Arts in Education
HGSE Arts in Education Program Student Profiles
Note: This list represents a little more than half of the current 2009–10 AIE cohort of students! Please stay tuned — and check back in — for the other half of the cohort.
John Bechtold comes to AIE as a high school teacher and arts program administrator in Western Massachusetts. As a theater teacher and department head for the performing arts in Amherst Regional Middle and High Schools, John's interests are particularly related to the performing arts as models for peak experiences in students’ lives and how the arts inform inspiration and discovery. Also the director of Deerfield Academy's Summer Arts Camp, John is interested in the development of arts-based communities and the institutions that support them.
Julia Bergen was raised in northern New Jersey and lived in San Francisco, Manhattan, and central Mexico before settling in New Mexico in 1990. She is currently on a leave of absence from her position as executive director of Fine Arts for Children & Teens, a visual arts education organization based in Santa Fe that serves 4,500 children and youth across northern New Mexico through public school and community-based programs. She comes to HGSE/AIE in search of new knowledge, strategies and tools for creating the optimal creative learning experiences for children for whom learning is challenging and uninspiring. Julia believes strongly in the power of the arts and the creative process to guide a young person to becoming an actively engaged life-long learner.
J.G. Boccella went back to Brown University last year, after 20 years away, to complete his degree in visual art. He is a musician, artist, civil rights advocate, and speaker with over 10 years of experience at the nexus of arts, education, and race relations. Founder of Modo Mio Music (www.ModoMio.com), J.G. has created a series of programs that use music as a catalyst for dialogue on race in America. He is also currently completing his book, The Conversation We Could Be Having: Thoughts on a New Paradigm for Race in America, in which he describes how a simple shift in America’s approach to race relations could have profound consequences. J.G.'s mission is to “bring people together through music and the arts."
Sojn Boothroyd, an award winning choreographer/director and national touring artist, has worked extensively as a teaching artist with all ages of youth and adults. Originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Sojn spent 14 years living in Seattle, working with organizations such as Arts Corps, as a founding teaching artist and faculty manager, and most recently in Chicago, as the program director for Street-Level Youth Media and for Marwen as their college and career counselor, serving low-income youth in the arts.
At HGSE, Sojn is focused on interdisciplinary learning, pedagogical theories, and the philosophy of arts education, while working as a research assistant for Project Zero.
Rachel Chapman joined AIE from Los Angeles, Calif., where she worked as an actor in independent film, television, and theatre. She also worked in other aspects of the industry as an intern in the casting office of the hit TV show House, as well as at the successful talent agency Amstel, Eisenstadt, and Frazier. As an arts educator Rachel worked as a teacher’s aide for the Metro Theatre Company's educational outreach program Arts Intersection. Rachel is currently working in the art studio at the Peabody Terrance Children's Center exploring the artistic process with toddlers. Rachel earned her BFA in Acting from Boston University and also studied abroad at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Rachel is an avid practitioner of Bikram Yoga.
Catherine Flora Con joins the AIE cohort after receiving a B.M. in piano performance just months ago at the University of South Carolina. She is currently a teaching assistant, tutor, and administrative assistant at the Harvard Bridge to Learning and Literacy. An avid writer, she is now studying fiction-writing with Bret Anthony Johnston in “Hahvid Yahd” and is interested in how people learn through words and stories. She aspires to be a famous novelist, an amazing professor, and a glamorous New York editor. And of course, she'll always play piano.
Bradley Diuguid has worked as a teaching artist with the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Long Wharf Theatre, and Premiere Stages. Maintaining a focus on theatre education, he trained as an arts administrator at Roundabout Theatre Company and The Juilliard School. Previously, he held jobs in various capacities in substitute teaching, special education, and children’s theatre. He led drama seminars, directed shows, and produced new play readings in New York City and at SUNY New Paltz, where he earned a double BA in theatre and English. Currently, he works part-time in the development department at the American Repertory Theater.
Barbara Elfman will be a part time student in the AIE program while working full time at Harvard University Graduate School of Design as the Advanced Studies program administrator. In this role, Barbara oversees 125 master and doctorate level students. Barbara was a pediatric operating room
nurse for a decade and then home for a number of years raising her three children. In 2001 she returned to school at Wellesley College as a Davis Scholar. In 2005 she earned a BA in the History of Art with an emphasis on the History of Architecture. Barbara worked at the Fogg Art Museum researching and cataloging the personal photographs of Lyonel Feininger and assisting in the registrar’s office before coming to the Design School.
