Teaching Artist Podcast

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

https://www.blackteachingartistlab.com/

@blackteachingartistlab on Instagram

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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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Isadora Stowe shared her winding journey teaching in several settings before landing in community college where she embraces the student centered approach. She talked about learning on the job how to connect with students and truly listen to find their unmet needs. It was so helpful hearing about the mindset shift from thinking of behaviors as problematic to thinking of behaviors as expressing something that may be painful and is not being heard.

I also loved hearing about Isadora’s work and how she pursues her interest in physics through installation in collaboration with scientists. She talked about making a living and making a life as an artist - creating multiple income streams, but also building in time to recharge yourself.

Isadora Stowe is a New Mexican based multi-media artist whose work focuses on the narrative of environment translated and coded into complex psychological landscapes. Stowe grew up in the southwest border region, living and working in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. She credits these experiences for providing a heightened awareness of geographical and political boundaries, and a fascination with the exploration of identity of self and the construction of home in her work.

Stowe earned her BFA in Painting with a double major in Cultural Anthropology, minor in Native American Studies and an MFA in Painting and Drawing. She exhibits her work widely and is represented in many private and public collections across the country and in Mexico. She has been the recipient of several grants, scholarships and awards for her work, including an Award for Excellence from the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She is also one of the Artists profiled in the Book, The Motherhood of Art, published in 2020.

She is dedicated to making the world a better place for Artists from all points of origin and serves on many local and national committees and on the board of directors for the Texas Association of Schools of Art and Bordersenses, a non-profit which promotes arts in the binational region. She is also the co-creator of the professional art practice courses; Wearing all the hats without losing your head presented on the Artist Mother Network.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/80-isadora-stowe/

isadorastowe.com

@isadorastowe

Wearing All The Hats

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Cynthia Hauk shared her experience teaching mindful art workshops, including trainings for teachers and parents around bringing these practices into our teaching. I was so grateful that she also shared a specific exercise that can be done with no materials or extended to create incredible works of art. We talked about somatic work and what that means, as well as overcoming the shame story many of us have around creativity. Cynthia also shared some of her favorite books, which I’ll link to in the blog post. She talked about fitting in art-making while juggling so many other parts of life, including true self care. I loved the imagery of filling your cup in order for it to overflow and pour out into the world.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/79-cynthia-hauk

mindfulcreativemuse.com

@mindfulcreativemuse

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Mary Beth Flynn shared her experience growing both her house portrait business and her art education business. She talked about being a lifelong artist and a lifelong entrepreneur and it was amazing to hear how she really embodies both. I also loved hearing about the therapeutic aspects of the work she’s doing through her Artfully Aging programs. She ties in storytelling and song to add an oral component to her watercolor projects.

We can probably all relate to the necessarily fast learning curve with technology during this pandemic. Mary Beth revamped her website, but also shifted her business model and created over 20 projects with training videos and shipped kits. She talked about being daunted at first, taking time to just organize and take stock, but then seeing the potential of moving beyond her geographic area. It’s so inspiring to see how she has grown her businesses and continues to adapt.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/78-mary-beth-flynn/

www.designsbymarybeth.com

artfullyaging.com

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Lizz Denneau is making incredible artwork while teaching with a focus on contemporary art in a rural Arizona high school. I loved getting to learn more about her work and the ideas and processes she pursues as an artist. She talked about leaning into her intuition and the incredible paths that leads her down. Her striking visuals have so much depth of form and texture as well as meaning and history. She talked about her childhood as a bi-racial person and how she’s been digging into the history of the Black half of her family and processing through her artwork. She’s able to create work that is both deeply personal and connective.

Lizz also shared her experience working with the Art 21 Educators’ Institute, which provided resources, connections with fellow art educators, and methods for sharing contemporary work in the classroom. She offered helpful insights into teaching with a social justice lens in a conservative district, which echoed what I hear again and again: build relationships! Getting to know your students is vital!

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/77-lizz-denneau/

www.lizzdenneauart.com

@lizz_denneau_art on Instagram

@LizzDenneauArt on Twitter

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Teaching Artists' Lounge meeting registration: http://arteducatorslounge.eventbrite.com/

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Book an Art Critique Session with Rebecca: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/mentor/

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Lizz Denneau is making incredible artwork while teaching with a focus on contemporary art in a rural Arizona high school. I loved getting to learn more about her work and the ideas and processes she pursues as an artist. She talked about leaning into her intuition and the incredible paths that leads her down. Her striking visuals have so much depth of form and texture as well as meaning and history. She talked about her childhood as a bi-racial person and how she’s been digging into the history of the Black half of her family and processing through her artwork. She’s able to create work that is both deeply personal and connective.

Lizz also shared her experience working with the Art 21 Educators’ Institute, which provided resources, connections with fellow art educators, and methods for sharing contemporary work in the classroom. She offered helpful insights into teaching with a social justice lens in a conservative district, which echoed what I hear again and again: build relationships! Getting to know your students is vital!

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/77-lizz-denneau/

www.lizzdenneauart.com

@lizz_denneau_art on Instagram

@LizzDenneauArt on Twitter

. . .

