Week 14 Practicum Experience at the MIA

Last week, I made the benchmark for the allotted amount of hours to spend at the MIA. However, that doesn’t mean my time at the MIA has come to an end. I still have to teach a lesson, polish off lesson plans, and I’m still helping out with the MSP event. On Wednesday, I helped illustrate another children’s story for the MSP event. The kids were ecstatic about my drawings and one student even called me a “beast”, which is probably the best compliment I’ve received. It was fairly similar to last week. Last week, we went over the time constraint, so we tried to remove a few minutes when we could this week. This worked for the best, because the kids did get antsy both weeks when they had to listen to the facilitator.  Overall, the event was very successful and the kids seemed to enjoy it immensely. For the rest of the week, I’ve been planning out the lesson plan for the MIA’s family day. The theme of the event on May 8th will be flowers. I was feeling a little clueless on ideas, but Victoria showed me the supply closets on Friday, so I could better visualize what the MIA had. I came up with a few ideas that I couldn’t choose from and was thrilled to get Victoria’s input. She helped pick out my strongest ideas and came up with a list of supplies we would need. It’s much easier bouncing project ideas with someone, as I was able to get an extra noggin to help work out the kinks. Originally, I was only supposed to plan out one lesson plan, but Victoria was very excited about two of my ideas. On one hand, I have more work to do. However, I'm viewing this situation optimistically, so I will get extra practice in lesson planning. The theme of the projects is flowers, but the projects must also repurpose a paper bag. I came up with a paper sculpture inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s flower sculptures and a paper bag booklet that will be filled with botanical illustrations. I’m excited to see how the projects will turn out. Unfortunately, my journal entries have come to an end, so you can only surmise that the rest of my time at the MIA will go swimmingly. Farewell! 

Week 13 Practicum Experience at the MIA

This week was my time to shine. On Wednesday, students from 826 MSP came to the MIA to create their own book, which meant I was able to illustrate their story. I sat in the corner observing the environment and sketching out the cover of their book as the students were storytelling. While I was illustrating, I noticed a neat trick the facilitator did. When the students got a little rambunctious, they asked the students what their teacher did to get their attention. Obviously the facilitator could’ve used one of their own methods, but I think it was really smart to ask the students. That way the students are more comfortable and are able to share their input in how the class is run. Overall, the event went great. I can’t wait until next week when I can compare and contrast with the week prior.

Week 12 Practicum Experience at the MIA

This week was mostly preparation for the 826 MSP event that will be starting next week. Sheila organized a prep meeting with some of the volunteers that I was invited to. We went over step by step instructions on what will happen for the event. At one point, we did a practice run at the MIA, where one of the volunteers led us up to one of the artworks where we ideated character traits based on the artwork. The facilitator had a sheet they read through asking the students, us, what special traits this character has, the character’s motivation, if they were the antagonist or protagonist, etc. I kept my ears peeled for transitions and how the facilitator responded to the student's remarks. There will be four different groups coming in the next month. I’m very excited that while the students create their stories, I will be able to illustrate three of their stories and facilitate the character ideation with the students for the last session. Throughout the rest of the meeting and on Saturday, I did some practice runs of quickly illustrating covers and sketching the artwork the characters will be based on. Meanwhile, I haven’t been able to discuss with Krista on revisions to my first lesson plan or a lesson plan for family day. However, on Saturday, I took some time to organize some lesson plans for some art camps I will be teaching over the summer. I’m teaching four week long art camps. While I was ideating for projects, I was surprised at how much my teaching artist minor has helped me ideate. While I was planning, I considered the process of creating artwork a lot more than I did for project planning prior to this class. For example, I’m thinking how I can get the students to do natural dying for a project or take the students for a walk around the town to ideate ideas for architectural design for a project.

Week 11 Practicum Experience at the MIA

To start off the week, I did some editing for the lesson plan for the MIA park event that will be happening over the summer. I spent some time making the lesson plan more in depth and creating my own example of the project to really understand how the art project will work. On Tuesday, Sheila was able to get a bookbinding machine for the 826 MSP event.  She invited me to the MIA so we could figure it out together. After around an hour of reading the instructions multiple times and playing around with the machine, we were able to figure it out for the event coming up. Later in the week, Victoria asked if I could help assemble a few more spring art kits for an adult portraiture class. The process went quite smoothly.

