Residency 1-Whittier Elementary School-Jane Swatosh (0.5hrs)
This week I met Jane Swatosh who teaches 5th grade at Whittier Elementary School. We talked about what work/projects the children in her class are going to start working on, as well as what a weekday typically looks like. Jane also introduced me to some of the other teachers, including their art teacher who I will be able to shadow as well. My first day will be Monday (27th) and I’m excited to introduce myself and interact with the class.
Residency 2 -Minneapolis Institute of Art-Angela Olson and Natalia Choi (0.5hrs)
This week I also met Natalia Choi who is the main coordinator for all family programming at Mia. She specifically designs events for and plans the museums monthly Family Day event. I will be volunteering at a couple of these events, and so Natalia briefly described what the theme for the upcoming event is, jazz, and what kind of programs will be taking place. She also mentioned the themes for the next four planned events and was open to hear any ideas/suggestions for future art-making events. Family day events are attended by anywhere from 1000 to 5000 people. Working at family day provides an opportunity to learn to design large scale projects, where efficiency and meticulous planning is extremely important.
Shadowing-Upstream Arts-Masanari Kawahara (3.75hrs)
I also started my shadowing with Upstream Artist Masa, at the Pillsbury House and Theatre. I met Masa early in the week, and had a wonderful conversation with him about his own personal work and about the journey that led him to being a teaching artist. He talked about his teaching philosophy, being present in everything he does, creating a safe space, an environment which fosters originality. I really resonated with these ideas. As I shadowed him later in the week, at his Visual Memoirs class for ages 55+ at Pillsbury House, I saw him actively engaging these philosophies as he taught, both in the activities planned and interaction with students.
Masa began the class with introductions, and we went around the room, saying; My name is___ and I am feeling___, along with an action to show the feeling. This was a great icebreaker, and also got everyone energized. The first exercise was to do four quick self-portraits on notecards; the first, of self as an astronaut, followed by self as turning into an animal, self as a fruit/vegetable and the last, self as a monster. This was followed by a reflection of the activity, where each person said one thing they liked about someone else’s piece. This was a clever way to introduce some art terminology. The next activity was timed drawings of a specific object, starting with a 2 minute drawing, and decreasing to a 15 second drawing. This activity was also followed by a quick self-reflection; what was their favorite? What qualities of the drawing made is their favorite? The third activity was drawing with eyes closed. During the class, I distributed materials, and as requested by Masa, participated in some of the drawing activities. I walked around the room and tried to help any individual who had a question/doubt. At the end of the class, Masa asked each person to give him one-word to describe the class, and he wrote these down. Not only a quick way to gain insight to the reactions to the lesson, but also this echoed the way that the class was introduced and brought a close to the session.
All the activities that Masa had planned for the class served to remove any judgement held towards one’s own work. Drawing under a short time-limit as well as with eyes closed, were methods to prevent any overthinking, to allow the hand to take over. There was a spontaneity which created a sense of life to the drawings. I really enjoyed and resonated with Masa’s teaching methods. I wonder how as both an artist and a teacher, I can continue to bring this ‘play’ into the work.
