Possibilities and Ideas for our Teacher Exhibition

We had a wonderful work session in mid January with DiDi, Liz Chisholm, Valerie, Viera, Rebekah, and Roxane. They had so many inspirational ideas and have put some critical thought into your Exhibition. A lot was covered and I still need to go through my notes to pull out some more details to share, but I wanted to bring the rest of the group into some of the things we talked about.

During the work session, we went around the room and shared what we were working on and/or thinking of working on and had a great dialogue about adaptations and possibilities that stemmed from these ideas. Here is just a quick blurp about what people are thinking about:

Rebekah talked about an avalanche/pillar/tidal wave of cut-up mandates/guidelines that are all connected into one large piece (she brought in an example her students did). She is really interested in working with the mounds of paper that are apart of her life.

Liz wants to work on the voice of teachers in a video of interviews and she wants to coordinate panel of art teachers presenting Pecha Kuchas. She is interested in, among other things, really exploring the Role of the Art Teacher. Please see her blog posts and email with details regarding this.

DiDi really wants to incorporate the ST student reflections and how students told her it was the first time a teacher asked them how they felt. She's going to work with a couple of students and a past student in creating something around the idea of "nest."

Stephanie is working on a personal piece of art that resembles wiping the fog off a windshield in order to see clearly as a metaphor for how ST has allowed her to focus on her teaching amidst all the other extras.

Viera was still organizing her thoughts about what her contribution will look like, but she is interested in demonstrating the rigor of the art teachers' practice and the expansion of students' minds and their personal growth.

Roxy wants to collect to-do lists from the group and create a piece out of the lists and the materials in their to-do lists as a demonstration of everything that art teachers do beyond teaching art. She also wants to create a piece from a sign system she uses in her classroom to track student behavior (in a classroom management sense).

Valerie wants to contribute to as many collaborative pieces as possible (i.e. Rebekah's manipulation of mandates, Liz's teacher interview, etc.)  and is working on individual pieces- small paintings of bonded and brutalized birds as a metaphor for how she currently feels trapped as a teacher. But, she also wants to include positive imagery - small paintings of birds breaking free from their bondage.

This is just a beginning to the conversations we had. It's going to be amazing! We are so lucky to be working with such a great group of teachers.

There is a lot to follow up on and I will do everything I can to coordinate most of that. In the mean time, PLEASE give us an idea of what you have been working on or plan to be working on. As we move into securing a space, we will have a better idea of what we can accommodate. More details on that will be coming VERY soon!