Music credit: “NY,” composed and performed by Kosta T, from the cd  Soul Sand. Used courtesy of the Free Music Archive

Jo Reed: From the National Endowment for the Arts, this is Art Works, I’m Josephine Reed. We are celebrating Arts in Education week with a conversation with nationally recognized artist, educator, and arts advocate James Rees. With a career spanning over three decades, James has earned numerous classroom awards, including Utah Art Educator of the Year and National Art Education Secondary Educator of the Year.  Recently retired from classroom teaching, he has been a pivotal figure in building award-winning art programs and he continues his advocacy for arts education on local, state, and national levels. He’s also served as panelist for arts education grants here at the Arts Endowment.  As an artist, James is known for his expressive monotype prints that explore themes of resilience and the unexpected in life. His impactful work as an educator, advocate, and artist, offers valuable insights into the role of art in shaping communities and inspiring young minds. And I’m so pleased to welcome him now. James Rees thank you joining me!

James Rees: Oh, thank you for the opportunity. I'm always happy to support the arts and arts education any way I can to advocate for what we do.

Jo Reed: Well, I really would like to start sort of at the beginning. Can you talk about your own early experiences with art and what inspired you to pursue a career in visual art?

James Rees: Yeah, that's a great question. I actually had very supportive parents. My father was a writer and my mother a dancer, and so I grew up in an environment where they really were supportive of us exploring any creative avenue that we were interested in, whether it be playing the drums or just hanging out in nature or making art. And so early on, I had that support, and I always had a sketchbook with me and always was doodling and drawing and that became just kind of a practice and a way I engaged with the world and maintained my interest in things at school, and outside of school.

Jo Reed: And you ended up getting a fellowship to Brigham Young University in art. How did that come about? 

James Rees: Well, that was interesting because I had a really low SAT score, ACT score, and I probably would not have been accepted other than someone in the art department stumbled upon a show I had as a senior up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and they gave me a full year scholarship having seen my work there and said, "We need this guy to come and be in our department." So it was very lucky for me that I had that ability, because my test taking abilities were not obviously on par.

Jo Reed: And what did that year allow you to do?

James Rees: Oh, I really connected with a really great group of educators. My teachers and professors were dedicated in helping me to understand and navigate my own creative journey and start to develop the skills to be able to have my own voice within the visual arts. And it really was a very transitional time from high school, whereas I had great teachers in high school, but in the college setting, I was able to really get down to work and find like-minded people that would support me in my creative journey.

Jo Reed: You've said that you hadn't planned to teach, and yet you taught high school for 30 plus years, how did this come about?

James Rees: Yeah, that is really interesting. In my graduate studies at the University of Arizona, I was pulled into a program that worked with seniors in local high schools, and they had mentors who were MFA students. And I was really amazed at the level of ability the high school seniors had when they were exposed to really good art practices. So based upon that and other things, I really became passionate about engaging with the high school level.

Jo Reed: Well, you've had such an impactful career as a high school art teacher, department chair in Provo. You've been instrumental in building an award-winning art program in the Provo School District. What key elements do you believe are essential to creating a successful art department in a high school setting?

James Rees: I really think about a good program as student-centered learning, where they're engaged in exploring and having the freedom to choose to become more engaged and invested in their own learning and directed in exploring and developing their own voice. Instead of just, after 2020, I saw a rise of only tutorial kind of type in education where they were learning skill sets. But I thought, and I still think, it's very important that art education isn't just about making art, it's about helping students to see and understand the world around them in different ways and articulate that in their own unique ways through making art. And so I think it's essential that students are exposed to contemporary art and that they can think beyond the conventional and start to question and explore through art making. I think our high school students are especially needing to be able to have something that's reflective of what they're thinking and feeling, what's going on within themselves and around them, and I think the arts are positioned to do that very, very well. And so I think it has to be a program that's really robust, based upon critical thinking. It's not just about art making, it's about making meaning through art.

Jo Reed: Well, you know, failure is often seen as a negative and art is about trying, failing, trying again, failing again, and again. And it's a vital part of the creative process, and toften it's hard for many people to embrace failure, but I think it can be particularly hard for high school students who have been kind of bred not to. How do you help your students embrace failure and learn from it?

