I recently finished the in-class portion of an artist-in-residency I participated in with Artists Working in Education (A.W.E.). Artists Working in Education is a non-profit who seeks to bring positive art experiences to under-served children of Milwaukee. They do this through sponsoring artist-in-residencies, like I was taking part in, and through their summertime Truck Studio, where artists go out to Milwaukee County parks and do free arts programming for children playing in the parks.
This residency took place at Shalom High School, a high school that serves a population of students at-risk for not graduating high school. This was my third dual-discipline residency at Shalom. I worked with an artist-partner in the form of poet/spoken-word artist/educator Dan Vaughn. Each time he and I have worked together, the project has somehow combined poetry, graphic design, computer skills, photography, and creative problem-solving. Most recently, our projects have also incorporated guided meditation and breathing exercises!
Below are two photographs of me working with the students. The first image was from the day when our students got to have a Skype video-call with students in Uganda. The second image is of me working with one of our students to create a graphic piece with a line from one of her poems. The photos were made by Mary Osmundsen, one of the staff members of A.W.E.
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