Bill Thomas: Little stories. The North Dakota Council on the Arts reports on arts groups that pivot in the face of disruption.
Nicole Gagner: Yeah, a couple of things that came out that I kind of would have never imagined myself doing... Zoom classes. That would have never even entered into my mind as a possibility. But getting really familiar with how to wrangle a couple of different camera angles and do different things to make online classes, both for Zoom and now that school's back in session, for schools. So much of teaching is that person-to-person interaction. So I never really imagined myself doing it online, but now it kind of became a necessity, and it hasn't been a bad thing to... Learning something new is not a bad thing.
Bill Thomas: Well, that's not all Nicole's been doing. And we will hear about it in this report prepared by Dr. Nita Ritzke, who teaches at the University of Mary in Bismarck. It's read for us by Christine McClelland.
Christine McCle...: Whether interacting with young people or adults, visual artist and educator, Nicole Gagner, encourages people to escape themselves. Escape personal limitations, escape self-criticism, escape the fear of trying something new. She says, "Anybody can be creative. Learning is more important than the finished product."
After completing 30 paintings in 30 days, Gagner is familiar with the pressure to be creative amid constrictions. When COVID-19 challenged live collaboration, her creativity kicked into high gear. Since her scheduled art classes and activities were indefinitely postponed or canceled, she transitioned into using digital formats. As an artist in residence for the North Dakota Council on the Arts, she usually goes into schools for a week for hands-on immersive lessons. Within the schools, she aims to meet with every student. The week concludes with the cumulative art show. When schools closed in March, Gagner needed to switch pallets.
After discussion with Lewis and Clark Elementary in Mandan, she adapted her methods for interaction without losing the objective content and personal encouragement. With the help of the school, students were able to safely pick up art kits, and using YouTube Live, she engaged 75 fifth grade students. She provided lessons and drawing designs in constructing three-dimensional cities. The sessions were taped. So if students were not able to connect to the live interactive sessions, they could access the lesson later. Rather than a culminating in-person art show, photos of the works will be shared through a slide show. Finished examples are posted on the school's PTO Facebook page.
Lewis and Clark teacher, Bonnie Riopelle, says having a professional artist in the class is valuable because students can ask questions as they are creating. Her report and explanations make the students feel important. She gives them the freedom to be creative and encourages them to go beyond their own little box.
Like much of life this spring, things would have been better in person. Nicole wishes she could have seen the work of the students while in process and engage with them more personally. But all involved agreed the compressed interaction was better than none. Throughout April, Nicole Gagner also created instructional videos for community enrichment. She linked to them in her blog and posted them on YouTube. Each video provides an overview of materials and techniques. Her encouraging, humble demeanor coached viewers in creating a sketchbook from a single piece of paper, abstract collage, painting a watercolor night sky, and using unconventional materials for paints, like coffee and spices. As of late May, her videos have been viewed nearly 1,000 times.
Nicole Gagner's summer looks to be as active as her spring, online and off. Originally, she was slated to lead the community in painting an outdoor mural in downtown Bismarck. She is crowdsourcing the design of the mural, so even if the public no longer has a hand in the painting due to social distancing, they can still give input on the project. She's also continuing online art workshops. She says, "I wouldn't have it any other way. The busier, the better."
Bill Thomas: Thanks to Christine McClelland for reading that report prepared by Dr. Nita Ritzke. You may have noticed that Nicole Gagner talked about working outdoors, which during this pandemic, seems to be an advantage. And I just asked her about doing that. Was it an inconvenience?
Nicole Gagner: So I love, love painting outside and kind of getting inspiration from nature that way. So any chance that I get to be outside hiking, and taking my watercolor kit, or anything like that, I've been really enjoying it. And being able to support local businesses that have their patios open, that's been really, really nice. So it's kind of getting bittersweet as it's winding down now. I'm trying to spend as much time outside as I can while it's still is nice.
Bill Thomas: I asked the artist how her activities were in these times.
Nicole Gagner: Well, not like they used to be. So all of the traditional residencies, whether it was through arts in schools, or if it was through Art for Life and working with elders, all of those traditionally had a lot of face-to-face, hands-on interaction, which just isn't possible anymore. I mean, in the past, even flu season could affect those if people were sick in the community, or if that was really a problem. So this is kind of informing how things are going to have to change going forward.
So some of the residencies now have gone to online formats. Kids are so tech savvy, they're not even phased by learning in a class online versus in person. And it is neat getting the classes where kids do art together, and then they all get to show their art still. They still get that personal connection that's so important in classes.
It doesn't feel like it would be really a personal connection just to see other students in that little square box, however they're calling them. But they really do love seeing each other and each other's art, and they really connect that way.
And then some of the things that I've done with Art for Life, I actually do... I make watercolor kits where I hand draw something with a waterproof ink, and then it has all of the paint in it and instructions. And they're pretty self-explanatory. People pick them up, and they kind of just know that you get your brush wet, you kind of rub it on the little dots of paint to get them restarted. They have instructions with them, but people kind of know what to do anyways.
And so that's been something that some of the Art for Life facilities have been bringing in, in lieu of the big group art classes. And then there's still that connection and that discussion that can happen on a smaller scale. It's not the big, big group classes, but it's still a fun art activity that lets people get a little bit creative and express themselves that way.
Bill Thomas: One more question I had for Nicole Gagner. If she's doing all this work, all this work on the arts and with the different groups, I just wondered, what's her evaluation of the worth and the place of art in days like these?
Nicole Gagner: Well, I've always known that art can be... I don't want to make any medical claims, I'm not a doctor. But art can be a way for, like you said, for people to communicate and express themselves. And I hesitate to use the word therapeutic, but it really does feel like a type of release, and you can work through emotions in a way that traditional language might not always do for people. It's a whole different way, it's a visual language instead. Or even, there's music and dance, and those are a whole different type of artistic expression also, and they're all really important.
Human beings need to create things. Even if you don't think of yourself as a capital-A Artist, people are creative, and that's a need that we have. So being able to fulfill that creativity is really, really important for people, whether it's through paints, or through music, or any of those types of ways. They're all really, really important, especially now, when we all have so many more stresses than normal, and things are changing constantly. Art can be a great way just to kind of unplug, and just be alone with your thoughts, and hopefully not too stressed out, and just kind of let things go a little bit.
Bill Thomas: That's artist, Nicole Gagner, on her work, and much of that work is sponsored by the North Dakota Council on the Arts. It's part of a series called "Little Stories" at the Arts Council. They commissioned writers to tell some little stories about how people in the arts were responding to these challenging times and finding new ways to do things. You can see more of them at https://news.prairiepublic.org/programs/little-stories or you can go the North Dakota Council On The Arts website, https://www.arts.nd.gov/.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on The Arts which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for The Arts. I'm Bill Thomas.
See the Smithsonian Institution’s feature of this project,
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/crisis-cultural-sustainability-north-dakota-covid