Join us, February 26, 2025!

We are re-imagining Theory Loves Practice to invite educators, community organizers and nonprofit practitioners to meet and learn on new topics and build cross sector collaboration. All those working with the community are invited to join us in developing skills and building our networks to shape resilient communities. This series will meet every other month and will be Co-hosted by the Center for Visual Art at MSU Denver and Field Academy.

Our first event will be next Wednesday and is limited to 15 participants. All info is on the attached flyer.

February 26, 2025
4-6 PM
@ the Center for Visual Art
965 Santa Fe Drive
Learn to Screen Print
RSVP to [email protected]

Our next event will be in April on Community Mapping – to connect practitioners with organizations ready to partner in their community.

Future events will be announced through this list serve please feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested. We would love to have any and all folks who are looking for cross sector collaboration and community to join!

xo kt (Katie Taft)

I Do / We Do / You Do

Workshop with Jorge Lucero

(Note from Anne: Jorge Lucero has been a mentor and dear colleague of mine for years. His thinking about art and teaching art has shifted my thinking many, many times and has made me a better teacher as I have worked with children, adolescents, and college students. I’m so looking forward to this workshop. I hope you can come! I’d love to see you!)

Conceptual Permissions for Teacher Posture
Tuesday, August 1, 1:30 – 4:30 pm

Join us for an extra special workshop for educators with I Do artist Jorge Lucero. Looking to his work in the I Do / We Do / You Do exhibition, Conceptual Permissions for Teacher Posture. Jorge will lead participants on an exploration of the expansiveness of art and how to redefine what we do through looking at conceptual artists and their work.

Space is very limited for this workshop so please RSVP to reserve a spot by emailing Katie Taft at [email protected].

And Closing Reception

August 1, 5-6pm

We’re celebrating the talented work of our art educators with a closing reception in the final days of the I Do / We Do / You Do exhibition. We’re excited to have I Do artist Jorge Lucero join us and hope that you will, too!

I Do / We Do / You Do

May 18 – August 5, 2023

The phrase “I do, we do, you do” refers to a scaffolded and interactive method of teaching art. With this method, students move from being instructed, to working collaboratively, and then to working independently. In the I Do / We Do / You Do exhibition, art educators reflect on the intersections of teaching and art making practices. This exhibition includes invited national artists, a collaboration among an art educator research group, and a juried selection of Colorado art teachers. Works reflect the challenges particular to teaching art.

How does an art educator maintain a contemporary art practice while simultaneously teaching and participating in dialogue about the art education process? Jorge Lucero recorded 102 “permissions” that he has pulled from other artists and creatives as concepts to use in his own art making practice. His work titled Conceptualist Permissions for Teacher Posture explores the idea that teaching is an art practice and what happens in a classroom is material for creating art.

WE ARE JUST ABOUT READY TO GO!

Here are our next steps:

ONE Please drop off your circle-inspired artwork for the I DO/WE DO/YOU DO  Exhibition to the CVA at 965 Santa Fe Drive.

• between now and May 5th.
• CVA is open for drop off Tuesday-Friday 11:00-6:00, Sat 12:00-5:00.

The CVA staff, Katie, and Anne will install after that. We will provide all materials and labor needed for install. Our amazing CVA staff will solve any installation problems that arise.

TWO Let us know if your piece needs to be:

• • up
  • down
  • on the floor
  • hanging from the ceiling
  • on the wall
  • on a pedestal
  • or anything else
  • or it doesn’t matter

THREE Attach your name and phone number to the piece.

FOUR Email Katie and tell what your piece is about [email protected]

The Opening is Thursday, May 18th 6:00-8:00.

REMEMBER

Wednesday April 26th

Write a note to yourself as a reminder to join us in creating your part of our May installation at the Center for Visual Art. All we ask is that you structure your piece around a circle. We’ll connect those separate parts into the rhizome structure. We’ve got some circles to work with at the CVA or you can create your own.

