Diving into the Archives, Organizing Resources for the TEAACH Act, and Creating a Community Gathering – June Ahleman BFA Painting ’27

Hello everyone! It’s been a couple weeks since my last post and I’m excited to share what I’ve been up to since! This past month has been a very exciting mix of researching for the TEAACH Act and Placemaking Project, assisting with cultural programming, and facilitating a community gathering and workshop.

Engaging With The Placemaking Project

Delving into photographs, historical documents and research papers in Evanston ASPA’s archive has been my favorite part of the internship so far! Part of the reason the Placemaking Project is so important is because it’s filling a large gap in historical records of Evanston’s Asian population. The Placemaking Project is a community archive that gathers historical research and oral histories of Evanston’s Asian community. My objective is to organize the materials in the archive so that they are a more searchable and accessible resource either for educators engaging in the TEAACH Act or through posts on instagram. The materials include photos, documents, publications, artifacts and letters. The TEAACH Act (Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History) is an Illinois act passed in 2021 that mandates that all public elementary and high schools in the state teach a unit of curriculum on the history and contributions of Asian Americans.

The following images are from Evanston ASPA’s historical archive related to articles about: The History of Evanston’s Filipino community, Yamei Kin- the first Chinese woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States, and Wong Aloy- one of the first asian residents in Evanston.

Researching and gathering resources for TEAACH curriculums!

In addition to looking through and organizing some of Evanston ASPA’s archive for k-12 curriculums and social media, I’ve continued to research and catalogue resources to support the TEAACH Act. This work includes: finding existing resources and formatting them in a way that is easy for teachers to drop into their curriculums, putting together a booklist for future projects, and considering how our historical archive can be integrated into k-12 curriculums! While there are existing resources, especially some great ones from Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago and Aligned Resources for Educators, our objective is to make it as easy as possible for educators to implement in their curriculums.

Community Gathering/ Workshop

Finally, besides organizing, researching, and categorizing, I have been continuing to staff the exhibition I mentioned in my last blog post and facilitating a community gathering/ workshop in the gallery space! I wanted to present this event primarily as a space for conversation so I chose sun catchers as an activity that can be adapted to different skill and accessibility levels. Most of my work experience is in art education so I was excited to combine what I know with a focus on cultivating community rather than learning a specific set of skills. The workshop was attended by people of all ages from all over the country. I met so many other college students doing internships in Chicago coming from as far as Texas and Arizona! I was super excited to meet new people, hear everyone’s stories and help Evanston ASPA widen its reach!!

After my event I was able to participate in the following workshop- a collaborative book binding project by Regin Igloria, a local artist and founder and director of North Branch Projects. I had a lot of fun talking to other participants and getting back into bookbinding! I really enjoyed hearing about his work as well as his thoughts on teaching as an artist. I definitely learned a lot both from my experience as a facilitator and participant!

Next Few Weeks

In the next few weeks I will continue working with both the TEAACH Act and Placemaking Project. As well as preparing for and facilitating another workshop Evanston ASPA is holding in collaboration with The Japanese Cultural Center of Chicago as a part of their Cranes for Peace initiative!