Elizabeth Unpingco's Improbable Beautiful

Fragile, Elizabeth Unpingco

1.     How long have you been a teaching artist?

In true form, I’ve been a teaching artist all my life.  Since early childhood, creation was the opening through which art encouraged discovery. I was born into family firmly planted in hand-crafted and hand-hewn, so artistic endeavor naturally allowed me to connect.  Professionally, I started working as a “teaching artist” in 2006 after I left a deceptively sexy and well-paid job at a non-profit. There I served in an administrative capacity developing and managing a countywide program that employed other teaching artists of various disciplines. I have been working as a teaching artist for nearly 10 years now – how time flies when one is fulfilling one’s true vocation in life!

2.     What discipline(s) do you teach?

My specialty is visual integrated with literary arts (dialogue, poetry, storytelling). I often ask my young students if they have ever heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  Most of them have NOT as this is a rather out dated utterance, however it prompts us to explore the world of words that dance with expressive symbols, metaphor, and visual techniques through open-ended processes. I am not only a visual manipulator, but a “word smith” as well. Mindfulness and metacognition are guides for our work.

3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.

(K-5, after school, university, community center, etc…)

Presently, I am an art museum educator serving the Santa Clara, CA preK – 9^th grade community. I find working in a museum a magical setting in which to immerse kids in the world of art. It allows a freedom from convention that inspires deeper reflection and risk taking. Our classroom includes changing exhibitions that allow for exploration, dreaming, and even drawing in the galleries. There are many wonderful resources available in this kind of setting. Occasionally, the museum places me in local public school classrooms where I am honored to provide some much needed creative outlet.

4. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

When I create at home, I am dually evolving as a teaching artist. The more in touch and consistent I am with my own practice the more I have to authentically offer my students. Because I chose this profession to share my passion for living creatively, I must walk the talk. Of course there are periods of “ebb” that provide a contrast so that I deeply know and understand the difference between living the dream as opposed to going through the motions where teaching feels like just another J-O-B. I remind learners (and myself) that if we stick with it, remembering to breath, the joy of accomplishment returns and triumphs!    

5. How do you sustain your art while teaching?

Sustainability is a verb, an ongoing, dynamic process that changes, moves, and spirals in various directions.  As primarily a visual artist, I have learned to open my field of vision. I look, see, and interact with the world around me as fodder for inward alchemy, what we call “windows and mirrors” in the art education world.  Just about every thing I do in life is viewed through the lens of my relationship with ‘sense of place’ and how that place effects me.  I see and feel line, color, pattern, shape, relationship & juxtaposition, texture, rhythm & melody and on and on. I have struggled financially for most of my life, but my relationship to my art has remained primary and life-giving. Having a partner who values who I am and what I do; helping to support my growth and musings has become a necessity and a god-send. I gravitate toward and manifest diverse opportunities for creative/financial sustenance. Ideas come fast and furious so that it can sometimes become overwhelming. Sometimes these opportunities pan out and thankfully, oftentimes not. 

6. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?

Being employed as an administrator for a newly developed, county-wide program where the organization placed teaching artists in classrooms initiated my desire to become part of this rich fabric. Instead of working around others’ successful residency placements, I realized I myself wanted to be “placed”– this emerging title “teaching artist” offered the best of both worlds in my mind.  The teaching artists I worked with showed me the possibilities of remaining true to oneself while simultaneously being valued (and employed) in the educational field.  I felt I had discovered my long, lost tribe.

7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?

I earned my master’s degree in education (curriculum and instruction – integrated teaching through the arts) in 2013 from Lesley University as part of a San Francisco Bay Area cohort. It was the learning experience of a lifetime!  Prior to that, I earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design emphasizing illustration, 1990 from San Jose State University. In between those two formal degrees, I participated in many trainings, courses, and life-changing events including employment by the City of San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation & Community Services for 16 years. I worked with a diversity of undervalued and at-risk communities; life experience no educational institution could ever provide. I am a lifelong learner reinforcing a love affair with creativity and knowledge in my students.

8. How do you develop and deepen your teaching practice?

I glean the wisdom of others:  artists, friends and relations, spiritual teachers, education innovators, and others who care deeply about our children and youth both now and in the future. I try to keep my ear to the ground to take advantage of what’s brewing in the field on local, national, and global levels. Mostly, I try to hear and discern the voice within and thus heed its wisdom about what is right and good for me as a practitioner.

9. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

Isolation & disconnect, financial uncertainty, diversifying lessons, marketing & selling myself, advocating for appropriate creative/arts-based curriculum within society’s education-machine, and the relentless onslaught of time.

10. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?

Seeing how the field is growing in leaps and bounds – that recognition of the importance of what we do and opportunities to do it are gaining ground.  It is very rewarding, although not unexpected, to see the education-machine slowly acknowledge the tremendous impact an arts-based/integrated curriculum is having on closing those gaps we ourselves have created. I feel proud that I no longer must live out the story  “those who can do, those who can’t teach” I do both!

11. What advice do you have for artists interested in teaching?

Teaching is a noble profession, however; you must be aware of the critical need for patience with your students, administrators, colleagues, and most importantly yourself.  When you find yourself ‘assuming’ on any level, check yourself (you will save yourself much grief).  Learn within community, stay open, cultivate and share the quality of having fun! Grow in your capacity for independence, flexibility, and confidence in setting your own core criteria.

Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience.

Working with a small group of middle school girls of varying levels of skill, socialization, and self-acceptance brings me back to my own awkward adolescence. Some sessions are arduous, but my own inner-knowing keeps me afloat along the choppy journey.  Eventually occurs the inevitable; I am privy to witness total engagement in the blissful assimilation of personal image and paint. I am blinded by the brilliance of each student in her own right. I experience fulfillment of my mission yet one more time. I recommit to continuing the work.    

On June 20, 2015, I will participate in the Triton Musuem of Art’s annual Summer Solstice Art Festival. I will be co-teaching two summer camps there as well:  Explorations in Drawing (3^rd-5^th grade), session 1 and World Art for (K-2^nd grade) with my collaborative partner, session 6.  The Triton MOA is admission free and extremely community-oriented, exhibiting works by primarily local and state artists.  http://www.tritonmuseum.org/

I am also applying to Recology’s artist 2016 residence program. As I create many of my pieces from recyclables, discards, and nature’s droppings, I feel this opportunity to be very good fit for me - wish me luck!

cube hands

No Mountain High Enough...

Learning to teach is like climbing a mountain only to find there's an even higher mountain beyond it. I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with being a teaching artist. My love starts with my love of schools.

I LOVE school.

I love being in schools. I love hallways, bulletin board displays, the sounds of chairs scarping the floors, pencil taping, kids scurrying to and from the bathroom, the hush and then the clamor as kids fall out of class to the yard. The bright colors, the hodge podgeness, the order and the chaos.

I love kids. They're nuts. They're funny and surprising and amazing.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE teachers. Seriously? Who works harder for less? Teachers, they keep getting pummeled by our ignorant society. Still they show up at 7:15am to cut paper, grade tests, meet parents before they go to work, sweep the rugs  (it's not in the janitor's contract, or there is no janitor) fed the gecko, lizard, fish, tadpoles, feed the early kid, the homeless kid, do hair for the neglected girls, and wash the faces of the dirty children. And don't forget they actually teach tiny crazy people to read, write, add and subtract and more. AND they teach manners, caring, social, environmental and school yard justice. They sing, dance, drum and generally make fools of themselves so other people's  video addicted, attention limited, entitled, lost, lazy, rude, sad, sweet, spoiled, precious children can become engaged active citizens.

I love school.

I love the unsung heroes of every school. The front office ladies and men who hold down the fort, provide tissue (often paid for by them since, you know, tissue is a luxury and all), give band aids, advice, and tardy slips. They know who is fake crying to get out of class and who is really ill or sad. They are mean and strict in the best grandmother, great auntie or uncle kinda way. They know all the parents and who is in after care, who has a doctor or dentist appointment. They know who waits outside alone after school because mom is always late. They know which forms teachers have to fill out, they order your supplies and make sure they get to you on time, running the ins and outs of dry erase markers, No.#2 pencils and paper clips like a mafia syndicate (Oops, you didn't get that box of paper? Guess you shouldn't be so rude when you ask! Fuggeta 'boutit!)

I love school.

