Fund for Teachers Fellow · Summer 2026
I'm Anitra Ashewood, a visual arts teacher at a Title I high school in Houston. This summer I'm traveling to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, and Busan to study how contemporary Asian artists use biological systems, traditional materials, and scientific inquiry as the foundation of their practice, and to bring that learning directly back to my students.
June 23 – 26, 2026
June 26 – July 1, 2026
July 1 – 15, 2026
July 13 – 17, 2026
Why This
Fellowship
My students are curious, multilingual, and deeply engaged with contemporary Asian visual culture, K-pop, K-dramas, anime, Chinese digital art. But in school, that cultural fluency rarely gets treated as a serious entry point into art and science.
This fellowship is about changing that. By studying bio-art practitioners like Anicka Yi and Yunchul Kim in person, experiencing the scale of their installations, sitting in on workshops, talking to craftspeople, I can bring those practices into the classroom in a way that's grounded, honest, and connected to what my students already know.
The goal is a redesigned "Microscopic Worlds" unit for fall 2026, asking students to work with Hanji paper, natural dyes, and Cyanotype chemistry the same way contemporary artists do: as researchers, material testers, and systems thinkers.
Artists & Practitioners
Anicka Yi
Bio-art, olfactory installations, biological systems as artistic medium
Yunchul Kim
Materials science, fluid dynamics, bioluminescence, Seoul-based
Sun Yuan & Peng Yu
Installation art at the intersection of biology, technology, and ethics
Xu Bing
Language, material, and cultural translation, Shanghai archives
Classroom Deliverable
Fall 2026 · Title I Public High School · Houston, TX
Students will work with Hanji paper, natural dyes, and Cyanotype chemistry the same way contemporary artists do, as researchers, material testers, and systems thinkers. The unit draws directly from the bio-art practices and traditional material processes encountered during the fellowship, grounding global contemporary art in the hands of students whose cultural knowledge has too often been left outside the classroom door.
Follow Along
Fellowship Budget · $5,000
Airfare
$1,825
Regional Transport
$250
Lodging
$1,797
Food
$722
Workshops & Museums
$156
Materials & Shipping
$250