As I have started a new school I have finally found a place that can foster my ideas of what it means to be an art teacher in this day and age. My pedagogical ecology I related to community based art education and the impact of media in the classroom. How can I get my students to give back to our community in a visual way? How can my students look at the images that they are bombarded with and create a work of art that is influenced from these ideas?

I am fortunate enough to teach in one large classroom and have 6 other art teachers around me for support. As a department we strive to give back to Kingston and students this year have already been a part of three community based projects. One being o+, the optimism pop shop, and finally sinterklaas which we are working on right now. I am finally in a place that I have always wanted. As a program we work very hard to get our students to think independently and use their experiences to shape what they create and what we do for our community.

I am looking at both Visual Culture and Community based art education to move my classroom to a studio environment that creates meaningful art works. I believe as an artist that our upbringing, our community, and our experiences impact what we create visually. I want my students to harness this in order to make visually engaging works of art that are also very meaningful.