A MISSION TO INSPIRE CREATIVE EXPRESSION
“I’ve heard many students tell me at the start of an art residency — “I’m not an art kid”. My general response is to say: Maybe you just haven’t found your medium yet. Watching that same student’s face light up when they see their animation come to life is one of the best parts of being a teaching artist!””
Teaching artist Tracy Fox empowers students all of ages to become creators and contributors, and not just consumers, of digital information. Regardless of their artistic confidence, the students become stop-motion animators, creating movies inspired by their own voices, words and writing. In a series of workshops, students expand their reporting, storytelling and literacy skills and have fun with hands-on art-making. Students learn how basic mathematics plays a role in translating a single frame/drawing into a unique movie.
This program excels in creating a social-emotional learning environment for students to collaborate. Learning throughout the design process, their movies teach what they know, share ideas, process emotions, and tell stories. The theme of the movies and residency topic can range from short autobiographical stories, how-to guides, poem illustrations, science and history topics, etc… The student’s words and ideas are turned into vivid moving animations that can be shared in a culminating movie screening.
This program has been successfully implemented both in-school and virtual class settings. It can be taught in multiage and bilingual classrooms. This program is for students in 3rd -12th Grade
For more information contact: Memoryvesselstudio@gmail.com
ABOUT THE TEACHING ARTIST
Tracy Bunnell Fox is a photographer, painter, and maker-artist who finds herself drawn to themes of memory, nostalgia, & collection. As a fine artist, her artwork is inspired by observing texture, light, and shadow and encapsulating moments. Photography has been a medium she uses to observe the world and collects moments.
After earning a BFA in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art, she expanded her traditional photography into digital investigations and received an MFA in Digital Imaging from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. As part of her MFA thesis, she defined the phrase “Memory Vessel” in her art-making vocabulary to mean an object that contains a story, history and past. Using her archived photography moments as building blocks, her digital collages aim to layer disparate memory moments into emotive visual stories. Her painting is inspired by her photography and studies shapes and negative space. You can see current work on her Instagram account - @memoryvessel
Outside of her studio, Tracy creates online training for large corporations and healthcare organizations. She has taught college students as an adjunct professor in MD and NJ and is currently inspiring 3rd-12th graders to tell stories with stop-motion animation in-school residency programs.
Prior to developing her workshops, and motivated by her belief that art experiences for children are paramount to learning, she coordinated cultural arts programming at two local schools in her school district for over 7 years. She saw the way residency programs in schools could spark inspiration and developed her residency program to focus on empowering students with digital tools to tell stories.
Additionally, she was co-president (2018 & 2019) of ARTsee, an artist collective in NJ that builds camaraderie among artists while promoting a vibrant local arts community.