James Rees: Well, I've always seen my studio practice bleeding into my classroom in that when I do demonstrations, sometimes they don't work out. And I don't see that as bad, that I fail in front of my students. I try to say, "Well, that didn't work out. Here's what we're trying to do. Let's try something different." And just embracing everyday failure, and let them know that that's okay. Because, you know, the components of good creativity and art making rely on that divergent exploration where things don't always work out, right? The materials or the ideas that they come up with are not always great, but then later on, you have an opportunity to do enough work that you can curate and create some works that are meaningful. So I think I built that into my program. I encourage students to understand failure as a natural part of the creative process and to find out what they could do better by looking at what didn't work before. And so that's something I think it's very important, especially in the educational system where the pass/fail, the grade system doesn't really enforce students taking risks and failing and risk taking is really connected with the creative process, and they have to be willing to make mistakes to be able to make any headway creatively.

Jo Reed: You also find venues for students to display their art. Can you talk about how important it is for students to have their work seen by the public, and kind of the impact it can have on their development as young artists?

James Rees: Oh, I think it's critical. I had the opportunity in my last five years of teaching-- I retired two years ago-- that I ran a gallery in a mall with my students called Art Cetra. We did that for five years, and it was an outlet not only to show their own work, but to also curate the work of other people, professionals and other students from other school districts. And I see that as really important because, you know, it's a creative act, it's not only making art, but the way you arrange art as you go into a museum or a gallery space, there is curatorial practice at play to create something that's meaningful and displayed in a way that people connect with it. I made that an integral part of what I was doing for many years, but the last five, we actually had an outlet to do that permanently. And also, it's great for teachers if they're advocating for the programs, visibility is the greatest advocacy tool they can have-- having their work out in the public and connecting with people and seeing the value on the wall of what they're doing in the classroom.

Jo Reed: And what about the role of mentorship? How does mentorship work, or did work in your classrooms? How did you connect students with professional artists for internships, for example, or mentorships?

James Rees: Yeah, very important. I had an ongoing series for the 26 of the 30 years that I taught, where every other week we'd have a guest artist from various creative industries come and talk about their work. And from them, many internships developed. One of the internships that we did and a long running partnership we had with the Museum of Art, the Springfield Museum of Art, was that they curated a lot of our exhibits. That helped my students learn the curatorial process, and then they were able to-- my students were able to use that knowledge and start to really understand that space, that creative act as a curator and develop shows for our gallery and other places. We did in a lot of other public spaces. But the mentorship is very important. One of the reasons I had guest artists come in regularly is because I'm not the only one that has a perspective on what the visual arts are and how they play in the world we live in. I wanted them to hear from other people what their perspectives were so they can triangulate from all these experiences and find their own idea of what art might be for them.

Jo Reed: You have had many leadership roles in national arts organizations, including vice president for the National Art Education Association. You were in leadership for Utah itself, President of the Utah Art Education Association. So, you've done advocacy on the national level, on the state level, and also on the local level in Provo. Talk about your passion for advocacy and why you think it's so crucial.

James Rees: I think it's so important. So many times as a classroom teacher, we lament the context, the environment that we're in and that we're frustrated with funding or the lack of support. And that's why I went outside the classroom to try to find greater resources, link up with other organizations to advocate for the arts and arts education and to educate the public on what we're doing, and legislators, and get more funding for arts and cultural things within Utah. And then from that and in many years I've served on the board for the National Art Education Association. I did two stints, once as a secondary division director and then the other time as a vice president. And I think you just have to think outside your classroom to really empower what you do within your classroom, it's not enough to just complain about things, you need to be at the table where decisions are made and you can leverage change that will impact your students in your classroom.

Jo Reed: This might be unfair and you are free to skip, but are there any initiatives that you've been particularly proud of during your time in these leadership roles?

James Rees: You know, I've been happy for a lot of things, but it's now, I think, been 10 years. I was part of the writing team that wrote the Utah Core Art Standards, and I thought that was a really good step forward that really aligned up with the National Core Standards and share many of the same ideals of those different strands of development and the need for a whole holistic view of education, that's not just making, but also critical thinking and responding and connecting and presenting. And I feel very happy about that, because prior to that, the standards were more like a really weak curriculum and they were very formulaic and didn't allow the open-ended student-based study that I think is critical for students to really think as an artist and to develop their skills artistically in the classroom.

