Artist Story: Carol Ng-He

After graduation, I worked in the fundraising and marketing office of a nonprofit social service organization in downtown Chicago for over a year. This experience taught me about the practices of institutional advancement and development; it also made me think about my practices as an artist and how I can more directly engage in a community. I enjoyed the process of relationship building among various groups through creative programming and activity implementation.

As a musician trained in the Chinese instrument Pipa and piano, I wanted a place where I could utilize my combined knowledge of performance art, organizational skills, passion for community art and cultural studies, and to turn them into art activism. I was certain about my love for Chicago, as a culturally enriching and inspiring city, yet I still did not have any pre-determined idea of what type of occupations I would pursue. The art education department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago claimed art activism as "critical, meaningful, and transformative," which drew my attention to apply to the school, and finally, I got accepted.

Graduate school offered me a space to experiment, take risks, and most importantly, to rediscover myself and where I can fit in within the community, my niche.

To me, art is social and can only be called "art" when others experience it. The field of art education is an art of "crossing-over", it allows multidisciplinary practices to intersect and diverge. The focus of art education is on care for people and their needs are at the center of the practice. As an interdisciplinary community artist and art educator, my graduate study embraced all my life experiences and celebrated my own and others' personal stories. The best thing that happened to me during my graduate study is three-fold:

- It reignited my passion.

The graduate art education program helped me clarify my professional vision and rethink what matters to others and myself in relation to our community. The process of writing my thesis was a powerful tool that opened my eyes to my passion for immigrants and linking their experience with performance. The journey of the project, from nothing to execution, was undeniably fulfilling to me.

-It reaffirmed myaptitude.

Being in graduate school allowed me to pull my different skills together and put them into practice. The thesis project required planning, documentation, knowledge of performance techniques, teaching/facilitation, collaboration, and evaluation, in which I took full ownership of the process.

I learned more about essential politics of partnerships, ways to be self-reflexive and evaluate my own biases and difficulties during every stage of the project. Throughout my studies, the performance courses I took, including a Goat Island workshop, helped strengthen my understanding of performance art and test out various forms of collaboration that I found applicable for my own teaching practices.

The best way of teaching is to learn, and vice versa. Teaching and working with the community was an inclusive and comprehensive experiential moment. This was a significant stepping stone for my personal enrichment and professional development.

- It opened new doors to potential professional possibilities.

I spent two semesters in two different institutions in Chicago conducting my thesis fieldwork. One was in an elementary school art class and another in a community college English as a Second Language (ESL) class. The experience in both places taught me flexibility. What's more, it helped to build my professional network, as well as to "try out" various working environments and learn their organizational cultures.

Looking back, I probably would not have acquired my current and recent work opportunities without going to graduate school and doing my thesis project. In the course of my thesis writing, my interest in serving under represented women in the Chicago community grew. Beginning from the second year of my graduate program, opportunities came as I started working with Teatro Luna, a Chicago-basedall-Latina ensemble theater company, and serving on the board of Beyondmedia Education simultaneously.

By working with these organizations I used both my knowledge and experience and I continue to find my niche with my current work teaching at the college level, and working with such groups as Silk Road Theater Project, and Young Asians With Power! (YAWP!).

Graduate school refreshed my personal commitment to multidisciplinary art and community engagement, and defined my profession: art activism and advocacy.

Carol Ng-He currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago, Roosevelt University and Oakton Community College. She freelances asa teaching artist with Silk Road Theater Project, the Chicago Teen Museum and Young Asians With Power!(YAWP!). Carol serves as member of Editorial Collective of Cultural Landscape: A Journalof Cultural Studies at Columbia College Chicago. She received a Master of Arts in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.