See you Wednesday April 26th from 5:30-7:00pm at the CVA. Join us or work at home!

There is still time to join us in creating your part of our May installation at the Center for Visual Art. All we ask is that you structure your piece around a circle. We’ll connect those separate parts into the rhizome structure. We’ve got some circles to work with at the CVA or you can create your own.

Our next meeting is April 26th from 5:30-7:00pm at the CVA. Join us or work at home!

    .

We rescheduled due to snow.

TLP meets now on MARCH 1 WEDNESDAY!

This Wednesday February 28th will be a work session where you will work on your individual piece for our collaborative installation.

If you haven’t come yet this year, you can still jump in. The installation is on teaching (sustainability, transformation, mental health, malleability) that will be shown at the CVA’s exhibit, “I Do, We Do, You Do” this May.

WHAT WE MEAN BY CIRCLES

The unifying container for everyone’s individual piece in the installation will be a circle.

1. We are providing circles (image attached). You can also bring your own circle shapes. We will elevate these at different heights within the installation. (I may bring a hula hoop or maybe embroidery hoop.)
2. Bring any other art supplies/found objects you want to form your artwork into/onto/around your circle. We will have some art supplies, but if you have something specific in mind, then bring your stuff!
3. If you were planning on a cylinder, we’ll make you one with circles.

See you soon!

CVA 965 Santa Fe Dr.

March 1 Wednesday

5:30-7:00

Anne and Katie

Tonight we finalized our vision for our collaborative artwork for the May exhibition at the CVA.

Here is what we did. 

Previous Ideas

We reviewed our November ideas on the structures for our collaborative artwork:

• Above/Below dynamic (Dark/Light experiences of teaching)
• Vines, branches, roots (our artists-teachers community)
• Terrariums (Our individual classrooms: Light in the midst of darkness)
• Sound whispers of our teaching stories (megaphones)

Synthesized Concept

We finalized our overarching concept for the piece:

• Teacher’s classrooms: micro-universe of magic, creativity, relationships
• Maintaining the magic universe despite negative forces from outside (stress of teacher evaluation, administrative busywork, art education undervalued, overworking, overwhelming mental health issues of students)
• Being connected in a network of support and inspiration.

Overarching Structure: Rhizome Root System with “shoots” emerging

• Each shoot is an individual teacher’s experience
• A dryer vent will be the underlining form of  the mother rhizome

Art Media and Process

Each artist creates a teaching experience “universe” off of the rhizome root. Their media will stem from the main root and extend out. Visually each artist will cover sections of the dryer duct with the media they are using (paper mache, paint, fabric, etc) where their shoot emerges.  This evokes the idea that each artist-teacher functions differently, meandering and finding their own way. All of our meanderings are connected to a common hope that we are enchanting the world and empowering our students. Containers for each individual shoot or “universe” will be unified through shape and scale. Anne and Katie are looking for unifying containers that teachers can work in or on. The container will be terrarium-like. Glass?

Lighting effects (yes please!)

Sound (recorded whispering about teaching experience. This sound will be projected from speakers that are already in place in the gallery.) Megaphone shapes (paper mâché cones?) will imply sound projection, but the actual sound will not be located in them. Tommy Laird! Help us with this!

Individual “shoots” already emerging from the rhizome (dryer vent):

• sad bag catacomb made of used up/ruined art supplies (bones)
• airplanes made out of slips of paper from school that excuse and pull a student from art class for a myriad of reasons.
• old paint brushes woven with wire
• projecting light through sliced wine bottles

Formal Concerns:

• Recognize a need to incorporate geometric/straight lines for contrast against all the organic shapes
• Dark near the bottom of the piece
• How to alter the appearance of the dryer duct?
• What are the connecting tendrils (shoots) made of?
• Maybe in the middle section of the duct we can have annotations/language to represent common thoughts/ideas
• Annotations on the wall? …plaques on the wall to explain elements
• Zine? provide a take-away element
• Where will this structure attach? install? from the wall? hanging? Brian can build this!

