The CreativiDAD Project (Ep. 367)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by The Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

I am very excited about today’s episode, mainly because we have a good friend back on the show, and I’m thrilled to talk to him on here. Candido Crespo is here. Now, Candido has done a lot with AOEU over the past few years, some conference round table discussions, some really nice NOW presentations, social media appearances, and probably most importantly, hosted the Everyday Art Room podcast and put together some incredible episodes there. But Candido is an artist and an educator, and he’s been working for the past little bit with his young son on the CreativiDAD Project where they bring just arts experiences into the community. They do these really cool art workshops where kids and dads or granddads or male guardians or whomever are making art together. They’re creating, they are exploring, they’re spending some great time together, and I love the idea of all of that. So, I invited Candido to come on the show and chat about what he’s doing. I want everyone to hear more about it from him, so let me bring him on right now. Candido Crespo is joining me now. Candido, how are ya?

Oh, I’m doing well, Tim. A pleasure to reconnect with you. It’s been a little bit.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. I’m excited to have you on the show here. I feel like everybody knows who you’re already, but can you just give us an update on how things are going? How is the school year for you? What’s going on outside of school with you?

Yeah, sure. So, year 16 is coming to a close. It’s been fun. It’s been a really fun year. This year, I had an unanticipated one section of kindergarten that has sort of controlled the entire school year. I have made jokes about how much time I put into preparing for it, but it’s not really a joke. It’s the one class that weekly I am sitting down and putting pencil to paper to try to plan out how I want that class to go because it would just determine the rest of my week.

Oh yeah, yeah.

But it’s been fun. The class is full of love. It’s got me inspired to want to continue doing what I’m doing, and it kept me from getting comfortable, which I think is important.

Yeah, that’s true. It’s new challenge. If you could embrace that, then that’s good.

Yes. That was important. I think this year is coming to a close now, already trying to figure out what next year will be like, what position I’ll be in. I think something new is on the horizon as far as what grade level I’ll be teaching. So, just closing out the school year, just focusing on the present so then I can properly prepare for the future.

All right. That sounds good. All right, now I wanted to bring you on to talk about the CreativiDAD Project. I guess, can you just tell us about what it is, how you started everything, maybe just talk a little bit about what you’re doing with it currently?

Yeah. I want to start by saying that the CreativiDAD Project is just a pun on the word creativity and with a emphasis on the word dad, because it’s a fatherhood project, and I’ll come back to a little bit more about why that’s the name.

Yeah, in 2018, when I became a dad, I think I was a little bit concerned about not finding time to be creative. You and I have had this discussion before multiple times about the importance of our teachers remaining creative, and I think it was a non-negotiable for me. I think I wasn’t willing to… No, I wanted to definitely be in my son’s life as much as possible. I wanted to be a high quality dad, but I also wanted to make sure that I was taking care of the part of me that I thought was significant and really plays a role as to who I am, who I am as a husband, who I am now as a father, who I am as a teacher, et cetera. And so, creativity was that thing. At first, I thought maybe I’ll just tap into late nights, right? I’ve done it before. I did it when I was young. I can stay up and create, but that’s not sustainable as a parent.

I know, you’re exhausted, man. It doesn’t work.

You’re just, you’re tired. You’re tired starting the day, so imagine trying to end the day, right? It’s just, it doesn’t work that way. I think as soon as my son was ready to work on his fine motor skills, I started putting tools in his hands, crayons, paintbrush, and just playing around with different materials, and what I realized was that even though I wasn’t creating finalized pieces, maybe not a painting that I would put on display at a gallery, I was still staying creative, and that was super important to me. That was the thing I wanted, right? That’s the part that I said I wanted to keep doing. I wanted to remain creative, not necessarily to prepare for a solo exhibition, but I just wanted to keep that momentum going, and so having him participate with me really allowed me to do that.

