Sarah Conarro

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The Mind is an Abstract Concept // Philosophy of Arts Education

 

Conarro conducts projects from individual processes to collaborative large-scale works; guides groups of all ages, child through adult, through process-based visual arts initiatives; develops culturally-responsive visual arts curriculum incorporating accessible sense-of-self and place-based storytelling; and teaches teaching artists how to implement their craft in a classroom setting.

Conarro conducts her work under her philosophy framework:
“The Mind is an Abstract Concept”.

 

THE MIND IS AN ABSTRACT CONCEPT

Beginning in 2006, Conarro began developing ‘The Mind is An Abstract Concept’ as a teaching philosophy framework for designing and executing community-based projects. The process-based focus of this framework evolved in part from responding to product-based desires of the traditional education system. A forever-goal of this framework is to support authentic storytelling, community connection, and social change. 

Instead of predetermining the final product, Sarah's framework allows participants to work within the unknown, obtain technical skills, and create beautiful and finished pieces. Conarro has applied this framework in different settings such as schools and women’s shelters. The framework has been applied to the development of an arts space for kids and adults (The Painted Cloud), multiple murals, and to multimedia theater performances. In promoting community artmaking, participants make use of different mediums like painting, language integration, video and music.

This inquiry-based approach invites participants to rediscover their “beginner's mind” where we are willing to learn and consider all pieces of information and abandon preconceptions of how we relate to artmaking and other people. Healthy dialogue is a key element of this teaching philosophy framework. Open-ended questions activate the community across all ages and backgrounds to think about the way their input is essential for community project. Unlike “essential questions'', which present students with difficult to answer prompts, “The Mind is an Abstract Concept” invites people to have confidence in their sense of self. 

Projects using this framework have received support from Alaska State Council on the Arts, Alaska Humanities Forum, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, NEA, and Rasmuson Foundation.

YOUTH & SCHOOLS

Conarro devises and executes visual arts projects with student collaborators and educators ranging from preschool to university. Conarro has led visual arts events with middle and high school art programs; through classroom-based arts projects; and with after-school and summer arts programs.

TOPICAL TOPICS

Conarro’s work weaves visual art collaborations with cultural and place-based storytelling. Sarah understands the importance of community members to speak their own stories and experiences. She develops methods for participants to feel comfortable in visualizing their stories through collaborative participation. Many of her works are part of public health initiatives, funded by the city/state where she is working (I Choose Respect, Public Youth Employment Program, Art Shops, etc.).

MULTIDISCIPLINARY INTEGRATION

Conarro’s medium of choice is drawing/painting. However, Conarro is no stranger to integrating many mediums into her teaching, ranging from video to performance, dance to installation, mosaic to music, etc. Her practice is expansive and open to working with collaborators in a variety of mediums.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ARTS INTEGRATION & PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Conarro facilitates professional development workshops and offers in-class modeling and coaching, focusing on critical pedagogy and strategies for arts integration.

For teachers, Conarro taught as a Teacher Leader for the Summer Basic Arts Institutes of the Alaska Arts Education Consortium, facilitating a cultural collaboration project with Alaska educators and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. She also designed and taught arts education courses in the University of Alaska B.A. Early Childhood Education program.

For teaching artists, Sarah has facilitated Teaching Artist Trainings for The Painted Cloud Education program.

Conarro supports schools and educators as they design and implement programs in arts integration. Conarro engages in school residencies ranging from one day to extended weeks/months, and collaborates with teachers to link students’ arts learning to their academic goals. Conarro works regularly worked with the Alaska State Council on the Arts Artists In Schools Program from 2006-2014. Conarro was Lead Visual Teaching Artist with the Pilinguat Program for arts integration for Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD), the district with the largest Rural Education Attendance Area in the state of Alaska spanning the size of West Virginia. She led the design and implementation for the LKSD Festival of the Arts, a district-wide art show that included 9 schools in Bethel, Alaska and 23 remote village schools. She served as a teaching artist and projections designer for the Kennedy Center Partners In Education Program for ‘Dear Fish’ in Juneau, Alaska and Deer Isle, Maine. Conarro works as the director and as a teaching artist with The Painted Cloud, a community-minded studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 

CURRICULUM DESIGN

Conarro collaborates with districts & schools to create arts curriculum that’s culturally responsive and inquiry-based. Conarro’s experience includes drafting the first visual arts curricula for the Lower Kuskokwim School District in Western Alaska and the Alaska Department of Education. For The Painted Cloud in New York, Conarro created, wrote, and continued to refine curricula for the youth education program, and to design pathways for teaching artists to integrate their knowledge with a process and inquiry-based approach.