I love the crazy structure. Recess at 10:40 - 10:55. Whaaat?! Few other work environments run off the clock like that. I recently taught a group of teachers. When I said lunch at noon. There was a collective cry of Noooooo! That was too late. They wanted to eat at 11:35. We compromised with 11:45. bells ring at the oddest times  Nothing begins or stops on the hour or half hour. Always 55, 35, 25. Why? BECAUSE schools have to operate with illogical precision, no minute wasted.

There's sooo much more to love and yet and still I also hate schools, I hate teaching art, I'm over it! As I type that I'm already thinking about how I will rearrange my room, the systems I hope to put in place.

Big Ideas Fest's Improbable Beautiful

In December I was lucky enough to attend the Big Ideas Fest (BiF) in Half Moon Bay (http://www.bigideasfest.org/about-big-ideas-fest-2013). BiF is a conference like none other combining design thinking and improv in the service of innovation for education. This was my fourth time at the conference and one of the most interesting and productive experiences yet.

The thing about Big idea Fest is there's a lot. I mean a LOT! Rapid fire speakers, key notes, action collabs, Road Trip Nation, and 'smores. This means there's quite a bit to digest and for me it takes a while to distill it all down. In fact I'm going to talk about the key note speaker from last year, George Lakoff, because I am still processing all of the information garnered from his talk. Lakoff according to Wikipedia is an American cognitive linguist, best known for his thesis that lives of individuals are significantly influenced by the central metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena. He currently teaches at UC Berkeley.

George Lakoff tells us metaphors are at the heart of language and communication. Metaphors are a way of being more precise. At the Big Ideas Fest last year he used love as an example. How do we speak about love? We use metaphors (these usually contain image schema of motion). I'm falling in love, this relationship is a dead end, I'm so over him, things are going smoothly, etc.. Since hearing his talk I've been thinking a lot about metaphors and how important they are. We basically can't communicate our true feelings without metaphors. Metaphors help us be precise with language. The issues that are central to our heart , love, loss, joy, pain they need metaphor to be talked about with precision. 

As teaching artists we are well versed in metaphors. What I am interested in is how we show teachers, parents and administrators that Art is about communicating through metaphor and is therefor about communicating with precision? We teach students to express what they feel, think, believe, dream and hope. They are able to express often complex ideas and emotions through a symbol system. This is important work. Art (and I am including poetry, music, dance and drama) is at the core of clear and precise human communication. How do you use metaphor in your work and your classes?

I've been pondering the meaning of metaphors for a year now. George Lakoff was only one of the amazing speakers I've heard at ISKME's Big Ideas Fest. The presenters from the 2013 conference were equally amazing. For 2014 I plan to ponder the meaning of social objects and new ways of interacting in museums and beyond. To find out more check out their website and follow them on Twitter.

Happy New Year!

Dr. Jerry M. James' Improbable Beautiful

Beginner's Luck, Jerry M. James

1. How long have you been a teaching artist?  

I was a teaching artist at Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) for 15 years

2. What discipline(s) do you teach?

  Visual Art

3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach: K-5, after school, university, community center, etc…

 All of the above

4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?

Fay Zetlin,  Maxine Greene, John Toth, Paulo Friere

5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

When I was a teaching artist, I participated group shows with other TAS. Also had my own shows and projects.  I felt that in particular, teaching the Aesthetic Education model informed my philosophy of art and piqued my curiosity about all the arts. Leading sessions at museums opened my eyes to different genres, ultimately affecting my own work in positive ways

6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?

Maintaining a private studio and selling my work

7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?

BFA and MFA in painting Ed.D, in art education

8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

One challenge was switching approaches to suit different arts organizations.  Some were more skills based, others more aesthetic still others more arts integrated.  Since my work involved teaching in other states and countries managing my schedule was challenging at times.  Fortunately, as a full-time TA I had four weeks paid vacation time I used blocks of time to prepare for shows etc.

9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?

The joy evident as students learn, witnessing improved collaboration among school communities, planning with teachers and other stakeholders. The transformative effects of arts experiences on people of all ages, as reported in discussions and written  reflections.   As an administrator now, watching  the professionalization of the TA field unfold has been a pleasant surprise!

10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?

Learn how to facilitate learning, rather than only teaching what you know.  Many of your students will benefit more from working on big ideas with TAs than they will from learning a specific artistic skill.

Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience.

