Avivo Artworks Residency - Jes Reyes - Adults - 7.5 Hours
This week I started my placement at Avivo where we went to a special workshop run by COMPAS that focused on inclusivity and making classrooms more accessible to individuals with disabilities. The event began with a presentation conducted by three teaching artists from COMPAS and Upstream Arts, Dupree Edwards, Dylan Fresco, and Lindsey Samples. The presentation gave tips on how to make a classroom environment more accessible to people with disabilities and integrated this presentation with a number of activities that encouraged audience members to get up, participate, and get to know the people around them. After the presentation, we were served lunch, (falafels: something I’ve never had before and I highly recommend), and prepared for the upcoming panel discussion. During this panel, several organizations, including Avivo, took turns sharing their organizations’ missions and who their organizations help. Afterward, they answered questions from the audience and then broke to do participate in a variety of art-making activities including a drum circle and a photography scavenger hunt bingo game.
All in all, it was a very eventful day where I got to learn a lot about how to make an environment more inclusive for everyone and got to do a lot of fun activities with new people. I am really glad I got a chance to go to this special event with Avivo and I’m excited to jump right into the classroom for the full day next week.