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Rylee Barnsdale's Feature Article: Ypsi artists examine Water Street and education system through Riverside Arts Center residency
Transcription:
Rylee Barnsdale: You're listening to 89 one WEMU. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. Ypsi's Riverside Arts Center relaunched its artist-in-residency program this year after a three-year hiatus, giving two local artists the opportunity to develop and create new work, engage with the greater Ypsi community through a series of free workshops, before concluding with an exhibition of their completed work this September at Riverside's off-center. One of this year's residents, Nick Azzaro, is here with me to talk about the impact this opportunity has had on his work, and maybe even give us an idea of what we can see in the off-center come September. Hi, Nick! Thanks so much for being here!
Nick Azzaro: Well, thank you very much for having me!
Rylee Barnsdale: So, Nick, can you give me just a brief overview of what your creative work typically looks like? Are you a painter or a photographer? Are you a sculptor? What kinds of works do you usually go for when you're creating?
Nick Azzaro: Definitely good question. Many years, it was photography--still is, but kind of on the backburner. Currently, it's working with any kind of accessible material. Most commonly, it's paper and wheat paste, which is a glue made from flour and water. It can be 2D work or sculptural.
Rylee Barnsdale: And as far as this residency goes, are you finding yourself kind of expanding on those methods and techniques that you already know, or are you exploring new things? Is it maybe a combination of both?
Nick Azzaro: Combination of both, for sure. Any given day, I come across unique materials and I think, "Oh cool! I can use this for something!" And a lot of my work always comes back to making a statement about public education. But this residency is definitely allowing me to explore creation of new things, as well as when I'm working with people running the workshops, seeing how other people react to the similar process. It's provided a really interesting platform for that.
Rylee Barnsdale: Your work often centers around topics like accessibility--particularly accessibility in public education. And it sounds like those are themes that you are continuing to explore through your residency work as well.
Nick Azzaro: Yes. And likely for the rest of my life. So, yeah, before the lockdowns of COVID, I was a teacher at Ypsilanti Community High School. I worked for the district for five years and taught the last three from 2017 to 2020. I built a photo program. And when COVID put us in the lockdowns, it put that brought that all to an end.
Rylee Barnsdale: Sure.
Nick Azzaro: So, accessibility has been a big part. How can we still create statements with what's available? If, God forbid, we went into another scenario like that, how could we continue making statements creating opportunities for young people to speak their mind?
Rylee Barnsdale: And that seems to really fit into this idea, too, of arts programs are typically the ones that get slashed first in public education settings, wanting to meet the students where they are and still provide plenty of opportunities for them to express themselves.
Nick Azzaro: That's definitely a statement I hear a lot. Art and creativity: these things are always that are first to get cut. In some cases, they don't exist at all in some schools, where a lot of under-resourced schools--it's just not an option to begin with. My hope is to be able to partner with more schools through other institutions. So, RAC is an institution. They have a platform where we could partner then withschools, for example, to create more than just an art class that's using printer paper to paint on or to use second-hand crayons or whatever it may be, but to actually do large public facing work that's all student-oriented. They're the ones driving it. When we give them several prompts, they're going to respond to that and then create something that makes a real statement that maybe adults listen to.
Rylee Barnsdale: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, talking with Ypsi local artist and educator Nick Azzaro. So, Nick, as you mentioned, in addition to your work as an artist, you have this pretty extensive background in education and passion for education as well. And that, obviously, impacts a lot of your creative work. How did that transition from teaching to making art full-time?
Nick Azzaro: I wish it were that straightforward. Art has always been a part of my life, so it's always been something, whether I'm drawing, writing or taking photos. Education was never part of the plan. I got into that through after-school programing, which started in EMU through the Bright Futures program. It really opened a lot of doors for me. The leadership there, the amazing people that introduced me to the possibility of working with young people in photography. And that snowballed as I met more and more administrators and turned into this programming. I never expected it to be something that I'm not going to step away from now. I just don't think I'll ever be the classroom teacher anymore. I think that the greater impact is working with classroom teachers as an outsider, working with students, pairing different schools with different schools to do larger collaborations. That's more, I guess, the marriage of where I'm at right now between art and education.
Rylee Barnsdale: Is there a way that teaching still makes it into your work?