Barbara has volunteered as a “Looking at Art” leader in the Weston Public School system introducing art history to elementary aged children as well as leading school groups at the HH Richardson designed house “Stonehurst” in Waltham, Mass. During her time at Wellesley, Barbara did an independent study on the needlepoint kneelers at Trinity Church in the City of Boston using oral histories and surveys to record the history of the kneelers. She also used art to educate the women at Wellesley about breast cancer in a schoolwide program.
Whitney Elliot earned her degree in elementary education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to HGSE, she was a classroom teacher for three years in a public elementary school outside Washington, D.C. While teaching, she incorporated theater, music, dance, and visual art into her classroom. She also designed and implemented an afterschool program for primary students to write and perform their own short plays based on favorite stories. While at HGSE, she is taking coursework to further her knowledge on how to use the arts more meaningfully in her classroom and how to take advantage of community arts resources for her students. In addition, she works as a tutor for the Harvard Bridge to Literacy, which offers English classes, G.E.D. prep, and computer training to adults in the Harvard community. Whitney can't wait to return to the classroom next fall!
Briget Ganske is a graduate of Northwestern University (2006) and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies (Spring 2009). Originally from Iowa, she spent a year and a half in New York City, working in book publishing and commercial photography. During 2008, she lived in rural South Africa, serving as managing editor of a nonprofit community newspaper and developing a passion for documentary photography. She has led documentary media workshops with youth in Harlem, Serbia, South Africa, and the Pacific Northwest, and is currently involved in the Allston Brighton Arts Bridge, a filmmaking class with teens.
Lindsay Grant is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, and was happily living in Oakland, Calif., before heading to HGSE. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.A. in the history of art, and brings to the AIE Program a deep interest in how people learn from images and objects. Previously, she worked in many levels of program administration and taught visual arts classes for ArtReach, a nonprofit arts education outreach program serving Contra Costa County, Calif. In college, she worked as an education department intern at San Francisco's de Young Museum, and asa classroom and outreach assistant at UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science. She hopes to work in a nonprofit arts education or museum education setting, and plans to eventually pursue a doctoral degree in the history of art and architecture.
Lisa M. Gutting joins the AIE Program with six years experience working as a teaching artist and arts administrator in a variety of nonprofit programs in New York City. As an artist, educator, and administrator, Lisa is passionate about the multiple facets of the arts in education. She is dedicated to envisioning and enabling improvement in access to quality arts learning experiences for schools and communities. She worked most recently as Arts Education Director at Queens Council on the Arts in NYC and as a teaching artist at VSA Arts/New York. While at HGSE, Lisa interns at Project Zero and the Multiple Intelligences Institute.
Prior to joining the AIE department, Jackie Intres worked for two years as the board liaison and executive assistant at Urban Gateways: The Center for Arts Education in Chicago. She used her time at Urban Gateways to explore her own work as a teaching artist in theatre with special interests in Shakespearean adaptation, stage combat, and directing. In 2007, Jackie received her B.A. from Northwestern University in performance studies and English. In her time at HGSE she is interested in studying how the arts interact and influence adult education, higher education, school reform, and community partnerships. This winter, Jackie will be interning as a theatre teacher at a local middle school. Jackie is currently working as the department assistant for the Arts in Education program and as a student ambassador for HGSE.
Steve Jordan earned a bachelor's degree in 1994 in the teaching of English from the University of Illinois, and has been teaching ever since. He taught high school English in rural Illinois and outside of Chicago for a total of 14 years. He also taught ESL in Quito, Ecuador, as well as reading and writing to street children in Tanzania, East Africa. Steve has a master's degree in creative writing from Northwestern, and has come to AIE to deepen his interest in the arts and his commitment to education. He also hopes to be a strong voice in the growing environmental movement, and feels that education in particular must be at the forefront of creating a more sustainable, ecologically balanced, livable future.
