art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

case study: columbia college chicago 39
kym It was something really interesting what Ron brought to the table,
about this philosophy that we should each have as an artist. I had
never articulated that before, never had really thought about it. And
you could tell the whole class was like, “What is that? What is he
talking about?” I actually rewrote mine probably two or three times
before I gave it to him again. Then I worked with him the next
summer and gave him another one, because I became very concerned
that maybe I do need this sort of backbone to my work, and to have
a really clear idea of what it is that I’m wanting to do, which I had
not really understood before: I could actually get my ideas of how
I felt something could work and what I believed in out there to the
kids with whom I was working.
The third week of the course, the high-school and college students met
together at Association House for the first time. Each week, two student
teachers would lead the class through warm-up exercises. Although the
instructors were there to assist if necessary, it was understood that they would
take a relatively hands-off approach. For most of the student teachers, this
would be the first time they’d ever taught.
kym It was scary. We had talked about it before we went to Association
House. Are the kids going to participate? Are they going to listen
to us? Are they going to feel free to do certain things with this group
of college students there? It was the kind of thing like, we’re just
going to have to get in there and see.
The first day, we outnumbered the Association House kids. Right
away we thought, “Uh-oh, this might be strange for them. We
outnumber them right off the bat.” [But] they were surprisingly
welcoming and really, really open. . . . They were ready for us. When
we got there, we just introduced ourselves and explained that we
were there to learn from each other, that we’re students like them,
but we’re just at a different level than they were. It was amazingly
quick how they responded. The trust definitely grew as we were there
longer, but they had a trust for us right when we got there. I wasn’t
expecting that, not at all.
elsa The first couple of weeks we did the warm-ups and stuff with
Luis, and he kept telling us that pretty soon more people were
going to come, and it was going to feel different. And we just said,
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” But it did feel different. We had been like
this big bubble, and when the college students came in, everyone
kind of separated. Everyone was sort of like, “Okay, what are we
doing now?” It was very weird at first. But after the first hour and
a half, everything was cool. They were exactly like us but older, you