In Chicago, I thought of using performance art as my teaching methodology in Chicago’s public schools. Mrs. Kate Thomas helped me to refine my idea . She communicated with many art teachers in different schools around Chicago that I could go and performed while observing their classrooms.

My performance Art’s name was “ Carpet Woman” and basically I was wearing a carpet and sitting down on the floor and invited students to come and sit down with me and join each other. This brought all the students together on a piece of carpet and then we talked about the idea of connection. I started from the carpet and asked questions: “why Iranians have made carpets in the history and designed it with beautiful flowers? Usually there is a bouquet of flower in the center, do you know why?”

Students started naming the beauty of carpet, its application, its sense of comfort and warm feeling. Then I mentioned that Iranians have made carpet because they were interested to have a long lasting garden full of flowers for all seasons in which they could sit down together and appreciated the beauty of togetherness. So they visualized that garden and weaved it into a carpet. That’s what artist does, visualizing some thing and make it happens. Here, the carpet brings people together and is a site of togetherness.

Following my invitation, all students came and sat down on the carpet and at the end they mentioned it was a great experience for them as they felt more connected, more welcomed and relaxed. In some classes, by conversation with the art teacher, I came up with a responding activity to the performance. In one high school, students wrote the reflection paper about their experiences and in one of the elementary schools they painted the carpet lady with oil pastels. In a social studies class, they reflected on the performance art by participation on classroom’s conversations.

This experience was very beautiful for both my students and me. It elevated me and taught me some thing new. I find contemporary art pedagogy has a stronger influence on the students and makes them more open-minded individuals with compassion for others.

This note was my immediate response to this experience:

…….”I came back from walking in a flower garden! Today was one of the most beautiful days in my life., I taught art to students in an elementary school in Chicago . Kids were so close, engaged and connected to me during my performance art that I can still feel their pure energy. The overall experience was very exciting, refreshing and relaxing for us like walking in the garden. We all found a common moment of an awareness of our bodies and our emotions being tied together. We became so connected that we did not want to leave the experience. I think it was one of the most extraordinary moments in my life that I found I have made a strong bond with the students in one session. Our bodies and our emotions were the art materials. The whole experience was art. There was no teacher and no student and we were all the same. Teaching overlapped the art beautifully!

Final thought: My reflection…….What I do next?

I continue my inquiry as an artist and art educator; I continue my teaching philosophy of creating an environment for my students to be more compassionate and respectful of others.

I design new art curriculum that encourages more group work and community based projects, as I believe the role of me as an art educator is to raise an awareness of the importance of togetherness in our community and celebrating diverse cultures in Canada.

To be continued………