#40: Reflecting & Recapping 2020

This 40th episode will be the last one of 2020 and I’ll be sharing some of my favorite moments from the episodes released this year.

As I reflect on 2020 and plan for 2021, I oscillate between excited & hopeful and overwhelmed. It’s been a YEAR. Whew. Last December, I was just starting to submit my artwork to open calls. I was teaching 4 days per week at 2 elementary schools, getting into the swing of TAB and being on a cart at one school. I had shared the idea of a podcast as a way to force myself to make it a reality. I, like all of us, had NO IDEA how 2020 would change everything.

It has been a challenging year to say the least. Those of you who have suffered through illness and loss, my heart goes out to you. All of us have upended our lives to some extent - whether teaching online, on a cart, in a mask, or losing work… Some of you, like me, have also been helping your children through online school… while somehow continuing your own work… it’s a lot. Many of us have also begun to more directly confront racism. I hope this winter break has provided a bit of downtime to de-stress.

What was your life like a year ago? How has your art practice changed? What about your teaching practice?

While I have no delusions that things will dramatically change when we wake up on January 1st, there are reasons to be hopeful. Vaccines are coming, as is new leadership here in the U.S. which, at the very least, is far more competent and willing to listen to experts than the absolute mess we’ve had.

I find it helpful to look back and reflect on successes. What are you proud of?

I’ve pulled quotes from several episodes to share bits of all 39 of these conversations. I am so grateful to these artists and honored to share part of their stories. I’ve also been looking back and wanted to share some interesting commonalities I noticed. Many of the teaching artists I spoke to followed TAB or choice-based methodologies in their classrooms. Now, this may just reflect my bias, but I found it interesting in talking with them how many talked about needing to treat students as artists with autonomy as they themselves desired in their art-making. It felt like being active in the studio often goes hand in hand with empowering children to also be active in their classroom studio. We talked about systemic racism, dismantling white supremacy, creating equitable classrooms, and the power of stories. We talked about the struggles to balance time between teaching and art-making, (and often parenting). We talked about money and selling work or not selling work. I also learned that teaching artists love tacos! But really, who doesn’t?

Blog post for this episode (https://www.teachingartistpodcast.com/episode-40-reflecting-recapping-2020/)

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