Participating teaching artists and classroom teachers collaborate to create lesson plans that enrich curriculum and integrate the concepts and techniques of exhibiting artists at Art in General. In this particular program, teaching artist Kouross Esmaeli works with Tiffany Vallo and her eleventh grade Communications class. Students develop video production and journalism skills during their production of a ten-minute documentary chronicling the effect of ineffective post-9/11 rebuilding policies in Chinatown. Through interviews with residents, business owners, and the community activist group Asian Americans for Equality, the young filmmakers gain critical insight into larger questions of race in the United States. As a result, Chinese, Black and Latino students increase their awareness of common experiences and improve their capacity to work collaboratively.

Many thanks to teaching assistants Oasa DuVerny and Lake Serrins.