NYU ART+EDUCATION CERTIFICATION

Eric Sihao Lin

Resources for Critical Multicultural and Anti-Racist Teaching

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In fall 2018 and 2019, students in Race, Education, and the Politics of Visual Representation each created personal collection of resources for their final project assignment. These collections included what each student identified as the most important and relevant ideas, concepts/theories, as well as practical strategies for their own work enacting critical multicultural, anti-racist art education inspired by our class discussions, readings, and artworks.  Students were encouraged to not just create this resource as an academic exercise, but to approach it as a functional tool and set of references for going forward in whatever context students plan to work – whether a school classroom or community-based setting.

Here are some examples of resource sites:

Image of artworks with text saying 'toolkit for critical multicultural education' Sarah Winter: https://sjw5130.wixsite.com/website

Alexis Lambrou: http://www.alexislambrou.com/toolkit 

Screenshot of website with text and some images Peter Tresnan: http://toolkitforwalking.tumblr.com/

Screenshot of website with image of colorful museum tags Liza Torrence:  https://lizatorrence.weebly.com/critical-tool-kit 

Image of website with picture of teacher and students and text Meredith McDevitt:  https://meredithrmcdevitt.wixsite.com/toolkit 

Image of website with text and visuals Gladys Pasapera:  https://artwithgladys.blog/category/critical-pedagogy-critical-race-theory/  

Research and Final Projects 2020

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In the Spring of 2020, Art+Education students from both the Initial Certification and Art, Education & Community Practice program embarked on a six month process to identify a curiosity or concern they wanted to explore and then engage the public with through the Research and Final Project process. Students identified different questions and worked collaboratively to conduct academic and creative research, consider the work of socially engaged artists, and read theory relevant to artistic forms of inquiry and social activism. 

Image of a brainstorming map

The class focused on different forms of artistic research and activism as case studies to understand how artists and artist collectives engage with communities and social movements. Some of the research based approaches explored included: mapping, participatory action research, oral history, archival research, and multisensory inquiry. Originally, students chose the following themes to explore: restorative justice, whiteness, mental health and stigma, decoloniality and sound, and integrating body movement in elementary curriculum. 

Several months into the research process and planning for a social action that each group would implement, the Covid-19 pandemic changed the scope and possibilities for this work. As our class moved online in March and New York City moved into quarantine, designing and implementing a public, socially engaged work had to be completely reconsidered.  

Image of a screenshot of class responding to a question

As a class we gained a lot of inspiration from the Center for Artistic Activism and their efforts to reimagine artistic activism using new tools, reimagined social spaces, and virtual realities. We also heard from a number of artists and educators including Tomie Arai whose public art and work with the Chinatown Art Brigade inspired conversations about collaboration and the importance of history (see more about her visit here). We talked with the artist and policy advocate Laurie Jo Reynolds who is currently working on the Chicago 400 campaign on behalf of Chicagoans with past convictions who are listed on public registries and experiencing homelessness and therefore must register weekly at Chicago Police Headquarters. Laurie Jo described how the project has used mapping as a way to visually represent  the invisible stories and hardships experienced by the members of the Chicago 400. The interdisciplinary artist and counter cartographer Lize Mogel shared strategies and advice for fundraising for socially engaged, artist activist work. And artist educators (and Art+Ed program alum!) B Kaiser and Peter Tresnan introduced a public art project they facilitated with their middle school students to create and distribute postcards to isolated LGBTQ senior citizens. 

At the end of the semester, students created an incredible range of projects that all responded to their particular time and place in the world, offering hope, a sense of community, and practical ways to make the world more equitable, responsive, and human. These are the themes and projects  that students generated: 

The COVID-19 Community Care Mixtape: Decolonial Sound Healing, 2020

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Amanda Charnley and Naisha Solomon 

Album cover for the COVID-19 Community Care Mixtape The COVID-19 Community Care Mixtape is a collectively made compilation and pedagogical listening experience that explores music’s age-old capacity for healing and resistance. Art + Education graduate students Naisha Solomon and Amanda Charnley curated a mixtape of sounds and songs as part of a pedagogical album experience —complete with a listening companion guide with artwork and liner notes— designed to promote care and further decolonial inquiry and action during this pandemic.  The project’s title pays tribute to the arts of mixtaping and deejaying innovated by New York City hip-hop musicians. Mixtapes have been made for decades not only promotionally but also informally between friends, crafted with care and attention to detail. Full trackless for the COVID-19 Community Care Mixtape The songs were collected with the help of musicians, artists, educators, sound healers, and friends in Naisha and Amanda’s immediate communities. The mixtape seeks to amplify artists of color and queer artists, among other marginalized identities, in defiance of colonialism’s methods of privileging white, male heteronormativity. The mixtape includes a variety of genres, including spoken word, samba reggae, calypso, hip-hop, field recordings, ambient sounds, etc, and sounds of healing and justice that resonates at this moment.  Track and art from the mixtape listening guide Track and art from the mixtape listening guide Track and art from the mixtape listening guideListeners are encouraged to utilize this material in a variety of ways, including as a meditative “sound bath” experience or the soundtrack for a “listening party,” and to explore the artists on this compilation in greater detail. To encourage further inquiry and assist in listening, more information on some of the mixtape songs and influences can be found in an accompanying companion guide.  Naisha and Amanda hope that the mixtape acts as a catalyst for listeners: “We intended the mixtape to serve as a digital sound sanctuary and hope you’ll discover something that soothes, strengthens, or invigorates you and inspires you to take action toward self and collective care.”   