PROJECTS, GRANTS AND AWARDS

ARTS EDUCATION LEADERSHIP and ADMINISTRATION

  • 2017-2022 Teaching Artist and Curriculum Writer, The Painted Cloud in Brooklyn New York

  • 2016-2014 Co-director of Dreamers Welcome, Parallel Creative Workspace, Brooklyn, New York

  • 2015 Teaching Artist, Public Youth Employment Program, 10th-12th, Creative Art Works, New York 

  • 2015 Teaching Artist, Wingspan Arts, New York, New York

  • 2006–2014 Resident Teaching Artist, Alaska State Council on the Art and Arts Education 

  • 2011–2013 Teaching Artist, Arts Education Consortium Basic Arts Institutes, Anchorage /Sitka Alaska

    *taught to District Teachers’ Continuing Education Credits

  • 2009-2010  Visual Arts Teacher, Thunder Mountain High School, Juneau Alaska 

  • 2009–2012 Visual Arts Coordinator, Lower Kuskokwim Schools Pilinguat Program, Bethel Alaska

  • 2011 Teaching Artist/Lecturer, Lower Kuskokwim School District & University Alaska, Juneau Alaska

  • 2010–2011 Curriculum Designer, Lower Kuskokwim School District, Bethel Alaska

  • 2008–2011 Teaching Artist, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, Juneau Alaska 

  • 2009–2011 Visual Arts Program Director, Thunder Mountain High School, Juneau Alaska

  • 2009 Adjunct Professor of Arts Education, University of Alaska School of Education, Juneau Alaska

  • 2009 Teaching Artist, Cultural Collaboration Grant, White Mountain Alaska 

  • 2006–2008 Arts Education Consultant and Teaching Artist, The Canvas Community Studio, Juneau Alaska 

GRANTS

  •  2014   Community Arts Development Grant. Alaska State Council on the Arts

  •  2014   Catalyst Grant. Juneau Arts & Humanities Council    

  •  2013   Career Opportunity Grant. Alaska State Council on the Arts

  •  2012   Individual Artist Grant. Juneau Arts & Humanities Council

  •  2009   Catalyst Grant. Juneau Arts & Humanities Council

  •  2008   Individual Artist Grant. Juneau Arts & Humanities Council

ARTIST IN SCHOOLS RESIDENCIES with the Alaska State Council on the Arts for children ranging grades PreK-12

Teaching artist lead on all projects listed as well as Workshops for Educators led at every aforementioned school

  • 2012   Heroes & Talents project- Yaakoosgé Daakahidi Alternative High School, 9-12th, Juneau Alaska

  • 2011   Patchwork Collage Grid project - Auke Bay Elementary School, K-2nd, Juneau Alaska

  • 2010   The Great Lessons project - Juneau Montessori School, 1st-8th , Juneau Alaska

  • 2009   Sea Creatures project - Baranof Elementary School, K-1st , Sitka Alaska

  • 2007   The Sea as They Sea It project - Riverbend Community School, K-5th , Juneau Alaska

  • 2007   Village By the Cliff project - Hoonah City Schools, K-12th, Hoonah, Alaska

  • 2006   Kids in Movement project - Harborview Elementary School, K-5th , Juneau, Alaska 

CULTURAL PRODUCTION and CURATED PROJECTS

  • 2016-15  Link-Link Supper Club Lecture Series - Dreamers Welcome, Brooklyn, New York

  • 2015   Come Say Hey - An Advice Project for Brooklyn Bridge Park, DUMBO New York

  • 2014   The Alaska Experimental Video Mapping Project Gastineau edition Juneau Alaska

  • 2014   Link:Link Club, Immersive Exchange Initiative I, Community Arts Development, Gustavus Alaska

  • 2013   The Alaska Experimental Video Mapping Project, Dzantik’I Heeni edition Juneau Alaska 

  • 2013   Everything Does Something, Traveling pop-up exhibition, LA/GA/NC/PA/RI/ME

  • 2012   Glitters, KTOO Public Radio, Juneau Alaska

  • 2012   Boys' Dleigu: Haandéi ax choonéitk’i, Thunder Mountain High School, Juneau Alaska

  • 2011   Complements Grid - permanent install, Mendenhall River Community School, Juneau Alaska

  • 2011   I Choose Respect, Lead On! Teen Youth Summit and AWARE Women’s Shelter, Juneau Alaska    

  • 2010   Raven: From Downtown, Percent for Art Commission, Juneau Alaska    

  • 2009   Nometown - permanent install, Anvil City Science Academy, Nome Alaska

  • 2009   Dancers and Animals - permanent install, Kasigluk Alaska

  • 2009   Xóots, Klukwan School - permanent install, Klukwan Alaska 

  • 2008   A River Runs Through Everything - permanent install,Gustavus, Alaska

  • 2008   Between the Gastineau Channel and Mount Roberts, Capital City Park, Juneau Alaska

EDUCATION

  • Masters of Art in Teaching, University of Alaska Southeast 2011

  • BFA, University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art 2005