Q&A with Upper School Art Teacher
Exploring art, activism, belonging, and creative expression.
Q: What inspired the work featured by Upper Schoolers in last year’s Arts Festival? What themes or ideas were you hoping students would explore through the exhibition?
A: I hoped students would explore themes of environmental stewardship, belonging, and interdependence. We asked how our community’s health is tied to the health of the trees, plants, animals, and insects that share this place. At the same time, these ideas were connected to art activism, inviting students to see their artworks as “calls to action” about issues they care about, such as climate change, pollution, access to green spaces, and creating safe, welcoming environments for all people.
Q: How does teaching art at Burke’s shape your own creative practice, and what do you find most meaningful about guiding students as artists?
A: Teaching art at Burke’s shapes my own creative practice by constantly immersing me in the work of contemporary artists (especially Bay Area-based art activists) whom I introduce to students as living examples of how art and social change intersect. Researching these artists and sharing their stories in the classroom keeps me closely connected to my own art community and continually refreshes the ideas and techniques I use in my personal work.
What I find most meaningful about guiding students as artists is watching them recognize that they share concerns with real working artists and can use visual language to speak about identity, justice, and the world around them. Helping students see themselves in contemporary art and then take their own exploratory steps in the Upper School Art Room makes the work feel deeply hopeful for me as a teaching artist.
Q: Is there a moment, student experience, or aspect of last May’s show that especially captured the spirit of the Burke’s art program for you?
A: One moment that especially captured the spirit of the Burke’s art program for me was the fifth and sixth graders’ “Migrating Monarchs” sculptures. These pieces grew out of their study of Bay Area art activist Favianna Rodriguez, whose prints and paintings in her “Migration is Beautiful” series use the monarch butterfly to symbolize the beauty and dignity of human migration across borders.
Students translated that idea into their own work by using the monarch’s journey as a metaphor for immigrants traveling to the United States, embossing metal butterflies whose wings carried stories of courage, displacement, and hope. During the Art Festival, their excitement at seeing these monarchs “migrate” along hallways, stairwells, and shared spaces made the whole Upper School campus feel like a living installation about movement, belonging, and human rights. This was exactly the blend of creativity, empathy, and art activism that defines Burke’s art program.
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