jump to: being a woman of color in the arts flexible art worlds curating in the expanded field artist's self-promotion
spheres of cultural valuation. art and change global professional development arts leadership
spheres of cultural valuation. art and change global professional development arts leadership
Exhibition visit at Hyde Park Art Center, Fall 2019
Teaching Philosophy "I am dedicated to teaching in art school communities. As makers, our students grasp onto newly demonstrated ways of expression and building. They combine philosophies and modes into their existing goals of practice. To maximize the students’ experience, I work to be flexible and creative in fostering high engagement and inclusivity during class sessions. This includes taking the time to adjust a course syllabus and our semester goals after meeting a new group and listening to their individual introductions on the first day of class. Consistently, I activate the classroom as a laboratory and seminar of knowledge production. This includes the highest possible collective intelligence amongst a body of sources: readings, guest dialogues, peer review, and the students’ individual and collaborative projects. To demonstrate practice in action, I plan field trips for the group to visit art spaces in Chicago to see projects that I’ve led or organizations where I’ve contributed. To expand the resources of this city and activate texts, I invite global colleagues to interact with the students in-person and through video communications; modeling the accessibility of actualizing goals and building creative community." 
Interview/dialogues series week one, visit from Ieisha Montgomery, vice president senior consultant, strategic risk at Northern Trust Bank;
Libia Bianibi, co-founder of the Rising Arts Leaders of Color circle, Fall 2019
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Being a Woman of Color in the Arts (ARTSAD 3900) department of arts administration & policy / academic spine School of the Art Institute of Chicago originated course, since Fall 2019 This course is premised on the necessity for young women of color to be able to self-direct and achieve their goals—regardless of environment. Together we frankly address a critical and underserved niche in professional development: the goal to build leadership acumen and robust networks for young women of color. Growing a career without silencing yourself or burning out remains a challenging reality for so many women of color—as well as distractions of other people who just don't believe in your shine, hate on it, or want to use it for themselves. These are concerns about combating marginalization that have been brought privately to trusted faculty by Latinx, Black American, Asian American, Indigenous, and international students at SAIC and across the nation’s art schools. In the inaugural year of the course, students engaged with working professionals from across arts and non-art fields, ranging from community-based organizers, to international policy advocates, to corporate COOs. The group studied a deliberate selection of leadership and professional development styles that took place across national borders, and represented skills from fine arts studio practice to film editing and cinematography. Students discussed these career paths comparatively, and in relation to complementary literary texts. In final presentations, each student enjoyed the opportunity to speak via live music-studio recording in a dialogue with one of their peers. Each student also shared an individual artwork as part of a collaborative artists’ book that was submitted for cataloguing by the U.S. Library of Congress. This course stresses and demonstrates the power of networks for women of color in creating support and achieving goals when direct pipelines and assets are not yet established. Coursework includes readings from artist and authors such as: Staceyann Chin, Ava DuVernay, Suheir Hammad, bell hooks, Ifeona Fulani, Lisa Jones, Hettie Jones, Yuri Kochiyama, Ishle Yi Park, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mayda Del Valle, Grace Lee Boggs, Grace Lee, Gloria Anzaldúa, Amy Ling, Toni Morrison, Mari Naomi, ZZ Packer, Sandra Cisneros, Suzan-Lori Parks, Melba Pattillo Beals, Aimee Phan, Claudia Rankine, Erika L. Sánchez, Jamaica Kincaid, Yuki Aizawa, Zadie Smith, Joy Harjo, Meena Alexander, Aimee Phan, Assia Djebar, Vanessa Mdee, Diana Quiñones Rivera, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Loretta Ross, and more. 2019 class artists’ book of mixed media, original text, and limited-edition prints: in PDF version http://bit.ly/38OhszS and print ISBN: 978-0-9890389-3-5; Library of Congress Control Number: 2019956499 2019 spoken album/single-edition podcast: at Bandcamp http://bit.ly/33PJ6sS and SoundCloud http://bit.ly/2qr8cAM 
Recording session at Experimental Sound Studio, Fall 2019; tracks available at http://bit.ly/35e4gST