Week 10 Practicum Experience at the MIA

On Tuesday, I met with Sheila to discuss the event I will be helping with in partnership with 826 MSP. Sheila and I went around the museum to find three artworks to be character inspiration, whether figural or anthropomorphised that the kids will use for storytelling. For part of the event, I will be helping to illustrate the stories the students come up with. Hopefully, for another part of the event, I will be guiding the students around the museum to see the three artworks they will use for their story inspiration. On Wednesday, I helped out Victoria Myers with setting up spring break kits for the MIA. There were several kits to put together, but we mainly focused on Akiko Ostlund’s creative journaling lesson. At the CVA in my hometown, I have put together art kits before, so it was interesting to compare my past experience with the kits at the MIA. In a lot of ways, the set up was very similar. In fact, some of the same materials and brands were used. At the CVA, we ended up putting everything in a box to be mailed out to people (or for pick up), while at the MIA, we tried to fit everything into as small of packaging as possible to be mailed out. One thing I thought was genius that the MIA did with their kits is they partnered with another organization to put sensory kits into the boxes for the students. On Saturday, the MIA held an open studio to help create a community altar with the artist, Keegan, while Khusaba Seka did spiritual readings for people. The event was in preparation for a talk on Sunday with a series of altars around the room. Overall, the whole event was extremely calming. Keegan would greet incoming participants and show them the materials to make a candlelight, but would always offer they didn’t have to. If they wanted, they could just hang out and enjoy the event. Keigen would stress they could also create something entirely different. Because of the openness to creativity, people made some absolutely creative and stunning versions of candlelights. People made flowers, paper stars, bulbs, etc. Everyone added their own flourish to the candlelights. Along with this, everyone seemed to be extremely relaxed at the event. Everyone was so kind and open with people they just met, so conversation flowed so easily between the participants. Overall, the entire experience felt very spiritual and I was so honored to help be a part of it.

Week 9 Spring Break!

Over the spring break I went back home to Wisconsin, so I didn’t have the chance to do anything with the MIA. However, the gallery I work at, the Center for the Visual Arts, had their yearly Expressions art camp that I have gone to every year since I was a kid (minus the last two years). My brain has been a scrambled egg lately, so I didn’t realize that the day lined up with my spring break. Because of this, it was too late for me to teach for it, however, I did get to help volunteer for it with my mom. It was really exciting because I got to put all my knowledge and experience I learned from my two teaching classes here at MCAD into action. The event went from 9 to 3 with three different areas of focus; 2D art, 3D art, and applied arts. The students signed up for one area of focus and were able to create 4 different artworks. I helped out with 2D art with the teachers Olivia and Madison. The students were able to experience watercolors, collage, solar printing, and monoprinting. A lot of the projects were experimental like solar printing and monoprinting, which meant a lot of the student’s artwork didn’t turn out. I was surprised at how many of the students were content with this. It was great that they knew they were playing around with art and seemed to enjoy the process versus the final product. At the CVA, I had never worked with Olivia before, so it was great to see her teaching practice. She referred to the students as friends and used sayings like “clap once, clap twice, etc” to get the student’s attention. This camp in my experience has always been a long day for the students, so their energy always depletes at the end of the day. If the kids finished up their artwork early, I had a set amount of drawing challenges I stored in my noggin to entertain the students like “draw your pet monster” or “you’re on an alien planet at an alien restaurant and you order a dish, what does it look like, “ which the kids really responded to. At the very end of the day when all the students finished up, Olivia played a drawing game with them where each kid draws one line on a piece of paper and then they pass it to the student on their right. At first the kids were skeptical, but they ended up getting really into it. 

Week 8 Practicum Experience at the MIA

Krista Pearson invited me to a staff tour of the new paranormal exhibit at the MIA. I’ve been super stoked to go see the exhibit and it was a blast to hear one of the people in charge of the exhibit explain it to all of us. The tour guide only discussed one piece for each room, but extensively discussed the backstory of each piece and the artists’ interaction with the supernatural. During the tour, I had this realization that the guide would say “um” a lot. For me, it never interrupted the guide’s statement or invalidated the guide’s credibility. I only point this out because in both my speech classes I took in high school and college, filler words like “um” were HIGHLY discouraged. To me, these filler words help me, the listener, better retain information because there's a short pause. Other than the tour, I chiseled away at the lesson plan for Krista Pearson and added some questions for the Joy and Wonder art collection.