Next session: February 22^nd Anyone can jump in!

We will soon find out the size and shape of the terrarium element where you will stage your own contribution. Bring materials to work on your own element hat will attach to the Mother-Rhizome-Dryer-Vent! You can also work at home on these.

 5:30-7:00 at The Center for Visual Art, 965 Santa Fe Drive

April 26^th is our final session, but we will have time to work on the piece after this date in small groups. 

On Nov. 30th, we worked on creating a connecting structure for our installation based on the following ideas from last month.

• Using the text of the questions…participants answer the questions write
• a walkthrough installation sticky note thing above in the middle, individual small group installations about teaching experience…frustration
• walnut brain open up whats inside…going into something opening it up
• series of terrariums sustainable…sustain these little mini environments….how we adapt evolve as educators…narrative within it…
• a room quiet and calm mega phones in corners they’d be whispering….hear our stories about teaching….get close to listen, balloons kids gold stars helium -deflating evolve over time during exhibition…cheap not lot of labor…you get the impression that its shouting but its not
• mental health brains blowing up mushroom cloud into a mushroom. blocks forms…people can build on top of them then destroy them. How do i get there.
• time to learn, play, this is your time….rigid clock this is your time to create, pee, sit, clean up….mechanical
• metaphors eco system of the school ecosystem of admin climates micro climates
• old desk or chair smashing the shit out of it and then rebuilding it….recreating something that relevant and realistic that supports our kids
• trees process paper trees.
• layers sustainability environment systems science absurdity humor lot of different pieces we make separately that we hang together. eco systems coming into bigger environments thinking about growing things
• agriculture/big agriculture
• creating a pattern in sand kinetic art, people have to interact people taking something and it goes into something.

.

We are back!

It’s been two and half years since we last gathered and it was so good to be together. Please join us at our next meeting, Nov. 30. 

Tonight we started to brainstorm about a collaborative artwork that we will be making for an exhibit based on the theme of education at the Center for Visual Art this summer. The exhibit will be organized as “I Do, We Do, You Do.” If you missed this Wednesday, you can jump into the work at any of our meetings. 

I DO The CVA will invite artists who work with the theme of education. 

WE DO Theory Love Practice will create a collaborative work for the exhibit.

YOU DO The exhibit will also jury artwork from the community based on the theme.

Here is what we started on Wednesday.

WE ASKED QUESTIONS

First we clarified the theme of the work, by thinking about our experiences as teachers. We framed our ideas through questions.

 .

Why hasn’t the system changed? When life has changed so dramatically.

When will we rethink education and actually apply what we’ve learned kids need?

When will this PD (from school) actually apply to what I do, and what the kids need?

What does good Professional Development look like?

How can Administration support teachers?

Why can’t we change?

What do we need now?

Who’s succeeding now?

Take risks and get out of the perfection bubble.

Aging out of relevance. The quality of state of being closely connected or appropriate

Where is the Love?

How can we categorize kids without using numbers?

Could we remove the language of not Meeting, Approaching, Effective and Distinguished?

When is the 4 day school week going to begin in Denver?

Is this sustainable?

Why do we keep going?

Why is this year going so well?

Will it get better?

When can I retire?

When will I be paid enough to survive in Denver?

What can be done to help Colorado teacher’s afford to live in Colorado?

How can we keep teachers in the profession?

Is this where I’ll be for the next 20 years?

How can I do this better, so it goes more smoothly?

Why does it feel like I’m giving my all and doing my best, but it’s still not enough?

Do I need to teach part time and do something else part time?

What am I sacrificing?

How many more years can I do this?

What can we take off of teacher’s plates?

How do we meet our students’ needs?

What can we do to be better equipped to meet students’ current needs?

How can the burnout be diffused? How can you move off the plateau?

How can students really understand the objective?

Do I need to simplify this lesson more?

How are we holding students accountable?

