Teaching Artist Podcast

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Teaching Artist Podcast

This podcast is dedicated to discussions of teaching art to kids, making art, and how those things overlap and feed each other.

05/23/2022

It was such a pleasure talking with Laura & Matt Grundler, who host the on Twitter and The Creativity Department podcast.

We talked about helping kids navigate a world that wasn’t built for them, as both parents and teachers. Laura and Matt both shared their paths as artists and educators, which included struggles with school and learning challenges, giving them empathy for students.

I also loved hearing about how they weave visual journaling into not only their curricula, but also their lives. They both talked about journaling to process emotions and information, and a beautiful collaborative journal practice to continue learning about each other. . .
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

05/23/2022

I love these expressive faces by Suzanne Joyal and her students. She talked about drawing inspiration from students to overcome artist block and shared how these pieces were based on students' drawings. She says:

"I started with the silkscreen format because it harkened back to my childhood coloring books. Each image is enlarged and screen printed in an edition of five, so that as with a coloring book, the template can be painted in multiple ways, possibly by multiple artists. As with a coloring book page, when I paint on the template, the act of “coloring” becomes a meditative, joyful experience.

When I paint with rich, gooey, thick oil paint on beautiful cotton rag artist’s papers in large format, I finally get the result I am aiming for: robust, saturated, rich thick layers of color realized through the pure joy of painting. . .
Hear more about Suzanne's work and teaching in episode 93.

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05/13/2022

Teaching Artist Friends! 💥 Join us on Saturday 5/21 for our next workshop!

💥 Register via the link in bio!

💥 Educator, Artist, & Creativity Advocate Maria Coit will lead us through a 1-hr workshop identifying boundaries around your teaching practice to enable you to spend more time on creativity. Time for Q&A will be included. .coit

Maria Coit is an artist, middle school art teacher, and mentor for teachers and artists. Maria founded Curated for Kids, a blog that shares a diverse selection of artists for use in the K-8 classroom. Her role as a mentor is rooted in a deep understanding of the various factors that can lead to burnout, and personal experience with healing it.

This workshop is open to teaching artists around the world. Fees are sliding scale $8-$22. Limited spots available. Fees support our work and allow us to continue leading these monthly meetings.

This meeting is part of our ongoing monthly meet-ups for teaching artists, hosted by Rebecca Potts Aguirre of and Victoria J. Fry of ✨

05/09/2022

NEW EPISODE!! Suzanne Joyal had great advice about working with students with disabilities, which really applies to working with all students. I loved hearing about her path to teaching through motherhood and how she advocated for the arts in schools. It was also inspiring to hear about her art practice and how she overcomes artist block.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

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05/01/2022

I loved hearing about processes. She talked about the immediacy of photography and the physicality of glass. 🏔

Hear about her art and teaching practices in the latest episode!

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04/18/2022

Aimee Sones talked about supporting her students through this pandemic and beyond in part through shifting mindsets and reframing thinking. I loved how she talked about our role as educators as focused around teaching students to care and to prioritize what it is they care about, ideally moving away from stress about homework towards empathy and care for each other.
Aimee puts the same passion into supporting fellow educators and artists through coaching 🏔

She shared some great advice around selling your artwork and thinking through all the questions to ask around creating art objects. It was also so interesting to hear about how she works with many media, materials, and processes and how she conceptualizes and carries out her work.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

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04/09/2022

NEW EPISODE!! This one is coming out a little early because Amir mentioned a fantastic event that is happening TODAY! LA friends, check out the Arts Justice Fest happening 11am - 7pm on Hyperion Ave. More details:

Amir is an educator, author, civil rights lawyer, and musician. He is the founder and director of Project KnuckleHead,a nonprofit organization empowering youth through music, art, and educational programs since 2012.

Dr. Amir Whitaker Esq. weaves together his experience and knowledge as an educator, musician, and lawyer and spoke about how those things have inspired each other throughout his life. I loved how he talked about following a question, which led to more questions, as he pursued degree after degree. He spoke about how his multiple titles and roles really come back to passion for justice and the arts and his mission to free the youth. He touched on his own personal background with the (in)justice system, which he shares more of in his book, “The KnuckleHead’s Guide to Escaping the Trap.” He also offered some advice for teachers in connecting with students and breaking down barriers. Amir was very generous in allowing me to share clips of his music on the podcast. I love being able to use this audio format to the fullest!

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com.

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04/09/2022

runs a at as yet another awesome way he connects with students and engages them in the arts in unexpected ways. He talked in episode 90 about research projects combining sound art and raku ceramics with agricultural science. 🤯💥 I loved getting to pick his brain a bit!

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com.