April Lee is an artist and educator who is interested in community and youth development through creative and progressive education. Since graduating from Vassar College with a B.A. in studio art, she has been working as a teaching artist with several nonprofit arts organizations and in the curatorial field in fine arts museums including the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Hammer Museum at UCLA. Prior to graduate studies at HGSE, April was working with the Center for Urban Pedagogy on an "urban investigation" exploring immigration and illegal housing issues with NYC high school students. The project paired students with policymakers, lawyers, activists, immigrant tenants, and landlords to gather the many perspectives on the contentious issue — which they used to produce a free educational comic book. At HGSE, she is pursuing a richer understanding of educating for the "whole-child” — developing the student's intellectual, ethical, cultural, and emotional capacities, and situating them within a larger community of learners. She is inspired by educational frameworks that utilize peer and project-based learning, and which encourage the authentic authoring of youth civic identity. Her studies at the Media Laboratory at M.I.T. focus on the pedagogical potential of new media learning technologies and creative education in the Digital Age.
Before coming to Harvard, Jennifer Lehe facilitated photography learning with The Youth & War Project, Lower East Side Girls Club, New York University Summer High School Program, International Center of Photography Community Programs, and the Children's Aid Society. Jen is interested in the arts as a language to address social justice issues and as means of creating joy and catharsis. Her central aim for her year at HGSE is to study how learning happens and the structures, micro and macro, that influence learning quality and (in)equality. Jen is currently interning at the Outreach Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The center connects K–12 educators to resources for enriching instruction on Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. Currently the center is introducing an arts-based, human-rights focus.
Meredith Lewis, a native of Brockport, New York, completed both her BA and MA at New York University. As an undergraduate student-athlete, Meredith used the Gallatin School’s interdisciplinary format to craft her own dramaturgy curriculum titled, Theatre in Education: Theatre as Education.
Two years later, as NYU’s first graduate of the MA program in social studies education and educational theater, Meredith emerged as a candidate for dual teacher certification in performing arts and social studies. In New York, Meredith found great joy working with students of all ages at the Convent of the Sacred Heart (K-4 Drama) and at Brooklyn’s Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School (9-10 Social Studies). However, it was Meredith’s lasting interest in fusing theater techniques within a multi-cultural social studies curriculum that led her to AIE. In addition to her studies at HGSE, Meredith works in the Project Zero office and volunteers as a drama educator in classrooms at Cambridgeport School.
Ji Hyun Lim fell in love with the city of Boston when studying at Wellesley College. She graduated Wellesley with a B.A. in studio art and economics. Then, she worked for Fidelity Investments in the project management group for three years in the Boston area. During her time working, she volunteered for an organization called Citizen Schools, where she developed and taught a 2-D design course to urban middle school students. This experience led her to a passion for education and art, and it brought her to the AIE Program at HGSE. Currently she is enjoying being a full-time student again, learning about education through the media, technology, literature, and, of course, the arts. In addition, she works as a curatorial and communications assistant in the AIE Program office, and she volunteers in Citylife Church in Boston as the English as a Second Language classroom coordinator, where she coordinates free English classes for the community.
Danielle Martin is a D.C.- and Philadelphia-based freelance teaching artist and dramaturg. Over the past eight years she has taught puppet making, circus performing, playwriting, creative writing, visual art, Shakespeare, and acting with various theatre companies, community centers and schools. While completing her M.A. in theatre history and criticism at The Catholic University of America, she also worked at Arena Stage, where she assisted on the world premiere of Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations and served as the production dramaturg for Well. Additional D.C. dramaturgy credits include the Hegira, Wit’s End, Constellation and FireMuse Theatre Company. In Philadelphia, she had served as a production assistant in the education and literary departments at InterAct Theatre Company, a company devoted to new-play production. She has been a play reader for VSA Arts, Source Theatre, PlayPenn, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Arena, and Woolly Mammoth, and has written theatre reviews for online publications in both Philadelphia and D.C. While at HGSE, she is interning with VSA Arts as an evaluation assistant, where her focus will be in pairing with teaching artists and classrooms around the Boston area to document and foster strong and inclusive learning experiences.
Caroline Mooney received her BA from Smith College, where she majored in music and worked as a recording technician, music theory and music appreciation tutor, and guitar teacher. After college, Caroline worked at Carl Fischer Music Publishing as the director of the internship program, and as the front-of-house manager for a theater. She is interested in arts learning experiences both inside and outside of classroom settings. She is also interested in the impact of arts learning on “at risk” students and how the arts can help students with learning disabilities.
