Since 2007, I have taught children, teens, and adults in a wide variety of institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the New York Historical Society. I am also a founding educator with the non-profit Arts & Minds which facilitates art experiences for people living with dementia and their care partners. In Paris, I led “ateliers d’art plastique” and museum visits for adults experiencing homelessness through the non-profit Emmaüs. Regardless of where I teach, and whether we are using materials in a studio, or looking at artwork in a gallery, I seek to facilitate meaningful, open-ended experiences for individuals and a sense of collective purpose.
I have led dozens of Professional Development workshops for fellow teachers, including elementary art teachers at Success Academy in NYC and at the Jewish Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and El Museo del Bario. Over the course of 12 years at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, I have led many professional development workshops for colleagues and educators from outside institutions.
I worked as an elementary art teacher as part of the Guggenheim’s Learning Through Art program (with a residency in PS.58 in Brooklyn), and at The Little Red Schoolhouse (LREI).
In 2015, I co-authored an article about studio teaching in museums with my colleague Hollie Ecker titled, “How might you….? Seeking Inquiry in the Museum Studio.” I describe my experience training teachers in the article “They Have to Be Asked: Using One Material, One Category, One Question to Invite Meaningful Art Experiences for Children,” published in Art Education in 2022.
I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 1999, and recieved a BFA from l’Universite de Paris VIII in 2004.
In addition to teaching, I am a visual artist. See examples of my paintings, drawings and books here.
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Much of what I know about studio teaching has resulted from a decades-long conversation with my mother, Nancy Beal. Her book, The Art of Teaching Art to Children (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001), outlines the approach she developed over 40 years, one inspired by the pioneering Bank Street educator Lois Lord, who was also a family friend. As a student at the Bank Street School for Children, I experienced this approach firsthand. I remember the robust art materials, open-ended explorations and personal questions –and the feeling of being trusted to find my own way.
The approach I have “inherited” is characterized by a profound respect for children, deep knowledge of art materials, and a core belief that children’s personal experiences should be the subject matter of their art.
The same values guide my teaching in the museum galleries: a respect for visitors’ experiences, a belief in the importance and complexity of works of art, and a desire to create personal connections between people and objects. I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues at the Guggenheim Museum for forging a robust vision of how a skilled educator can facilitate experiences that center our humanity, expand our self-knowledge, and invite the joy that comes from a collective experience rooted in the present moment.
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