Teaching Artist Podcast

It was such a pleasure to talk with Abby Birhanu and hear more about her teaching and art-making! Her passion and compassion comes through in all that she does. I loved her advice about antiracist teaching within communities that aren’t ready to embrace it. She talked about being a wordsmith, sharing artists’ words and encouraging students to question institutions, and showing students love. The way she spoke about helping students grow as compassionate humans was so inspiring. Abby scaffolds these discussions the same way teachers scaffold all learning - she creates stepping stones to help students move away from singular stories about people and cultures unlike their own.

Abigail (Abby) Birhanu is an artist and high school art teacher in St. Louis, Missouri. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she moved to the United States at the age of nine. She has always believed in the power of art to shape and transform the learning outcomes, experiences, and identity of the next generation. She practices Choice Based Art to encourage creativity and confidence in her students as well as to help them take ownership of their artistic journey.

Abby participated in the Fulbright Teachers Exchange Program as an exchange teacher to the United Kingdom. The experience was transformative and further solidified her commitment to cross-cultural learning and teaching. Abby loves traveling (21 countries and counting) and especially partaking in educational and cultural exchange opportunities with her students. As an educator, she is committed to anti-racist, anti-bias, and culturally responsive teaching that cultivates global citizens that understand and value the interconnected world community.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-64-abby-birhanu/

• abbybirhanu.wixsite.com/artistwebsite
• www.antiracistartteachers.org
• @ms_b_art_escapades
• @antiracistartteachers
• Facebook Group: Art Teachers for Anti Racist Curriculum
• Facebook Group: ABAR Education Action Group

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Jeannie Siegler was my high school art teacher!! We reconnected a few years ago and she’s shown the same generosity she always embodied. She was one of those teachers that made me want to teach and now remains a mentor full of encouragement. I loved getting to know more about her background in this episode! Jeannie began her teaching career through the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, then taught in Washington D.C. public schools including Western High School, which later became Duke Ellington School of the Arts. She spent time teaching on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota before settling outside Missoula, Montana where we first met as teacher and student.

She spoke about her experience on the School Support Team for the state of Montana and how seeing the inner workings of many schools and districts along with the political mechanics surrounding them helped her understand the complexity of the issues in education. Jeannie offered advice for teachers and shared her challenges.

We talked about setting up darkrooms in our basements, connections between science and art, and finding time for art-making. I loved getting to chat with Jeannie and share her wisdom and spirit with you!

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-63-jeannie-siegler/

@jeanniesiegler

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Teaching The Truth

Register for the Art Educators’ Lounge: Art & Business with Ekaterina Popova on June 26th: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/158750419779

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Kathryn Rodrigues talked about being a 3rd culture kid, growing up in many countries and returning to the U.S. as a teenager, but not feeling at home. I loved how she talked about the space of transition, that time in motion and trying to capture that feeling in her work. She also shone a light on the world of freelance teaching artists, balancing teaching with art-making and parenting. Kathryn talked about the structure of her teaching time before the pandemic and how she brought the city of Chicago into the classroom through field trips to art venues as well as sharing local artists, working to create equity and improve access to cultural resources. She shared the idea of curriculum development centered around local BIPOC artists, rather than including them as an exception to the white-centered curriculum. That brought up a great question we can all ask ourselves - what is at the center of your teaching?

Kathryn Rodrigues is a Chicago based artist and educator. She was born in Georgia and within weeks was on the move to her family's next destination. Her family moved to 10 different locations within the next 13 years, including Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal and Germany, before finally settling in Illinois. Being raised as a “third-culture kid” left her with a deep interest in cultural identity, notions of belonging and longing, domestic life, and the natural world. She often uses both visual and symbolic systems of mapping in her work as a way to express her interior life and navigate the world around her. Her work represents an investigation of and a reflection on the collection of experiences and memories that shape her identity. Kathryn received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Illinois and a Master of Science in Art Education from the Massachusetts College of Art. She has taught courses for children and adults at the Massachusetts College of Art, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Marwen. Exhibition highlights include the Chicago Cultural Center, Copley Society of Art, Woman Made Gallery, Midwest Center for Photography, Spilt Milk Gallery, Open House Contemporary and ARC Gallery.

