CURTIS BRACHER TEACHING STATEMENT

STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

“Tell me and I will forget; Show me and I will remember; Involve me and I’ll understand. “

“I am a ….go button.”

It has become singularly clear that, while learning to paint/draw/computer mediate does take a bit of old-fashioned methodology and practice, the process of art-making — learning to see directly, exploring honestly, and translating clearly — is open to much technical interpretation. In all of my classes, I accentuate a content-based, critical-thinking and collaborative approach to art-making, aiming to open the basic tenets of foundational learning to an inter-disciplinary, perceptual and multi-modal dialogue. I have a firm commitment to experimental practices and thus continuously encourage the students to actively engage from their own personal and clarified motives.

To bring these ideas to play, much of the strategies and exercises that are found in my syllabi are an active, organic engagement with the students’ public and personal environment. As much as possible, I pull in project examples from other media disciplines, philosophies and cultures. This synthesized approach allows me to continually seek projects that teach aesthetic principles and, as importantly, foster unique ideas, expand possibility and bring about more encompassing viewpoints. By using inter-disciplinary projects the process of art-making becomes exciting and truly interactive. It becomes a world that translates, not as a detached view that one observes from a detached position, but into an ever-changing interface from which we gain our meanings.

For students to see directly, it is vital that they become involved as much as possible. To do this I use a questioning and discussion strategy, often in the form of experimental participation, where students are taught to debate, develop, reinforce and express a personal voice. This strategy encourages them to become both a learner and a teacher. It allows students to be able to translate clearly what would be rarified aesthetic formal issues into ideas that are much more grounded in personal concern and thus, are much more likely to be used as honest searching and transformative growth. These student-led situations are where I have received the most feedback and assessment on the project and curricula ideas, and where I have been able to best answer the “So what?” litmus test that is applied to all of my class projects.

I have found that assuming the role of “coach,” that is, laying the groundwork and then encouraging a sense of motivation, has been highly beneficial. To facilitate this, it is my goal to remain semi-transparent during this explorative play while being available to discuss any questions, options, fears or concerns. I believe this expansiveness, acceptance, and caring has reflected well in previous classes and has allowed me to claim a large measure of success.

To understand where both my artwork and teaching philosophies stem from, it must also be said that I believe passionately in art and its processes. Specifically, I believe in art’s ability to communicate exploration, empathy, and thus transformative understanding. The art-making process mirrors this ability in an exciting, direct, and spontaneous manner as the natural outcome of the creative process. This firm belief in art, together with a lifetime of creating experiences with children and adults, have given me every reason to believe that art is not only of necessity, but has incredible value to the human community as well. It is this belief system that compels me to make art and the reason why I enjoy guiding others along this path. I will always view teaching art as a requisite form of my life and work as an artist.