Artist Story: Carol Ng-He

Being a teaching artist in various venues profoundly influences and formulates my own art practice. In the past few years working in residency with different organizations not only opens doors for me to have an insightful experience of the communities where the school is situated, but also opens my inner-eye to see myself in relation to others. This journey of rediscovering and seeing myself betters my studio practice.

My residency for the Silk Road Theatre Project’s Myths to Drama allows me to critically look at the things that I care for and how these issues engage younger people.  Myths to Drama is an art education program that introduces 4th - 6th grade Chicago Public School students to a myth from a culture along the ancient Silk Road, such as China, India, Egypt, etc. From there, they explore other cultural aspects, including religion, philosophy, architecture and visual art forms. Toward the end of the residency, the students create a group project of their choice, either theatrical or visual art based.

 

Throughout the residency I team up with another arts educator to work with the classroom teacher in connecting the program with their social science and language arts curriculums. The emphasis of our program’s curriculum is placed on art-integration and multiple intelligence development for students (see full description of “multiple intelligence” on my article Silk Road Theatre Project’s Alternative Cultural Education. The fundamental idea in each cultural unit is to bridge the students’ personal life experience to other parts of the globe through the retelling of stories from the ancient world within a contemporary context. 

The process of introducing cultural mythologies and teaching art-making relating to the specific folk arts is inspiring.  The hands-on creative activities open up students’ curiosity to a cultural other than their own. Each time I teach the program, the students bring new perspectives.  Much of my teaching time focuses on the unit about ancient China, which is particularly galvanizing as it speaks to my own roots and heritage.

The folk and ethnic arts have become a resource in my own studio practice. I am interested in the ideas of “travel,” “transition,” “in between,” and “adaptation” on different levels and spectrums – physically, temporally, culturally, linguistically, emotionally, and spiritually. The works that I create attempt to portray the psychological landscape affected by memories and history, as well as the cultural and built environments.

Being a teaching artist with Silk Road Theatre Project reminds me that art should be for everyone, including those with little or no artistic literacy. Making art approachable and relational is a key objective in both my teaching and studio practices. A work of art should provoke interest while enabling the individual to connect to the concept behind it on his/her own terms.  Teaching the skills necessary for verbal and visual articulation educates the students while strengthening my own artistic interpretation skills. 

Art can provide a ‘safe’ space for discussing provocative issues, especially for teens.  At the Chicago Teen Museum (www.chicagoteenmuseum.org), in partnership with After School Matters (www.afterschoolmatters.org), I teach a group of twenty or so participating teenagers to examine the stereotypes of teenagers and create their own definition of “teen culture.” The project’s goal is to guide them in conceptualizing a museum of their own, one that best represents current teen culture. 

The program demystifies the museum exhibition process. The participants visit local art museums; talk with museum professionals and curators on exhibition development, while also learning the art of internationally renowned artists, such as Joseph Cornell and Andy Warhol. The program offers the creative outlet to explore the concepts of self, community and other issues of which they are passionate.  They collaborate in groups to design and create a three-dimensional architectural model of their museum, one in which they claim ownership and become one of the museum professionals. 

The Chicago Teen Museum exemplifies the need for continued exploration of the unfamiliar within the familiars of one’s comfort zone. Like with the Silk Road Theatre Project, I am reminded to give traditional narratives and iconographies a fresh look, as well as researching the meanings and applications of the old within contemporary worlds. 

Collaboration is a critical lesson, one that I was reminded of through my teaching.  Watching the students learn through collaboration makes me want to include more collaborative opportunities in my own art practice.  The sharing of ideas and authority in the classroom, then reaching a common ground that is best suitable for the teenagers’ needs is the most rewarding learning process I have encountered.

From the Silk Road Theatre Project to the Chicago Teen Museum, the common threads I have learned as a teaching artist are that art is a stepping-stone for a larger conversation on issues in the younger people’s sphere of influence and the world-at-large and that art is collaborative. My role as a teaching artist and my own art practice are closely intertwined as one reinforces another. By working with different organizations, the teaching experience significantly helps expand my personal creative vision and making as an artist.

Carol Ng-He is an interdisciplinary artist and an art educator based in Chicago. She holds a Master’s degree of Arts in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Carol has exhibited, performed and lectured throughout the city of Chicago, and has taught at Columbia College Chicago, Roosevelt University and Oakton Community College. Her publications have appeared on Community Arts Network and the Teaching Artists Journal.