Students engage with Laura Pacchini in a Dumbball making workshop.

Public Education at The David Ireland House

We are proud to announce a collaboration with local artist Amy Berk to develop the first public education program for youth at The David Ireland House. Our Artist Guides worked with Berk to launch a curriculum on conceptual art for teens, with the goal of expanding their understanding of art and art practice. Workshops for youth aged 14-18 (Spring 2021) and 11-14 (Summer 2021) developed on sculpture, sound, and printmaking were led by Artist Guides Laura Pacchini, Steven Loscutoff, Alex Ehmer, and a special workshop with Resident Artist David Wilson titled, ‘A Score for Walking.’ The Spring program was made possible through Berk’s initiative, Artivate: Public Art Now!, a youth mentorship model of collaborative learning with City Studio, Project Artivism, Collective Action Studio, and now, The David Ireland House. Our Summer program is The David Ireland House’s collaboration with the Columbia Boys and Girls Club, co-led by Berk and the David Ireland House Artist Guides Laura Pacchini, Bells howard, and Will Moncayo.

Amy Berk is an artist and art educator who directs City Studio, the San Francisco Art Institute’s award-winning youth studio program offering underserved youth high-quality arts education in their own neighborhoods. She has taught at SFAI since 2006, serving as Chair for the Contemporary Practice program from 2011 to 2013, and has taught “City as Studio Practicum,” offering practical teaching experience to the SFAI student body since 2010. In 1996, she co-founded the innovative Meridian Interns Program serving inner-city teens and has taught in the Post-Baccalaureate program at UCBX since 2004. More recently Berk launched REAP (ReEnergize.Activate.Process) with Laura Boles-Faw to provide inventive art-related experiences to promote individual and community development. Her current collaboration with Collective Action Studio creates opportunities for youth to explore artmaking in the public sphere.  She remains committed to giving teens (and adults) a much-needed voice, a safe place in which to speak and helping them find the proper tools to do so. 

Spring 2021

Summer 2021