Mariah Rankine-Landers is the co-founder of Studio Pathways, an organization born in 2017 out of a devotion to embodying culturally responsive teaching and learning through the arts. Their online learning and in-person experiences take a creative inquiry stance and purposeful intention towards reckoning, racial healing, and social justice as achieved through shared knowledge, power analysis, and exploration of narrative and lineage. Based out of the Bay Area, Studio Pathways has partnered with arts and education groups across the United States to advance transformative changes in education.
Mariah, along with fellow Studio Pathways co-founder Jess Brie Moreno, was recently named a 2020 YBCA 100 honoree for their work to help schools develop systems that encourage artistic practice and narratives of inclusion. Among their accomplishments includes Rise Up! An American Curriculum, a free resource designed with a team of incredible educators and artists that helps students understand and critically examine Hamilton: An American Musical and, in turn, express their own personal narrative through writing and performance.
NAS caught up with this member of the 2019 Chief Executive Program and asked what they’re most proud of about their work right now.
“Returning to a question I asked a group of teachers several years ago: ‘Do your lessons love your students?'” Mariah said. “It’s building awareness and being adopted by the educators we work with as a core inquiry that guides instruction, learning culture, and school systems and procedures.”
The online series Studio Pathways has designed use this as the throughline in their work. “Witnessing the wisdom of my teaching and life experiences to create a framework, methodology, and learning experience for educators, is sheer delight,” Mariah said. “Witnessing teachers return week after week to declare that they’ve centered the narratives, figures, and histories reflective of their students and watching how they shift practices to teach through the arts is a joy much like teaching a child to read, a new world of possibilities emerge.”
Like many Americans who have spent the past year quarantining, social distancing, and taking precautions to limit their exposure to and possible spread of the COVID-19 virus, Mariah shared that she struggles with missing the opportunities to gather with people. “I miss museums,” she said “I miss traveling so much!”
Have an organization or school in mind that could benefit from working with Studio Pathways? Spread the word! “Share with your education departments, ask questions,” Mariah suggested for people interested in partnering. “Invite us to your conference or institute. The work is beautiful.” You can reach out to Studio Pathways directly too, where Mariah is always available to chat and engage in thought partnership, “I love learning with folks, thinking with folks, and collaborating,” she added.
Keep up with Studio Pathways on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
