after during difficult times but are arguably necessary components of survival. Joy is an act of resilience—a critical method of subverting hegemonic narratives of suffering. Queer joy in Eric's work is found through forms of exuberance such as world-building, materials, and escaping into new types of textile processes like quilting.

Eric is a teacher of preschoolers. In his classroom, he tries to become a parallel and collaborative player in his students' activities. Hoping to not only build a deeper connection to students but also support their development in a way that is true to their interests. They have received their MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Eric has exhibited work at the University Galleries of Illinois State University, Stay Home Gallery, Paris TN, and Bunker Projects, Pittsburgh. His work has been published in Hiss Mag, Emergency Index, and American Painting.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-88-eric-anthony-berdis

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It was so great to reconnect with Abishek and hear more about his art and teaching practices. He participated in one of our Artist Talk sessions through the Teaching Artists Lounge last summer and I was so inspired by the way he wove teaching and artmaking together in that brief talk that I wanted to hear more. He shared wonderful advice for working with students of all abilities and adjusting his own expectations as a teacher during constantly shifting situations as a result of the pandemic. We got into what student-centered teaching can look like. He also talked about his inspiration as an artist and the project he’s currently working on surrounding men and mental health in India.

Mumbai-based artist and educator, Abhishek has been associated with the arts for more than a decade. Depending on the role, be it artist, teacher, researcher, or administrator, he uses a combination of creativity, information, research, and persuasion to achieve personal and professional results. Abhishek received an MA in Art Education from Boston University. His scholarly interests are grounded in Critical and Culturally responsive pedagogy; with research interests in arts integration, Indigenous curriculum, art for special educational needs, and place-based education. As a visual artist, his artistic practice is inclined at investigating themes and issues of mental health, culture, and gender within the local and global context. Currently, he serves as the Arts program coordinator and teacher at The Gateway School of Mumbai, a not-for-profit school committed to empowering children with disabilities. Based on the critical strategies of Visual art, his teaching focuses on exploratory and inquiry-based art-making processes in-studio and design courses. Abhishek has been a conference speaker and has taught workshops at festivals, galleries, museums in India and Brazil. The Tata Education and Development Trust and The Keshavlal Bodani Education Foundation are the granting organizations that supported his academic and cultural work.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-87-abhishek-panchal/

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Marianna talked about the support she felt from teachers and her parents as an artist, but also the challenge of learning to draw. She shared a method for teaching drawing that she longed for as a young person, working to improve her technique.

The way she shifted from teaching full-time and feeling the burnout so many of us have felt was so inspiring. I loved hearing how she found a semblance of balance with part-time teaching and part-time art-making as she re-emerged as an artist. Marianna also talked about the move from Miami, FL to Boise, ID and how the culture shock affected her. She shared how she sought out community both locally and online through fellow artists and teachers. I loved hearing about her process and how she uses visual journaling alongside her students as an ongoing practice.

Marianna Jimenez Edwards is a veteran high school art teacher who strives to incorporate a choice-based curriculum and believes in creating a space for students to experience how to see and think like artists. Having felt deficiencies in her own technical skills after leaving her high school art classes, teaching traditional drawing and painting skills that students expect is also important in her teaching practice.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Marianna attended suburban public schools and has always loved learning. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, receiving a BFA in Painting. Awareness of her indigenous heritage and Chicano culture blossomed during art school. Also, during that time, visiting her grandmother’s village in Oaxaca and various archaeological sites in Central Mexico and Chiapas on separate occasions transformed that awareness into the passion and central ideas for her work.

Blog Post with more info, links, and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-86-marianna-jimenez-edwards

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Valentine Svihalek talked about embracing her creativity and shifting in her career as she moved physically and emotionally through life. I love how she dove into being an artist and then working with fellow artists, especially mothers, to bring out their creative voices.

Valentine Svihalek is a Belgian and American contemporary visual artist, international educator, and mother. Living and teaching in diverse communities around the world, she cultivated a desire for discovery and development. After the birth of her first child in a village surrounded by people who spoke a different language, she felt isolated. Turning inward, she developed a process of artmaking that liberates expressive energy and establishes connection. She engaged in the Artist Residency In Motherhood program. This experience, combined with graduate studies in philosophy and postgraduate studies in teaching, literacy, and culture in San Diego served as the foundation for further exploration.

Valentine founded the Mama Create collective, a community that facilitated opportunities for English speaking creatives in the Czech Republic. Inspired by her community work, she published The Imperfect Artist Mother Journey as a reflection on postpartum experience. Her European network merged with the global collective Art Mums United where she serves as co-director. Valentine has exhibited her work in galleries in Europe and with the Jewish Museum Prague. She is co-host of the Art Mums United Podcast and is a member of a variety of directories and artist organizations such as Spilt Milk Gallery, The Art Queens Society, Create Magazine, Artist-Mother Network, and ARIM.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-85-valentine-svihalek

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Ana Guzmán talked about her experience as an English Language Learner and reframing that term to Emergent Bilingual as she now works to help students who are learning a second language. I love that reframing, focusing on the impressive fact that these students already know at least one language and are learning an additional language! 

She shared some strategies art educators can use in reaching and teaching emergent bilingual students as well as advocating with administration and higher level bureaucrats. 

