Hello!

To get the ball rolling on this arts integration/education/research/documentation project, I think I'll just start by introducing myself via a(n) ten  eight fact list:

1.  My name is Michelle.
2.  I was born, raised, and schooled in Texas.
3.  After finishing a film degree at the University of Texas at Austin, I spent five years as a freelancer doing video and editing work for various groups and projects around town while also decorating cakes at an amazing bakery and performing with a dance-stunt-jump roping group called Double Dutch Will Take You Higher.
4.  In the fall of 2009 I moved to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in the summer of 2011 I received my Masters degree in Art Education.
5.  I work part time as an educational research assistant, which gives me ample opportunity to be inspired by and to learn from other teachers and artists around Chicago.
6.  My personal interest in art education specifically lies in using creative processes to engage and empower young people.  I'm trying, between everything else, to develop a program that will partner with existing arts organizations to focus on that goal using new media and Chicago civics.
7.  I love: languages, technology, well-informed risk taking, traveling, people, taking photos, bikes, cats, making things, vegetarian cuisine, house slippers, and seltzer water.
8.  Crafting an informative, non-boring ten point list is somewhat harder than I anticipated.

That all being said, I'm a very excitable person who is very excited to be embarking on this project.  I feel like CAPE did a fantastic job matching me with the equally excitable and ambitious Stephanie, and while I'm so looking forward to starting our work with the kids, I'm just as excited about the work she and I will be exploring, constructing, and critiquing together.  I have to remind myself not to say, "YAY-YAY-YAY!!!" constantly when I'm thinking about or describing to others the nature of this project (as it currently seems! (one of its greatest qualities is how open it is to shift and reinterpretation!)).

Whew! I'll leave this here for now, but maybe in other posts later we can get a Stephanie intro and lay out the basics of the kids, the environment, and the project ideas we have? And our inquiry questions?  And maybe what we'll use this space for? And I'll try to maybe explore some of my own sub-questions about this work and what it might look like/accomplish/change/open/destroy.  Quite a to-do list!