Jo Reed: Well, can you just talk briefly about why you think arts education is crucial in today's educational landscape and the benefits that it offers students that they might not find elsewhere?

James Rees: That's a great question. And for many people in their mind that the arts are a side road, right? It's not the main artery of education. But the visual literacy is a big component of the world we live in today, and we are impacted by that visual world, the graphics and art and music and all that really help us to navigate the world we live in today, I don't know how we do without them. And so helping students to develop that ability to navigate and understand how those things impact them is one of the reasons I think it's important. The other reason is really it helps them to really process what they're going through inwardly and outwardly, what is happening in the world around them and also what their emotions are. It's a really great mirror to be self-reflective and understand who they are and what they're going through. 

Jo Reed: Well, one ongoing project you have with Flavia Bastos is “Who is American Today”, that project. Describe this, because I think it speaks to teaching students how to think critically, how to use the arts to  discover themselves.

James Rees: Yeah, that has been an ongoing project that we've done since 2017, and it's been wonderful. We've done it throughout the United States and even beyond. we did a couple in South America, and it really is about examining identity, power, and what it means to be a citizen. And asking students what they think about that, and having them articulate that through a digital story. I really think digital storytelling is a great art form and helps students really articulate what they think. If you're not familiar with digital storytelling, it is an audio narrative from the student's own voice, and then it's supported with visuals, graphics of some kind, or images, and it supports that narrative. And so it really is a great, very effective way for them to represent what they're thinking.  It's an ongoing project, and it's as relevant today as it was in 2017. In fact, I'm going into Cincinnati at the university next month and doing a workshop for teachers. Who's American today? It seems like a really simple question, but when you get down to it, as we look and track what students think, they all are very different in the responses of that question. But we think that art has the power to connect us, to challenge us and help us to have a better sense of who we are and our identity and have an open dialogue in the classroom. 

Jo Reed: I've seen a couple of the films, maybe three or four, and I was stunned by them, and surprised by them, because there wasn't a likely scenario among the ones I saw.

James Rees: No, and I will tell you,  I found in my classroom, perspectives I did not know that my students had, even though I'd worked with some of them for years. Some teachers are concerned that this could be a problem for them to discuss in the classroom. But what we found, as long as the teacher is neutral and allow the students to form their own opinions without any input from the teacher other than the structure of their own stories, it becomes a really rich experience for them to share what they believe, to think about what they believe, and hear other people's perspective. So it's a great opportunity for students to say what they believe about this very timely topic.

Jo Reed: And to use art to do so. 

James Rees: Yes. 

Jo Reed: Can you describe your own artistic practice?

James Rees: Yeah. So my MFA is in printmaking, and I do monotype prints, because I like the uniqueness of each image. You know, printmaking, if you're familiar with it, is in this case, a monotype printer, multiple layers. And it is a process you start with a base and then you work outward and the layers kind of develop layer by layer and present themselves. And you have to respond to what's there before it. You have some degree of idea of what will emerge, but you really have to be responsive to what happens, that conversation between you and the process, is an ongoing process, as it prints layer by layer, the image emerges and you respond and react to it. And I really like that. I think it's a great metaphor for life. We're responding to the unexpected things in our life and that we are making the best of it and trying to shape it into something beautiful.

Jo Reed: Right. Like we think something's going to happen one way, but lo and behold, it's something else. And here we are. 

James Rees: Exactly. Rarely does life turn out like we exactly plan.

Jo Reed: Well, how do you begin a work, James? Is it with an idea, an image, a color? Because I've seen your work and what you do with color, I'm astounded by, it's really beautiful.

James Rees: Oh, thank you. Well, you know, I have a few series, but the series that I'm most known for lately is called “The Weight We Carry”. And I start this monotype process differently where I put a squeegee of ink on and respond to it then with a layer of line work and then separate the figure ground. So I did that intentionally in this series because it's all about responding to those unexpected events of our life. So I thought it would be important to mirror the process of the printing itself to have that same kind of response of, you know, to the unexpected.

Jo Reed: I wonder how throughout the years you balance teaching and artistic practice, and how they influenced or impacted each other.