Asha with student artist, Being a Woman of Color in the Arts course, Fall 2019
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Flexible Art Worlds, Summer 2018
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Flexible Art Worlds (ARTSAD 4260) department of arts administration & policy School of the Art Institute of Chicago since Summer 2017, course originated by Adelheid Mers Drawing on contemporary examples, this intensive course lays a foundation on which to assess several modes and positions currently active in cultural networks—and creates unique opportunities for students to begin to enter and engage those networks immediately, while also learning from various models of organizations and individuals. Students develop a critical eye on how cultural workers advance rationales that advocate and work in partnership with artistic production, presentation, and dialogue, through the work of articulating and enacting missions, programs, and policies that are driven by multiple interests embedded in equity and justice, political, civic, economic, and academic discourses. The class works together to create a documentation project of their individual and collaborative explorations into local and global art networks. The course is structured around themes/segments of: community and equity; organization models; and constellational discourse. |
In Summer 2018, the Flexible Art Worlds group of five undergraduate and four graduate students created a physical publication, documenting their semester study of the arts networks that helm and pass through Chicago.
The book contains several objects, donated from artists and administrators, and has been accepted into the library collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and SAIC's Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection.
A digital version is available here: http://bit.ly/2OR1Qkm
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A Collaborative Practice Across Sites, Borders, and Forms / The Summer 2017 Flexible Art Worlds group created a digital record of their conversations with arts-leaders from across the field, available here: http://bit.ly/2DLjjto
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Writer, artist, and activist Peggy Pierrot, Summer 2018 class visitor from France
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Studio visit with artist Emilio Rojas, Summer 2018
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Field trip to Experimental Sound Studio, Summer 2018
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Field visit to Heaven Gallery, the future Heaven Equity Art Center and Community Arts Wicker Park, mural by artist Josue Pellot, Summer 2019
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Skype chat with David Ennio Minor, composer, classically trained ballet dancer, and movement advisor for robot technology (Berlin), Summer 2019
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Teaching Philosophy, continued
"Years ago in my own experience of undergraduate school, several of my core professors were playwrights or filmmakers—though rarely in our time together was the objective on learning documentary structure or how to write plays. From dramatist Michael Dinwiddie I took a course on Migration and American Culture, learning how personal stories of identity and experience can be shared with public audience through artistic form—and how individual and collected stories attach to wider societal and education goals. From playwright Eve Ensler, I learned how to design and build—how to lead—networked and global, arts and advocacy projects, while a busy intern at her global movement to end violence against women and girls. From Marco Williams, director and producer, I learned how to challenge public discourse on lived realities of race; that it’s possible to question and then represent a nation back to itself as well as to audiences abroad."
"Years ago in my own experience of undergraduate school, several of my core professors were playwrights or filmmakers—though rarely in our time together was the objective on learning documentary structure or how to write plays. From dramatist Michael Dinwiddie I took a course on Migration and American Culture, learning how personal stories of identity and experience can be shared with public audience through artistic form—and how individual and collected stories attach to wider societal and education goals. From playwright Eve Ensler, I learned how to design and build—how to lead—networked and global, arts and advocacy projects, while a busy intern at her global movement to end violence against women and girls. From Marco Williams, director and producer, I learned how to challenge public discourse on lived realities of race; that it’s possible to question and then represent a nation back to itself as well as to audiences abroad."