What I found was that it was starting to give him and I a different relationship that maybe his mother and him had, and it allowed us to bond during that time. I was showing him something that I found very passionate, and I think that when a parent shares their passion with a child, not necessarily in a way where you’re trying to influence them, that they should do this thing, but that you are sharing a part of you with them, they can connect with you deeply, and I found that happening.

It went so well that I decided maybe it would be something that I can take to other fathers. There’s a void that exists in the world of mommy and me and that’s the daddy and me project, right? Where are the daddy and me events? Sure, there are coaching events and I think, and you can speak to this too, I think fathers for a long time have done a wonderful job when it comes to coaching sports. I think that fathers for a long time, and I’m sure there’s positive negatives to this, but being the role of provider that is sometimes filled by the father, they do that job well, but when it comes to being vulnerable and occupying a space where you are willing to be patient, you are willing to release control and just make something together with a child, I think that’s something that’s been missing and something that maybe we aren’t taught.

I know for sure, I can speak for myself, that while my dad was fantastic, we didn’t really just stop to make things. That wasn’t something that was on our schedule. We didn’t have that. So, I wanted to do that. I tried it, and it was successful, and I wanted to keep that going. And so, that initiative has now turned into, or rather that idea has now turned into initiative that I’m continuing to grow. I want to say we’re continuing to grow because my son plays an active role in it now as well.

Yeah, for sure. That’s cool. Just speaking to the dad part of it, I think it’s tough because like you said, there are not a lot of opportunities out there. Even if that is something that you want to do as a father, you maybe don’t know how and don’t know where that can be done. And so, you just sort of default to, like you said, coaching some sports because that’s the only opportunity that’s available to you. If you want to be active, if you want to play a role, it’s tough to know where to go. And so, I think that’s cool to just provide that opportunity for people. That’s something that I admire about what you’re doing is just bringing that out to your community and just making that opportunity available for dads and kids to do that bonding or to create things together because like you said, there’s just not a lot of other places to do that.

Let me ask you though, when you are bringing that up, when you are providing those opportunities, what do some of those workshops look like? What are you creating? What have you had success with? What types of projects are you doing?

Right. Here is where there’s an extreme amount of pleasure in doing community work. There is no red tape, right?

Right.

I just completely removed any barriers that I may have that may exist as being a public school teacher. I’m in control. I’m in full control. The only question really is do I have the space to do it. That’s ultimately the question. And so, what do those workshops look like? When I usually start telling people about it, I start by saying, “Have you ever been to a paint night?” Because generally speaking, a lot of adults have been to a paint night, but this is not like a paint night though. That’s the thing though. It is and it isn’t in that you’re coming to this place, you’re coming to a place to create, and there is a host, me, but I’m not standing in front of the group guiding how the project is done. That’s not the purpose of this project.

My son and I create examples, I create my own example, then I collaborate with him to create an example so that the participants can see two different ways that the same project can, or I guess the results, two different results of the same project. I introduce them to the project and I make sure that they have all the materials accessible to them, if not at their table, then at a central table where they can access the materials. And then I just let them go for it. I let the families guide themselves through the project.

What kind of projects? Last Earth Day, we painted Earth, and then we used some found materials so that we had elements of recycling in there. We used found materials to create portraits of the family members. That was pretty cool. I try to give them some pretty high quality materials so that they feel like they’re artists in that space. Maybe because, and we will go into this later, because it’s a grant-funded project, I want to make sure that I’m providing the families with the best possible materials. I want them to feel like artists while they’re in our space. I want them to feel that the reason that they’re going to create and why they should create a masterpiece is because they have these quality materials in front of them.

We did some insect sculptures. That turned out pretty cool, just using clay and paper to create almost like a diorama, a setting or placement environment for their insects. And then we have another project coming up where I’m linking up with an existing project out of Mexico, and we’re going to be creating characters that are based on their story and reading the story, reacting in a way that allows them to use and we’ll collage this project. This project will be a collage where they can create their own characters to put into the story and then photograph all of the work, and then the project that we’re working in collaboration with, we’ll do a virtual gallery.

