Karen Brummund is a social practice artist making environmental video installations with multi-generational communities. In Tuscaloosa, she takes her studio into schools and invites the students to join her in the creative process of making a new artwork. The flow is like a dialogue. Brummund gives them a drawing prompt on an idea from her work like uncertainty or the in-between. Then she makes an artwork using their drawings as the starting point. They go back and forth until a new video installation emerges. The process is the artwork. Teaching the creative process is similar to teaching critical thinking. While Brummund is in the classroom, she highlights social-emotional skills that the students are practicing through art making. Brummund’s experience partnering with students on her own artworks, inspired her to begin working as a teaching artist. She is currently writing an art history curriculum that integrates critical thinking, free play, and social emotional skills. This curriculum is critical for the next generation to develop as empathetic, resilient, and reflective leaders. Brummund recently finished a Teaching Artist in Residency program at Faucett-Vestavia Elementary School (Northport, AL) and is hoping to launch her art history curriculum at another school in Tuscaloosa this upcoming school year. The West Alabama Arts Education Collaborative is thrilled to have Karen be a part of their art education ecosystem.
Karen Brummund, Teaching Artist
