BRAVE REIMAGINING TEEN ARTS EDUCATION REIMAGINING TEEN ARTS EDUCATION BRAVE BRAVE REIMAGINING TEEN ARTS EDUCATION Jill Medvedow & Monica Garza CONTENTS COVER 60 KEVIN GARCIA LUNA ESCOS 13 62 FOREWORD JASON MORAN 15 69 JILL MEDVEDOW OKWUI OKPOKWASILI Lead support for Teen Programs provided by Wagner Foundation. 18 74 PAT FRAZIER JOSEPH REUBEN QUINTO 20 ELIZABETH ALEXANDER 78 MATTHEW RITCHIE Teen Programs are made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, 26 Award Number MA-10-17-0447-17. DONOVAN BIRCH, JR. 86 Additional support is provided by the Surdna Foundation; the Rowland Foundation, Inc.; JACLYN ROESSEL The Corkin Family; John Hancock; the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation; the Diversifying 33 Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation; The Angell Foundation; the William E. Schrafft and Bertha E. Schrafft Charitable TURAHN DORSEY 93 Trust; Vertex; The Willow Tree Fund; the Nathaniel Saltonstall Arts Fund; the Mass Cultural STEVE SEIDEL Council; the Robert Lehman Foundation; the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund, Bank of 42 America, N.A., Trustee; MFS Investment Management; the Plymouth Rock Foundation; the Jean Gaulin Foundation; the Thomas Anthony Pappas Charitable Foundation, Inc.; and Santander. KIMBERLY DREW 98 AKIR STUART 50 KAISHA GERHARDT 102 The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do DENISE MONTGOMERY not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 55 SANDRA 106 Download this publication at icaboston.org/brave JACKSON-DUMONT AJ HOWELL Cover: Kevin Garcia, Untitled, 2019. / 6 SYDNEY ENAHJAH BOBB BROWN is a Black, queer, femme poet is a recent alum of the Teen Arts from Dorchester, Massachusetts. Council at the ICA, an interviewer Her work navigates life through for this publication, and upcoming the lens of a daughter of the high school graduate. Most of her Caribbean diaspora with chronic free time is spent searching for health issues. With her art, Bobb new music, thrifting, and ques- hopes to encourage Black women tioning life. She enjoys attending to be more aware of what good concerts and trying to find new CONTRIBUTORS health looks like, mentally and places to eat in the city. Her big- physically. Her favorite artists gest goal right now is to achieve include Porsha Olayiwola, Prince, a degree in screenwriting. If she and Donald Glover. Bobb is a First could, she would want to have her Wave scholar at the University of very own farm with animals Wisconsin at Madison studying to keep as pets. African Cultural Studies and Photo: Margie Samp Psychology and is an ICA alum. Photo: Carlie Febo ELIZABETH ISABEL ARIC TURAHN ALEXANDER BEAVERS CROWE-PINA DORSEY —poet, educator, memoirist, is a multimedia artist and edu- is a creative person and educator. is a community servant, public scholar, and cultural advocate— cator. She explores ecologies, At the ICA, he is an Alumni policy researcher, strategist, and is president of The Andrew W. environmental histories, and Assistant and part of the Building education innovator. He served as Mellon Foundation. Dr. Alexander scientific storytelling through a Brave Spaces conference team. the Chief of Education for the City has held distinguished professor- range of media including video, Being in the Teen Arts Council of Boston and as a member of ships at Smith College, Columbia animation, sculpture, and sound. when he was younger helped him Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s cabinet. University, and Yale University. As ICA Education Fellow, she was find his voice as an artist. He’s Previously, he served as Evaluation She is a member of the American an integral part of the Building been learning to balance working Director and an Education Pro- Academy of Arts and Sciences, Brave Spaces conference and on his art with working on his life. gram Officer at the Barr Foun- a chancellor of the Academy of publication team. Her work has He feels fully fulfilled working dation. He is currently working with American Poets, and co-designed been exhibited widely and is in the with the TAC and hopes he can local and regional organizations to the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, permanent collection of Boston continue to support the family. expand access to high-quality ear- she composed and delivered Cyber Arts, the Association for He also hopes to one day win a ly learning and to close Boston’s “Praise Song for the Day” for the Gallatin Agricultural Irrigators in Super Smash Brothers tourna- racial income and wealth gaps. inauguration of President Barack Montana, and Framingham ment or a Pokemon one. He also served on the Building Obama in 2009, and is author or State University. Photo: Christian Arthur Brave Spaces Advisory Group. co-author of 14 books. Photo: Ally Schmaling Photo: Lauren Miller MITHSUCA DONOVAN KIMBERLY LUNA BERRY BIRCH, JR. DREW ESCOS is a Boston-based