I stand with the Black community. I see you. I hear you.
I’ve been striving from the conception of this podcast to seek out diverse voices. White women make up the majority of our field in arts education and so far the majority of my guests. I’m white. I’ve looked for people of color and men to highlight. Thank you to those of you who have shared recommendations and contact info with me! Keep it coming! I’ll also keep doing the work of looking and reaching out to art educators of color who also make their own artwork.
I want this to be a place to not only highlight us as professional artists dedicated to both our studio and our teaching practices, a place to share encouragement and advice, to create camaraderie and community, but also a place to raise up voices that are too often pushed down. I want to amplify voices of color. So I’m putting that out there as a goal. I’m saying loudly that black lives matter, black teachers matter, black artists matter, black art matters, black students matter.
I’ve started pulling together some resources in a padlet (below). Right now, it’s just lists of links, books, artists, and resources. I’ll keep adding to it and adding commentary and plan to share some of my own lessons… hopefully in the next month or so as my school year is almost over.
I’m committing to learning more about systemic racism and how to combat it as a white teacher, parent, and podcaster. I keep hearing that white people who want to be allies need to speak up and stop being scared of getting it wrong. So here I am. Open to criticism and continuing to learn.
What can I do here on this podcast to contribute to ending systemic racism? I can speak up, but I also want to give a platform to non-white artists who teach. We need to hear your stories, your voices, your knowledge, your perspective. I’ll also be adding to the questions I’ll be asking guests moving forward to specifically address racism. It’s important to keep talking about this. I do have several episodes already recorded, but as I record more I’ll be digging into how we can teach from an anti-racist platform.