(Re)Constructing Community, 2020

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Sarah Sanders, Victoria Shek, Yuanyuan Xu

As graduate students in the Art+Education Initial Certification program at New York University, we entered the Spring 2020 semester with a transition into secondary student teaching where we were introduced to the concept of Restorative Justice (RJ) – a practice which seeks to proactively and reactively repair harm, relationships, and trust to strengthen community (Morningside Center 2019, New York Peace Institute 2018). Curious to understand more about this practice, we centered our research on discovering the relationship between the practice of Restorative Justice and the presence of community within and outside of the secondary school classroom in New York City. As March rolled around, the classroom learning structure was drastically altered from in-person teaching to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we shifted our focus to the online community, posing the question “How can teachers share ideas through artistic practices and work to rebuild the school community through online learning?”

We created surveys which were sent to teachers and students within secondary schools in New York City. Responses indicated that there were feelings of isolation and hopelessness among students and teachers as well as a desire for increased communication among all parties and more opportunities for creative collaboration for students. Therefore, we sought to design strategies and workshops organized into an accessible online platform in accordance with the concept of Restorative Justice providing collaborative and visually stimulating activities for the virtual classroom and advisory sessions.

Rebuilding School through Origami Folding
Rebuilding School through Origami Folding

Our Rebuilding School through Origami Folding workshop offers prompts for remembering and reflecting on the nature and experiences of the school community. The Morning Marks and Mandala Making strategy provides space for daily check-in with students as well as an opportunity to understand teachers and peers at a deeper level. Our Remaking the Classroom Workshop provides a time for considering the relationship between space and community through imaginative annotation. These, along with additional workshops and strategies, can be found on our website. This collection of materials is grounded in the importance of (re)constructing community during challenging times and is driven by the desire to inspire creative collaboration among educators and students throughout NYC schools.

Morning Marks and Mandala Making
Morning Marks and Mandala Making
Image of students sitting around a table in a classroom
After
Remaking the Classroom Workshop, before
Image of students sitting around a table in a classroom , with reimagined edits drawn onto the image.
After
Remaking the Classroom Workshop, after

References

Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. 2019. What are Restorative Practices?
https://www.morningsidecenter.org/what-are-restorative-practices

New York Peace Institute. 2018. Restorative Justice. https://nypeace.org/restorative-justice/

Art+Education Online: IHSHS Artists for Change

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By Sarah Sanders 

In February 2020, I worked with my mentor, Gehan Habashy, to design a final visual art unit to be carried out through the end of the academic year as I assumed a long term substitute role at The International High School for Health Sciences. This unit would explore the concept of Empowerment and challenge students to develop skills to be advocates for themselves and others in and outside of the classroom. 

The transition to virtual learning in late March shifted the direction of this unit to focus on how students could support one another and their communities in processing the effects of the pandemic and advocate for change through art making with available resources at home. Weekly brainstorming sessions with professor Jessica Hamlin, daily progressions of national and global events, and constant check-ins with students led this unit to transform into creations beyond originally planned. 

Students curated “Empowering Playlists” accompanied by cover art designs inspired by contemporary musicians and illustrators, providing a visual means to share media they had been consuming – songs, literature, films, etc – while coping with the crisis in the confines of their home. Individual playlists were merged to create two team playlists which were shared and experienced by school community members – students, teachers, and administration. 

Screenshot of padlet board
Padlet boards were used throughout online learning for collaboration and brainstorming.
A student's playlist
Playlist by Maria O.
A Disastrous Cycle It Is playlist
Playlist by Ridima S.
Peace Playlist
Playlist by Katherin R.

Following this project, students began creating stop motion films responding to common themes presented in the playlists and cover art as well as exploring how they could convey messages for action to be taken regarding current social issues of interest. As students explored stop motion artists such as PES and Wes Anderson, they gained facility with use of images, text, and sound to convey their ideas. 

