Wrecked by Art with Cindy Ingram

After graduate school, I worked at an art non-profit called Big Thought. While I was there, my podcast guest today Eric Booth was a consultant who went high up in the company straight out of college. He did a lot of staff development training and programs for the non-profit. This episode represents a full circle moment for me as I thrill at reconnecting with him! In it, he and I talk about his path as a teaching artist and the connection between art and spirituality, a topic we both care about tremendously.

3:16 - Eric talks about his transition from Broadway actor to teaching artist

6:36 - How the teaching artist field has changed and the effects of the pandemic on the industry

12:18 - Two ways to bring a teaching artist into your classroom

15:38 - Eric describes what a good teaching artist partnership looks like

21:03 - The single best sentence Eric ever wrote, the idea behind it, and the companion book it eventually created

24:51 - How I recently made my own art and spirituality connection

27:52 - Paying a higher quality of attention to all different kinds of things in your life

32:20 - Eric explains what he means when he talks about the “verbs of art”

37:40 - The different between big art and religion and little art and religion

41:10 - The three concepts the Everyday Work of Art book boils down to

45:01 - Ideas on how to help students develop responsiveness to works of art

49:58 - What you can do right now to become more connected with art and spirituality

55:51 - How Hamlet changed Eric’s life

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/85-connection-between-art-and-spirituality/

Over the last few months, I’ve really been exploring what really lights me up in my work. While helping teachers bring the joy of personal art connection to their students has been wonderful, I also know that I want to teach again and be in conversations about art rather than just helping others facilitate them.

To that end, I’m offering a new program on November 8 that’s not just for teachers, it’s for anybody. As a precursor to this, I did an interview with a friend and colleague of mine, Lisa Carpenter, on her podcast called Full Frontal Living. I’ve known her for several years and after the interview, I realized that I really wanted to share this conversation with you too.

So in this episode, Lisa interviews me about making personal connections with art as a tool for self care and healing. I also share a bit about the upcoming program, Art Connection Circle, and walk her through an interpretation exercise of Miquel Barceló’s art, Sopa d’Europa.

4:44​ - I discuss my deeply emotional connection with art

8:28 - Art’s ability to allow you feel safe in your feelings

10:11 - How to start thinking about art as a way to practice self-care

13:25 - The tendency of different forms of art to meet you wherever you are in your life

18:08 - Why even the works of art that bore or repel you are worth exploring

22:24 - Approaching self-care and art in a different way

27:50 - Lisa makes a personal connection with art live on the podcast

38:51 - What’s different for Lisa after connecting with Miquel’s artwork

41:43 - Where the real meaning behind any work of art can be found

45:15 - How art can serve as a safety net for hard conversations

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/84-joy-of-art-connection/

Some pieces of art just make you uncomfortable. Maybe it’s a movie or scene that hits too close to home, or a book about a particularly violent event (real or fictional) that makes you squirm... or a painting that brings up regrets or painful memories.

For Madalyn Gregory and myself, Marcos Raya’s 2000 painting The Anguish of Being and the Nothingness of the Universe made us feel ill at ease. So of course we had to discuss it! I’m excited to welcome Madalyn back on the show to talk about art. In this episode, we describe and interpret Raya’s piece, making personal connections along the way that surprised even me.

1:14​ - A description of Raya’s self-portrait

6:13 - Our initial reactions to the artwork and the various connections we see in the details

10:30 - How the painting puts the mundane of day-to-day life in perspective

13:37 - How Raya’s work reflects the messiness and complexity of life and space

17:46 - Madalyn shares an interpersonal interpretation of the throat area’s depiction

19:44 - The contrast between the cleanliness of the painting and the message it conveys

23:51 - A possible double meaning behind the cardboard imagery

30:55 - Another interpretation of the cardboard detail and how it relates to our life experiences

38:59 - The very personal realization that brought back my discomfort with the artwork, just as I started feeling more at ease with it

44:48 - The necessity of allowing your kids (and others) to see the humanity in you

48:26 - Madalyn and I discuss the depressive title of Raya’s self-portrait

51:55 - How my views changed on the artwork from beginning to end of this conversation

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/83-studying-the-disturbing-2000-self-portrait-of-marcos-raya/

This episode is part of the former Art Class Curator episode and is targeted specifically for art teachers. 