Nice.

Just to make it a little bit more of a international impact as well.

Yeah, I like that. I like that. That’s cool. Can we dive in a little bit on that funding and those quality materials? You mentioned that they are grant funded. Where are you finding those grants? How are you finding funding, or how are you securing that funding to put all this together?

Yeah. The initial grant-funded story is pretty funny because I saw an opportunity to apply for an individual grant out of my local arts council. This is the Huntington Arts Council. One of the stipulations for the application was you have to do something that provides the community with access to your art. Sometimes I go extreme, and so when I read that, I thought, “Oh, this money will just go towards a community workshop or a community event.” And so, I applied for the individual grant and I asked that some of the money is allocated towards materials to have a solo exhibition, and then the others would go to the workshop. And so, that’s what I did. The money came in, I bought a bunch of supplies, I scheduled, and then I used the money for that. That happened for two years actually, I applied for the individual grants.

Then I got a phone call that said, “Hey, do you know we have community grants that’s double your individual grant?” And I was like, “No, I didn’t know that.” They were like, “You’re doing a lot of work for less money and we have more money for you.” The first source of funding came from really just being involved with your local arts. It’s really easy to overlook your local arts council or your local arts museum because maybe you’re thinking the bigger museums have more access to things. That’s not necessarily true. That’s not necessarily true at all. I think when you are involved actively, even if you’re just actively checking the website for opportunities, these opportunities will present themselves. Also, your state arts website or state arts in social media will have opportunities that you can apply to.

In this case, because I have this concept, this idea that’s maybe it’s not completely original, but it has an unique element to it. People are interested in hearing about it. And so, I can get the door open in that regard where I can say, “Hey, I have this idea,” and then they can tell me, “Okay, so here’s where you should apply. This is what you should do.” And so, I think that’s part of it as well, right? Staying in tune with all of the local and state art organizations. And then having a good idea, something that you think that you’re bringing new to the table or that there’s space for.

And then I wanted to, because of my involvement, and we’ve had this discussion before about NFTs, my involvement in the Web3 evolution and how does that apply to, how does the Web3 evolution apply to education, and in this part, in this regard, community-based education. My son and I collaborate on some artwork and we make that available to collectors, and some of the funding that comes from people collecting those pieces can be used to buy supplies and continue the workshops. And so, I think those have been my main sources. Because this is a passion project, one of my boundaries is that if I don’t have current income or a current funding, I won’t schedule a workshop because I want to make sure that I’m also not overstepping my ability as well, because time is already a factor.

Yeah, for sure.

I’m already juggling the idea of trying to make time for this thing that I love because I just want to make it available to people, but then also I don’t want to come out of pocket for something that could become costly as well.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s a dangerous road to go down. I think we talk about that as art teachers all the time, just making sure that… Because it’s so easy to spend money and to just, like I said, that can be a slippery slope. I just want to mention just one thing with grants. I’ve written a lot of grants, I’ve reviewed for a bunch of grants, and a lot of times, just for anybody who’s listening to this, a lot of times grants are trying to give away money and can’t do it. And so, if you have a good idea and you put it out there, funding is probably going to be available.

That’s probably why you laughed when I said that I got the phone call saying, “You’re applying for the… Why you applying for less money if we have more money to give you?” Again, that was initiated by that organization. They reached out to me which I thought was special, and that they saw something about what I was bringing to the community.

Oh, for sure.

They wanted to make sure that I tapped into it.

Yeah, sort of make sure that you’re continuing to do that because like I said, when good ideas come along, people are excited to fund those. And so, yeah, if you’ve put together a strong idea or something that’s good, then a lot of times that will be rewarded. Okay. Just kind of changing subjects, changing tacks a little bit. I don’t know how much you want to talk about your kid, but I would love to know just what effects you’ve seen just with your son taking on all these experiences. I assume he’s having a great time just hanging out with Dad and making art. But what other lessons is he learning? What do you see him getting from all of these experiences?

