ABOUT AMANDA
Amanda N. Simons (b. 1984, Flint Michigan, USA) is a visual artist, writer, educator, and safety advocate whose interdisciplinary art practice currently explores the intersections of queer identity, and experience-based learning.
MY ART PRACTICE
I have a deep interest in my body’s relationship to the physical world.
As a neurodiverse, chronically-ill, queer individual, my body is often a site of conflict. I am constantly asking myself, “how have I been taught to act, or life, or move? And what happens when I push against that?” My interdisciplinary art practice is a record of this push, and takes the form of many things: paintings, print, sculpture, personal narrative, video, performance and social practice.
My teaching practice is an inseparable extension of my art practice. I view my direct work with students as not only social advocacy, but as a long term, ongoing social practice project that helps express a facet of my art that still sculpture simply cannot.
For the last decade, I’ve been teaching folks age 5 to 85 how to use dangerous tools and make interesting things safely, both physically and emotionally. I focus my work on the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodivergent students, the disabled community, folks with physical differences, English Language Learners, and underserved populations pursuing skills in typically exclusive fields like woodworking and metalworking.
FIND MY WORK
Torched AVL Gallery
1056 Haywood Rd, Suites A+B
Asheville, NC, 28806
torchedavl.com
Asheville Art Museum Store
2 South Pack Square
Asheville, NC 28801
ashevilleart.org
FOSTERING SAFER SPACES FOR MAKING
I have developed a number of strategies for creating more accessible and accommodating educational studio experiences for students, and I am always eager to teach these strategies to other educators and program directors.
Universal design principles and universal design for learning strategies are central to welcoming more and different people into our shops and classrooms. I have developed staff trainings focused on inclusive and consent-based language that can help teachers guide their students using design inquiry strategies. I can help you learn to work directly with under-served students, using a framework and language that supports their needs while integrating their accommodations into the classroom, rather than singling them out.
I have taught equity strategies to educators both nationally and internationally through a number of conferences, workshops, and direct consulting opportunities. Past and current collaborators include Institute for Applied Tinkering, Student Shop Managers Consortium, Torched AVL, Smith College, and Maine College of Art and Design.