Marth O’Connell, Visual Artist
Martha OC is an artist living and creating in Philadelphia, where she is working on a book of poems and tiny drawings, you are the lungs outside my body and i’m breathing so deep. She is currently teaching middle-school art, and doing arts administration & grant writing for Philly artists and youth-focused art-ed organizations. She loves working with adolescents in their first work experiences (especially in the arts!). She was born and raised in Boston, where she worked for 8 years collaborating on and managing youth jobs programs, arts programming in the Massachusetts juvenile justice system, and neighborhood-based food and small business initiatives.
TATIP Work:
Martha has been interning in a special education 3rd grade classroom at PS 132, in Scott Lily and Elizabeth Leonard’s music and theater residency. She collaborated with Kym Boyce on workshopping 3 lesson plans in Highbridge Green Middle School 7th grade; and one writing- revision lesson plan for an inclusive 3rd grade class as part of her internship at PS 132.
Most memorable TATIP moment:
“I have so many FAVORITE TATIP moments! Prior to TATIP I had spent a good amount of time in administration, observing teaching artists and itching to be in their shoes, yet frightened silly of the prospect of leading an entire class. Being given the license to ‘think’ like my artist self in TATIP – one of the first sessions we did – was immediately world-opening and life giving. My creative process was affirmed as one that could also produce valuable and high quality lesson plans and classroom themes, through the Creative Process Tool Patti and Karla gave us.”
“I have especially benefitted from the moments that have forced me to be present and to truly react to the training as a full artistic participant, which mirrors the demands of a classroom, and being comfortable and plan-ful enough to relax into the present moment.”
“A major highlight has been going through an extensive process of collaboration with Kym Boyce, as co-teachers. We workshopped a lesson on dreaming, incorporating writing and visual arts, in TATIP and with Kym’s students at Highbridge Green middle school. We allowed ourselves to experiment, try things out, and digest feedback from Patti, Karla, and Scott – what a magical, challenging, and full on self-development process – only available in TATIP!”
Find out more about Martha here:
Check out Martha’s Lesson Plan she created with her partner Kym Boyce.
Interested in TATIP? Find out more about our 2017-18 Program!
See more of our 2016-17 Graduates in the 2017 TATIP Anthology!
