Garage Tour & Big Ideas: Virtual Workshop with Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Day School

I recently had the absolute joy of connecting with a classroom at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Day School for a special virtual workshop!

The meeting was organized by their wonderful teacher, Nicole, who featured me as a visiting artist in their classroom because of my documentary photography series on Female Mechanics. Nicole wanted to spark a conversation with the kids about gender roles and show them firsthand that women can be auto mechanics—and anything else they set their minds to!

We met via Zoom right from my garage. The kids got a live tour of the space, complete with a car up on the lift, and I walked them through some of the tools I use every day. They were full of curiosity and had so many thoughtful questions about cars, tools, motorcycles, and my art series:

Questions from the Class:

• Molly: “What’s your favorite part of the car?”
• Francesca: “Will you ever ride your motorcycle to New York?”
• Kelly: “What’s your favorite part of the car to work on?”
• Maxwell: “How do you fix the doors (on the car)?”
• Lukas: “Do you work under cars? What tools do you use?”
• Charlie: “How long have you had your motorcycle for?”
• Annabel & Veera: “How do you fix the wheels (on a car)?”
• Raphaela: “How can you become a mechanic?”
• Parker: “How many mechanics did you meet when you were taking the pictures of all the people?”
• Jack: “How do you pack your suitcase, and all that stuff, and bags under your motorcycle?”
• Beatrice: “Do you like motorcycles or cars to fix in the auto body shop?”
• John: “Can you tell us more about exhaust pipes?”
• Cosima: “How far do you go on your motorcycle?”
• Class Questions: “Have you ever made a car before?” & “How long does it take to fix a car?”

After our garage session, the students put their own creativity to work! Inspired by our conversation and the photo series, they made drawings capturing their take on mechanics, tools, and cars.

A huge thank you to Nicole and the brilliant students at MAPCDS for welcoming me into their learning space and sharing their creativity!