James Rees: Yeah, I really, I've approached my teaching much like I do in the studio, where it's driven by inquiry, that I go in there with an idea I want to explore in my studio. And I do the same thing each year with my classes. There's a question or two that I think is going to be relevant for students and we explore a process that would be appropriate to express that. And over the years, I've tried to balance those two because they inform each other, even though it is a challenge. I talk about this quite often because the very system that's set up in education to teach teachers to help people become artists, sometimes robs the very teacher themselves from their artistic drive and that creative energy that they lose in through teaching. So I was very conscientious of trying to maintain my studio practices by always having this physical space, a studio space, planning my schedule through the week, just like I would with a class. And a big one I found that teachers tend to do, and it may come from the classroom practice, is sometimes art educators will stop making even before they start making because they analyze before they start to make. And I think I'm very open to making, and then I'll analyze it after, I don't judge what I'm going to do before. And like you've already talked about in the classroom, embracing failure, being vulnerable. And I think these are important traits to have as a teacher to maintain your own studio practice because you have empathy and understanding for your students. You're able to be more innovative and find inspiration that you can, not only for your own work, but can help your students. If my students see that I'm doing work and I have shows and I invited students to my art shows, it shows that I really know what I'm talking about, and I think that's very important, why it matters to maintain your studio practice as an art educator is it makes you authentic. And students are always looking for that authentic voice.

Jo Reed: You served multiple times as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. What made you decide to participate as a panelist?

James Rees: Well, I was invited initially and I'm always trying to strive to be around people that are smarter than me because I learn so much by that interaction, and getting in a room with other people and evaluating programs. And I really wanted to advocate and support good programming, and I think I had, by my own practical experience as an artist and as an art educator, some ideas of programs that really connect with students and help build communities through the arts. And so I wanted to be part of that because money fuels a lot of great things and will help good things to happen in communities and impact people and their lives, and so I wanted to be part of that. And it's been a privilege to work with the National Endowment for the Arts over the years.

Jo Reed: Do you mind walking us through the process of evaluating grant proposals as a panelist?

James Rees: Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, initially it's a lot of paperwork, right? You're looking at the application and looking at the budget and everything. And, you know, in a general sense, it looks to me like it's a storytelling event where they are outlining what they're going to do. And I look and see if they can credibly do what they're asking through the funding, through the narrative, by their professional connections they have in the community and seeing if it's feasible what they're asking. And is it worthwhile what they're asking? Is it adding something that's not already in that community? Does it benefit a segment of a community that may be underrepresented? And so going through that initially as an individual and rating it, and then you come together with the other panelists and you have a discussion. And it's always good to have more than one mind looking at things, right? You see different things and then make adjustments. And then we make a recommendation of the ones that seem to rise to the top, the cream of the crop. But I also love that the NEA requires panelists to make comments for those that maybe didn't quite reach the bar, that high bar of being funded, and gives them feedback of how they can apply the next year, and gives them specific things that were maybe lacking. Maybe the budget was an issue. Maybe there was other things they did not consider. I know I've applied for things and then you never hear anything. So you go, "Well, I guess I didn't get it. I'm never going to apply for it again." But I love the National Endowment for the Arts is really supportive of people reapplying and learning through that grant process.

Jo Reed: Let me ask you this. What impact do you think the NEA has on arts education as well as the wider arts community based on your experience, not just as a panelist, but also in the classroom, your work and advocacy on the state and local and national levels?

James Rees: I think the National Endowment for the Arts provides a lot of resources for smaller programming that may not be able to survive without their support. Different programs that may be summer programs or schools that really don't have the funding to really have a full, robust arts program that may fund for after school programming to help the arts to exist within a community. You know, one of the programs we have here in Salt Lake is SpyHop Productions, it's an award winning program, but they've received a lot of funding, and that's an after school program where students learn skills to be able to market professionally.

Jo Reed: Yeah, I actually interviewed one of the producers at SpyHop.

James Rees: It's a great program, yeah.

Jo Reed: Oh, it's a great program. I love it. Yes.

James Rees: I mean, that's the kind of program we were talking about. Somebody who really is insightful, is visionary, and is seeing to a need that's not existing in the community. And they do a great job with that, and provide students with a lot of opportunity to really get the skill set they need to advance with their own creative journey, whatever industry they land in.