Follow: @teachingartistpodcast

@pottsart

@playinspiregallery

Teaching Artists' Lounge meeting registration: http://arteducatorslounge.eventbrite.com/

Submit your work to be featured: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/featuredartist/

Book an Art Critique Session with Rebecca: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/mentor/

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Lorna Ritz talked about her process and the meditative work of creating space with paint. It was inspiring hearing her dedication to her work and how she shares that with students. We talked about modeling as a teacher and helping students learn how to see. Lorna also spoke about her beautiful large barn studio and the intensive process of renovating it - both when she first moved in back in 1986 and again more recently to abate a mold problem and save the barn. I loved hearing about her lifelong passion for oil paint and the way she thinks about color.

Lorna has drawn the Holyoke Mountains for 36 years and is still learning them. Both the day and seasonal light changes on them constantly, filling her with curiosity to draw them better. She sets her easel up on a hill overlooking one of the only east-west axis mountain ranges in this country, formed by glaciers. The mountains are so close to her so she feels she can almost reach out to pet them, like they are a big animal moving up and down as the cloud shadows allow the sun to hit them in a pulsating way. She works and reworks each drawing for many days, obtaining a specific light from the sky falling on the mountains that will never bring these particular colors again. Everything in the drawing has equal importance; the tree is as important as the mountain behind it, the sky as important moving behind them, as important the foreground coming up towards the viewer. Everything is democratically related, a conglomeration of spatial movements interrelated, needing each other to survive.

Lorna studied with Gabriel Laderman and Lennart Anderson in the 60’s and received a BFA from Pratt Institute, changing the course of her painting life into pure abstraction, under the instruction of painter James Gahagan, (a student of Hans Hofmann). She received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1971, in both painting and sculpture, (welding steel, and casting in bronze and iron). Lorna has taught at several universities including the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, University of Minnesota, and Dartmouth College. She has also been a visiting guest critic at the Vermont Studio Center and taught several drawing marathons at the New York Studio School.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/76-lorna-ritz

www.lornaritz.com

www.facebook.com/lorna.ritz

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I love how Lauren’s work talks about the history of the land through the history of her paintings. Her process of layering, covering up what’s underneath while leaving hints of the past, is so meaningful. She talked about making quilts as well as paintings and where the 2 inform each other. Lauren also spoke about meeting students where they are and truly getting to know students as humans while also sharing yourself as a human.

Lauren Scott Corwin is a semi-abstract artist who works with oil paint, printmaking, fiber, and installation. Her bold palette is meant to immerse the viewer with familiar patterns and narratives of common scenes with a nod to the uncanny. Her recent work has begun to explore elements of Home, both as an idea and the structure itself as this was redefined during the Covid pandemic. She continues to dissect our idea of Home from a critical (and playful) standpoint, seeking to uncover guides and maps of the human experience that we know in 2020.

Lauren Scott Corwin has maintained a life as both an artist and educator since the beginning of her career. Since her BFA in Painting from Maryland Institute College of Art, followed by an MFA in Painting from the University of Delaware. In 2019, she was awarded the David P. Hartman ‘52 Excellence in Teaching Award, alongside a full-year sabbatical and array of national exhibitions. She currently lives in the hills of Western Massachusetts, teaching at an independent school, along with her young family.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/75-lauren-scott-corwin

www.laurenscottcorwin.com

@lascocorwin on Instagram

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Judy DeSimone shared her experience of over 30 years teaching and had some great tips for teachers. She also talked about her ceramic work and inspirations. I loved hearing about how careful she is about the finishes, keeping areas matte while allowing some bits of gloss. Her transformation from realism to abstraction was also inspiring to hear.

Judy DeSimone is a ceramic artist living and creating art in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She earned a bachelor of science degree in art education at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her degree allowed her to pursue a career and vocation as a middle school art educator with 6th, 7th and 8th graders, at a public school in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. It was in this classroom Judy taught herself various ceramic hand building techniques leading to a love of the medium. Her ceramic enthusiasm was shared with her students.

For thirty years, Judy’s ceramics were realistic wall pieces consisting of animals, flowers, leaves and personal diary scenes executed in bas relief. With public school retirement came a shedding of the old and a blossoming of the new to the quick, spontaneous, “why not art” she currently pursues. The “why not” view was reinforced in her retirement job, teaching art to kindergarten through eighth graders at her local Catholic school. The inhibitions of the younger students’ ideas and techniques reinforced Judy’s personal philosophy of, why not, which she applies to her ceramics. What luck to have had three-hundred-part time muses at one’s disposal. After 39 years of teaching art to Kindergarten through 8 grade students Ms. DeSimone hung up her classroom apron to pursue personal artistic endeavors.

Blog Post with links and images: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/74-judy-desimone/

www.judydesimoneceramics.com

@JudyLDeSimone on instagram

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Check out the featured artists: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/featured-artists/

Art Educators' Lounge meeting registration: http://arteducatorslounge.eventbrite.com/

Submit your work to be featured: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/featuredartist/

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