Yeah. Since him and I have been creating, I’ve seen a genuine increase in his interest in art and producing art. He’s challenging himself using different materials. He’ll watch a show on TV or iPad and ask to pause it because he wants to create that thing. And so, I would say at the very least, his skill level has increased and his interest in arts have increased. But once I gave him the opportunity to start attending these workshops with me and refer to him as my co-teacher, something completely switched when I gave him that title and he was able to be in that space with me.

Just to give people a visual, he stands alongside me and he taps me on the shoulder, or he’s not that tall, he taps me on my belt and tells me, “I know what to say. I can say this part.” He wants me to save lines for him so that he can talk to the group. And then once we’re underway, he’s taking his example and walking around to the families and showing them what he did, or he’s going to the family and asking what do you need so he can get some more supplies for them. That level of ownership and that level of being a part of something that I do has also really helped our relationship because for a while he was jealous, like, “Why do you always have to teach those kids?” knowing what our job is, right?

Oh yeah, yeah.

Now, it’s like, “Oh, don’t we have to go teach those dads>” I’m like, “Yeah, we do. Let’s go do that.” And so, it’s helped him understand a little bit more about what I do and what we do and why we love it, because he’s able to embody that role for that short amount of time. I think the last thing is some of the artwork that we produce, I’ve been able to and into… I guess the best way I can explain it to a five-year-old is really just telling him about what it’s like selling artwork.

Those pieces that maybe have been collected as an NFT is a little bit more complicated to explain to him. I’ve also turned some of his artwork into bookmarks and prints, just pulling them in, turning his drawings into lino block carvings. Those are really easy for him to understand. And so, every time I’m telling him like, “Hey, you made another $5,” he gets really excited about that. He’s not one that’s wants to spend it immediately. That’s not how he understands it, but he understands it as, “Oh, people are interested in my art. I need to keep working on it.”

Yeah, there’s value there.

I’m like, “Yeah.” That’s really cool because I can see how big his smile is. And then he goes, runs and tells his mom like, “Mom, somebody else bought my bookmark,” and he gets really excited about that. And so, it’s helped him get a little bit of understanding about how art as a skill is valuable and it’s something that will pay off later for him because he sees that I’m doing it and that he’s capable of doing it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s really cool. I don’t know. I just still have a big smile on my face from just picturing your kid just up in front of there teaching everybody what’s going on, telling them what’s up. I really liked that idea.

We just had a meeting for our new space that’s coming up. We’re working with a yoga studio. As soon as we got out of the car, the first thing he said before we walked into the space was, “What parts of the meeting should I say?” And I was like, “All right, I’ll tell you what to say.” I told to the director of the yoga studio, I told her, “Hey, there’s some things that you can ask him and he can answer for you,” and he was so happy to just-

Love it.

Yeah, he wasn’t timid about it or shy. He was there for business, and it was really cool.

Yeah, I like it. That’s good stuff. All right, so I guess I want to ask you the same question I just asked about your son. From your perspective, what are you learning when you’re doing this? What are you seeing when you take your art teacher skills, your creativity, your knowledge out into the community? What are you putting out there and what are you getting back in return?

Yeah. I think all of these things that I’m about to say were all unanticipated. I think when I wanted to share this concept, it was more like I just wanted to share. That was the sole purpose of this thing was just how can I share this idea with other dads because I think this is special and I want them to have this same, I want them to have this information. Keeping this information to me would not be useful. That’s just, it’s not valuable that way. And so, all I wanted to do was share. So, anything I say right now has been something I wasn’t prepared for.

Number one is confidence, right? I’m very confident in front of my students in the classroom, and I think for as long as I can remember, meet the teacher night and parent-teacher conferences have always been the thing where to me has always been a little bit more nerve-racking than teacher evaluations. Like, the principal, I welcome in whenever, but when I have to deal directly with parents, it’s always been like how do I prepare for this thing. Mostly because I’m concerned about my presentation. I want the parents to be able to know that they can trust me in the time that I’m with their children because no oversight. That’s a big trust, right? These parents are leaving their children with us, and I want them to know that they’re in good hands.

