Residency
Meet Artist in Residence Niousha Kiarashi
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Niousha Kiarashi is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Tehran, Iran. She holds an MFA in Integrated Practices from Pratt Institute and a BFA from Tehran University of Art and Architecture. Her media- and research-based practices combine science, environmental studies, psychology, and technology. She is passionate about creating alternative and sustainable ways of understanding our surroundings and working with diverse communities to put these experiences into practice.
“I have learned a lot from my past experience working with children and look forward to expanding and sharing my own working practice through their magical world of wonder with this opportunity at Children's Museum of the Arts.”
Sid Miller Academy is a District 75 school providing specialized support for children with disabilities, including Autism, significant cognitive delays, emotional disabilities, and sensory impairments. Sid Miller Academy has a well established involvement with community leaders, offering multicultural programming that celebrates their students and provides lasting life skills.
Niousha as a young artist
Can you describe a fruitful childhood experience that influenced your practice?
I used to sneak in my mother's closet and make costumes out of everything I could find and perform in an imaginary world full of imaginary characters. Still to this day I'm making costumes and trying to create environments to perform within.
Why is it important to make art accessible to all children and families?
Childhood is the most crucial time of our life and makes the most important impacts on us creating our future characters. Creating art and it being accessible for everyone makes everybody able to get more closer to their perceptions of their surroundings and to make a better self. Expressing their characters through art and visualizing them in order to solve more of this complex puzzle of existence.
In your words, what does it mean to be an artist?
To observe everything more carefully and try to connect with deeper aspects of the nature of things to be able to define them in a simple way.
Why is children’s artwork important within the context of art history?
The unconscious understanding of the fundamentals of art that every child has allows them to produce works that could be both the origin and initial steps for becoming a greater artist and change the history of the art.
