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Teaching 

While obtaining my undergraduate degree, I attended two cultural exchange programs in Venezuela, where I witnessed artists who spent time not only in their studios but building spaces, making art, and teaching creativity in their communities. They created alternative spaces to show art, make and talk about art in ways we overlook in the United States. I experienced something unique and it changed my perspective of what art could do, who artists were, and what a curator and teacher were. In this, new me paradigm, art in various spaces seemed intertwined with life and one and the same. These experiences showed me a different way to look at aspects of the art world than what I was seeing in the United States. They seemed to cut down boundaries between communities seen as separate based on class, race, gender, age, disability, and more.  After graduating from college in Philadelphia, I experienced my first teaching job in 2000 at several non-profits, as a teaching artist creating experiences to engage the public through making and looking at art. Since then, I began to blur the lines between teaching, making, and displaying art as they all facilitate experiences that serve to connect people. I moved to Arizona in 2005 and received a Master in Fine Art focusing on Sculpture installation and community arts. During this time, I collaborated with educators, artists, and communities in China, and the Navajo Nation and worked as an educator in museums and at the University. I oversaw ambitious exhibitions in alternative spaces around campus and the city engaging my students and established artists in shows and spaces.  After graduation, I moved to Los Angeles where have worked for public schools, private schools, museums, and non-profits while being an artist, and arts advocate. 

Teaching  and Exhibition Coordination Experience

 

View Park Preparatory High School                                                                                                                                    Los Angeles CA

Art Instructor                                                                                                                                                                         2018- current

  • Designed and implemented all of the analog art classes at View Park from Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, and Art History.

  • Curated and facilitated the display of student work at SOLA Gallery 

  • Taught AP drawing with 90% passing scores in a low-income, minority community.

  • Created and implemented an intro and intermediate to an art program that implemented the proficient and advanced standards.

  • Partnered students with various art education programs such as the Getty Unsheltered, Young Women In Film Jada Smith Family Foundation, and LA Commons.

  • Created a collaborative mural on campus and cross-curricular art projects with staff.

  • Participated in the Getty cross-curricular programs of art education in History, Science, Math, and English.

 

Santa Anna Community College                                                                                                                                               Santa Anna CA

Foundations Art Instructor Adjunct Professor                                                                                                                       2017-2018

  • Instructed foundational design classes with a focus on both analog and computer skills and techniques. I focused on career readiness for students who are unsure about the variety of jobs in the arts and who also are unsure of the vast possibilities gearing their work towards a portfolio for hire.

  • Collaborated in the curation of group shows ins SAC Gallery. 

  • Connected my students to industries that are in demand of creative people from media arts, product design, interactive design, and architecture.

  • Designed and Implemented a full curriculum for 12-week fundamentals courses including lectures, critiques, and evaluations.

  • Organized artist visits, a diversity of resources both online and in the physical world while managing the classroom tools, and equipment, and safety.

 

 

Oakwood Middle and High School                                                                                                                                        Los Angeles CA

     Art Instructor and Chair or ACE Summer program                                                                                                     May 2008-2015

  • Chaired the visual art branch of the “Academy of Creative Education” summer camp at Oakwood.

    • Hired teachers and recruited students and organize the final art show and field trips to artist studios.

    • Created a collaborative curriculum for the staff and students during the camp and oversaw the curriculum and professionalism of the visual art teachers.

  • Taught sculpture and ceramics summer program and during the traditional school year

  • Designed special topics within, printmaking, drawing painting, and sculpture during the traditional school year.

  •  Collaborated with both senior painting/drawing and sculpture professors.  

  • Designed classes such as “Architecture for a Better Tomorrow”, Mentored students in the craft of woodworking focus class.

  • Instructed an eight-day intensive in the “Photography in Death Valley” immersion class.

  • Collaborated in the curriculums and implementation “Making Your Found Object Instrument” workshop.

  • Facilitated guest artists and curated student and artist shows on campus 

  • Lectured in a tribal arts class on my Navajo Cultural Exchange in 2006 to study the Female Right of Passage Ceremony and my Nathan Cummings Travel Fellowship to China and the Tibetan Plateau in 2007.

    • Ivan Johnson: ijohnson@oakwoodschool.org  assistant principal and head of ACE. I worked with Ivan at Oakwood School. He is Assistant Dean of Students and the Chair of the Music department as well as the founder of the Academy of Creative Education.

    • Kim Khan: kkahn@oakwoodschool.org teacher at Oakwood School we worked together in a variety of capacities.      