How does mental health get acknowledged?

How do we support good Mental Health for teachers, students and each other?

How can we connect with troubled students when they don’t want to?

What could be done to teach teenagers to think seriously about respect?

When will I get to teach art again?

How much is teaching art, and how much is putting in data from grades?

Why do teachers wear so many hats?

How has my identity shifted?

How do I help the group?

What could be done to help educators?

WE LOOKED FOR PATTERNS

We grouped the questions into categories and found some themes:

SUSTAINABILITY

TRANSFORMATION

MENTAL HEALTH

MALLEABILITY

(…fuzzy action shot….go Jesse!)

WE SHARED OUR ARTISTIC RESEARCH

Jamie D. drawing paper lots of layers up-cycled found maps translucent build up….can’t ever be finished….a lot of layers…landscape paintings on map of that place….last big series theme of redemption, refugee crisis sex trafficking…

Blake Comic books and zines…selling it for cheap accessible….story telling…robot adventure…personal stories…horror book

Krista paint acrylic…miniatures, portraiture, landscape….identity, self identity/multiple identities…landscape to sell

Andrea…draw… turn drawings into artists books…memory stories things that I know about

Jesse…drawing on wood casting concrete… inlayed into wood embedding graphite…perceived reality…information consumed gets in the way of information that we need….altering realities from person to person…all realities are all different…info gets in way of truth

Rachael knitting, lacemaking….tiny intensive focus, obsessed…environmental invasive species, climate change, social justice activist driven with desire to influence change with urgency

Will…watercolor portraits acrylic abstract draw…found objects as canvas, mixed media…self identity…drawing animals with human persona comic book…activist

Abby fibers…what’s at hand….home renovation

Jamie everything… drawing sculpture clay printmaking mixed media art on found objects…..surrealist type collaging…environmental gardening herbalism…mental health, social experiment with phones and how that is effecting kids…bar codes

Arrilla micron pens watercolor Copic sketch markers… color pencil over marker….post card sized work…environmental stuff…spiritual drawing plants animals as spiritual symbols and as people who have passed

Katie mixed media sculpture textiles cardboard clay…layers…fantasy world imaginary worlds…imaginary friends myth folklore symbols…chemo therapy

Jessica tempera and acrylic, paper making, casting trees in paper, painting of laptop with backup drive with image of tree 

Anne social practice, white paint… absurdity of rational systems among human beings

WE BRAINSTORMED IDEAS FOR OUR COLLABORATIVE ARTWORK

• Using the text of the questions…participants answer the questions write
• a walkthrough installation sticky note thing above in the middle, individual small group installations about teaching experience…frustration
• walnut brain open up whats inside…going into something opening it up
• series of terrariums sustainable…sustain these little mini environments….how we adapt evolve as educators…narrative within it…
• a room quiet and calm mega phones in corners they’d be whispering….hear our stories about teaching….get close to listen, balloons kids gold stars helium -deflating evolve over time during exhibition…cheap not lot of labor…you get the impression that its shouting but its not
• mental health brains blowing up mushroom cloud into a mushroom. blocks forms…people can build on top of them then destroy them. How do i get there.
• time to learn, play, this is your time….rigid clock this is your time to create, pee, sit, clean up….mechanical
• metaphors eco system of the school ecosystem of admin climates micro climates
• old desk or chair smashing the shit out of it and then rebuilding it….recreating something that relevant and realistic that supports our kids
• trees process paper trees.
• layers sustainability environment systems science absurdity humor lot of different pieces we make separately that we hang together. eco systems coming into bigger environments thinking about growing things
• agriculture/big agriculture
• creating a pattern in sand kinetic art, people have to interact people taking something and it goes into something.

We will start playing with forms and images next time we meet. Jump on in and join us!

 5:30-7:00 at The Center for Visual Art, 965 Santa Fe Drive

October 26^th  

November 30^th  

January 25^th 

February 22^nd 

April 26^th