Ju Lee shares her strategies for keeping students engaged in an online environment. Her classroom is designed as her holy space (Sanctum Sanctorum) where students find themselves and their purpose. Life is design and art is her mantra. She comments that Graphic Design is one of the growing areas at Costaatt and expects that her students will continue to be successful, expanding their knowledge and moving to greater heights of excellence.
Her success began with parents who supported her desire to study art at Howard University. Ju Lee worked as a graphic designer at McCann World Group, WHMM TV Channel 32 and the Washington City Paper.
At 15:00 the mood changes to a discussion about value of “liming” with Sonja Dumas who is a performer, choreographer, writer, filmmaker, teacher and arts development consultant.
Sonja acknowledges the wisdom of developing the creative arts offerings at our educational institutions and makes a case for developing local “patrons” who would fund the creation of works of art. She notes that the French Caribbean territories like Martinique and Guadeloupe have designed a creative ecosystem where artists can thrive as professionals as opposed to the English speaking Caribbean where creatives engage their passion as a “side hustle”.
As Sonja projected into the future she suggested that there should be a “government bond” of $100 million to fund the arts. It would require an administrative framework to operationalize and measure and evaluate its success.
Her parting advice was: “be efficient so could you lime more”.
Dennise Demming 