On September 19, 2012 I was invited by professor Alan Mette (U of I) to speak to a group of art foundation students on the theme: What is art education? I asked the students to share a story about one of their most influential teachers (in school or otherwise). I asked them to share these stories aloud and to do so in a continuous loop for more than ten minutes. I asked the students to share all their narratives simultaneously. I walked in between the students and amplified small slivers of their narratives with a handheld microphone.
Afterwards I proposed that the students think about art education in three ways:
1. As material. And I encouraged them to play with it.
2. As relationships, something their own words attested to. I pointed to the materiality of closeness and how artists now work through this idea.
3. As a durational work/task that sometimes can only be seen in parts. I proposed that the invisibility of art education (or education as a creative practice) heightened its potential for generosity.