Seattleites seeking a Creative Lead bring their stories to large-scale life.
SUMMARY
Art and Design projects completed around the Sound
ROLE
Lead Teaching Artist
The Process
As you will see in each of the following projects, they all had different timelines, environments, themes, skill levels and interests, but I led each team through the full co-design process.
We started with ideation and research, then affinitizing ideas. Then we moved on to an initial lo-fi draft, validate with our clients (the teachers or administrators), then I produced a digital file that could be projected and traced on the wall. Then we painted, and finally presented the finished product.
Projects
My first project with Real Change news was rapid, I designed and led a 1 hour co-design ideation workshop with middle school students, then independently furthered their ideas in procreate to create a digital file, then led a paint day at Real Change News in Belltown with support from two other artists, Laku Nagami and Dovey Martinez as this project overlapped with a two week mural intensive I was to design and teach in West Seattle.
This was a wonderful project! These kids were passionate about the project, and I was surprised how little time we needed to move through each stage. I really only had the kids for a 1 hr workshop, then one day of painting. The remainder of the work was asynchronous where I designed the digital file, then after their paint day when I came on my own to do touch ups. This was a very fulfilling piece as there was an overwhelmingly positive reception by the vendors themselves and the kids were so proud of their accomplishment.
Middle School West Seattle
This was an intensive, mini course taught in three hour chunks for two weeks. The proceedings in this class became the basis for how I taught other classes during this year, as we faced all sorts of unforeseen challenges that I turned into practical solutions.
My big takeaways were
Even if they aren’t interested in painting, kids love slopping paint around and things can get out of hand if you give them access without clear guidance. Design practical systems that reduce resource waste and reduce the temptation to paint themselves, paint others, paint unauthorized surfaces, or eat the paint.
Three hours doesn’t seem like much from the perspective of a 9-5 worker until you see the perspective of a middle schooler — creating fun in the schedule and doing “all together” movement breaks are crucial.
Your location host or client won’t always know what you need - As the contractor, advocate for appropriate utilities, equipment, space, and time.
Middle School Cap Hill
This was a fascinating three day workshop spread across 6 school periods, so a central challenge was gaining consensus and moving forward with a design among over 100 kids who were never to be in the same room together.
High School Summer Apprenticeship
This was a 6-week apprenticeship program with Urban Artworks where I helped the group of teens create a mural, as well as facilitated their entry into an art show with Nepantla Art Gallery
My big takeaways were
Standards for respect often need to be clarified : Set fair guidelines and consequences for bullying language
Kids and adults often struggle with fixed mindset, especially when it comes to being artsy or not. When facing this, it helps to break processes down to their basest form and bring everyone along step by step if too many people are getting lost along the way.
High School West Seattle
The West Seattle school requested me specifically to teach again as they found I went above and beyond to ensure an extraordinary experience. This time, I was teaching in their high school with some kids who had a lot of art experience, and some who had none. Again, there was the issue of calibrating for students of different interests and skill level, but we also found managing emotions, energy levels and friendships to be of increasing importance here.
My big takeaways were
Providing stratified options for kids who wanted more guidance or who wanted little to no guidance
Pushing the schedule more rapidly to painting the wall, and making sure that each kid gets to paint something they are interested in.
Letting students take the lead where possible - high schoolers are highly capable and can do wonderful creative work when given the opportunity and when they feel empowered and non-self-conscious.
Middle School West Seattle
This project was back in the original middle school. This time around, we had access to a lab, so there were plenty of sinks for clean up and laminate floors instead of a janitor’s closet with a tap and multi use carpeted corridor. Further, I had a number of students I recognized from last year - they liked the last class and had come back to make another mural! The students were more carefully sorted into classes they had an interest in, and we had a class full of kids who did art for fun. It was a joy to guide them through with all the tips and tricks that I had learned in the past year and they were so impressed with how clean and crisp their mural came out.
My big takeaways were
This was a very receptive and engaged class, and as I was very transparent about the importance of our time management, I had time on the last day to do one on one goals and next steps check-in with each student. This was a wonderful wrap-up and I identified action items on what to improve in the next class. Many students asked if we would be returning because they wanted to do another mural!
Being clear about expectations and giving more clarity about how each activity we’re doing will add to the end product.
Kids expressed an interest in planning their own murals or making posters during their studio time. This interest will be further explored in the next class.
High School Seattle
This was the final two week expedition, completed in the Seattle sister school of the west seattle branch. This was a pretty big class with a lot of need for attention, redirection of energy, and often overwhelming positivity, creativity and encouragement to get everyone engaged.
My big takeaways were
Every client is different, and will not know how they differ from previous jobs. In this instance, this school had a full closing ceremony and wanted pieces of art from the class that they could show in a gallery set up. It worked out perfectly, as I had already implemented the studio activity of creating a personal poster or mural plan to take home, but we hadn’t done that before and weren’t planning to as the other programs did not have the same kind of additional personal project requirement.
Getting to know the kids, their friends, and listening to their interests and relationships showed ways to empower, tease or challenge individuals and groups into different art based activities that matched their specific interests. The class vibe really smoothed out after a few days of everyone getting to know each other, seeing that we are here to help them and modeling and encouraging helping behavior.
While the split class was a challenge to coordinate in previous iterations, it did allow for the smaller groups to enjoy either a quieter or more boisterous work environment. With the wall painters and the studio activities being in the same room, it did feel very full and was likely too loud or too visible for some to fully relax while painting.
Mural Assistance Around the Sound
The previous projects were all led by me and assisted by awesome TA’s, the following projects were ones where I was assisting another artist.
Impact
Every class we had, we were able to make an impact with students and create wonderful memories within their team.
The curriculum at the end of this year had greatly evolved from this process of iteration and I found that students of different skill levels and comfortability with drawing and painting were finding more success after introducing these new techniques
In terms of artistic creation, we were able to reduce the production time, cleanup, and creative adn interpersonal conflicts by setting expectations early and updating processes for each unique class composition and environment.
By listening closely to the kids as well as asking outright for feedback, I was able to improve the class with each day and each new iteration.
