Tell Us How You Became So Close to Art (2021)

24 hour performance festival, curated by Jessica Borusky, UNF Galleries, Jacksonville, FL

During the pandemic, I became a full-time public school teacher in the district I attended as a kid. I taught k-5 art classes, and I saw over 700 kids per week. I was really committed to learning everyone’s name, and I used the Teaching for Artistic Behavior curriculum which is designed to give students free choice within a set of structures. Everyday each student had the opportunity to work on a single project from the previous weeks, move between projects, or start a new one. I introduced a new center or skill every couple weeks, and once a center was open, it was available to anyone.

One particular fifth grade class was really not interested in my class, and despite my best efforts, we were not connecting. I devised a plan to build trust with them: I invited them to write a performance score for me. I promised to follow the score dutifully if they agreed to participate in my class. I taught them about performance art, and then each student got to add or subtract a piece of the score until everyone agreed that it seemed perfect. One of the questions they asked me to answer during the performance: tell us how you became so close to art. I performed the piece in my classroom for an online performance festival via Zoom.

After this experience, the class went great.