075 – S3 E12 – “It’s through art courses and art development that you build your capacity for ingenuity and innovation.” - Eden

homeroom is an international podcast bridging the education gap between the classroom and the living room by starting conversations impacting the next generation. In this episode, I speak with Eden, an art ethnologist, educator, and artist—about her journey of finding her voice. We talk about her earliest memories of being a “difficult student” to changing her ways after seeing what impact that had on her teachers. We also discuss how her early introduction and experimentation with art helped her process her lived experiences, and how that led to her pursuing the career that she did. I ask her what she thinks we can learn from teaching our children to find their own perspectives and opinions, and I’m certain you’ll benefit from hearing her response. I’d like to warn and mention that this conversation contains potentially triggering content including mentions of abuse. That prefaced, here is our edited conversation. Check out our conversation, join our ongoing discourse on social media, and subscribe for more. https://www.instagram.com/homeroomed You can also find a computer-generated transcript of our episode at https://www.homeroomed.com — Dr. Eden Reff-Presco is an art ethnologist/educator/artist whose work is informed by the concept of personal space and boundaries that navigate the intersection of cultural agency, symbolism, and access. Her research examines visual culture and its impact on artists of the African Diaspora and East Asia. Dr. Reff-Presco is known for delivering profound lectures and presentations to elevate the capacity of viewers and critics about underrepresented artists. A proud native of New Orleans, Louisiana, she currently resides within the Washington, DC area. https://www.instagram.com/globalartspeak — Rée is a visual storyteller and educator exploring the consequences that mass education has on creativity, identity, and interpersonal connection. https://www.instagram.com/theinterdisciplinarian