Team Spotlight: Meet Minni Instructor Lisa!
Team Spotlight: Minni Instructor Lisa
In an effort to familiarize our community with our full team at Minni, we are starting a new blog series highlighting one team member and diving into what makes them unique. From their creative experience and background to their favorite Minni projects, we hope you will read through our ‘minni’ interview.
We are thrilled to introduce you to Lisa, a long time Minni Instructor who primarily teaches toddler classes and Art Book Club in Beacon Hill, though you will often see Lisa at workshops on the weekends and possibly leading a party or two! Lisa really does it all, and we are so appreciative of all she does for the Minni community.
Learn more about Lisa below!
Tell us about yourself, where you're from, and your background or introduction to art
My Name is Lisa Warren. I am a museum educator by trade. I love art and science and have a passion for making arts and culture accessible to ALL learners irrespective of age, background or ability. I have been making art since I could hold a pencil. My parents started me in museum classes, not unlike Minni’s, when I was just a toddler. I took those classes until I was old enough to teach them, and BAM! My path was set.
What was your path to working at Minni? How long have you been teaching at Minni and what classes do you teach?
I come to Minni via the museum world. I spent over a decade working between the Museum of Science and the Museum of Fine Arts, creating shows and programs, training and supervising staff and volunteers, and ensuring the programs and spaces were welcoming and inclusive to visitors like myself, who have a disability.
When my daughter was born, I needed to find a place where I could use my skills and experience while still allowing me the time and flexibility to care for myself and my family. I stumbled upon Minni in the Winter of 2022, and it has been my home ever since. I work primarily in the Beacon Hill location, teaching a variety of toddler classes, Book Club, the Spruce Street partnership and occasional workshops, birthday parties and events.
How would you describe your teaching philosophy?
My teaching philosophy is a hands-on, minds-on approach that seeks to use active, inquiry-based exploration to breed intellectual curiosity, bolster self-esteem and bring out the inherent potential in any child. In my eyes, the best teachers believe in student potential, meeting students where they are at, and sharing their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment that inspires curiosity, raises questions and breeds a lifelong love of learning.
What are the most exciting projects you've had at Minni?
Some of my favorite ‘Minni Moments’ include making sprinkle, hot sauce-covered bowls of ‘ice cream’ in last Summer’s Ice Cream Workshop. Exploring what Paul Klee meant when he said that “a line is a dot that goes for a walk,” in a Friday morning Book Club adventure, and collaborating with author, illustrator and MFA access guide Rob Dunlavey in an illustration workshop.
It also makes my heart smile every time one of my students come into the classroom singing “What color are you wearing?” or watching students who initially struggled with the classroom environment find their place here. It is always a special treat to do an event that celebrates a child I know and have gotten to watch grow.
Can you tell us about one or two of your personal projects that you’re excited about?
Two past projects that I am excited to share include being invited to present, “Wee Create! A Study in Art Program Accessibility for Preschoolers” at the Disability Studies in Art Education conference in Pittsburg, PA. It highlighted a variety of changes I helped spearhead at the MFA to make the Playdates Program more welcoming and inclusive.
Another is the Coral Reef and Marine Biology Field Station at The Museum of Science. It is the first time that I got to be an exhibit designer, and see an idea in my head unfold from a simple sketch to a 3D mock up, to an actual exhibit component that children and families across the city could learn from and enjoy.
What's your favorite medium to work with?
My personal artistic practice includes mediums like collage, colored pencil and pastel. For me, art is a way to express internal feelings, explore unanswered question, and revel in the wonders of the natural world. I hope students in my classes come away with a sense that play is powerful, imagination makes the world magic and art is everywhere and in everyone, if you know where to look.