Nick Azzaro: Yeah. Often seeking grant funding to run workshops, to run projects. Again, with this residency with RAC that was built into it, where we're running workshops, that's a lot of fun. Again, they provide the institution and the foundation. I have a place now I can meet with people. I could possibly even meet offsite somewhere. I do want to continue running workshops where--and I keep calling them works. That's kind of a broad term. Working with people where I'm introducing a process, whether it's working with the paper on wheat paste, as I've been doing for a while or something else, giving them prompts, something to respond to, not a directive, not, "You're going to paint this tree. I'm going to give you these books that are out-of-date. They were printed in the 40s, 50s, whatever." Not just that they're out-of-date, but a lot of the information, a lot of the content, is problematic, because of when it came out, which is not to say anyone that learn from these is we can't believe or we can't listen to them, it's anyone that still doesn't see a problem with the content of these books. That's what we want to challenge. That's where we're going to have this discussion in a way to somewhat correct history. I would never open with anything terribly political in any workshop, but it's more introducing these items and introducing prompts and seeing how people respond. And so far, with all the workshops I've done, 100% of the time, it goes how I'm hoping it will go. The work is entirely unpredictable. I'm always surprised how amazing the work is. That's been the unknown. I didn't know am I going to get the result that I'm hoping for when I when I start these workshops. I wish I could say, more than 100% of the time, people always deliver. You give them these prompts, these opportunities or this platform, and they respond and create such amazing, not just visually pleasing or visually stimulating, but the statements they're making that only they can make. And that's what's fun about everybody creating work. There's no wrong answer, as long as you're doing it.
Rylee Barnsdale: Are you brought back to your teaching days? Do you see the kinds of things you saw in the students you were working with at Ypsi High with the folks that are coming to these workshops?
Nick Azzaro: All the time! Teaching at Ypsi High, I taught photography at WCC, student taught at U of M, so, any environment I'm in, I always use my teaching voice, which is not this voice. I'm always using everything I learned. I'm always going to credit my time in Ypsi because that's where it was really developed. I'll never not be employing those skills. You never want to leave anyone out. It's not about entering a room and forcing everyone to listen to what you're saying and do what you're saying. It's about entering a room, having a dialog with people, a positive back-and-forth, meeting everyone where they are, and creating an environment where learning and progress and creation are possible.
Rylee Barnsdale: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm talking with Nick Azzaro, an Ypsi local artist and one of Riverside Arts Center's 2024 resident artists. Nick, you mentioned how RAC has provided the space and has provided materials and things like that throughout this residency. And how has that support affected the ways that you create?
Nick Azzaro: Well, we have a great amount of material that we have available, and, for me, that works out because it's a lot of the materials that I use I try to use anyway: materials that can be found in most public school education or art programs, rather. So, that's nice. Having the space is really nice to be able to work in the space pretty much any time we want. Granted, there are other activities that take place in the space that we're at.
Rylee Barnsdale: Right.
Nick Azzaro: We have to coordinate a little bit, but still, the duration of time, I believe it's six months. Forgive me. It maybe, give or take, a month.
Rylee Barnsdale: April to September.
Nick Azzaro: This interview is another example of publicity--outreach. There are other things that are offered that aren't immediately visible. RAC has a really large network that can be really well-connected in the community. That's been a bonus. In the space that we're in--I keep going back to being in this space--the off-center is really visible on Huron Street in downtown Ypsi.
Rylee Barnsdale: You got all those big windows out in the front too.
Nick Azzaro: Got all the big windows! Just look both ways when you cross Huron. Anything we do there, anyone can see, pretty much. So, that's another very present bonus.
Rylee Barnsdale: This residency program--this is a relaunch of a program that RAC previously offered. It's been reworked a little bit. It's changed a little bit. And there are thoughts on RAC's side of things to continue offering this program to artists in the community. And as someone who's able to take full advantage of the program in this way, why would you encourage other local artists to potentially apply to residencies in the future at RAC?
Nick Azzaro: The short answer: it's a no brainer. There's a lot that, no matter what kind of art you're producing or what your style is, there's a lot of benefits for just about anyone. And one thing that's overlooked is it's okay for artists to just sit in a space and think. You don't have to produce. You don't have to always be on. So, just to be able to go into this space that has a lot of history, that's located centrally located downtown and just sit there and not have to rush through because of the time amount--or the amount of time, excuse me--I think that alone, it's a bit refreshing. It's whatever you want to make of it. There's no immediate pressure, so I think it would really serve just about any artists well.
Rylee Barnsdale: Well, Nick, I want to thank you so much for coming in today and letting us in on your experience as one of RAC's resident artists and your artistic process. It's a super fascinating way to think about art and to think about public education. And it sounds like the final exhibition in September is shaping up to be pretty thought-provoking!
Nick Azzaro: Thank you so much for having me! This is a lot of fun!
Rylee Barnsdale: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at wemu.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is your community NPR station, 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti.
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