But in this particular case, the parents are the ones that I’m telling. I’m talking to the parents directly and I’m telling them like, “No, you need this thing.” Sometimes people confuse this project a little bit for me teaching kids, but I’m not teaching kids. That’s what I do as my day job. I don’t want on the weekends, come Saturday, I’m not looking to teach.

You need a break.

I’m not looking for any other kids, but I will talk to the parents directly, like, “These messages and everything I’m saying are for you.” So, a new level of confidence came out of that, almost like I think this kind of selfish too, in that it’s grown to be selfish is my perspective or the accessibility for me to see other fathers parenting. I haven’t done that before. I haven’t been able to be in a position where I can observe other fathers interacting with their children and what methods and means they use or tools they use for communication. That’s been really cool. Genuine joy. Tim, I mean, just to be in that space where I’m just happy the entire time. The entire time I’m talking to these families, I’m engaging with them, we’re getting messy, and the entire time I’m just happy. It’s just genuine joy is one of the things I guess I get out of it the most.

I love it. I love it. Yeah, yeah.

I mentioned life beyond red tape, and that’s something that’s really true. I think if any teacher ever has the opportunity to do some community-based art education, step out of your comfort zone and check it out so that you know just how great you really are. Yeah, Because I think that’s what it is, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I think that those limitations that exist in some of our school districts are stopping us from being the greatest possible versions of ourselves, and I think when you engage in a project where you are the director of, you really get to see like, “Oh wow, I really know this thing. I am really good at teaching art.” And we know, you and I know, you’re bringing guests onto this podcast all the time that are just phenomenal teachers. Could you imagine if they were able to just do it how they wanted to do it?

All right. Well, and another part of that too is just what a great advocacy tool that is. If you can get out in the community and everybody can see how good you are at what you do, and they can just think to themselves, “Man, they must have an incredible art program going on there.” I know this is not your main goal, but it is a great way to develop support for your program at school. But just letting people see how good you are, what you do, having the confidence to do that, that can go a long way.

Yeah. I think the last thing that I would just mention is, and it falls in line with what we just said, I guess the two things together is that I know some people battle with imposter syndrome. That’s not something that I’ve ever dealt with because I feel like I’ve earned everything I’ve gotten at this point in my life for it. But this is an opportunity for you to face imposter syndrome. Sort of put a mirror in front of yourself and say, “These adults are going out of their way to learn from you now.” And so, that’s just completely different. That’s not students who are forced into your class because of a schedule that was given to them. This is like these parents volunteered and have chosen to register and take time out of their busy lives to come spend time with you because they’re interested in your guidance. That would be a wake-up call for anybody who feels like they’re not in the right profession.

Yeah, yeah. Good point. All right, last question. Last thing I wanted to ask you just before we go is just kind of what’s going on in the future. What are your goals, either short term or long term? What do you see coming out of this project? And then also, I’d love for you to just share where people can find you, where they can find a little bit more information, learn more about you’re doing what you’re doing, anything along those lines.

Okay. I have two major, my next round of funding is in. I went to a workshop in Philadelphia in October of 2022 at the Adding Voices Conference, and that workshop was led by William Estrada and he has something called the Mobile Street Art Cart, in which he designed an art cart based on the tamale ladies’ cart in Chicago. And so, he pulls up to public spaces and he opens up the tables on the sides of the cart and he does screen printing. It’s all free. It just invites everybody in the public to come make art, and it is beautiful, and it is inspiring, and it pushes the envelope on how and where art should be made and who should make it. It really opens up the possibilities of that.

