Posted Saturday May 06 2017 at 10:16 pm
I am a performing artist, yoga teacher, and educational innovator. Over the past ten years, I have combined my two passions (the arts and mindful practices) to encourage identity exploration, positive self-expression, and deep engagement with creative process. In 2012 I founded FLY Learning Arts which incorporates a combination of movement, mindfulness, and arts exercises into classrooms in schools through New York City and Los Angeles. I brought my curiosity and pedagogy to higher ed two years ago first as a student, then a teaching fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
As a lifelong musician, dancer, singer, actor, writer and yogi with twenty years of professional experience on stage, on page, and in classroom, I have discovered that being in my body and heart has greatly increased my capacity to be present minded and creatively curious about the world within and around me. And as an arts activist, I believe that understanding self and others is the key to creating positive, long-lasting change in communities and in ourselves. My joy in education is giving space for playful engagement that enhances student learning by offering nuanced ways for students to relate to academic materials, their personal world views, and the perspectives of others.
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Posted Sunday April 02 2017 at 2:07 pm
Artist Statement
My current practice explores themes of migration, immigration and transformation with a focus on the Chinese diaspora. As a first-generation Taiwanese-American, I am interested in the meeting of cultural identities. Drawn from my personal experiences of crossing between distinct cultures and places, I create works in response to spaces I have traveled to, my surroundings, and in reflection of my own identity.
Due to my experience of studying in Beijing, I became especially conscious of the boundaries of nationality and culture comprising Chinese identity. In China, as an American of Chinese descent, I encountered being both an insider and outsider simultaneously. Although I participate in Chinese culture my identity is only partially recognized as Chinese.
I employ diverse methods of making by applying drawing, painting, digital photography, and sculpture. I create spatial juxtapositions of different cultural scenes and objects to form tension and contrast thereby creating a third meaning. My work aims to examine the effects of globalization in cultural blending, and the slipping away of cultural identity. I am interested in dislocation between objects, people, and spaces.
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Posted Wednesday March 22 2017 at 12:50 pm
Our colleague, Jenna Gabriel, Manager of Special Education at VSA International, shares some important learnings and a call for action in this blog post. Arts education matters and arts educators need all the support they can get to successfully meet the needs of students with disabilities.
I walk into the Hilton 2nd floor lobby to pick up my NAEA registration materials and one thing is abundantly clear: I am not in Kansas anymore. The largest education conference I've ever been to topped out at 400 people and when Patricia Franklin, the President of the National Arts Education Association (NAEA) welcomes 7,000 art educators to the NAEA National Convention, my jaw drops. There are more than 350 sessions each day to prompt noisy, messy, and vital discussions of how we ensure that every child receives a well-rounded education enriched by meaningful participation in the arts. I feel like Dorothy in the wonderland of Oz.
I had the privilege of spending 4 days in this glorious cacophony last week, when I traveled to NYC to present "Arts as Inclusion: Holding Ourselves Accountable in Reaching Students with Disabilities" at the NAEA National Convention. In addition to my own presentation, I got to observe sessions, participate in conversations, and connect with arts teachers from around the country. I learned a lot, but want to share 3 things that have stuck with me as I return to the real world here in DC:
1.) Our work at the intersection of arts and special education is vital—perhaps more so now than ever before.
Spare me a quick moment for a #humblebrag: My session was packed. In a room with chairs for 50 people, between 80 and 100 tried to cram in. People sat on the floor in the aisle and by my projector, stood in the back and spilled out into the hallway. As uncomfortable as they must have been, these teachers were actively engaged the entire time, asking questions about IEPs and instructional practice, offering insights from their own classroom experiences, and staying after to continue the conversation.
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