Learn or help your child learn art and new media studies...or even a language!
As a successfully returned Peace Corps Volunteer and practicing artist in the city, I have been working with children and young adults, ages 5-18, in the city for the past three years.
In November of 2009, I returned to the US after spending over two years in Mozambique, teaching English and Visual Arts, developing after-school programs for arts and technology, and grant writing. Since then, I have been working as an artist in Brooklyn, practicing out of the Brooklyn Navy Yards and occasionally elsewhere through awards such as LMCC's Swing Space Residency on Governors Island, St. Nick's Alliance's A@R Studio Residency in Greenpoint, and Salem Art Works' Artist in Residence Fellowship in Upstate New York.
As a way to subsidize my artist income, I have continued to work with children in a variety of capacities in Greater New York, principally as a tutor (or integrated "facilitator of awesomeness) and a teacher at NEST+m in the Lower East Side. Facilitating Awesomeness intersects within the venn diagram of tutoring, after-school childcare, and mentoring. Working as an integrated role model with children (ages 5-17), I teach art and technology, tutor in a multitude of disciplines, work on large-scale projects like cooking or game development, and, most importantly, listen to what children need and want to do.
The approach has extended to the classroom in New York, where I developed an integrated media curriculum which emphasized professional Adobe® Photoshop and file organization skills. NEST+m adapted the curriculum and employed it for their flagship after-school program in 2010, where I taught and trained teachers to continue to teach the program in 2010 and 2011.
Moving forward, I continue to work with children, as well as work professionally in the arts as a studio assistant for artists Cameron Martin (2004 Whitney Biennial) and Valerie Hammond (faculty at NYU and Columbia University). My objective for the new year is to continue to work professionally as an artist, maintain my studio practice, and allow for the infinite curiosity of children to inspire me.
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