Blog post with images and more links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-62-kathryn-rodrigues/

www.kathrynrodrigues.com

@kathryn.rodrigues

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Teaching The Truth

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Nisa Floyd talked about honoring her feelings through her internal and personal art practice and how that also allows her to honor her students’ feelings in the classroom. Her gardening and plant metaphors are so beautiful and meaningful and woven throughout our conversation. She shared her experiences feeling the need to be a savior and then checking that need and asking how she could turn that urge to something truly helpful. She talks about art as a solution, as a way to create space for dialogue, and a way to tap into some of the deeply rooted beliefs that we need to change.

The way she communes with community and asks “what does support look like for you?” is a model for institutions wanting to change systemically. We talked about shame and the power dynamic within breaking down a culture of white supremacy and how so often the work being done is not breaking down these systems at a skeletal level, but instead adding a pretty dress on top of this deformed skeleton. Nisa talked about her worries that her work at the institution could end with her and how she’s working to institutionalize change and develop systems rooted in community-based planning of programs.

This conversation left me thinking deeply, considering how I can come back as a flower, for myself as a human, for my daughter and family, but also for my communities - my students, fellow art educators, and artist mothers. Thank you, Nisa!!

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-61-nisa-floyd/

@nisaimani on Instagram

Stevie Wonder: "Come Back As A Flower"

Atlanta Contemporary

Art Makes

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

Teaching The Truth

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Support this podcast. Subscribe, leave a review, or see more ways to support here (https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/support/).

We also offer opportunities for artists!  (https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/opportunities/)

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Sarah talked about her participatory work with a wide variety of groups, from children in schools to community groups to corporate groups. She thinks of herself as a sort of conductor, using questions to pull out imagery and marks reflecting a story or theme. I loved hearing how she’s worked with a psychologist to publish books, but also develop programming, with the power of the arts for reflection and healing in mind.

It was also interesting to hear about her own personal work with mosaic. The idea of allowing ourselves to make art that is “just” for us and not meant for sales or exhibition or teaching sometimes feels revolutionary.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-60-sarah-pimenta/

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

Teaching The Truth

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We also offer opportunities for artists!  (https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/opportunities/)

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Jill Forie talked about how she started and runs her custom sneaker business, Sink or Swim Kicks, alongside teaching. She shared tips and encouragement for teaching on a cart and really advocating for yourself. Jill also talked about anti-racist pedagogy and the importance of acknowledging her whiteness and both recognizing and celebrating the cultural differences present in her classroom. I loved the idea of realizing how many micro-decisions we make as artists during the creative process, but also how those begin as more macro-decisions that become intuitive through repetition.

Jill is a Los Angeles based artist and teacher and proud native New Yorker. She is the sole (pun slightly intended) owner and operator of her custom footwear business, Sink or Swim Kicks, which she founded as an art ed student in 2009. Sink or Swim has opened many opportunities for Jill including magazine interviews, TV appearances, celebrity clients and more, but she always identifies as an educator first and a working artist second. She has been an art educator for 10 years and has a strong passion for providing equitable art education to her students. Jill finds that the arts can be the great equalizer in schools and aims to challenge traditional approaches to art education. Her aim is to mobilize art both literally and figuratively into all spaces. Through her work not only as an artist but as a business owner and educator, she aims to inspire her students to follow their own path and acknowledges the power of representation and celebrates the story of every student who enters her class.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-59-jill-forie/

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Beth Welch talked about finding her voice and discovering what she wanted to say with her artwork. She shared so many valuable tips for artists about working with museums and improving your chances when submitting to open calls or sending proposals to curators. Be organized! As hard as that may be, it makes such a big difference when you make the curator’s life easier. Her perspective as a museum professional offered insight into not only working as an artist with museums, but also connecting with museums as an educator and the ways museums serve as educational institutions.

