Teaching Artist Empowerment Series : Trauma-Informed Curriculum and Classroom
In this workshop, we will identify the basic principles of a trauma-informed lens and how we move towards being trauma-attuned. We will offer real-life examples from teaching artists Jeanelle (Jen) Hernandez and Beth Wilson of what it means to have a trauma-informed curriculum and what that looks like in the creative classroom, even when your time with those students is super limited. This will be a thorough introduction for teaching artists and as always, there will be time for questions and reflection.
Presenters:
Jeanelle Hernandez (she/they) is an artist and educator based in the Pacific Northwest. Her painting, illustration and storytelling in comics centers on themes of nature, adventure, and fantasy inspired by temperate rainforests and Filipino folklore and mythology. As an arts educator, Jen works collaboratively with students and other artists to empower community through creativity. Her artwork and writing can be found at jenhernandezart.com and her educational work can be seen at ugacs.org.
Beth Wilson is a Pacific Northwest native. She pulls materials from everyday life, relying on them to guide her and give their experience to her visual artwork. Sometimes her work is small and made alone; gestures of grief and gratitude. Sometimes it is big, site-specific, and made in community; gestures of transformation. It all has in common the power to amplify a sense of connection; to self, community, and the planet that sustains us. Our white supremacist culture has stripped us of this sense of connection, of our humanness. Before earning her MFA from the University of Oregon, she worked with Chicago Public Art Group, where her passion for community-based art was sparked. She now leads visual art workshops and projects that investigate how we can use creativity as a coping tool.
