Hey there, my name is Skylar. My friends like to call me Sky ! I am currently finishing up the Master’s in Art Education program here at the City College of New York. Outside of our program I work full time at an art store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When I’m not at work or doing my thesis exploration, I love developing narratives that will later be used in bodies of work I am exploring. I have lived in New York City for about 5 and a half years now. I currently live in my favorite borough in the world, Queens, right smack dab in the middle in Rego Park. Before living in Queens, I was born and raised right outside of Cleveland, Ohio.
The research and thesis I am developing I feel emerged because of many different factors. From a young age art has always been so important to me, while I was in grade school I noticed my art teacher doing little to nothing to accommodate the class and get to know who we really were. During my time in the City College Art Education program, I had the privilege to get to know so many amazing educators. These educator connections emerged from observations and some were professors of mine, while getting to know these great examples of pedagogies my eyes were open to an art setting full of openness, growth, understanding and possibility. Even though our thesis class is one semester long, I feel I have been developing my thesis topic little by little since 2018 when I started the program. Every time I completed a class I felt I was getting closer to what was ultimately important to me as an educator. What I found to be most important to me is art educators transforming their classrooms in hubs of inclusion, relying on choice-based lessons as the framework. With my thesis I was able to interview educators that conduct classes in that way. With the help of my selected interviewees, theorists and personal observations I started to create a thesis I am passionate about.
While working on the thesis it is required to also create a piece of art that parallels with the research. I chose to create a “board game” inspired sculpture world that in theory would prompt students to explore choice-based lessons and activities.
Thanks for reading a little about me, but before you go please check out these links that will give you more of a glimpse into the topics I care deeply about. https://teachingforartisticbehavior.org/what-is-tab.html and https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