Beth also spoke eloquently and beautifully about her own work and shared vulnerably about the impact of her mother’s stroke and dementia. I was in tears. You might hear some of my sniffles. I loved how she also shared how scary it is to put deeply personal work out into the world and to share the thoughts behind it. Yet, that is what creates such beautiful connections.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-58-beth-welch/

www.bethwelchart.com

@bethwelchstudio

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Teaching The Truth

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Kelly Marshall shared such helpful tips drawing on her experience as a special education teacher. She also offered advice about starting her own business and working with galleries. I loved hearing about how her work has evolved and the ideas behind her work. Her series of portraits of physician mothers during the pandemic is so moving. What an incredible project to illuminate the collective purpose and sacrifices of these doctors.

Kelly Marshall followed her BA in Applied Art and Design with a career as a special education art teacher, helping students of diverse abilities in the classroom and in her children’s art studio, Color Construct Create Studios, which she owned and directed for 10 years. Marshall is in her 2nd year of the Visual Studies MFA program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Marshall’s exhibition/publication history includes The Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe, NM; The Visionary Projects, NY; Shockboxx Project Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA; The Ashton Gallery, San Diego, CA; Artist/Mother Podcast Juried Exhibition; Roaring Artist Gallery; Circle Arts Foundation; and The Art Center, Corvallis, OR. She lives with her family, runs a studio classroom, and paints from her studio at Art on 30th in San Diego’s North Park. She is currently engaged in a collaboration with Physician Mom's Group to create a visual history of the role of women in medicine as it intersects with motherhood during the pandemic.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-57-kelly-marshall/

www.kellymarshallfineart.com

@ColorConstructCreate on Facebook

@kelly_marshall_fine_art on Instagram

@personalprotective_art on Instagram

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Tracy shared so vulnerably about body image and the importance of being seen and valued for who you are. She talked about struggling in school, but feeling power as an artist, and how her experiences shape her teaching. She shared so many wonderful resources for teaching and art-making, which I’ve also linked in the blog post, so don’t miss that!

Tracy Brown was born and raised outside of Detroit, Michigan, and obtained a BFA with a major in art education from Michigan State University in 2005. She has been an art teacher for the past 14 years and she is dedicated to instilling a passion and appreciation for creation and self-expression into her students. Tracy believes in the ability of art to transform and bridge minds into understanding and unity. She moved to the desert to teach and make art during the great recession without intentions of staying but fell in love with the slower pace lifestyle, culture, and landscape of the desert.

Over the last decade, Tracy has had an artist studio in downtown Tucson and has been actively showing her art in feminist exhibitions nationally and internationally. She has an impressive exhibition and publication history and has shown alongside some of the greats including the Guerrilla Girls.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-56-tracy-brown/

www.tracybrownart.com

@tracybrownart

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

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Judy Richardson is a sculptor living and working in the high desert mountains of Magdalena, New Mexico, recently transplanted from Brooklyn, NY. Her work is assembled and cobbled together with many dissimilar materials, and inspired by many different sources, from the political to the personal. She is a former scenic artist for the San Francisco Opera, which had an enormous effect on her work.

Judy’s work was included in the Spring Break Art Fair in New York this past spring. For many years she showed her work with Ivan Karp at OK Harris Works of Art in New York. She is a 2013 recipient of the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and has had a number of artist’s residencies, from Roswell, NM to the Vermont Studio Center to the Dune Shack of Cape Cod to Cochabamba, Bolivia, to Mesa Verde, CO. Judy is paying a lot of attention to the wind, the grass, and the bosque these days, and making work that reflects their forces.

Judy talked about her work in scenic design before getting into teaching. She shared how teaching began as a necessity - a job that would allow her to bring her daughter and fit in with being a single parent. It was so helpful to hear about her experiences in NYC and how she’s built relationships with curators, gallerists, and fellow artists over many years. We talk on this podcast about building relationships with our students, but the same idea applies to all relationships in our lives.

I love seeing how Judy’s work has changed as her location changes and hearing about her process of selecting and handling materials. She talked about the way materials drive her work and the meanings they hold.

Blog post with images and links: https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-55-judy-richardson/

www.judyrichardsonsculpture.com

@judystudio

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

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Support this podcast. Subscribe, leave a review, or see more ways to support here (https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/support/).

We also offer opportunities for artists!  (https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/opportunities/)

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/teachingartistpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/teachingartistpodcast/support