Wrecked by Art with Cindy Ingram

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

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For this summer, I really want to focus on art teachers and what they went through in the last year teaching through the pandemic. Every teacher has a different story to tell about what they faced, and I want to talk about one of the hardest years in memory for teachers and celebrate getting through it.

Looking forward to the new school year, what have teachers learned from this experience that’ll change the way they teach moving forward? Let’s take back the joy of reconnecting with art and reclaim our power as teachers and individuals by first reflecting on what we’ve gone through and the lessons learned. So in this episode, I start off by welcoming my first guest in a series of teacher interviews: Mary Greim-Gallo, a K-5 elementary art teacher in Rhode Island.

4:33​ - Mary’s art teaching philosophy and the classroom environment this past year

11:44 - Particular artwork lessons that connected really well with Mary’s students

14:20 - Regional art and having to carefully choose what to teach students

21:08 - What changes Mary plans to incorporate for future years

28:28 - Why Mary feels a little unnerved about planning the upcoming school year

31:56 - Going forward with a focus on social-emotional learning and diversity

37:45 - The artists that changed Mary’s life

Transcript at artclasscurator.com/66

Today, I’m here with Jennifer Easterling who is another wonderful staff member of Art Class Curator. She writes lessons for our membership at Curated Connections Library and our curriculums. In this episode, she’s chosen Shirin Neshat’s Rebellious Silence for our conversation which she’s been enraptured with ever since she came across it when looking at an AP Art History class. Recently, this artwork came to Fort Worth, Texas and Jenn got to go see it!

4:22​ - What the art piece looks like

9:23 - What surprised Cindy and Jenn about Neshat’s photographs

15:05 - The nuances of the photographs in person vs. online

21:51 - Opening eyes to Muslim women’s rights

26:13 - Discussing the symbolism of guns in Neshat’s artwork

31:34 - Getting lost in Neshat’s dramatic eyes

33:46 - What Neshat wants from us looking at her work

36:58 - Speculating about the meaning of the poem

44:10 - The artistic beauty of the Farsi language

47:48 - Going back home never being the same

52:10 - Watching Neshat’s video art

59:49 - Key personal connection for Jenn to take forward

1:04:38 - Insights from Jenn teaching this art in the classroom

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/64

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

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Today’s episode is a recording of a webinar I did recently with Kris Bakke at Nasco Education. I talk all about social emotional learning, it’s importance, and how we accomplish that in the art room through working with works of art. In the process, I use a Molly Crabapple portrait as part of an exercise for the webinar group and give an overview of the new curriculum, Art Curator Class Perspectives (in partnership with Nasco).

4:58​ - What I’m aiming to accomplish in this webinar

13:11 - Ways in which education isn’t focused on learning to be an effective adult

16:46 - What social emotional learning looks like in the classroom

23:48 - CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) and the 5 competencies

34:24 - Attendees and I engage in the Reflect Connect worksheet activity for Crabapple’s artwork

45:09 - Ensuring the inclusion of artwork diversity and artist representation in the curriculum

48:29 - An overview of the Perspectives curriculum

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/64

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

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As an introvert, it always fascinates me how I can get into a really deep conversation with someone for a while and feel energized and motivated by it, and can keep talking all night. Then there are other times where talking to someone just sucks the life out of me and takes my energy away. In this episode, I discuss small talk versus big talk and how to go beyond small talk to have deeper, more meaningful conversations and teach our students to do the same. I also share some strategies you can use in your classroom to help develop these skills in your students. 

5:10​ - Defining small vs. big talk and small talk’s vital purpose

14:25 - Revelations from a small talk/big talk research study

16:50 - Benefits to having deeper conversations, especially for art students

19:23 - Ways to encourage and teach your students to have substantive discussions

27:40 - Vulnerability in deep conversations and creating a safe space for students

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/63

I rarely comment about the Internet, but sometimes I have to speak up when something bumps up against my values. This impromptu episode is brought to you by a little argument about Van Gogh I got into online. 

