Be There Now

Our first punishment is in wanting to be an artist. Every other life event compounds this decision regardless of what else you are as long as you are an artist. Furthermore, as an artist, you must earn a living some way. Education is one of the few careers where artists can merge our interests with our income, but full time teaching positions are few and far between. Moreover, most teaching jobs are remote from where you can be an artist of any significance but in places where you can make a great impact as an educator. Taking a job in one of these places is a major risk as an artist but has been both stabilizing for me as a human being. Creating an AFA program in the most impoverished county in my home state of North Carolina, Richmond, where the per capita income is $14,764 and the student body identifies as 63% non-white, I have been forced to think differently, put the needs of a community first, and challenge long held personal beliefs about art. Building this program has necessitated such innovations as:

• Creating the States first hybrid studio art courses.
• Designing kits and curriculum that allow marginalized, low-income students access to materials and information supported by student aid.
• Generating an environment of collaboration across programs (particularly Engineering and Technologies), which has, in turn, influenced my artistic practice toward more collaboration.