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I am so excited about today’s guest! Today, I talked to Mario Rossero, the Executive Director of the National Arts Education Association (NAEA). He had an exciting journey as an art teacher before joining the NAEA in January 2020, just before the world exploded. In this episode, we discuss his journey and experiences, but, most importantly, we discuss the direction of the NAEA and its priority as an organization. 

02:08 - Mario talks about himself, his background, how he got into art education, his experience coordinating curriculum building for arts education, and teaching leadership through arts.

05:09 - Finding a role in art supervision and administration.

09:47 - Coordinating an arts program at the Central Office.

11:38 - Mario’s experience working in Chicago.

18:02 - Mario talks about his work with neighborhood art communities as the vice president for education at Kennedy Center.

20:55 -  How Mario got into the NAEA.

23:20 - The biggest challenge in art education.

27:55 - How strategy and welcoming decision-makers aid art education.

29:40 - How teachers can show the positive value proposition of art education.

32:40 - Resources for art teachers to learn art leadership.

34:22 - The challenge of policy and budget.

38:00 - How the events in 2020 affected Mario’s original vision for NAEA.

44:43 - The NAEA’s equity, diversity, and inclusion policy.

48:14 - Incorporating the ED&I framework into the continuous learning process.

50:37 - How to make space for inclusion and diversity.

52:40 - How a diverse approach to art learning improves art education.

55:20 - How the NAEA team responds to criticisms of the ED&I policy.

56:59 - What part of work is Mario currently excited about.

58:28 - The role of art-making in Mario’s life.

60:18 - Mario’s wall of art and drawing inspiration from them.

61:10 - The artwork that changed Mario’s life and how it aided a second-grade art class.

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/82-state-of-art-education-mario-rossero/

This episode is part of the former Art Class Curator podcast and is targeted specifically for art teachers. 

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Positive moments in the classroom don’t just spring up out of nowhere. A well-run classroom makes teaching and learning fun for you and your students... something Michael Linsin has spent years studying, practicing, and offering in his guides on his website. 

Michael was one of my first interviews on the podcast. It’s among my favorites, and I want to share it again. So in this re-released episode, he offers his amazing tips and insights on best practices for effective classroom management planning and forming relationships with your students, with a special focus on art classrooms.

2:19​ - Michael’s #1 tip for being a fun and effective teacher

4:56 - What makes a good classroom management plan and why consequences really don’t matter

7:17 - The most effective way to teach your students the classroom rules

10:30 - How art teachers can find a balance between teaching the rules and teaching the lessons

13:55 - Why you might want to ditch filling out reflection forms as a consequence

16:29 - One important thing that can make running an effective classroom a bit easier

19:36 - How you can still leverage relationship-building with your students even if you have hundreds to teach

22:39 - When to transition away from time-outs and effective consequences for older students

26:19 - Why Michael doesn’t recommend a rewards system for your classroom

30:05 - What you can do to encourage your students to develop a motivation to do the work

32:21 - Why you must follow-through on your classroom management plan

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/art-classroom-management/

Guess who I have on as my guest today! Long-time listeners know that I love the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast. One of the co-hosts, Vanessa Zoltan, has similar views about connecting with literature as I do with artwork. In this episode, she and I discuss her book Praying with Jane Eyre and how to use sacred text (or sacred art) as a tool to help you deal with some of life’s problems, do good in the world, and become a better person in the process.

2:24​ - Vanessa briefs us on her background in education and chaplaincy

4:46 - Vanessa explains why she loves Jane Eyre so much

8:15 - What it means for something to be sacred, according to Vanessa

10:22 - Exploring the idea of how treating text as sacred leads to treating your neighbor as sacred

16:35 - The gift Vanessa recently received while reading Jane Eyre that we can all heed

19:25 - A brief description of Vanessa’s book and why her chapter on destiny shook me so much

21:27 - How a recent controversy involving JK Rowling tested people’s capacity to separate art from the artist

26:05 - How problematic elements in Bronte’s Jane Eyre reflect a dark side of the U.S.