Reading reviews, Fall 2019
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Curating in the Expanded Field (ARTSAD 3500) department of arts administration & policy School of the Art Institute of Chicago Since Fall 2017 This course presents theories of curatorial practice as a dynamic form. Each week the class explores a discrete selection of seminal exhibitions and curatorial projects, that took place primarily between the 1960s and the present, across global borders and on five continents. From an arts administrative perspective, the course offers critical investigation of project models and discourses on practice. Touching on the art historical realm, this course presents exhibition histories. Students begin to develop a vision for their own curatorial practice—and their project-building savvy—developing an individual project over the semester. Readings include: Joeonna Bellorado Samuels, Beatrix von Bismarck, Paul Chan, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Okwui Enwezor, Charles Esche, William Greaves, Walter Grasskamp, Tim Griffin, Pirkko Husemann, Mary Jane Jacob, Jeff Kipnis, Koyo Kouoh, Miwon Kwon, Maria Lind, Paula Marincola, Chus Martinez, Mpho Matsipa, Paul O'Neill, Simon Njami, Rafal Niemojewski, Daniel Quiles, Irit Rogoff, Rasha Salti, Bisi Silva, Robert Storr, Claire Tancons, Carolee Thea, Dorothea Von Hantelmann, Mick Wilson, Mirko Zardini, and Open Editions, and more. |
Exhibition install prep with artist Dorothy Burgess, at Hyde Park Art Center, Fall 2021
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Field trip to EXPO breakfast and open studios at Chicago Artists Coalition, conversation with BOLT artist Leticia Bernaus, Fall 2019
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Class visitors Cog•nate Collective artists Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz, Fall 2018
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Reading reviews, Fall 2019
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Studio visit with artist Barbara Polster, Fall 2017
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Final proposal workshops, Fall 2018
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Curator Sheridan Tucker Anderson, at the mid-semester brainstorm sessions, Fall 2018
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Field trip and tour at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, with curatorial fellow Cecília Resende Santos; Refugee Heritage 2015–18, by DAAR; Fall 2019
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Tulika Ladsariya in-class artist talk, Fall 2019
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Spring 2019 featured/collaborating artist David Heo taking a peek at the course syllabus! https://artistcivicleaderdavidheo.weebly.com/
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Artist's Self-Promotion (ARTSAD 4016) department of arts administration & policy School of the Art Institute of Chicago Since Spring 2019 This course presents professional development and artist self-promotion as the imagination, strategy, and practice of how to share, position, and communicate in a way that creates more opportunity and more movement for a person who’s devoted her/his/their life to an arts career. Through a semester-long project in collaboration with an emerging artist, and self-focused professional development workshops, students will work individually and as a unit to become very good at thinking imaginatively and strategically on behalf of others and themselves, as a means of building a career as an independent, emerging artist. Understanding self-promotion not as a narcissistic or insecure activity, but instead as a methodical approach and a well-defined strategy, has become increasingly important for engaging with publics and partners—as a means to working toward arts career longevity and fulfillment. Spring 2019 class projects include the Starving Artist App and "PROJECT HEO." Read more http://fnewsmagazine.com/2019/04/ventrafication/. |
Workgroup 1 - artist interventions, public support, and launch strategy / photo by Grace Tenneh Kromah
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Workgroup 2 - persuasive writing and broader issues / photo by Grace Tenneh Kromah
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Networking session and Skype chat with Chris Maguire, web entrepreneur and co-founder of Etsy
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Workgroup 3 - design and technology / Workgroup 4 - relationship building and media communications / photo by Grace Tenneh Kromah
LinkedIn networks project
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Asha and Workgroup 4 - relationship building and media communications
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studio visit with artist David Heo
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What is Artists Self-Promotion?
Imaginative Thinking + Strategic Thinking
in a way that creates opportunity and value for yourself and for others,
and makes use of your ability to recognize that resources are endless and everywhere,
when you experiment and flex your capability to follow through and actualize.