Week 7 Practicum Experience at the MIA

Starting off the week, I observed a virtual tour for the paranormal exhibit at the MIA. The tour guide started off asking what brought everyone to the virtual tour as an icebreaker. I’ve been super excited about the exhibit myself, but it was a delight to see everyone’s enthusiasm for the tour. There were people out of the state and country who came, which really added a fun energy to the tour. Afterwards, the tour guide went over basic rules about Zoom like how to mute your mic, how to limit the video screen, etc. I definitely thought that was helpful for the people who are not well adjusted to Zoom. Then throughout the tour, the tour guide was amazing at pronouncing every word slowly so everyone could understand. Along with this, they would use transitions between discussing each artwork. For example, they would say, “we just looked at an art piece that deals with this theme and idea. Now, let’s turn our attention to this artwork that deals with this theme.” The entire tour was super clear to understand because of the slow pronunciation and transitions between art. Again like last week, this week really caught me off guard, especially with midterms fast approaching. I was able to chisel away at some more questions to the Joy and Wonder art collection and start to put together an art lesson plan for Krista Pearson for the summer park events.

Week 6 Practicum Experience at the MIA

Before my weekly meeting over at the MIA, I did some last minute research for the protest art collection. When I met with Sheila, she was very excited about the questions that I wrote out, so I felt a huge sigh of relief. We went over a few of the questions to rephrase a few, so they were more direct for the students. We also added a few follow up questions for the students where they would have to find evidence in the artwork to support their opinion. Sheila offered for me to do another set of questions relating to artwork on the theme of Joy and Wonder. I’m very excited to generate questions for that theme relating to the senses and emphasize the playful movement a lot of the artwork collection has. On Wednesday, I was also able to meet with Angela Olson, Studio Program Associate, on creating spring art kits with projects a few teaching artists put together. Angela showed me around where I can find materials and where the printer is located. Along with this, I happily offered to help compile addresses of the participants into a spreadsheet, so it would be easier to print out addresses for shipment. Back at the gallery I work at in my hometown of Wausau, I’ve also helped create art kits for virtual class. It'll be an interesting comparison of how each gallery handles the kits, especially since the MIA is much larger than my hometown gallery. Near the end of the week, I observed a virtual art tour. The tour guide picked art that could be related to a book that the group read. I didn’t catch the title of the book, but the genre was a romantic comedy. The tour guide would pull up a picture and would ask how this work relates to either a theme of the book or to a character. The whole event felt more like a conversation between the tour guide and the members. They’d make jokes about the characters and discuss what they enjoyed about the book. 

Week 5 Practicum Experience at the MIA

Due to some technical difficulties, I wasn’t able to observe another Art Adventure session on Monday like I was scheduled. However, on Tuesday, I was able to clock in a few more hours on generating questions for the protest art collection. I was able to dip a little deeper into research on some of the topics. For some of the photography artwork, I’m still having difficulties making questions, but I added questions regarding the student’s senses about what they think they hear in the image. Some of the questions I added regarded what the students think the figures in the photographs are feeling and experiencing. Later in the week, I also met with Kara ZumBahlen who works with planning out virtual/in-person tours at the MIA. She introduced me to a few tours that I could observe. I’m really excited about how tour guides will discuss artwork with students versus adults. There’s also a wide range of tours. Kara explained how there’s one where the tour guide will point out artwork in the museum that has common themes and metaphors to a particular book or a tour relating to the new paranormal exhibit at the MIA. It’ll be very interesting to observe the types of themes that will be discussed about the artwork. This week really caught me off guard, so I wasn’t able to do more for the class.

