SATURDAY

Saturday 11:20am-12:20pm

Premier Speaker Dr. Dipti Desai (she/her)

Room: Great Hall Side B

“Creating Spaces of Affirmative Resistance in Art Education”

Art activists are creating spaces of learning that prefigure the kind of art education that is grounded in equity and justice that we seek in schools, communities, and the public sphere. Drawing on the work of some activist artists, I explore how they create educational spaces that combine resistance with the creation of alternatives, known as “affirmative resistance”. These spaces of affirmative resistance provide ways of rethinking the practice of art education that is grounded in coloniality and modernity by challenging what it means to use the arts to create social change in order to prefigure alternative art educational practices. 

Kelli Williams (she/her) & Kofi Sarfo (he/him)

Room: Auditorium

“Animation & Culture: How two animators are challenging the status quo of the animation industry with their work “

Kelli Williams and Jim (Kofi) Sarfo are animators and professors who work across various animated mediums. Working in both the freelance and independent animation industries, they both use their experience with identity to provide unique perspectives on the black experience. In this session, they will share their work and process with the audience and discuss their approaches to dismantling the often monolithic representations of black bodies in the media.

*Sponsored by the Moore College of Art & Design Animation and Game Arts program

Alison Yasukawa (she/her)

Room: Sarah Peter 206

“Language is/as Creative Practice”

Thinking deeply about language is an important practice for art educators. From the museum, to the K12 classroom, to the community art space, students are increasingly likely to come from diverse language and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, making connections between art education and the ways we think about language offers educators innovative ways to reconsider the purpose and function of language. Using multiple languages (verbal, visual, gestural, etc.), we will engage in reflection, small group conversation, and community share-outs to collectively address how our ideas about language shape students’ experiences in the classroom. What practices can we include in classes and critiques to uphold linguistic pluralism or, even more radically, to challenge colonial conventions of language altogether? We will explore language justice as a form of educational justice and investigate the potential for language itself to be a site of creative practice.

Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II (she/her/ella)

Room: Sarah Peter 210

Due to unforeseen personal circumstances, Dra. Sotomayor will unfortunately be unable to present at this year’s Adding Voices Conference. An email was sent to all who selected this session for new session options. 

“Visual Pláticas: Artist/Writer Acts Interactive Workshop“

Using visual language to share one’s testimonio, the artist/writer engages in visual pláticas. Visual pláticas are a feminist methodology of decolonizing the self and bodies of knowledge. Using visual language to share one’s testimonio, a part of their lives that has been changed in some way, the artist/writer engages in autohistoria-teoría, theorizing through lived experience. Through a collaging of image and text, the maker/performer navigates tense, ambiguous, and shifting borderlands spaces. A residue of the act of nepantla, an artist makes their stories visual. In this interactive workshop, we enact a nine-step process that results in visual pláticas. Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops, Ipads, or pencil and paper to engage in the workshop.

Glynnis Reed-Conway (she/her, they/them)

Room: Sarah Peter 207

"Blackface/Whiteface: Performing Our Layered Identities through Mask Making" 

This hands-on workshop features a mini-lesson, discussion, and artmaking. I will begin the session with discussion of blackface and stereotypical black imagery in works of African American art, focusing on "Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self" by Kerry James Marshall. Discussing artworks that deploy blackface and racial stereotypes by Black artists, I will ask, "What are some ways that we, as BIPOC folk, have performed race and gender or other marginalized identities that have assisted our navigation of hostile spaces for our survival?" After discussion, participants will create double-sided masks that depict on one side, a portrait of ourselves as we believe others to see us. On the other side of the mask, we will draw or collage a face that imagines ourselves the way we feel inside, reflecting our interiority and best Self as we navigate hostile environments. 

De’von Downes (they/he)

Room: Sarah Peter 202

 “Prompts, Proposals & Participation”

Embark on a captivating journey through the heart of community art in this interactive workshop. Discover the intricacies of mural installation and proposal creation through the powerful lens of community involvement. Engage in group activities, weaving together storytelling, innovative solutions, and cultural elements to craft a unique community proposal. Uncover the transformative potential of community art as a source of healing and connection, forging bonds that resonate beyond the art.

Saturday 2:40pm-3:40pm

Premier Speaker Dr. Kelli Morgan (she/her) 

Room: Auditorium

“Context Matters: The Significance of First-Voice Institutions"

In recent years, conversations regarding DEI and social-justice in the arts have abounded. Yet, within these broader conversations the importance of first-voice institutions is sometimes lost. In this lecture, Dr. Kelli Morgan will discuss African American museums and the various ways in which they have historically supported culturally specific arts education.