I realized I had some really strong feelings that I don’t know if I’ve really discussed in any format here. It’s a very important perspective that we need to consider so that our students don’t end up perpetuating elitist thinking when it comes to art, and so that we can create a space where we make art accessible to all.

2:44​ - What sparked the argument and my reaction

7:22 - Examples of elitism built into the art museum system

11:46 - Kids’ reactions to the immersive Van Gogh show in Chicago

16:28 - The argument for “being educated” and making art accessible to all

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/62

Last week, I had a fascinating conversation with Madalyn Gregory discussing Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life. I left that conversation so excited, only to discover that we weren’t done yet. Even after going off the air, we kept talking about it and realized we missed a lot of important things. So we decided to do a follow-up conversation to share even more of our insights with you!

4:55​ - Awareness of a gender issue from last week and what it says about our conditioning

13:40 - Impact of gender and gender limitations as human-made constructs

16:37 - Diverse racial representation (or lack thereof) in art

24:14 - Importance of authenticity of different perspectives shown in artwork

28:23 - How the patterns in Death and Life resemble quilt work

31:57 - Ruminating over what the circles in Death’s robes symbolize

36:23 - The negative space between Death and Life more effective as black to represent the unknown

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/61

Today, I’m excited to try a brand new type of episode where I have art conversations with other people and talk about favorite pieces of art, personal connections to art, and what drew us to the world of art. For my first guest, I’ve brought on one of my best friends for the last 10+ years, organizer for all things at Art Class Curator, and brilliant writer Madalyn Gregory. In this episode, she’s chosen to discuss Death and Life by Gustav Klimt, an artwork that stopped her in her tracks when she saw it in person in Vienna during one of our curator trips.

3:09​ – What it felt like for Madalyn to see the artwork for the first time

6:13 – Describing what Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life looks like

9:34 – The many observations we had while interpreting Death and Life

15:04 – Possible meanings and symbolism behind the skin tone used

24:20 – The loneliness and personality of Death

30:44 – An important lesson for art teachers to realize about their students

32:45 – Why we connected with Death and Life and the messages imparted to us

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/60

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

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Thanks to a Facebook group and a friend, conversations around visualizing the apple have grabbed my attention lately. My brain works differently than others, though. I don’t really see things in my head. But when I saw the responses to the apple conversation, I felt really validated and had some profound realizations. In this episode, I talk about those realizations, what this means for art teachers, and how we can better serve diverse learning styles among our students.

5:46​ - The judgment I’ve made about myself for my entire life

7:58 - Limited diverse learning types and how I “visualize” things

11:29 - The impact of learning differences on the way you teach

14:36 - Strategies to address differences and accommodate diverse learners

22:53 - The disservice done to us while learning art history in college

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/59-diverse-learning-types/

If you’ve been following us for a while, what we do here at Art Class Curator is much deeper than art appreciation or history. Appreciating art is great, but it gives off the vibe of being better than you and puts up a divide between the art and those who can enjoy it. In the last year, we’ve been emphasizing art connection instead of appreciation.

Connecting with art has taught me something about myself that I didn’t know, helped me get through something, or given me clarity or a safe space. So in this episode, I’m gonna talk about ways to use art to have moments of clarity and connection where things suddenly make sense.

3:26​ - My realization that art isn’t about the details but the feelings

9:29 - What I mean by spirituality and spiritual practices

14:56 - The aesthetic experience incorporating both mind and body

23:05 - How we can use art as a spiritual practice

30:11 - What to do if you can’t make it to an art museum

32:12 - A couple of caveats

Transcript at https://artclasscurator.com/58-art-as-spiritual-practice/

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

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Today's episode is a part of the day 5 lesson of our free e-mail course, Beyond the Surface: Teach Students How to Dive Deeper Into an Artwork to Make Connections and Meaning. The topic for today is THERE IS JUST NOT TIME: Making Time for Experiences That Students AND Admins Will Remember.

Sign up for this free e-mail course at https://artclasscurator.com/surface

Join the Curated Connections Library at https://artclasscurator.com/join