Week 3 Practicum Experience at the MIA

Tuesday, I observed a training session for Art Adventure. The program trains volunteers on how to stir up conversation and questions for students on artwork at the MIA. It was really educational to learn how to talk to children about certain artworks. During the session, it was emphasized to pertain to children’s senses like “What do you see?” and making sure to add “you” statements. On Wednesday, I met up with Sheila McGuire, involved with student and teacher learning. She introduced me to some more projects that I could be involved in. One of them was with 826MSP to help children with storytelling, which was something I was planning on volunteering for last semester. It’s funny how these things work out! Along with this, as we were viewing the MIA’s webpage together, we came to the realization that on the “Must See” self guided tour needed to be updated with new artwork and questions for young viewers . On Friday, I was able to sit in on a zoom meeting for the last project for Creativity Academy. The class was making animal vessels inspired by a Quapaw vessel at the MIA out of model magic which would be exhibited at the MIA. The two teaching artists, Bethany and Cy, had a really neat and organized approach to the project. They first went over classroom etiquette, vocab terms, and a little history of the Quapaw tribe and the artwork the project is based on. When they showed a picture of the vessel, they had the students use the “See, Think, Feel, and Wonder Method.” Earlier this week, this kind of thinking was emphasized when I met with Sheila, but in a strange way, it felt more official when hearing a title for the method. After the kids took observations using this method, they filled out a brainstorming sheet for their animal vessel. However, from the behavior of the kids, they were struggling to answer the questions of the animals name and their special power. The teacher was facilitating the classroom through the entire session, but it was interesting how the teacher had to remind the students that this wasn’t graded and they couldn’t be in “school mode”. For me, I could see this as being a challenge because the students are still in their original classroom where they learn graded material like math and english, so it would make sense that they would still be in the literal mindset for “school mode”. I feel like this would really be a challenge for teaching artists who go into schools, because the children are more concerned about grades than practicing their creativity. Once the students had filled out their brainstorming sheet, they got started on molding the clay for their vessels. I’ve worked a lot with model magic with younger students before, so it was a different perspective to view the experience on the outside. After their molding, Bethany and Cy made sure the students looked at a checklist to make sure they made their animals into a vessel, had details from their brainstorming sheet, and they included decorations. They also filled out a back sheet where students would describe what their character looked like and where the animals lived. To end the week, I worked on writing new questions for the virtual tour “Must See”. I found it to be a lot harder than I thought. Trying to create original questions that pertain to each piece of artwork is quite challenging. 

Week 2 Practicum Experience at the MIA

The week started off with a meeting with Amanda McMahon (involved with Student and Teaching Learning at the MIA). To start with, Amanda familiarized me with the MIA’s Creativity Academy where teachers virtually do projects with various schools in the area. We went over the schedule and came up with a few days that I could observe the various projects the students will be doing. Afterwards, Amanda helped me get a visitor pass, so I could get access to the offices at the MIA. She showed me where people’s offices were while I marveled at the “behind the scenes” of an art museum. I find it deeply rewarding to see the offices as it changes my whole perspective on the art museum. Beforehand, seeing how grand the museum is, made it feel almost untouchable. However, after seeing the “behind the scenes” the whole place feels much more grounded and approachable. She also showed me around the community area where classes and workshops are held. Later on, I met with Krista Pearson to discuss Friends for 100 Years: A Lasting Legacy and a potential project that I could help brainstorm for.The project would be something that would be held at various parks for over 2000 people. On Saturday, I took a mini visit to the MIA to find inspiration for project ideas for Friends for 100 Years: A Lasting Legacy. I came up with a few ideas for projects based on the theme of friendship that I was able to jot down. I’m sure by next week the ideas will evolve into a project that would be great for the event.

Week 1 Practicum Experience at the MIA

To start the week, I met with Krista Pearson, the manager of community arts, from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts online. She showed me a potential schedule of opportunities I could have at the MIA and familiarized me with some of the events happening there. Crystal Price, who also helps with the community arts, hopped on to give me information about the first event I could help with called the Kite Festival. On the day of the event, I made the trek to Lake Harriet where the MIA had a booth with teaching artists, Gustavo and Madeline. For the event, I was able to help them out by handing out information on the MIA and inspiring people to send out postcards as an activity. As chilly as it was outside, it was super exciting to meet up with two teaching artists in the area to learn more about what they do. I was able to witness their enthusiasm when visitors came and learn how they came to teach at the MIA. Madeline told me she never expected to go into the teaching artist field and studied something entirely different in college. She informed me that after she got her first gig teaching, with word of mouth, she was able to get more opportunities. Part of me felt great comfort in the idea that the arts in the community are so connective and supportive, that finding events and programs to teach at won’t be so strenuous. Meanwhile, Gustavo gave me some wonderful insight on how to go about making an art project for the MIA. He mentioned that it helps to look at one piece of art at the museum and think about how you can use it to teach 7-8-year-olds and how that would differ for 14-18-year-olds. This is such a simple tip, but it puts things in perspective for me how different age groups are at different stages of development. It helps me be put back into the mindset of a certain age group to know what I would understand and use that to base a project around. Overall, the whole week with the zoom meeting and the Kite Festival was a great way to dip my toes (my frozen toes) into the water to learn more about the MIA and their teaching artists.