Teaching Artist > Community Based Education

SAIC Graduate work
From April through August 2011, I was an artist in residency at Beyondmedia Education(BE). Working collaboratively with talented artists, educators and cooperating organizations at BE, I designed workshops that focused on personal narratives and the concept of creating safe spaces. participating organizations included the Arab American Action Network, Benton House, ProsArts, and Insight Arts. The sculptures made by youth at the workshops were brought together and installed at the Building Safe Communities Summit at Columbia College in Chicago. Each individual space became part of a large cityscape, identifying individual voices in the urban space we live in collectively.
From May through September 2010, I worked as the Artist in Residency at Cob Connection, which facilitates the evolution of a sustainable urban agriculture project, from abandoned lot, to emerging farm, to the produce we supply for local farmer’s markets and food pantries. Every week I offered art programs to interns working at the 3 Cob farms in East Humbolt park and West Garfield park as a way of reflecting on their experience. Artwork created during the summer was made into a zine that was distributed to everyone at Cob as well as the surrounding neighborhood.