A CHAT WITH BRYN

A CHAT WITH BRYN

WEEKEND INTERN, LAYLA SOUZA, interviews program director, bryn //

What does community mean to you?

That’s such a big question. I feel like that word “community” is one I find myself using a lot. Community to me embodies all of our stakeholders. The community is our students and their families. The community is our teachers, our Board members, our staff. The community is those organizations that we partner with, the folks that live around our buildings – and in a way, even those potential folks that aren’t yet related to the organization who potentially might be in the future. Kiddos who are 7 or 8 and just starting to hear about us. It’s that collective sense of everyone who is tied into arts education and youth development work.

What does leadership within a community mean to you?

I think within Coyote, one of our biggest goals over the last 8 years has been how to advocate for community and intentionally build platforms for their voice to be heard and part of the decision-making process. We’ve also worked really hard within our staff to understand what leadership looks like for us, so one big change that came about in the last 5 years has been domain leadership and implementing advice process decision-making. What that means is, although we do have hierarchical mentorship, we each hold domain leadership over our specific roles and areas of expertise. One of our values is “beginners and experts side by side,” so we can work alongside one another and elevate each other’s strengths. We all have different skillsets that we’re bringing to the table that are essential and valuable to the organization. Without each of them, we don’t run.

What brought you to Coyote Central?

I was a teaching artist doing my thing at Youth in Focus, in my late 20’s, having the time of my life. I started out as a volunteer mentor in the classroom, and the end-of-quarter showcase brought me to tears, and I thought “This is what I’m meant to do!” So eventually I moved into teaching black & white dark room photography, then a little bit of digital photography, but it was only taking up about 6 or 7 hours of my week. My dream big vision was that ALL my eggs were in youth development and youth creative spaces. A fellow teaching artist said they had read a job posting for an Outreach Coordinator at Coyote Central, and when they read it, they said that it looked like they had looked up the word “bryn” in the dictionary. So I applied for that job and got it! I was really thinking with that mindset of community building, access for students, advocating for the voice of families and students. Eventually it grew into a full-time Engagement Manager role, and so on from there!

Can you talk about your relationship with art & education?

Since I was young, I have always been into making and creating. Looking back, all my gifts were handmade. Family members are still wearing sweatshirts that have all these puffy paint graphics on them that I was like “Yeah, you’re gonna love this!” I wrote a letter to my dad in high school saying that I didn’t need to take Calculus and that I should be taking 0 Period Painting instead. So, I took myself seriously, and I also had the support of family to help me create a path forward.

The other main game player in my life as a kid was sports. Often times, those two things are pitted against each other – you’re either a jock or an artist, a “freak” or “mainstream.” I felt really conflicted with that but kept forging on with my interest in both. So, when I went to university and was swimming at Washington State, I wanted to major in Interior Design, because I still had this push from society and my family to get a job that would provide financial security. But, I couldn’t major in that because of scheduling conflicts with swimming! So, I chose Fine Arts thinking that I could apply it to something else later in life. After graduating, I ended up in the interior design world of Color Theory, developing a paint line as part of an internship I’d gotten. As I continued this, I realized that I wanted to be more in the arts world, and I went on an Art Walk and saw some students presenting from Youth in Focus, where I ended up volunteering. It was in that moment that I realized my passion was in that intersection of art, youth, and education.

My family always asks, “How did you learn to be a teacher?” And I think it was an innate interest of mine, but also my grandpa was a teacher, and I spent a ton of time with him as a kid, and so I think I picked up some of that through osmosis. I was also a lifeguard and a swimming lesson instructor as a high schooler. So I look back and see the through line. I’ve been teaching - swimming, then mentoring, then being a teaching artist, and now teaching teachers.

What are the qualities of a good leader?

I think it’s important to be a good listener, to really carve out time to listen. Adding to that, I think asking good questions can reveal where people’s spark and energy is. Each of us are ignited in such different areas, so if you pay attention and ask good questions, you can figure out where everyone’s stoke is.

I’ve also really been considering this idea of urgency, and that we cannot be good leaders when we’re looking to make urgent decisions. That just puts others in a pinch where they can’t actively share their voice and tease through the pros and cons. Also, urgent decisions tend to be one-person decisions. So, I think good leadership is being able to see far enough into the future that you can carve out the space in advance – OR, stepping back and saying that we’re just not going to make that decision right now and are instead going to make space for community input. This might mean that other things need to change or slow down as we make sure that we’re all moving forward together.

The other big lesson I’ve been learning over the past two years has been around protecting capacity. How can we set ourselves up for realistic staffing and programming that allows us to continue to thrive and come to the table with full creativity? How can we make sure we’re not operating solely on heart and passion? If we’re not setting up proper boundaries around our expectations and time, we’re just going to be drained. Good leaders are mindful and proactive about this.

What advice would you give to a new professional stepping into this line of work?

Learn your own capacity! That has been a very hard lesson for me. I tend to be an overextender, a “yes” person. Looking back, I’ve always been like “Yes, this needs to get done. Nobody else wants to do it? I’ll do it, because I have the energy!” And you do, until you don’t. So, it’s important to be mindful of that and really challenge yourself to create balance and advocate for your needs. It’s a skill I wish I could’ve flexed earlier on.

Another one is the Coyote value of being a lifelong learner. I know that when I’ve felt the most frustrated at work is when I wasn’t prioritizing my own learning and education, and there wasn’t space for that wonder and curiosity. I went to this training in Tacoma recently and was able to collaborate with people across the country and other teachers, and I came alive again. Even something as simple as taking the bus there and changing the way I get somewhere, and where I go, brought me back to life. So, I would encourage anyone coming into this field to make sure that you carve out space for your own curiosity and education, and diversify the space you occupy - don’t only get in an echo chamber with the people in your organization. Most importantly, make space for your own passion and joy outside of work!