    • Karen Dunbar: dunpatch@sbcglobal.net I worked with Karen when she was chair of the visual arts department at Oakwood

 

Wondwerland Ave. School                                                                                                                                                          Los Angeles CA

     Art Instructor -Integrations                                                                                                                                                  2011- 2017

  • As the only visual art Instructor at Wonderland Avenue School, I taught 500 plus students a week seeing up to 5 classes per day.  I maintain a ceramics program as well as painting, drawing, printmaking, textiles, and sculpture curriculum and integrate technology into all areas where it is needed. I also organize an extensive parent volunteer program and oversee the yearly art show that displays artwork from every child in the school.

  • Designed curriculum and naturally integrates science math and language to connect to the core curriculum and assure the use of applied knowledge through a school-wide educational plan.

  • Implemented both traditional Disciplines Based Art Education and Teaching Artistic Behavior Platforms in my art program.

  •  The designed curriculum meets the state and national standards and grounded sequential lessons that address the elements and principles of art while emphasizing both the making and the appreciation of art and culture.

  • Facilitated the building of a cob bench with artist Ray Cirino. It was designed and made by the students of Wonderland to address the need for outside space for learning, and leading council.

  • Created group murals and artworks on campus with parent and community involvement

  • Facilitated restorative justice and council via six years of training at the Ojai Foundation.

    • Cathy Weiss: weissbrown@yahoo.com Artist and teacher at wonderland Ave school for over 20 years. 

    • Sean Tear: Stt2905@lausd.net The current principal at Wonderland Ave School since 2015.

    • Don Wilson: Don.wilson3@sbcglobal.net Principal at Wonderland Avenue School for 2011-2014

 

Inner-City Arts                                                                                                                                                                            Los Angeles CA

    Teaching Artist / Visual Arts Program                                                                                                                                 2009- 2017

  • Taught Ceramics and Visual Arts in the k-12 programs.

  • Implemented portfolio preparation courses for upper-level students interested in pursuing a career in the arts.

  • Taught elementary students about basic spatial skills required to make various 2-d and 3-d designs, while giving them a safe and creative space to explore.

  • Designed various visual art mediums with lessons that focus on creativity, self-discovery, and imagination.

  • Arranged student-driven shows with High School students both on and off-campus.

  • Collaborated with teachers and community members to empower and bring together peoples and communities through the arts.

  •  Attended the Annenberg Professional Development Program that provides training in the arts of classroom teachers, school administrators, teaching artists, and community partners.

  • Facilitated guest artist discussions

  • Curated group student and artist shows 

  • Trained teachers in arts integration in the Annenberg Professional Development Program at Inner-City Arts.

  • Michelle Solorio: michellecsolorio@yahoo.com Chair of Ceramics Department and Curriculum Adviser in the Visual Arts Department at Inner-City Arts. I worked collaboratively with Michelle on a variety of projects.

 

Arizona State University                                                                                                                                                                  Tempe AZ

     Professor Of Record                                                                                                                                                                  2005-2008

  • Instructed Two-Dimensional Design, Three-Dimensional Design, and Sculpture.

  • Created a full curriculum for these 10-week courses from safety demonstration to critiques and evaluations.

  • Organized artist visits, field trips, and lectures while managing the classroom, tools, machines, and safety.

  • Created curriculum, lesson planning, and assessing student achievement.         

  • Received the Arizona State University Faculty Woman’s Association Achievement Award. I received this award for organizing my student’s ambitious exhibition record of shows both on and off-campus arranged and facilitated by my initiative.

    • Elena Loranco: riverform@yahoo.com Professor of Sculpture at the University of Montana, Missoula. Elena and I were colleagues at ASU and collaborated on curriculum and organized various shows for our students.

    • Mary Neubauer: MARY.Neubauer@asu.edu Chair of the sculpture department at ASU and my advisor when I was Professor of Record.

 

     Park Century School                                                                                                                                                              Los Angeles CA

     Creative Assistant                                                                                                                                                                 2008-2009

  • Shaped classroom art projects in collaboration with the classroom teacher.

  • Created cross-curricular lessons for students studying a broad range of subjects.

  • Designed adaptations and modifications,  for students with a variety of learning needs, Park Century School educates students with learning disabilities with average to superior intellect.

 

Children’s Bureau /Aviva Family Center and Free Arts for Abused Children                                                                    Los Angeles CA

     Curriculum Development/Teaching                                                                                                                                      2008-2009

  • Received a 3-month stipend with the Children’s Bureau to create a new Curriculum for Parent-Child art classes held at Magnolia Place.

  • Collaborated with ten families in the creation of projects that included the whole family from the fathers to the mothers and from the kids to the babies.

  • Displayed family artwork in the facilites

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Spiral Q                                                                                                                                                                                             Philadelphia PA

Puppet and Character making                                                                                                                                                      2001

  • Helped in creating puppets with the community in People Hood Project and for the Edgar Allan Poe Halloween March.

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The Village of Arts and Humanities                                                                                                                                              Philadelphia PA

Puppet and Character making                                                                                                                                                      2001

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Artist 

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