Qualeasha Wood (she/her) 

Updated - November 8th, Due to unforeseen personal circumstances, Qualeasha will unfortunately be unable to present at this year’s Adding Voices Conference. All who selected this session may now go to Dr. Kelli Morgan's session in the Auditorium.

Room: Paley Gallery (through the double glass doors)

“The Power of Audacity”

Qualeasha Wood is a textile artist whose work contemplates realities around black female embodiment that do and might exist. Inspired by a familial relationship to textiles, queer craft, Microsoft Paint and internet avatars, Wood's tufted and tapestry pieces mesh traditional craft and contemporary technological materials. Thusly, Qualeasha navigates both an Internet environment saturated in Black Femme figures and culture, and a political and economic environment holding that embodiment at the margins. Like the vast majority of her age-peers, Wood has operated one mortal and multiple digital avatars since pre-adolescence. For her, what are intuitive combinations of analog and cybernetic compositional processes, make for a plainly contemporary exploration of Black American Femme ontology.

Jana Lynne Umipig (she/her)

Room: Great Hall Side B

“The wound needs a witness- Arts Education for Liberation as medicine for the the Grief of an Unjust World”

In this communal Grief Work, JL will share the work of raising Young People to utilize practices of Art creation for healing individually and communally from the traumas of an injust world. To have Social Justice Grief Work meet Artistic Creation development, is to powerfully step into embodied practices of holistic healing . Using the frameworks of El Puente's The Creative Justice Approach and Transformative Community Building, integrated with Embodied Social Justice and Love and Liberation Informed Somatic Practices- she will share stories of committing to seeing our young people through the movements of their Grief in confronting an unjust world as they develop their consciousness through the rituals of creating and in community with the intention of healing together. She will share the importance of equipping the youth we guide with to collectively rise in Liberation through the power of expression and activating imagination. 

Nancey B. Price (she/her) 

Room: Sarah Peter 202

“Scissors & Stories: Empowering Narratives Through Collage”

This is a transformative one-hour workshop tailored for art educators to explore the ways in which they can use collage art to explore and share their personal stories. Using prompts inspired by lived experiences and liberation work, participants are encouraged to create collages that explore the intersection of art and narrative. Concluding with a story presentation, participants will be invited to share the stories behind their collages while contemplating the profound role of spoken word in visual art. The goal of this workshop is to provide a creative safe space for self-discovery and expression while empowering participants to use collage and storytelling as combined means to express themselves, build community and speak truth to power. 

Lisa Jungmin Lee (she/her/hers)

Room: Sarah Peter 206

“Print Your Own Voice”

Attendees will carve out a word that identifies who they are and an image that represents the word on a linoleum block. Then attendees will print this on a piece of big fabric that every participant is going to be printed on at the same time. Attendees will learn how to express themselves with a simple word and image and also learn how to collaborate with one another through a communal printing practice.

Afromation Ave. with Brittni Jennings (she/her) & Kristin Kelly (she/her) 

Room: Sarah Peter 207

“Street signs for the neighborhood, by the neighborhood!”

A hands-on workshop hosted by members of Philly based Afromation Avenue: Afromation Avenue is driven by its dedication to fostering positive change. We hope to expand this initiative by encouraging positive self-talk, not only in Philadelphia but also throughout sister cities across the United States. We are committed to supporting Black communities and believe the power of positive Black representation is a force that can reshape narratives, empower individuals, and create a more equitable society. 

Central to Afromation Avenue's mission is the influence of collaborative art as a means of communication and empowerment. This upcoming symposium, a convergence of minds and talents from diverse corners, holds the promise of not only expanding the horizons of our future work but also amplifying the impact of our endeavor. This opportunity magnifies the potential of our initiative while paving the way for a network of collaboration that reaches beyond geographic limitations. Our wish is to evaluate and assess the needs of our communities so we may continue to remind Black lives we are loved, our voices matter, and our lives matter.

Dani Gonzalez (he/they) & Cherish Christopher (she/they)

Room: Sarah Peter 210

"Sharing Strategies: Affirming students for museum spaces" 

We bear witness to the reality of museum culture and empower students to talk back. Museum educators, Cherish and Dani, will share strategies for affirming students before and during gallery visits. Acknowledging what power structures have historically enabled museums to be exclusionary allows students to develop language for institutional critique. Educators will deepen their understanding of intersectionality, code-switching, and the history of museum education.