– Asha, 2019
With discussion guest Ala Buisir, creative director at GORM media (Ireland), Spring 2023
Policy roundtable produced by graduate students Kait Roelofs, Ariel Blitz, Zhenyu Tao, and Robert James, for Spheres 2021 final project, Spring 2021
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Spheres of Cultural Valuation (ARTSAD 6018) department of arts administration & policy School of the Art Institute of Chicago since Spring 2021 Building on the first semester core course “Activating Arts Administration: Key Frameworks,” "Spheres of Cultural Valuation" expands the exploration of cultural policy, projects, organizations, and institutions to global arts ecosystems—while also probing foundational socio-political, economic, and philosophical narratives, alongside trending and evolving rationales. Together, students will develop a deeper knowledgeability of the relation of arts participation and resource creation in legally bounded regions capable of producing policy. Such regions may be municipalities, nations, or multinational unions (examples are cities—Chicago, Berlin, Mexico City; nations—Italy, South Africa, Japan; and transnational bodies—European Union, United Nations). Within each geographic region, groups will then identify narrower frames; these frames could focus on organization, specific markets, soft power and competitive nationalism, populations, culture and heritage, political intersection, decoloniality, civic life, and more. Topics and regions will illuminate and develop through complementary modes: visiting speakers working in-the-field for international cultural organizations, human rights, and government; theory texts in Arts Administration adjacent areas such as Anthropology, Critical Theory, Cultural Diplomacy, Gender Studies, Indigenous Studies, Performance Studies, Political Science and Sociology; and through individual and group research projects that explore student-selected cultural policy examples across regions of the globe. Each class is facilitated through seminar-style meetings that integrate reading assignments, research presentations, field trips, virtual visitors, and cumulative research projects. For Spring 2024, Spheres functioned as a virtual/hybrid classroom partnering with adult learners at an independent photography school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (https://www.facebook.com/programaimagensdopovo). This format included virtual guests from global art contexts who relate their artistic practices to current political displacement (Belarus, now living in Czech Republic; Sudan, now living in Egypt; Hong Kong, now living in the US); as well as critique of contexts of decoloniality and/or gender (Mexico/UK; Finland/US; Eritrea/US; France/US). 
Symposium 2022 kick-off panel, produced by graduate students Erica Cheung, Jamila Johnson, and Sidney Mori Garrett, for Spheres final project, Spring 2022
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Research board produced by graduate students Kait Roelofs, Ariel Blitz, Zhenyu Tao, and Robert James, for Spheres 2021 as part of mid-term presentation, Spring 2021
Nichols Tower, Chicago, virtual visit with filmmaker Yoni Brook, Fall 2019
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Art & Change on the West Side of Chicago (ARTTHER 4015) department of art therapy School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fall 2019 This course is an introduction to self-reflexivity and research in community. Students will learn how to question personal and institutional motivations for working in particular contexts—examining issues of power, multiculturalism, urban environments, mythmaking, and spatial imaginaries and realities. From a position of equity and creative citizenship, students will explore the shape and politics of cultural encounters between people, neighborhoods, and institutions. Readings include: Marvel Cooke, Jacqueline Nassy Brown, Ta-Nehisi Coates, William Finnegan, Roberto Bedoya, Dalton Conley, Caryl Phillips, Sandra Cisneros, James Baldwin, Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer, Claudia Rankin, Marco Williams and Whitney Dow, Alison Bechdel, Sally Hayton-Kiva, Joan Didion, Grace Lee Boggs, Studs Terkel, and more. |
Skype chat with Andrea Marinkovits, gallery director and manager (Berlin)
Semester final presentations to guest panelist Yevgeniy Drobot, Vice-Consul at Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago; Libia Bianibi, Special Projects Manager at Arts Alliance Illinois; Manisha AR, Chief of Staff at South Side Weekly; and artist David Heo!