I  usually time the components of workshops. Demos, if any, are short. I devote most time to arts making, which is interspersed with reflective activities of varying lengths, One of these, poetry writing, usually lasts five minutes.  In Mexico, however,  participants wrote poetry for 20 minutes and they could have kept going! It was my first direct experience of educators in another culture having a relationship with culture that was much different than mine. For them poetry was as natural as prose.

Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice.

jerrymjames.com  caenyc.org

Ryan Conarro’s Improbable Beautiful

http://tajournal.com/

1. How long have you been a teaching artist?

I've been a teaching artist since 2002.

2. What discipline(s) do you teach?

 I teach theatre.

3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.

(K-5, after school, university, community center, etc…)

 I've taught in all of the above settings. Most often, I teach in K-12 school settings in rural Alaska schools.

4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?

 My first teaching artist experiences after college were while I was a company member with Aquila Theatre Company-- members of that group helped me learn ways to teach Shakespeare that can be playful and accessible.

When I moved to Juneau, Alaska, I found two great mentors--the woman who then ran the high school theatre program, and another woman who designs programs and writes grants for rural arts projects. They've guided me, respectively, on good strategies for modeling performance for young people, and on navigating cross-cultural landscapes as an educator. They also both took risks with me, signing me on to projects that were beyond my past experience and which stretched me.

Before all that, I started getting involved in theatre in middle school, with a children's theatre in north Georgia. The director of that theatre was a big influence on me. She had a huge passion for making art at a high standard and making it accessible to kids and families.

5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

I see the two as coexistent and feeding each other. There have been times when I've opted to accept a teaching gig over performing or directing a professional project. Among many other things, teaching theatre has helped me become more facile with articulating my processes and techniques as an actor and director.

6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?

 I seek out TA opportunities in which I can experiment artistically in ways that I couldn't or am not ready to do with adults. For example, in 2011-12 I did a year-long puppetry project with a school district. I wouldn't have felt comfortable telling adults I could teach them to build puppets--but I told the kids that! And we all learned together.

7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?

 I went to undergrad at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for Drama and English. I also spent one summer back at NYU in their graduate program for Educational Theatre. I've participated in several summer Basic Arts Institutes for educators through the Alaska Arts Education Consortium. A lot of my learning has been by doing.

8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

 I think my biggest challenges include finding consistent, adequate planning time with teachers. My dream gigs are those in which I really feel like I'm co-teaching with a teacher, that s/he is learning alongside me and I alongside him/her. But it doesn't often happen that way. Part of the reason it doesn't is because teachers have way too much on their plates to begin with.

Another challenge I face, in Alaska, is budget cuts. Two major programs I depended on have gone away this year, and so the arts education landscape is changing a bit. There are still plenty of opportunities here for me for school engagements (thankfully), but my rate of pay has dropped drastically, so I'm having to adjust my standard of living accordingly.

9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?

 I've lived in Juneau for 10 years now, and began doing school arts projects my first year here. One thing I couldn't have anticipated then is how well-connected I feel with the community because of the projects I've done. I know lots of parents. Many kids who were in high school have gone away to college and come back--or they never left--and now here they are, with jobs and kids sometimes, and they're my peers now. I love it.

10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?

 Do it!

Classroom management is key. Find/experiment with playful/artistic ways to create behavior routines with students. And don't be afraid of being a disciplinarian.

I think, for me, as long as I'm having fun, I can pretty much bet that the students are as well. And I always look for teachers who are interested in mentoring me and helping me improve my teaching practice.

*Bonus*

Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience or your favorite resources for lessons.

 This website is not that impressive looking, but teachers consistently love it:

http://www.readinglady.com/

There's a helpful link for Reader's Theater. I've realized a lot of teachers don't really know what RT is, per se, and they're sort of sheepish about that. This website is a useful resource for those of them who want to do more RT--which is to say, to get their kids reading with fluency and motivation!

Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice. Provide links to websites, event sites, etc.

 I'm currently involved with Theater Mitu's production "Juarez: A Documentary Mythology":

http://www.theatermitu.org/productions/juarez/

And I'll be leading the Drama section of the summer Arts Education Institute in Alaska:

http://akartsed.org/new/institutes/nome-basic-arts-institute/

I'm facilitating a residency now in Juneau, a joint puppetry project between Thunder Mountain High School and Glacier Valley Elementary. 

In October, I'll open a new performance installation at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center Gallery, "This Hour Forward."