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Thesis: "Skin Deep: Analyzing Black Representation in the Teaching of Visual Arts"

Abstract: My honors thesis argues that at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College, failure to provide Culturally Relevant Teaching in art studio courses dismisses the representation of Blackness in the Visual Arts Department. Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) recognizes the importance of all students' cultural experiences in different aspects of learning. It allows for equitable access to education for students of diverse backgrounds. CRT is crucial to reconstructing Art Education to represent diverse student bodies. My position as a Black-Indigenous artist enables me to reflect on the intersection of these frameworks and to build upon them in order to highlight the need for pedagogical practice in studio art courses, that doesn’t center technical training derived from the Western canon of art production in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s Visual Arts Department. My research lives on a digital format, where you will engage with the history of Art at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ from 1794 to the present, oral histories from Black identifying alumni who have navigated the department, theoretical frameworks, and an autoethnography that breaks down my self-taught pedagogical practice in response to the representational gaps in the curriculum. As you navigate this site, I ask you to follow the written instructions and engage with the interactive material. I will virtually guide you through this project chronologically, and through the lens in which I have experienced personally and through observation.

Most memorable Africana studies course: Protest Music with Judith Casselberry

Since graduating: Post-grad, I haven't strayed away from the arts, but I’ve found a new love in service and youth arts empowerment. I currently work at an youth arts non-profit in Poughkeepsie, New York. The organization “empowers young people to develop their creative voice to shape their futures and bring about positive social change”. I am still a practicing artist, and have been showing my work at a few galleries and pop-ups in Poughkeepsie. I was recently awarded the Jurors Award for my Portrait of Brother, oil painting, at the High Contrast exhibition at the Trolley Barn Gallery.I am currently preparing for my first solo show, Beauty in Remembrance, which will be at the Oak Bluffs Public Library July 9-23rd, 2022. As an Afro Indigenous artist, it means a lot to have my first solo show, on my native land, Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard). It truly feels like a full circle moment and I am so grateful for this opportunity.