Photoville Educator Labs

Photoville Educator Labs are professional development workshops for educators to be inspired, connect and collaborate on ways to bring visual storytelling into the classroom. The program is free and open to educators of all subjects and of all ages, but the content will be focused on middle school and high school art teachers working in the DOE and in community programs.
Practice tools for using photography in the classroom

Learn strategies to use photography for students to practice literacy, analysis, and critical thinking skills.

Collaborate with photographers and journalists

Work directly with artists to develop visual storytelling-based lesson plans.

Network with teachers across disciplines

Brainstorm and collaborate with teachers across the city and across disciplines. Enjoy a meal and happy hour with your colleagues!

They can be downloaded from our Education Resources page.

Photoville Educator Labs are produced in partnership with PhotoWings.

Our Fall 2023 Educator Lab – The Compassionate Classroom: Social Emotional Learning Via Arts Integration

Testimonials

Danny Arenas, LMSW | Director of Programs and Impact, Art Start - Thank you so much for inviting me to present. Sharing space with so many wonderful educators to speak about Empathy, Compassion, and Healing is so needed. If I may, I also want to thank Abrons Art Center for providing the physical possibility of an intimate and welcoming environment for us to engage and converse on themes rooted in the betterment of humanity. It was an honor to be with you all. Danny Arenas, LMSW Director of Programs and Impact Art Start

Marilia Destot, Artist/Educator - As an artist photographer, who created a photo-class curriculum and who's looking for a school to teach it, I attended to know if i should and how I should develop my photo teaching practice. Also to raise my awareness and knowledge on some sensitive issues (ESL), to make connections, extend the network and opportunities, etc…

Jack Power, Co-Founder, Lens on Life - Learning more about the arts and photography education landscape in New York City was a huge reason for my attendance. In addition, I know Photoville is always at the cutting edge of education techniques, language, curation, and story telling--I wanted to learn more, and I did!

Amy Flatow, William Alexander Middle School 51 - Thanks again for putting together such a meaningful and empowering PD for all of us educators. It was a great opportunity to explore SEL in the arts (the focus of my sabbatical project!) while networking with other art and photography educators. I can't wait to participate next year!

Kisha Bari, photographer - I feel it’s so incredible that the work that I’ve done has just been turned into a workshop for middle school and high school kids. That’s everything I ever do my work for. If we are not teaching our youth to stand up for their own rights, and the rights of marginalized people around them, then this work is for naught. So to watch teachers do their thing with my work, it was so impressive to see this lesson come to fruition.

Carla Rice, The New LIFE School - I’m a social worker in a special ed school, using a lot of creative stuff to do social and emotional work. It’s often me doing my own thing. This is exactly the environment of people doing the things that I want to do

Anna Knutson, MS 839 - We saw people who were doing thrilling work outside the classroom, but it only made me more excited to go back to my classroom because I feel that connection and it feels like a more authentic way to bridge that gap than probably anything I’ve ever done before.

Past Educator Labs

Fall 2022
Disability / Visibility

Featuring Stephanie Alvarado, (Fotos y Recuerdos); Jen-White Johnson (KnoxRox Zine); Carrie Banks (Brooklyn Public Library Inclusive Services); Amanda McFee (District 75 Citywide Programs); Stephanie Garcia (Disability Pride Parade Visual Art Contest Winner), Rick Guidotti (POSITIVE EXPOSURE).

Fall 2021
Peer Exchange In The Park

Featuring Wendy Barrales, Jacqueline Du, Caitlin Gibbons, Lion’s Tooth Project: Natalia Guerrero (they/them), Fatmata Bah (they/them) and Shay Lin (they/them), Brenna McLaughlin, Ben Russell, Yael Glick

Spring 2021
Creating With Community

Featuring Sol Aramendi (Project Luz); Alyssa Garcia (Las Fotos Project); Glo Jackson (Spectrum: Diversity within the disabled community); Tonika Johnson (Folded Map Project); Zac Martin and Jasmin Chang (Community Heroes).

Fall 2020
October 24, 2020

Featuring Haiti to Hood (Daveed Baptiste), Liam’s World (Erin Lefevre), Value (Mz. Icar), The Power of Telling Your Own Story (Josue Rivas)

Fall 2019
September 21, 2019

Featuring Waterkeeper Warriors (Waterkeeper Alliance), #Thisis18 (The New York Times), Typecast (Griselda san Martin and Haruka Sakaguchi), No Wahala, it’s all Good (Adama Delphine Fawundu), and the Player’s Tribune

Spring 2019 — LA
May 4, 2019

Featuring Shaping a Dialogue for Change (Lluvia Higuera), Women in the American West (Women Photograph: Arlene Mejorado and Bethany Mollenkof), There is only one Paul R. Williams (Janna Ireland), Clubhouse Turn (Michele Asselin)

Spring 2019
March 28, 2019

Featuring Blackbirds (Idris Solomon), Host (Unhee Park), The Wall (Griselda San Martin), As Usual (Brooke DiDonato)

Fall 2018
October 30, 2018

Featuring cit.i.zen.ship (NYU Tisch), Altar (MFON), North Shore (Gareth Smit), Life after Life in Prison (Sara Bennett), Souls of (Makeba Rainey)

Spring 2018
April 26, 2018

Featuring Block Party (Anderson Zaca), Kin (Emily Schiffer), Sanctuary (Cinthya Santos Briones), Documenting Detroit (Alan Chin)

Fall 2017
October 12, 2017

Featuring Living in the City (NYC Municipal Archives), Finding Home (Pulitzer Center), ReSisters: Behind the Scenes of the Women’s March (Kisha Bari), Newest Americans (Tim Raphael), Contact High (Vikki Tobak)