Teaching Artist, Spark LeoNimm, (top right) leads their students through warm-ups during an online class. Spark is cleverly using their iPad to allow one student who couldn’t log on to Zoom to participate in the session.

Clown Artist, Spark LeoNimm (they, them) has been a teaching artist working in NYC senior centers for several years. Recently, the Brooklyn Arts Council named them a 2020 SU-CASA grantee. (SU-CASA is an arts education program that places artists in residencies in centers across the five boroughs, and was a part of the New York City Creative Aging Initiative.)

Spark was one month into teaching clown and comedy skills to older adults at the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, when the senior center closed due to COVID-19. While still uncertain what the closures might mean for the program, they worked fast to investigate ways to move their class online, crowd-sourcing solutions within their teaching artist community on Facebook.

Going the Extra Mile to Get the Class Connected

First, Spark reached out to the 10 program participants by phone, and soon realized that cross-platform technical hurdles would require their own brand of creativity to resolve. One student, Terry, was the most enthusiastic about continuing the class, but had no internet access except through her iPhone, and didn’t have the capacity to download applications like Zoom video conference. Other participants were using Androids.

After hours of troubleshooting, Spark figured out that they could bring Terry into the class via FaceTime on their iPad, then mount the iPad on a stand next to their face while they used their laptop camera to connect to the rest of the students via Zoom — making it finally possible for everyone to see each other. “Doing this remotely, it can feel sort of bumpy,” Spark said. “But there are moments that the technology fades away and it actually does feel like we’re together.

Adjusting Curriculum to Remote Learning and Honing Skills in the Process

Once class was back in session online, Spark led them through physical warm-ups, each following the other’s improvised movement and sounds. One assignment required each student to find an object in their home that could save everyone from the pandemic, and perform an improvised “commercial” selling their object in the grandest way possible, while the “audience” heckled. “In a way, on Zoom the audience is even more ‘in your face’ so the performer has to respond,” Spark says. “That is a key skill for a clown!”  

Tips for Teaching Artists Using Zoom to Teach the Arts

Spark’s advice when teaching arts classes on Zoom is to make sure everyone is in “Gallery” rather than “Speaker” mode, so that everyone can be seen. And more importantly – don’t sweat the details.

“We’re all doing this really new and hard thing by trying to translate in person experiences to the virtual platform,” they said. “Don’t stress yourself out trying to make it perfect.  Be upfront with folks about the experiment of it and leave space for them to give feedback.”