30:42 - How to find your own sacred text or art and work with it

36:02 - Why re-reading the same exact text can still produce a different experience every time

40:20 - The artwork that has changed Vanessa’s life for 20 years running

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/81

This episode is part of the former Art Class Curator podcast and is specifically for art teachers. 

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The percentage of U.S. students who graduate from high school has never been higher in our history. But have schools ever been structured, resourced, or intended to educate everybody’s child?

During Jeffrey Benson’s time as a teacher, mentor, and administrator for over 40 years, he worked with neglected, abused, traumatized, and autistic students who struggled with mainstream education. He now focuses on helping schools be more successful with more students through a better understanding of how people learn. In this episode, he and I discuss social-emotional learning and how to use it to improve your lesson planning and boost your students’ engagement for greater success.

2:21​ - Jeffrey’s background and the unorthodox way his imagination helped him make lesson plans

7:18 - Exploring the meaningful question from Jeffrey’s webinar that I loved

11:26 - How Jeffrey defines social-emotional learning and its main characteristics

16:06 - So many examples of how Jeffrey would incorporate SEL into an art lesson

29:43 - The value of praising versus redirecting students in class

35:28 - Digging into the idea of positioning yourself as a learner while teaching

38:41 - Advice to help you be more intentional about adding SEL elements into your lesson plans

41:39 - Other simple ways you can intentionally put social-emotional learning at the forefront

45:55 - Jeffrey’s SEl recommendations for teachers

49:07 - The artwork that changed Jeffrey’s perspective on art

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/80

We sometimes talk about using art to make a difference. And while some may be cynical about that claim, my guest today isn’t one of them. Dani Coke has an incredible story to share about how her art went viral overnight, made a difference, and really changed her life, and she explains her artistic process. As you listen to her describe her journey, you’ll get chills at the power of her art, just like I did!

2:01​ - Dani briefly explains her history as a lover of art and creativity

5:56 - Dani reveals the events behind her art going viral on social media

11:45 - Dealing with the duality of personal, empowering success under awful circumstances

16:34 - COVID and Asian hate as an example of Dani’s process for creating art with a message

20:42 - How Dani manages to avoid dealing with people nitpicking her over semantics

25:07 - The teacher with an assumption about Dani that almost put her off the art path for good

30:01 - The chorus teacher who encouraged Dani on her creative journey

32:48 - Advice for teachers who want to have difficult conversations with their students about race, gender, and privilege

39:29 - Using your sphere of influence to bring about change for causes that matter most to you

43:43 - Where Dani gets her creative inspiration from and some book recommendations from her

47:48 - The work of art that changed Dani’s life

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/79

In the wake of the pandemic last year, I recorded a conference, Called to Art, that brought together educators from across the U.S. It was an amazing experience where I used real-world examples of myself to discuss what we learn from looking at art, how we can become emotionally connected to particular pieces of art, and why you should show more works of art to your students. It was all about discovering and rediscovering the emotional power of art, and I want to share that presentation with you in today’s show.

3:50​ - How I developed my deep connection to art

10:36 - Why I switched from art history to art education

14:02 - A question to think about as you listen to the rest of the episode

16:02 - What you get out of art when you really slow down and look at it

20:36 - Embracing uncertainty and answers within through artwork

23:47 - The surprising amount of emotional fluency of the average person

29:37 - An exercise to discover your emotional connections with art

36:25 - Examples of my powerful, personal connections with art

49:06 - Four areas where you can prime your students to have their own emotional art connections

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/78

This episode is part of the former Art Class Curator podcast and is targeted specifically for art teachers. 

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The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is right around the corner. So many people, including your students, weren’t alive when it happened. That’s shocking when you think about it because of how it changed our world practically overnight and still influences current events. So in this episode, I want to use the 9/11 Memorial artwork as a case study for bringing past (and present) events into the classroom and using art to process, reflect, practice empathy, and better understand complex issues.

4:57​ - How the 9/11 monument lesson inspired one particularly creative junior high student

8:59 - How art serves as a way for students to experience history, past and present

13:12 - A description of the memorial, who created it, and what it feels like to view it in person

20:10 - One of the lesson activities provided for the monument and other activity ideas

23:01 - Various ways you can apply this lesson (and others available in the Library) to your classroom

26:01 - How incorporating lessons like this can help you in other ways

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/77