Teaching Philosophy

“Art challenges the technology, and the technology challenges the art” (John Lasseter, BrainyQuote) has coined this phrase to illuminate the significant role art and technology play within the 21st century. My teaching philosophy and vision encapsulates the powerful combination of Art Education/ Appreciation, Assistive Technology, positive philosophy of blindness, writing, and research. My role at The Butler Institute of American Art offers the capacity and ability to take my skillset and incorporate it into future and continuous accessibility ventures including large print and Braille signage, Braille and large print maps, and digital materials, as well as research for current and future programing, museum reaccreditation materials and documentation, and a positive and equitable experience for docents, visitors, and guests. However, this isn’t the entire encompassing list. My parents—both former Art educators– instilled the notion anything is possible through ambition, patience, and a positive attitude even with my blindness. I came to appreciate the arts from early childhood, traveling to museums and viewing a plethora of paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, etc.

Beginning in 2015 the ideals of connecting Art and technology emerged after I enrolled in an intensive blindness-training program in Baltimore for ten months. For the first time, I was learning through my coursework the necessary blindness skills and living life independently. I visited numerous Art museums, and these experiences enriched my world with color, shape, lines, and form. I volunteered at the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and discovered an open door leading to the visual arts. I taught blind and low vision patrons how to use various technologies, and as my knowledge grew, I realized troubleshooting, creativity, and determination in completing tasks could also lead to my later foray of publishing and photography. During training I took photos on my iPhone of various sights around Baltimore, as well as other trips to Wilmington, Delaware, Hershey’s Chocolate World, and more.

Upon graduation from my blindness-training program, I yearned to pursue my passions and place them into one field of study while always learning and inspiring others. I hearkened back an independent study course I had taken from Youngstown Stat e University in Disability Studies, and my professor, Dr. Tiffany Anderson, shared the most common philosophies of disability—the Medical and Social Models–, read books by and about the disability community, and we also had discussions pertaining to disabled individuals. Taking this course gave me the spark that had been lit during my Bachelors and continued to rage—my writing, advocacy, and positive philosophy of blindness would inspire others and demonstrate though disability pertains to a sense of loss, the disability community isn’t broken. We are whole beings.

During this summers past convention of the National Federation of the Blind in New Orleans, my teaching philosophy and vision became even clearer. I attended several technology-training sessions where one of the presenters stated: “technology is am art, mot a science.” Blind persons and other disability groups use high tech and low-tech solutions to appreciate the visual arts, proofreading, research, and much more. For instance blind community members can use a tactile map illustrating a museum or city, The individual may have chosen to draw the map on a sheet of paper, which illustrates the spatial and visual requirements to achieve this goal. The creator may be totally blind, but tracing this map requires a unique visual picture in the mind’s eye. The same holds true with replicas of paintings from 3D Photoworks, a company based in New York. There are several sections of the work, which are visual and tactile, and if someone wishes to do so, they can push a button and discover the phenomenon like never before.

With my cultural experiences, blindness training, knowledge of technology and research, my teaching philosophy offers museum visitors, docents, and employees the ability to comprehend blindness is a gift rather than an obstacle. I have the tools to succeed and overcome any obstacle that stands in my way and weave Art and technology together like never before.

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