artist and edu- is a progressive entrepreneur and is a writer, curator, and activist. is from Spain. She loves taking cator who believes creativity goes advocate, as well as a strategic Drew received her B.A. in Art pictures. Most of the time, she beyond technicality and into a way storyteller. An alum of the ICA History and African American captures candid moments of living. At a young age, art was Teen Arts Council, Birch also Studies from Smith College. She with people. She likes how the an important tool in healing. Now, served on its Building Brave first experienced the art world as background story can change the across mediums like illustration, Spaces Advisory Group. He is an intern at the Studio Museum perspective in a moment, to help mixed media, and education, running for State Representative in Harlem. Inspired to start the you understand why it’s happy those stories can be told. Black, to serve the 12th Suffolk District Tumblr blog Black Contemporary or sad. Sometimes just by taking queer, and nonbinary, Berry of Massachusetts. Birch hopes Art, this sparked her interest in photos of what’s around you—the creates images that deconstruct to empower more young, queer, social media. Drew’s writing has landscape, an object—everything the restrictions placed on these Black, and Latinx folks to lend appeared in Vanity Fair, Glamour, can be converted into something identities and makes the space their voices to politics. He is also and Teen Vogue; she has executed beautiful and interesting. At the for them to intersect freely. At the the CEO and Founder of the Instagram takeovers for Prada, ICA, she studies digital photog- ICA, they are an alum, an Alumni Birch Group and has a degree in the White House, and Instagram. raphy and film. She is a senior at Assistant, and on the Building Political Communication from Follow her at @museummammy East Boston High School. Brave Spaces conference and Emerson College. on Instagram and Twitter. Photo: Cindy Portillo publication team. Photo: Neven Samara Photo: Travis Matthews 7 / BRAVE / 8 PAT KEVIN SANDRA JILL FRAZIER GARCIA JACKSON-DUMONT MEDVEDOW is a filmmaker, activist, and stu- is a junior at East Boston High is the incoming Director and CEO is the ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss dent born and raised in Chicago’s School, where he is on the football of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Director. A national leader in con- Bronzeville neighborhood. In team. He likes to be entertaining Art. Through December 2019, she temporary art and civic life, she is 2018, they were named the Youth around his friends. In his free time, is the Frederick P. and Sandra P. committed to nurturing artistic Poet Laureate of Chicago and he likes to listen to music and play Rose Chairman of Education at the experimentation, amplifying artists’ the National Youth Poet Laureate video games, or go play a quick Metropolitan Museum of Art, and voices, promoting lifelong learning, of the United States, an initiative game of basketball. His biggest she has worked at the Seattle Art providing access to and equity in of Urban Word. Frazier’s writing goal at the moment is to get into Museum among other cultural the arts, and sharing the conviction addresses the intersections of college to study Photography organizations. Known for her ability that art is essential to happiness, young, queer, and colored iden- and Film Production. At the ICA, to blur the lines between academia, social jus tice, and healthy society. tities living in marginalized areas. he takes part in the Advanced popular culture, and non-traditional Investing in teens as future leaders, Their first poetry chapbook, Photography program. He began art-going communities, she is artists, and electorate is central to Graphite, was published in 2018. studying digital photography invested in curating experiences her vision. She sits on the Boston Frazier is a Young Chicago Au- there last fall. One of his photos that foster dynamic exchanges Public School Arts Advisory Board thors alum, Davis-Putter scholar, graces the cover of this book. between art/artists, past/present, and is Chair of Boston After School and student at Smith College. Photo: Emma Fitzsimmons-Brann public/private, and people/places. and Beyond. Photo: Chanel Matsunami Photo: Mangue Banzima Photo: Liza Voll KAISHA BETSY DENISE JASON GERHARDT GIBBONS MONTGOMERY MORAN is a creative and humorous is a creative person, educator, and is founder and principal of Cul- is a jazz pianist, composer, and individual. She is a freshman advocate for teen arts education. tureThrive, a consulting practice performance artist born in at the University of Montana, As the Director of Teen Programs with a primary focus on arts and Houston, Texas. He was named a working on majoring in Media at the ICA, she works with and culture and youth development. MacArthur Fellow in 2010, is the Arts.