04/03/2022

NEW EPISODE! mikewindy aka Mike Mitchell talked about his winding path to art education and the myth of the art professor with abundant studio time. He shared how he fits in studio time in the gaps and how rich and fulfilling this winding path has been.

Mike also shared a project he does with students that provides useful data for teachers in assessing student learning, being able to offer data to administrators, while also letting students see their own growth. He talked about thinking in similar ways within his studio practice to shift to a growth mindset as an artist.

mikewindy is a cohort 3 member of the Educator’s Cooperative and the Kids on Stage Art Director of Mount Pleasant Schools in Maury County, TN. He is a 2020 global ambassador and the 2022 Mid-region Educator of the year awarded by the TN Art Education Association. He also hosts podcast with the TN Art Education Association and facilitates a speaker series with the Educator’s Cooperative.

Check out a few more of his projects: and

Mike does so much and was full of admiration in this episode, sharing many artists that inspire him. Check out our blog post (link in bio or www.teachingartistpodcast.com) for links to their work.

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03/31/2022

Lionel Cruet talked about how his teaching and art practices overlap in themes and thought processes.

"I feel that as much as it's teaching art, it's also teaching about social responsibility."

This idea comes up a lot - that we're teaching so much more than art. How do you nurture students as they grow and learn to navigate this world?

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03/27/2022

NEW EPISODE!! In conjunction with Lionel Cruet's exhibit at 💥 this episode digs into his work as well as his teaching.

Lionel Cruet spoke about "Rhetorics of an Uncertain Future" which is in its third iteration at Play + Inspire Gallery. He shared the process of developing the exhibition in all three iterations, from private viewing at Yi Gallery in NYC to exhibit at El Lobi in Puerto Rico to online at Play + Inspire. The title was chosen carefully to encompass the writing that accompanies the exhibition, while also exploring the visual arts as a mode of persuasion, a mode of rhetoric. We talked about how apt the idea of uncertain futures feels in this moment.

I loved hearing about how Lionel’s process begins with drawing and watercolor and then expands into digital media, video, and transmedia storytelling. He talked about collaboration and how he works with fellow artists, curators, sound designers, and animators to bring his ideas to life. He also shared advice for artists and educators.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com.

👀 View the exhibit at www.playinspiregallery.com (link in bio). We recommend viewing on a computer 🖥 rather than mobile device.

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03/13/2022

NEW EPISODE!! Eric Anthony Berdis shared his story of finding refuge and courage in art. He talked about imagining a q***r space and how he creates that imagined space.

He also spoke about the idea of being a parallel player alongside his young students and his continual work to move away from facilitator or director in the classroom.

I loved hearing about Eric's process and all the research behind his work. I also loved how he is able to incorporate play and whimsy among all the references and context that goes into his work. . .
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

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03/13/2022

A peek into the classroom studio of where his students are busy expressing their ideas!

Listen to episode 87 to hear about Abhishek's background, art practice, and helpful advice for working with students with disabilities. He also spoke about how the pandemic shifted teaching and what's here to stay.

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02/28/2022

Beautiful work by this week's guest who talked about how he's addressing mental health and gender in his current series. It was so interesting hearing how much thought and research goes into the considerations of men and mental health in India for this work... alongside the intuition and capturing beauty in daily life.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

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02/27/2022

NEW EPISODE!! 🎉 The release schedule has slowed down, but here's a good one - worth the wait! I had the pleasure of speaking with Abhishek Panchal who shared wonderful advice for working with students of all abilities and adjusting his own expectations as a teacher during constantly shifting situations as a result of the pandemic. We got into what student-centered teaching can look like.

He also talked about his inspiration as an artist and the project he’s currently working on surrounding men and mental health in India.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

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02/22/2022

Teaching Artists Friends! 💥 Join us this Saturday, 2/26 at 9am PST / 12pm EST to talk about how we do all the things! I'm facilitating this one! 👋

Register for free via the link in bio! 💥

Join us for a discussion around sustaining a life as both an artist and educator. We will share strategies and tips. The workshop will include time for questions and reflection with journal prompts to help participants think through key shifts to better support them in these dual careers.

🌟 Rebecca Potts Aguirre is an artist and educator based in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Europe and Australia at spaces including The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Zhou B. Art Center, New York Studio Gallery, Art Share L.A., and SoLA Contemporary. She founded and hosts Teaching Artist Podcast, coordinates the Teaching Artists' Lounge in collaboration with Victoria J. Fry, and runs Play + Inspire Gallery in partnership with Maria Coit. After 15 years as a teaching artist and arts education program manager, Rebecca is now a K-12 Curriculum Designer for The Art of Education University.

⚡️ We’d love to see you there!

This is part of our Teaching Artists’ Lounge monthly meetings, which we facilitate with of 💫. Through these meetings, we create a supportive community for artists who teach. ⁠

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02/11/2022

"Polvo de Luna" (Moon Dust) by Marianna Jimenez Edwards this week's guest!