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Models of Professional Development As part of my process each semester, artists and arts professionals are often invited to join in classroom discussions, adding national and global perspectives from within and adjacent to the field of contemporary art. I link to visiting artists on residency here in Chicago, as well as using web technology to expand the boundaries and networks of the classroom. Recent guests have included Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz, artist duo of Cog•nate Collective (United States/Mexico); Jared Brown, Jackman Goldwasser Residency studio artist at Hyde Park Art Center 2019 (Chicago); Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, visual artists (Macedonia); David Heo, artist and community builder; Jada Gomez-Lacayo, editor-in-chief at Bustle Magazine (New York); David Ennio Minor, composer, classically trained ballet dancer, and movement advisor for robot technology (U.S./Europe/China); Óscar González Díaz, HATCH Projects studio artist at Chicago Artists Coalition 2019 (Chicago/Berlin); Lydia Gordon, assistant curator at the Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts); Aram Han Sifuentes, fiber, social practice, and performance artist (Chicago); Pia Agrawal, curator of performing arts at The Momentary (U.S.); Ross Jordan, Curatorial Manager at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum; Celia Blue Johnson, co-founder of Slice Magazine (Brooklyn); Magdalena Moskalewicz, art historian and curator (U.S./Europe); Dalina Perdomo Álvarez, curator of Temporal: Puerto Rican Resistance at MoCP (Chicago); Max Guy, multidisciplinary artist who works with paper, video, performance, and installation (Chicago/New York); Cassi Michalik, brand consultant (Paris); Kelsey Dalton McClellan, co-proprietor of Heart & Bone Signs; Adelheid Mers, visual artist SAIC Arts Admin Department Chair (Chicago); Kiyomi Negi Tran and Kioto Aoki, independent artists and curators at AIRMW and the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project (U.S./Japan); Jared Packard, exhibitions manager at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, artist and independent curator; Peggy Pierrot, writer, artist, and activist (Belgium/France); Yoonshin Park, Community Resident studio artist at Hyde Park Art Center 2018 (Chicago); Chris Maguire, web entrepreneur and co-founder of Etsy; Andrea Marinkovits, gallery director and manager (Berlin); Allison Prouty, founder of Second Bolt event production (U.S.); Megha Ralapati, Residency and Special Projects Manager at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago/New York); Delilah Salgado, artist at Mujeres Mutantes (Chicago); Edra Soto, artist, educator, curator, and co-director of the outdoor project space THE FRANKLIN (Chicago/Puerto Rico); Brett Swinney, project leader at Cream Co, Community Arts Engagement Manager at Arts and Public Life, and Hospitality Associate at Pitchfork Music Festival; Kamilah Rashied, arts administrator, producer, educator, and artist (Chicago); Carlos Salazar Lermont, artist and director general at P3 Plataforma para Performance (United States/Venezuela); Daniel Tuba D'Souza, co-founder of Crescendo and Hack the City (Toronto); Maya Shoucair, diversity and belonging specialist at Shopify (Toronto); Fabiola Tosi, assistant director of exhibition and programs for the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018; Xinqi Tao, dancer and arts organizer (China); Verónica Casado Hernández, artist and educator (Chicago/Spain); Sheridan Tucker Anderson, independent curator and assistant director at Gallery 400 (Chicago); Nell Taylor, founder and director of Read Write Library (Chicago); Unyimeabasi Udoh, artist and graphic designer; Adam Vida, Managing Director at Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago); Sadie Woods, artist, DJ, and organizer (Chicago); Lukas Hermsmeier, journalist (Berlin/New York); Kasha Huk, Former Project Officer UN Migration Agency (Canada); Raissa Biekman, Policy officer at the D66 party in the House of Representatives The Hague (Netherlands); Mistura Allison, curator (Italy); Monika Plioplyte, artist (Chicago); Dorothy Burge, artist (Chicago); Bermet Borubaeva, artist (Kyrgyzstan); Modou Dieng Yacine, artist (Chicago); Percy Kam Lok Lam, artist (Chicago/Hong Kong); Ala Buisir, artist and co-founder of Gorm Media (Ireland); Alicia Bruce, artist (Scotland); Libia Bianibi, Special Projects Manager at Arts Alliance Illinois (Chicago); Manisha AR, Chief of Staff at South Side Weekly (US/India); Yevgeniy Drobot, Vice-Consul at Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago (US/Ukraine); Dorota Biczel, art historian (The Americas); and more. Studio visits include: David Heo, Lindsay Hutchens, Solomon Salim Moore, and Barbara Polster. Plus, a special selection of journey share guests (Being a Woman of Color in the Arts, inaugural year 2019). |
Networking session and Skype chat with Chris Maguire, web entrepreneur and co-founder of Etsy (East Coast)
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Leadership panel via Skype chat, with Jada Gomez Lacayo, executive editor at Bustle Magazine/Bustle Digital Group (New York)
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emerge: Journal of Arts Administration & Policy
In 2016/2017 I developed a multilingual edition of the emerge: Journal of Arts Administration and Policy for our Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This project, a digital publication, connected graduate students to working artists and cultural producers for one-on-one dialogues. Since then, I continue to utilize emerge as a text and resource of narratives and examples of professional development and cultural practice.