Jo Reed: Well, let's take a step back and just think about arts education broadly and about how you see it contributing to the skill sets students need in the 21st century, but also to their own creative paths, as well as empathy.

James Rees: Yeah, I think it's very important, because I think the arts help us to see how another person thinks and feels and see. And it does it so immediately, right? The visual arts, especially, and music, you feel it immediately. And so the arts have that power of boundless opportunity for students to learn, to express. And it also, I think it promotes open-ended thinking and helps students to engage in contemporary topics that are happening around them. I think there's sometimes the impression that the classroom is separate from community, that it's not porous, that the events, the good and the bad things happening outside the walls of a school don't find their way in there. But they do, and so I think helping students have a space and place to express that through the arts, to examine and re-examine who they are and explore that through their own learning creative journey is great.

Jo Reed: And James, I'm curious what advice you might give to emerging artists and educators who are just beginning their careers.

James Rees: You know, I think it's to be yourself. I think there's a quote I love by Martha Graham, the mother of modern dance, that said, "There's a vitality, a life force, a quickening, that is translated through you into action. There's only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it will not exist through any other medium and be lost, the world will not have it." And I think that's true for teachers—

Jo Reed: Wow.

James Rees: Yeah, it's a great quote. I've used it so much, I've memorized it. But I love that because the nice thing about the arts is: you know, I'm going to be in an art show this weekend, I don't have to compete with my peers because I'm doing something different, I'm uniquely trying to express what I see and how I feel. And I think that's true of students with them and their careers becoming artists to learn from others, but to trust their inner gut. And also for teachers, that you have a unique way of teaching and connecting that no one else can, and so you need to trust that your own unique perspective and what you can lend to the profession, and how you can help others progress with their own creative journey. And so that would be the advice I'd give is to be yourself, to trust that inner perspective and vision and voice.

Jo Reed:  Your art work has been so well-received.  What’s next for you with your own work?  

James Rees: You know, I've just been so blessed. I have so many exhibits right now, I have a show going up on the 20th of September in Wisconsin in a museum. Next weekend, I have an art fair that's going up, and I didn't used to do those because I was, I'll be honest, I was a little snobby, but I've learned that interacting with people that buy my art and talking to them, it makes it really rich. So in addition to museum and gallery shows, I like doing the art festivals once or twice a year because I get to really have a lot of in-depth conversations about what the work means to people, how they're responding to it, and having that back and forth conversation. So that's some of the things that I have coming up in the next couple months.

Jo Reed: You have received so many awards for your teaching, your advocacy, including Utah Art Educator of the Year, National Art Education Secondary Educator of the Year, and so on and so on. When you think about this, what are some of your most rewarding moments?

James Rees: You know, I think right now after being in the classroom, my most rewarding moments are when I run into students who are now professionally engaged in their own creative process, whether it's working at a museum as a curator, or if they're working for a non-profit, or making their own art and having an exhibit. I just love that. I just got a letter from someone who's now a teacher. And, you know, being a teenager is a tough time for them to find who they are, and they often make huge mistakes. And some of my most cherished moments are when those students that struggled so much through their high school years, but stayed in the classroom with me and worked through things through their art. And when I run into them later on, they're still happy making art, or doing something in the classroom, many of them become art teachers. I'm just so excited to see that the work that I've done has blessed and benefited others. It's nice to have the awards, but it's even more rewarding to have that feedback from the way that my students are living their lives today.

Jo Reed: I think that is a good place to leave it. James Reese, thank you so much. Thank you for the extraordinary work that you do in many different levels of the art world.

James Rees: Great, thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Jo Reed: It really has for me as well. Thank you. 

That was artist, educator and advocate James Rees. You can keep up with him at JamesRees Art.com   If you’re in Appleton Wisconsin, James’ exhibit opens at the Trout Museum on September 20.  We’ll have a link in our show notes.  Many thanks, as ever, to my colleagues here in the Arts Education division and to all the art teachers and advocates out there inspiring young minds.

You’ve been listening to Art Works, produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. If you liked the show, leave us a rating and follow us! For the National Endowment for the Arts, I’m Josephine Reed. Thanks for listening.