I loved hearing about her art journaling and how she’s taking time to reflect as part of her own art-making practice. That ebb and flow in life is so REAL and so important to talk about. We can’t do everything all the time, as much as we may want to. 

Ana shared resources for connecting art and English learning as well as several scholars whom she’s learned from. These are all linked in the blog post here: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-84-ana-guzman

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Amanda is a childbirth educator who uses the Birthing From Within methodologies. She talked about incorporating art-making as part of the preparation for birth and shared her own experience of moving from a “not creative” person to wholeheartedly believing in the power of art. She shared her process for building trust and working with students who don’t have art experience as well as the reasons art-making is included in a birthing course. We also talked a bit about the racial inequities around childbirth and Amanda shared some wonderful links, including episode 16 of her own podcast, Finding Your Village, in which Cachet Prescott shares her birth experience as a Black woman.

Amanda Gorman is a wife, mother of two, the host of the Finding Your Village podcast and a certified Birthing From Within childbirth educator. In addition to her family, Amanda is passionate about: writing, speaking, addiction and trauma recovery, music, social justice, and birth work. Her podcast focuses on birth, postpartum and parent mental health. She teaches online childbirth classes that not only inform parents about the physiological aspects of birth, but also train parents to build a toolkit to cope with pain, become confident facing the unknown and find their parenting village.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-83-amanda-gorman

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Melissa Parke shared her journey in bringing an idea to life through Black Teaching Artist Lab where she conducts research, offers workshops and professional development, and so much more. She shared so vulnerably about mental health and struggles with feeling confident despite being certain of the importance and value of her work. She has created the Afrocentric Social-Emotional Learning Framework, which centers social-emotional learning (SEL) for the Black learner through arts education. Melissa talked about developing this framework and using it within professional development for Black teaching artists.

Another major part of her work is the Pan-African cultural exchange, which provides opportunities for Black identifying teaching artists to travel to different parts of the African Diaspora, in order to better understand the Black experience globally. To support this project, donate here!

Melissa also talked about research and how she began this work. When she asked for data on Black teaching artists and was told it doesn’t exist, she decided to gather it. She is conducting this research and currently has a survey gathering information from Black identifying teaching artists. If that’s you, please respond here! It’s anonymous and gathers valuable data to demonstrate the impact of Black teaching artists' work and to tell the stories of their work in different communities. You can also help by sharing the survey widely and getting the word out about this work.

Melissa Parke is a Brooklyn-based creative that is making waves in the arts-education world. Parke initially developed her concept for Black Teaching Artist Lab, LLC at the beginning of 2019, while working as a community manager at Brooklyn Creative League—a co-working space in Brooklyn, New York. Surrounded by successful entrepreneurs and immersed in the social changes that were underway in America, Parke was inspired to turn her big ideas into a tangible, new reality.

Black Teaching Artist Lab, LLC (BTAL) is a professional development and travel abroad organization that aims to connect Black teaching artists and learners from the African Diaspora through arts education, in order to unify and strengthen intercultural understanding between marginalized Pan-African populations. We believe that through the use of art—one of the most powerful tools we have for human expression—Pan-African teaching artists will be able to share their individual stories of the lived Black experience with Black youth, everywhere.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-82-melissa-parke

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Stories from the Field: A curated selection of conversations around equity in the art classroom.

This episode is a special one and will be the last one of 2021. This is a longer version of the presentation I gave at the California Art Education Association conference last month. I prefaced the presentation by saying that I am not an expert here, but have been learning and listening and working to share the advice of those who know more than I do, to share the experiences of those who experience racism firsthand, to share the voices of those who are too often silenced.

It was a daunting task to select clips from over 80 hours of conversation to fit into 30 minutes. What’s shared here is my longer cut, which is closer to 45 minutes. While there’s obviously so much cut from the many conversations these clips were pulled from, it is also still a lot to process. This episode includes clips from the following artists and educators: Peter Atsu Adaletey, Mahoganëë Amiger, Mandi Antonucci, Morgan Auten Smith, Abby Birhanu, Jeremy Blair, Aaron Bos Wahl, Liz Brent, Tracy Brown, Adrienne Brown-David, Nikki Brugnoli, Adjoa Burrowes, Candido Crespo, Pat Cruz, Christy Culp, Lizz Denneau, Megan Driving Hawk, Nisa Floyd, Jill Forie, Kate Frazer Rego, Emma Freeman, Victoria J. Fry, Reuben King, Jessica Kitzman, Khadesia Latimer, Ondrea Levey, Paula Liz, Matt MacFarland, Kelly Marshall, Lauren Merceron, Alisha Mernick, David T. Miller, Mallory Muya, Danielle Nilsen, Priyanka Parmanand, Eileen Powers, Gregory Quick, Natasha Rivett-Carnac, Mark Rode, Jess Rogawski, Lori Santos, Tamara Slade, Corbrae Smith, Sydney Snyder, Karina Esperanza Yánez, and Flavia Zuñiga-West.

Here is the Google document where I shared the transcript and artist bios for the final CAEA presentation, which was a shortened version of this episode. Feel free to make a copy and add notes if that’s helpful.

I ended with the song Nisa Floyd recommended, Come Back As A Flower by Stevie Wonder featuring Syreeta Wright. I can’t include it in the episode for copyright reasons, but you can listen to it on the blog, thinking about Nisa’s words of redemption and hope and growth.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-81-stories

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