As students moved into their final film projects, they researched issues highlighted by the pandemic such as healthcare, food security, and immigration / deportation as well as movements such as Cancel Rent and Black Lives Matter. Students’ final films captured moments of their personal lives and desires for change. Upon completion, students shared their creations with their communities advocating for specific actions and reforms by posting to social media and sending emails to local organizations such as DRUM NYC and the NYC Department of Health and as well as council members such as Francisco Moya, Daniel Dromm, and Eric Ulrich. 

Storyboard by Sara P.
Storyboard by Sara P.
Storyboard by Israt J.
Storyboard by Israt J.

Email headlines read “Together, United! We will never be defeated”, “ #BlackLivesMatter”, and “Ways to prevent COVID-19” among others. Messages included informing immigrants of their rights, advising maintenance of health protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, urging legislatures to waive rent payments for those facing hardships due to the pandemic, and bringing awareness to social injustices. The final presentation of films can be viewed here on the “IHSHS Artists for Change Film Festival” Youtube page. 

Finally, at the end of our last class, students were asked to reflect on what they learned throughout the school year. Students responded, “I learned that simple materials around us can be used to make creative projects,  I can advocate or empower people through artworks, we can raise our voice through arts, we can share our opinion through arts and I have also learned to make different arts on various purposes,” and “I learned that as a community how can we still stay together and stand by each other even in a difficult situation.” One response encompassed the entire yaer referencing my unit as well as the ones Ms. Gehan introduced earlier in the year, “ I learn about myself. Before was so hard to know myself and with the portrait and things that I did in art… I know myself now. I know how feel empowerment and give empowerment to others and that’s amazing.”

Happy Body Happy Brain: A Celebration of the Mind-Body Connection, 2020

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Cassandra Halko and Sarah Mallory

Happy Body Happy Brain is an instructional resource for elementary teachers created by Art + Ed graduate students Cassandra Halko and Sarah Mallory!  They came up with this easy to use book to help teachers come up with quick ways to integrate movement and kinesthetic learning in to their lessons. 

Title page for Happy Body, Happy Brain

Their motivation for this project was to create an easy way for any teacher – regardless of training in kinesthetic pedagogy – to be able to easily and successfully integrate movement into their teaching, rather than having “movement time” be separate. 

As both students in Art + Ed and teachers, Sarah and Cassandra noticed that many classrooms are student-centered and collaborative for intellectual learning. While there are lots of times for student movement throughout the school day,  they are usually separate from learning time, like a “wiggle break” or recess. 

Core Beliefs 

  1. The stationary student body is oppressed! Or…just not being utilized as a tool to aid our brains in creativity and intellectual practice. 
  2. We believe that a partnership between the mind and the body in all aspects of elementary learning is essential to the student’s well being and success.

During their research, Sarah and Cassandra asked a number of teachers about how often their students move and learn at the same time – most teachers said their students are seated for probably about 80% of their 6-8hr school day! 

Image of research findings.

Check out a few pages from Sarah and Cassandra’s Happy Body Happy Brain: A Celebration of the Mind-Body Connection! 

Making It Through: Mental Illness Support from Those Who Struggle, 2020

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Ariana Elmayan and Zachary Grossman 

A Realistic Resource for Self Help, Giving Kindness to Yourself, and Improving Your Quality of Life for Those Who Struggle with Mental Illness

Art + Ed students Ariana Elmayan and Zachary Grossman’s community book, “Making It Through: Mental Illness Support from Those Who Struggle” was created to be a resource for the silent community that suffer with mental health. People who suffer from mental illness are often blamed, told how to feel better and give self care from people who do not struggle with the same mental health conditions. Self care for someone that struggles with mental illness can be particularly difficult because it can get feel overwhelming.

Line drawing of three figures.

This book focuses on strategies of self care and showing kindness to yourself, as well as letting readers know that you don’t need to do everything “in the nines”. It’s much better to do a little self care than none in order to improve quality of life. Many contributors- artists and people who have experience with mental illness made this book possible and what it is today. We met synchronously on Zoom, typing out what they said and for those that wanted to submit doodles, they did so live on Zoom using the Procreate App.  We had the opportunity to connect with all of our lovely participants and share some similar experiences. Now we have a free resource that will be available to all and hopefully make self care and self kindness a little easier to some. 

Line drawing of a toothbrush

Line drawing of a window

Line drawing of person laying down.