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com.

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02/10/2022

Yes!! I hear too often how art is treated as a hobby or cast aside when budgets are cut. Creativity is an essential skill!

"Dispel the myth that all we do in the art room is play with crayons…We make kids think and we make them problem solve."

How do we keep dispelling this myth?

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02/09/2022

More gorgeous work by Marianna Jimenez Edwards who spoke about learning to draw and teaching students to draw in this week's episode.

This image is cropped, so visit Marianna's site or www.teachingartistpodcast.com for the full image of this piece.

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02/08/2022

About going to art school: "Being around all those other artists, I just felt like I belonged there and I could experiment."

Have you felt the way Marianna did?

That sense of belonging when feeling the freedom to create is so magical!!

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02/07/2022

Beautiful mixed media work by Marianna Jimenez Edwards this week's guest!

She talked about her inspirations and process as well as her journey as an artist and educator. Thank you, Marianna!!

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01/25/2022

I loved hearing about Ana Guzman's journal practice and how art-making has ebbed and flowed for her. 🌊 It's always helpful to hear from others who are juggling teaching and art-making (and family and everything else!) about the reality of that juggling act. 🤹 We don't usually find balance.

Something has to give.

Sometimes that's our art practice or sometimes it means not pushing so hard as an educator. It's helpful to hear how even small practices of sketching or journaling can become habits and keep us fulfilled.

How do you manage this balance (or lack thereof!)?

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01/22/2022

NEW EPISODE!! Ana Guzman talked about her experience as an English Language Learner and reframing that term to Emergent Bilingual as she now works to help students who are learning a second language. I love that reframing, focusing on the impressive fact that these students already know at least one language and are learning an additional language!

She shared some strategies art educators can use in reaching and teaching emergent bilingual students as well as advocating with administration and higher level bureaucrats.

I loved hearing about her art journaling and how she’s taking time to reflect as part of her own art-making practice. That ebb and flow in life is so REAL and so important to talk about. We can’t do everything all the time, as much as we may want to.

Ana shared resources for connecting art and English learning as well as several scholars whom she’s learned from. These are all linked in the blog post, which you can find at www.teachingartistpodcast.com (link in bio).

Go check out her work at www.tesolscholar.com!

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01/13/2022

This is so important to hear, even as it's hard to hear. It prompts some big questions for me:
❔ How can we better understand each other's experiences?
❔ What can we do when our lack of understanding has a negative impact, even if it's unintentional?
❔ How do we make our classrooms spaces where students can share and learn about each other and ask these big questions?

👇 What questions and reflections come up for you?

Huge thank you to Melissa Parke of for having this conversation, sharing your process, and doing this important work!

"A lot of people who I thought understood my experience because we're having more conversations about race, don't really get my experience, and some of it is really offensive."

"I still have trouble understanding the Black experience in Puerto Rico. And I'm Black! Imagine how people who are white in America are dealing with understanding." . .
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

01/12/2022

In this week's episode, Melissa Parke of talked about the Afrocentric Social-Emotional Learning Framework she created, which centers social-emotional learning (SEL) for the Black learner through arts education.

“There is an immediate need in the U.S. to facilitate equitable learning experiences for the Black learner in particular, as they have long-since been left out of Eurocentric curriculums and colonized ideologies of success.”

Melissa talked about developing this framework and using it within professional development. She also shared a bit of the many theories and ideas that come into this framework. She offers workshops going more in depth and training teaching artists in using this framework. Check it out !

"An example of Afro-centric social awareness, which is my favorite competency, is understanding that Blackness is not a monolith, as you said before, and that we come from different parts of the diaspora, and that we're connected through our west African heritage." . .
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

01/09/2022

NEW EPISODE!!! Kicking off Season 3 😮🎉 with a great conversation with Melissa Parke, founder of ❤‍🔥.

Melissa Parke shared her journey in bringing an idea to life through Black Teaching Artist Lab where she conducts research, offers workshops and professional development, and facilitates travel abroad that aims to connect Black teaching artists and learners from the African Diaspora through arts education. She shared so vulnerably about mental health and struggles with feeling confident despite being certain of the importance and value of her work.

She has created the Afrocentric Social-Emotional Learning Framework, which centers social-emotional learning for the Black learner through arts education. Check out all the amazing work Melissa's doing!!

There are 2 ways you can get involved and support her work:
1⃣ Take the survey (link in bio) if you're Black identifying. If not, share it and help spread the word! 💥
2⃣ Donate to help fund the Pan-African Cultural Exchange 💸 . .
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.teachingartistpodcast.com

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http://teachingartistpodcast.com/

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