Dana Squires is a Teaching Artist and Interdisciplinary Specialist whose approach to life and education is informed by an interdisciplinary, creative DIY perspective. After graduating from The Evergreen State College in the 1970s, Squires painted, played violin in a punk band, published an international magazine, and joined the Peace Corps and traveled the world. As an educator, Squires has worked with a wide range of schools and organizations including the Museum of Northwest Art, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Charles Wright Academy, Avanti High School, Lincoln Options Elementary, Thurston Co Refugee Center, and many more.
“Art is not a set of skills, but a winding process-oriented path of observation, exploration, and ideas,” writes Squires. “The lessons learned by doing art sets the stage for learning across the board. Education should be a journey that fosters respect and grows confidence in one's own learning ability. Art does that. Art-infused education teaches problem solving, communication, observation, seeing ideas from differing perspectives, critical thinking, risk-taking, and collaboration. Art teaches thinking.”
Teaching Superpower: Teaching art not as a how-to process but as a way of seeing and exploring ideas. My strength is applying this same think-like-an-artist approach across discipline and classroom subject matter.
“TAT Lab validated the idea that teaching itself is a creative endeavor, and part of my artistic practice. I was in the first TAT Lab cohort. I knew I wasn't interested in teaching how-to skills based art but had yet to fully articulate how and what exactly I did want to teach,” Squires writes. “I began to think in terms of think in terms of curated ambiguity. TAT Lab helped me to formalize a process oriented education philosophy for myself, articulated it to others, and to figure out how to put it into practice.”
Squires lives in Olympia in a periwinkle colored house with her family, a Great Pyrenees, and several cats. You can view her personal art practice at her website and learn more about her teaching philosophy here.
