Living in rural Virginia for over two decades, it is certainly interesting to transition to an apartment right on the Loop in downtown Chicago. I have never experienced hustle and bustle quite like this in my life. Even when I studied abroad and lived in Athens, Greece for an entire semester, there were no tall buildings. Nothing is allowed to block the view of the Parthenon, so nothing is allowed to be taller than 12 stories. Although there are city busses, lots of pigeons, and an insane amount of tourists, I was left with the feeling of leaving just a really large town at the end of my four months. Chicago is Chicago; Big, bold, and consuming, although frequently muffled by “the L.” Now that I’ve been here for what’s going on week three, I find myself asking where I fit into it all.
I am interning with a non-profit organization called Ingenuity, which is focused on ensuring that every Chicago Public Schools (CPS) student receives a quality arts education. As they say on their website, Ingenuity constantly works “to institute the Chicago Public Schools Arts Education Act by collecting and managing arts-related data, supporting community arts partners, and advocating for CPS programs and resources.” (ingenuity-inc.org) I have learned a lot since I have started working with this organization especially because I usually view public art education through a different lens. My mom is an elementary school art teacher in a public school system in Virginia, so it is very new to me to work with a company that is working to improve quality education as an outside third party, not as someone who works directly with the kids. Ingenuity constantly strives for the children in CPS to not only have a valuable arts education, but to also thrive and grow through the arts by making them the best they can possibly be. Not only is this impressive because it is so important to integrate studio arts, theatre, dance, and music into everyone’s lives, but also because a team of 11 people run this entire company that gives millions of dollars to CPS and other arts organizations every year. They have shown me already in my three weeks here that hard work and dedication can make a difference in a child’s life even if you do not know them personally.
One event that I went to was an Institute put on by Ingenuity called, “You Are Your Teaching Artists: Frame. Train. Retain.” Although I do not work at an organization with teachers or Teaching Artists, it was important for me to participate in this Institute because I will be running a similar event at the end of the summer. One of the main goals of the program was to understand the importance of organizations empowering Teaching Artists to demonstrate their skills and build a positive classroom culture, engage in personal and artistic self-awareness, and positively represent the organization– which really stuck out to me. Everyone at the event sat at tables of five, and participated in different activities to spark conversation and different ideas. One activity that I found quite compelling was when each group was given a different challenging scenario and we had to figure out the best way to respond to the situation. In my group’s scenario, a child exclaimed to the teacher, “I just don’t get what the point of all this is. Art is for rich white people.” I was startled. Not only was I mortified by the scenario, but I had a moment where I realized that if a second grader said this to me, I would have no idea what to say even though I firmly believe the statement to be false. To my amazement, the four other educators I was sitting with immediately rose to the occasion and offered an impressive system of how one could go about interacting with this hard conversation. The first step was to affirm that there may be a reason the child felt this way. In an example of the arts through dance, it could be possible that the only interaction the child knew about was ballet, where people pay hundreds of dollars to attend. One teacher said, “Do they know that styles like hip hop and breakdancing are art?” The second step that was collectively decided was that there needed to be a change in the classroom. This was an opportunity, one Arts Partner said, to ask yourself what you have done to contribute to this child’s idea of art and then bring great cultural examples into the classroom. The third idea was to remember how important it is for children to explore the things they are curious about, and not to react by scolding the child for saying this. “You should build and grow on this in your curriculum from now on.” The last point was to perhaps scratch the lesson for the day to take the time and explore this with the children– to have a collective discussion with the class, with the idea that the statement would be more resolved by the end of the session.
At another event, Elizabeth Robbins from Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy spoke in a fireside chat. She received “The Civic Education Leadership Award” which is given by the Obama Foundation to honored educators who model civic leadership by providing opportunities for young people to engage actively in their community. She explained that something an educator in the arts needs to realize is that everyone has a story. You connect your own story to art and that is what makes it accessible to everyone. She explained that how she approaches telling her story, of a middle aged white teacher, to a classroom of predominantly children of different ethnic backgrounds is very important. I found topics like these in the forefront of the arts education scene, and I had never really considered these issues before as an individual who wants to go into the arts in some capacity. So back to my first question– how these scenarios that educators strive to face with their students everyday connect to me, a 21 year old in college who is still looking for my place in the world?
I’m still forming my answers. In the meantime, I am going to make sure I am taking in the world from every perspective. Whether helping to write a guidebook for Arts Partners at my internship with Ingenuity or trying to figure out what kind of career I want to pursue after I graduate, I need to remember that I am not trying to pursue this career for just myself. It’s also so that a bold second grader knows that they have a place in the art world, same as me. I just have to figure out how I will do it.
