Victoria Restler, Senior Program Associate with World Savvy praises Pedagogy of Photography.
"I first met Katie DelaVaughn (née Delahunty) through the artwork of her students. Crisp, high contrast black and white portraits of elementary school children layered with vibrant marker drawings depicting their personal definitions of peace—Thomas the Tank Engine, Granny, making clothes, rapping and dancing. With their combination of skillful photography and jewel-like flashes of color, these images seemed more at home on the walls of a Chelsea gallery than a school bulletin board. Having seen loads of student artwork over my years in the field, I knew that the combination of authenticity, beauty and heart present in these photographs belied an extraordinary educator and artist.
In January 2008, Katie was selected to participate in World Savvy’s Global Youth Media and Arts Program (MAP). The MAP brings twenty educators together for six months to build skills and content knowledge for integrating global issues like Immigration and Identity into art and media curriculum. Among a group of veteran NYC teachers, Katie quickly shone with the innovative blend of art, literacy and multi-cultural education embodied in her Pedagogy of Photography (POP) curriculum and approach.
I am an artist, educator and administrator and direct World Savvy’s Media and Arts Program in New York and San Francisco. Last spring, I had the opportunity to observe Katie and help facilitate workshops with her classes on several occasions. When I arrived at Bronx Green Middle School, I often found Katie in her office surrounded by a gaggle of girls writing poetry or editing photographs. Even with very limited resources, Katie nurtured a safe space for students to explore their own identities and express themselves. She has a special capacity to connect with students of many different backgrounds and help them connect with each other. Her classrooms were filled with a wide mixture of students--Latino, Caribbean, African, Albanian; she developed strong relationships with each young person and provided ample platforms for cultural pride and expression. This aspect of her work—supporting engaged students of every stripe in their creative endeavors—never seemed to feel like “work” for Katie, and she spent endless lunch-periods, evenings and free days guiding the exploration and art-making of her devoted student following.
In a chaotic school environment—classrooms often full of 35 students—Katie consistently inspired her classes to create beautiful, meaningful art projects. However, unlike other arts educators that focus only on the quality of the product, Katie values the process and student engagement throughout. All of the concepts, descriptions, and images that her students create come from them. This ownership is evidenced in the voice of the work and the enormous pride of accomplishment her students display upon completion.
For the MAP’s culminating art exhibition, Katie and her students presented "Doors of Reflection" a powerful and richly layered piece. The middle-school class collected photographs from their lives and homes and created visceral collages that rippled against the cracked wood of three actual doors, suspended from the ceiling. This project was a success on many levels—it was visually striking, conceptually conveyed a textured tale of the immigrant experience, its development represented the months-long collaboration of more than 25 6th and 7th graders on a single, large scale collaborative work (a truly incredible feat!), and it continues to live on in the community with ongoing exhibitions at local Bronx schools, libraries and community centers.
At the exhibition opening, in an NYU gallery packed with parents, teachers and youth, Jasmine, one of Katie’s 6th grade students and a recent Mexican immigrant stepped forward to talk about the piece, “Before this year, I was nervous to express myself to anyone. I was so shy. Working with Ms. DelaVaughn has given me the confidence to believe in myself and express who I am.” Katie fostered this kind of personal growth in many of her students. Through her Pedagogy of Photography curriculum, her students came away from the year with art making skills and a deep appreciation of the ways that art can help us heal, grow, understand ourselves and the world around us."