And so, I met with him and I was like, “I need to bring that to Long Island. I need that. We need that.” And so, he broke it down to me, told me all the ins and outs because it’s not a secret and he wants people to do this thing. I applied for funding. I’m hoping to have a street art cart out in the summer. And so, really pushing the envelope on us, CreativiDAD, as initiative, saying just how important art can be and it’s so important that I’ll bring it to you. And so, I’m hoping to get that out, like I said, this summer.

And the other thing is this, just what I’ve learned was unanticipated, so have some of the doors that have opened as a result of this. Recently, I’ve done a two-part workshop that was me speaking to mental health providers about using art as a healing tool or as a method of reconnecting or strengthening family bonds. Tim, before you and I met, I don’t think that I would’ve recorded a podcast. I don’t think that I would’ve participated on live streams. I don’t think I would’ve presented at any of the NOW conferences, but we’ve done that, and now making these presentations that really are just out of the box for me, are special because again, it’s showing the value in our profession and just how much, the information that we’re keeping inside of our four walls daily, there’s just so much benefit to it.

We’re talking about survival, transforming lives here because I’m speaking to these families, men who are recently out of incarceration and are looking to establish relationships with children that they’ve never had before, and me trying to provide them with tools to say, “Hey, if you did this thing, this might be a good way to segue into a conversation and it can lead to greater.” But speaking directly to the health providers, the people who are then seeking, they’re speaking to groups of men who are in this circumstance. And so, those two things right there are, I guess, where my focus is right now. Creating that art cart and then what platform should I be trying to tap into for people to really use art in ways that can change their lives.

Yeah, for sure. That’s really meaningful stuff. That’s really powerful stuff. I think that’s an excellent direction for you to go in. Would love to hear more about that when you’re doing that. I think that’d be, yeah, make a good discuss discussion.

Sure. I’m easy to find though, Tim. Because this is a visual project, I want to make it as visual as possible. So, I’ve been doing most of my information and everything is on Instagram, creatividadproject. It’s just the two words spelled out together, creatividadproject, no space. Yeah, there I’m just posting pictures of stuff that my son and I are creating on a weekly basis, projects that I think that families can try on their own. I’m a little stingy when it comes to information because I like the idea of exploration. So, maybe I’ll put up a project and say, “This is what I use,” but I won’t do step by step because just like the workshop itself, experimentation and that quality time is just as important. I think if I gave everything on Instagram, then you have the opportunity to just show the kid the video and let the kid work by himself, but that was never the point.

Yeah, I was going to say, that’s not the point. That’s not what you’re going for.

Yeah. I’m not doing that. Parents, don’t come to Instagram thinking that I’m going to give you the full video. That’s not how it’s going to work.

Cool. All right. Well, hey Candido, thank you for coming on. It was great to have you back to chat with again. I love hearing about everything that you’re doing, so thanks for giving us some time.

Tim, it’s always a pleasure talking to you and everybody else. I hope that my message, you find my message valuable and connect with me so we can share and talk some more.

Now, like I said at the beginning of the episode, I love the idea of what Candido is doing with this project. If you want to find out more, we will link to some spots in the show notes where you can explore a little bit further about what he’s doing. I think just my thoughts while talking to him about this is that it’s really powerful to bring art out into the community, to use art to connect with the community. If, that’s one I should say, this is a big if because it’s tough to ask teachers to do more, but if it is something that you’re interesting in doing, making those connections with your community, getting your art program connected with the people that are out there, just bringing art out into the spaces around you, I think Candido might have a template here.

Just find your idea, find your niche, your inspiration, figure out what it is that you want to bring out to your community. You can look for local grants, look for state grants, like we talked about, and see if there’s funding available. There likely is. Just discover what you want to do, think about how you want to get it out there. I think there are a lot of opportunities out there, and if you choose to take advantage of those, it’s going to pay dividends for you and your students and your art program, and most importantly, the community that you’re in.

Art Ed Radio was produced by The Art of Education University with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. Thank you for listening. Always great to talk to Candido again, and I’m looking forward to the episodes that we’ll be putting together over the next couple weeks. Hope you’re looking forward to them as well.