Developing participatory art walks in Brighton Beach, photo c: Jerome Cowell
Sarah Gerth v.d. Berg
In grade school, I often played "teacher" with my my sister-students. In high school, I made myriad maps of my ideal set of curricular requirements and elective offerings. In college, I studied education alongside art history, developing a variety of tours at the Princeton University Art Museum. As a middle school teacher, I craved both the lesson planning process and the "flow" of teaching: the thrill of nimbly adjusting plans to student responses and needs. As a freelance curriculum designer pursuing a doctorate in curriculum studies at Teachers College, I create and research experiences that invite education to happen.
I continue to seek inspiration for curriculum design and education from the arts, especially from contemporary participatory and socially engaged artworks that emphasize relationality, process, and alternative ways of being in a complex world.