Ashley Moore, a native of Austin, Texas, is serving as president of student government at HGSE this year and is proud to be a member of the AIE cohort. Ashley came to Cambridge with a background in arts administration, costume design, film acting, and the music business. She has been a part of several entrepreneurial ventures, including starting a movement-based theater company and successfully starting and managing a music booking and promotions business in Austin that she is still running long-distance from school (with an assistant, of course :). Ashley’s passion is for the financial management and administration of nonprofits within the performing arts. She came to HGSE to investigate how strategic management and sound financial decisions can be a catalyst for the creation of quality arts learning experiences. She is inspired by the ability to make a difference by increasing the sustainability of arts organizations. She is currently working at Educators for Social Responsibility as the assistant to the director of finance and administration, and volunteering at Cambridge Public Schools.
Eric Oberstein comes to the AIE Program at Harvard with a background in arts administration and music, having played saxophone and drums since childhood. Originally from Long Island, Eric recently earned his M.A. in arts administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. He completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University, where he majored in cultural anthropology and earned certificates in arts management and cultural policy and Latin-American studies. He has worked with a variety of arts organizations over the years, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Duke Performances, and the Research Center for Arts and Culture. Most recently, Eric served as assistant director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, which supports the work of the GRAMMY Award-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, directed by Arturo O'Farrill. He also serves as assistant producer on O'Farrill's 2009 album, Risa Negra. Eric has a strong interest in university arts engagement and the “creative campus” — specifically how institutions of higher learning can engage their communities in a cross-campus, interdisciplinary fashion through the arts. In addition, he is interested in cross-cultural arts education, as well as the design of meaningful arts education residencies and curricula. Eric is currently working as special projects associate at the Office for the Arts at Harvard.
Born and raised in Central New York State, Sarah Pfohl hails most recently from Las Cruces, N. M., where she served as an AmeriCorps artist-in-residence at Court Youth Center/Alma d'arte Charter High School for two years. A visual artist, Sarah spends her time outside of class drawing and making hand-sized sculptures from materials she finds in her immediate environment. Her interest in understanding more deeply the many connections she noticed between making art and teaching drew her to HGSE; her next step remains to be seen. Sarah earned a BFA in drawing from Pratt Institute in 2005.
Jennifer Reid is a graduate of Occidental College with a double-major degree in psychology and art history and the visual arts (with a studio emphasis). Hailing from Los Angeles, where she worked as a gallery teacher at both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum, she is interested in the therapeutic benefits of artistic practice and in making fine arts institutions accessible to the underserved, specifically children and families of color as well as immigrant communities. While at HGSE, Jennifer will be working at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as the graduate intern with the Community Arts Initiative.
Rory Michelle Sullivan recently graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Harvard University and is now applying it toward understanding social interactions in learning environments. She is currently interested in arts administration and student life at the college level. Her arts background includes opera training and producing/performing in musical theater. She also has a soft spot for saxophone and collage.
Katharine Urbati holds a B.A. in art history from Boston University. She has been working for several years in a higher education setting, working to link students in the arts with faculty and staff in an informal setting. An avid supporter of contemporary art and new media, she has worked with many local art organizations including Art Interactive, Axiom Gallery, and Big, Red and Shiny, and is a member of the Institute for Infinitely Small Things, a local artist collective.
Julia Wolinsky joined the AIE cohort after teaching drawing at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in New Orleans. Before coming to HGSE, Julia studied painting at the University of California, Los Angeles, and worked as a museum educator at the Hammer Museum. After graduating college in 2007, Julia began to develop a passion for providing arts education to communities that receive little access to the arts. She worked as a social services coordinator for Housing Corp of America, where she managed and developed social programs from parenting classes to ESL workshops for 46 affordable housing properties in Los Angeles. She piloted an afterschool arts program at 10 properties that provided 300 children with free, weekly arts classes. Julia moved to New Orleans to continue organizing youth in community arts projects. Currently, she is a member of the Civic and Moral Education Initiative Student Group and is a student ambassador for HGSE.
AIE Student Involvement
At the Office for the Arts in Education Program, Room 305 Longfellow Hall, students can find a variety of resources such as:
- lists of arts-related courses throughout the university and lists of courses at HGSE that lend themselves to arts focusing
- information on possible arts-related field placement sites, internships, and job opportunities
- guidance on focusing an Arts in Education program
- recommendations for instructors who will support arts-related independent studies
- selected resources for arts-related research and a collection of past AIE student courses of study and sample student work on arts-related topics
- information on arts activities and resources at Harvard and in the surrounding areas
Arts Resources
The following resources may be of use to students in the program and others with an interest in arts in education.
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