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The digital publication itself as well as the dialogues within, also serve as project models for my students. From the path to becoming a working artist in Chicago, New York, and Beijing; to curatorial practice in leading biennials in Berlin, Jakarta, and São Paulo. From founding civically sponsored arts and cultural fairs in London, Montreal, and Kigali, to directing galleries and museums in Santa Cruz, Mexico City, Miami, Eindhoven, and New York. |
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mobile phone views of the digital publication, emerge Spring 2017
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Dyett Arts photo by Rebecca Peplinski
In May 2018, the Kenwood students presented their end-of-year dance show, as well as completing the Prismatic leadership class where we spent time considering creative ways to work toward achieving goals.
For their #ChanceComeOutToKenwood! campaign, the students set a goal of spreading the word to request that all of the nearly 2,000 Kenwood students Snap/Insta/Tweet at @ChanceTheRapper during the advisory/homeroom periods. The thought behind this action was to mobilize nearly 2,000 of their peers with the same purpose. A link to the video is available here: http://bit.ly/2zeYjr6
Spring 2018 at Dyett High School of the Arts / photo by Rebecca Peplinski
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Prismatic arts leadership and entrepreneurship nonprofit organization February – May 2018 Led 8-week workshops at Chicago Public School’s Dyett Arts High School and Kenwood Academy High School, during the pilot year of the Prismatic nonprofit organization. View additional photos from the Dance II class at Dyett here: http://bit.ly/2A5IP86 
Teaching Philosophy, continued "I may or may not make work by the same mediums that my students produce; more often than not, students in my courses are also multidisciplinary. The content that I teach develops for others what I first learned while an undergraduate myself: tools, as well as a unique depth and way of seeing that guides every project I do, and has become both methodology and mission. Part of my goal for students is a wide cultural literacy of being exposed to how all sorts of arts practitioners think and build. I remember learning from playwrights, filmmakers, cultural historians, dancers, literary journalists, novelists, poets, musicians, costumers, and various performers; plus cultural anthropologists, political scientists, and gender rights workers—as both a student and a peer. As well as a hugely vast array of visual artists and scholars. These teachers hailed from all ethnic and class backgrounds, and various lived identities. It has never been my experience that knowledge and achievement should look a certain way or embody a specific type. This is the foundational belief underlying the curriculum that I deliver to my own students today." "I believe in a radical diversity in sources of scholarship and knowledge—and I am not hesitant to create the necessary sources if they don’t yet exist. To be able to do this through technology and professional networks, while connecting back to my earliest training on the validity of lived stories, is especially exciting to me. My goal is for students to begin to understand how the experience and skills of an arts education are strong as a leadership background within and beyond our field. Long after our time in the classroom together, I want students to be able to continue to build the projects that they’ve initiated and workshopped; to be able to make opportunities for themselves at moments when the visible infrastructures of contemporary art are oversaturated or lacking." |