Line drawing of a plant

Line drawing of headphones

Heirlooms/Evidence: An Archive of Whiteness and Privilege, 2020

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Alexis Lambrou, Chloe Rowan, Sarah Winter, and Jessica Bal

What does responsible ownership and exploration of whiteness look like? The project Heirlooms/Evidence: An Archive of Whiteness and Privilege, created and facilitated by Art + Ed students Alexis Lambrou, Chloe Rowan, Sarah Winter, and collaborator Jessica Bal, is a workshop and interactive archive investigating whiteness and privilege.   Title page of Heirlooms/Evidence: An Archive of Whiteness and Privilege The idea of this workshop is to collect items—evidence of sorts—of privilege, and reflect on objects that signify personal lineages of whiteness. Participants are asked to interrogate whiteness at the personal and familial level. Inspired by Kerry James Marshall’s Heirlooms and Accessories project, this project uses the personal and tangible to discuss whiteness through personal history and lineage, and invites participants to consider what they have inherited from the ownership of these objects, and what values they hope to pass on. 

 For the inaugural workshops, educators facilitated a Zoom workshop of 15 people from personal networks from all over the country. Each participant brought a personal object or photograph that represents whiteness to them. Following a session with somatic exercises to orient people into their bodies, the participants broke out into groups in which they shared their objects in a story circle to open up honest conversations around whiteness. Beginning questions include: what does this object signify to you? What kind of emotions does this object elicit? What values have you inherited through the ownership of this object? What values do you want to want to pass on? 

Objects and artwork shared during the workshop.Objects and artwork shared during the workshop.Sharing an object during the workshop

After sharing in the story circle, participants were introduced to the concept of photomapping, as inspired by Wendy Red Star and Nigel Poor, as a way to creatively engage with personal objects and images.

A photomap from the Heirlooms/Evidence workshopA photomap from the Heirlooms/Evidence workshopA photomap from the Heirlooms/Evidence workshop

In closing, participants reflected and wrote three intentions in continuing anti-racist work. Folks shared a variety of intentions: have a conversation around whiteness/privilege with a loved one, finish writing an article on whiteness in photography, and read and work through the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad. This was a hopeful end to the workshop, and encouraged participants to commit to this work for the long term.  Alexis, Sarah, Jess, and Chloe envision this project to keep growing. They will continue to facilitate these workshops throughout the summer, and were accepted as a workshop at Photoville Festival in September 2020. As they continue to facilitate these workshops, they would like to construct a digital archive where participants and non-participants can submit photos of their objects, evidence tags and/or photomaps. Group members hope that this digital archive, living on a website or instagram page, would inspire and challenge more white people to interrogate whiteness in their own lives. 

NYU Art+Ed Solidarity

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History continues to repeat itself and we are once again witnessing and feeling the rage of generations of racialized oppression and institutionalized violence against black people.

Orange text graphic with the names of black people murdered by police.
Graphic created by NPR podcast: Code Switch

We stand in solidarity with the black lives matter movement and against white supremacy. We all have a role to play in this fight and must channel our grief, rage and heartbreak into action. Mariame Kaba (@prisonculture) says, “hope is a discipline.” As educators, artists, and activists we have the power to envision and contribute to a more just world. We have the opportunity and responsibility to continue educating ourselves and others, work as allies, and take concrete actions that push infrastructural change grounded in equity, justice, and humanity. This effort must be done now in this urgent moment and is a commitment to ongoing and sustained activism. We offer up some resources to support this work below and encourage you to add to an expanded list collected HERE.  

In community and solidarity,

NYU Art+Education

Art+Ed Online: Sarah Sanders explores Empowerment at IHSHS

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When schools closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Art+Education graduate students and the New York Public schools went online. This drastic shift in how teaching and learning could happen was both a difficult transition, and an opening and opportunity for new modes of teaching and learning.

The International High School for Health Sciences is a high school that works with new immigrant students who come from 30 countries and speak 20 languages. As a student teacher and eventually a long term substitute at IHSHS, Sarah Sanders was already developing a curriculum focused on the theme of Empowerment. When schools moved online, this theme became even more powerful and a chance to hold space to address student feelings of isolation and the impact of the pandemic on their lives. 

Sarah started by asking students to create an artwork using any materials they had in response to the following prompts:

A prompt from Sarah Sanders.

Students responded in creative ways with the materials they had on hand in their homes using drawing, painting, and building with materials like cardboard and toilet paper rolls. 

Student response to a prompt. Student response to a prompt. Student response to a prompt. Student response to a prompt. Student response to a prompt.

During the following week, Sarah continued with the personal and moved to the relational, asking students to think about how they would hypothetically help a friend who was feeling depressed:

Prompt #2 from Sarah Sanders.

Again, students responded in various media, including using familiar chat formats, such as Facebook Messenger: 

Student response to a prompt.

Student response to Sarah Sanders' prompt.

In the next sections of the curriculum, students continued their inquiry into the theme of Empowerment and moved their artwork to represent larger social contexts and participate in social action. Stay tuned!