Posted Thursday March 08 2018 at 5:03 pm
in Education
Hello! I'm Ali Blake, artist, educator, wonderer, maker, and COOL teaching artist in the OSDC program at Dorchester's Community Academy of Science and Health this academic year!
The largest question that drives my artistic (and research) practice these days is "what is the significance of creating and wearing our own clothes?"
This experience, I propose, allows us to learn about ourselves and each other through the active work of making and wearing our own clothes (together). Making our own clothing, on our own terms, sharing that (and thus ourselves) with the world, and engaging with the significance from and future possibilities within this act is a powerful experience.
This persistent thread of questioning and creating and teaching through wearable making has grown through explorations in my own clothing-making and clothing-wearing experiences throughout my life. I began to explore this most explicitly as an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design, where I studied Textiles along with Gender, Sexuality, + Race and Environmental Studies.
Read More →
Posted Wednesday February 28 2018 at 3:34 pm
in Education
Hello friends! My name is Mark Fuller and I am a Board Certified Music Therapist. As a music therapist, I use music as my tool to support the abilities of others to further grow and develop both artistically and developmentally. With evidence based interventions, my goal is to discover the innate abilities that we have through the use of rhythm and harmony. I believe that our music begins from the first beat of our heart and is carried with us throughout our lives to nurture and align ourselves with the world around us.
I am a graduate of Berklee College of Music where I furthered my passion for singing jazz and contemporary styles of music while studying Music Therapy. I enjoy learning and discovering new instruments and listening to music from all over the world. I am often caught dancing to the music I listen to in my ear buds and using various music platforms to discover new artists.
In my training at Berklee, I was able to practice music therapy with a variety of different populations including medical systems, nursing facilities, early interventions, psychiatric facilities, and rehabilitation hospitals. With my clinical internship at Boston Children’s Hospital I found my passion for continuing my career working with adolescents because of the novelty of experiencing music with them. I find it inspiring to discover new skills and experiences with children and supporting them as they try something for the first time.
Read More →
Posted Sunday February 11 2018 at 11:25 pm
in Cultural Inclusion
Arts Connect International (ACI); a Boston-based non-profit committed to equity in the arts, released a community findings research report, "Examining Cultural Equity in the Arts."
"There is a 'cultural equity gap' within the United States arts landscape. This equity gap constitutes the unequal representation in the arts of various identities, including, but not limited to: race, disability, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic status (class). The cultural equity gap arises from a systemic inequity in access to the arts, as well as access to positions of power within the arts."
To better understand the cultural equity gap and its implications on access, ACI launched a two-part study in the summer of 2017, in collaboration with UMass Boston, and with support from the Social Science Research Center’s Dissertation Development Program, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Phase I of the study, whose findings are in the report, cover a national survey and focus groups with local arts leaders, engaged to paint a fuller picture of our arts landscape and leadership. Phase I focuses on 'influencers' (i.e. arts managers, educators, funders, etc.) understandings and attitudes surrounding the cultural equity gap. Phase II, set to launch in the summer of 2018, will focus on a community-contextualized perspectives and voices.
Learn more through downloading or reading the report in PDF. Text only versions, which read more effectively with screen readers, are available. Please email Marian Taylor Brown, principle investigator, for said version, and with any questions or comments: marian@artsconnectinternational.org
