teaching philosophy
I believe the most valuable thing any of us can do for the world and each other is to live as authentically as possible.
Students must not only be welcomed and encouraged to bring their authentic selves to class; learning must be a celebration of their identities, an extension of their whole being. No one should feel they need to hide any part of themselves or conform to perceived norms in order to succeed. At its core, art is communication. As arts educators, it is our privilege to empower students to find their voices and our calling to elevate student voices and needs.
Representation matters. A friend of mine in grad school took a History of Photography class and felt isolated by the lack of representation in artists highlighted. She challenged herself that for every white male presented in class, she would find a woman, LGBTQ, or BIPOC artist making comparable work. No student should need to carry this weight. As educators, we must make our curriculum inclusive and ensure students are regularly shown artists they can identify with. Strategically center LGBTQIA, BIPOC, disabled artists, and women artists as well as international perspectives.
No student should have to go through the motions. On day one of Marketing for Photographers, we talked about each student’s goals. One voiced she needed the class for graduation but didn’t see any applicability because she was not interested in client-based work. Her passion was skate-board photography, something she had been told was too niche. I promised her we would make the class and the assignments work for her. We focused on her niche-goal and crafted authentic materials that would market her to opportunities to build her dream career. She engaged fully and created exquisite marketing materials, then used those materials to land a full-time gig at a local skate company by the end of the semester. A year later, she leveraged that experience to move cross-country with a fulltime job in her niche. Get to know students and support them in fulfilling project outcomes through work they are excited to make. Help them see that they can make “their work” while satisfying assignments.
Embrace iterative process. Help students to fall in love with process. As makers, we should be in a near constant state of making.
Value conversations over lectures. Teaching practice is less performance art and more relational aesthetics. Design dynamic structures for students to interact within. Facilitate learning as social practice by cultivating student engagement with each other and the materials.
