The Beating Heart of A School: Metropolitan Learning Center’s Art Room

October 11, 202416 Mins Read

Students’ masks greet visitors to the Multnomah Learning Center auditorium. Photo Cibyl Kavan — *Students’ masks greet visitors to the Multnomah Learning Center auditorium. Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan*

An art education teacher in Portland, Cibyl E. Kavan writes about teaching art in Oregon’s classrooms for Oregon Arts Watch.

Late last school year, I had the privilege to talk with Ned Hascall, the visual art teacher at Metropolitan Learning Center, an alternative school in NW Portland. When I arrived at MLC in mid-June, the 2023/24 school year was winding down. Hascall only had a few classes that week – one group of high school students and a class of kindergarteners.

THE ART OF LEARNING: An Occasional Series

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The interior of MLC is adorned with murals designed and painted by many generations of high school students. On the main floor there is a display of multimedia masks by middle school students. Indeed, the entire school building is covered in student-designed artwork by different generations of students, reflecting the emphasis the school places on empowered, child-centered, experiential learning.

Artwork by present and past MLC students fill the walls of the school. Photo: Cibyl Kavan — *Artwork by present and past MLC students fill the walls of the school. Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan*

Two flights of wide stairs lead me down to the Art Room. There are murals in this short hallway, as well. Hascall is busy starting to sort student artwork, monitoring the last clay projects and prepping an easy, end of school art project for the kindergarteners. To the left of the art room door, just beyond the cubby shelves, are three pottery wheels, a kiln, a large sink, and an area holding ceramic tools and clay projects. As this is the end of the year, a long table at the back of the classroom has multiple stacks of paper and artwork. There are also several small etching presses located nearby and four long work tables for students are in the center of the room. It looks and feels like an art studio!

During my visit, the high school students were wrapping up independent project work for their final grades. For this capstone project, students were to choose two projects based on the whole year’s worth of teaching of materials and methods, from life drawing to printmaking, from ceramics to textiles. One student was immersed in her ceramic project at the pottery wheel during my visit, while another student was wrapping up a painting project. For the last kindergarten class, Hascall had students creating layered tissue paper collages exploring warm/cool colors.

Metropolitan Learning Center

Metropolitan Learning Center is the oldest alternative focus school in the Portland Public Schools system. Housed in the old Couch School on NW Glisan, MLC was started in 1968 by two Portland teachers, Emil Abramovic and Abe Bialotsky. MLC has, for over 50 years, been an environment in which young people develop a powerful sense of ownership in their school activity and in their own learning.

*The Multnomah Learning Center in Northwest Portland. Photo: Courtesy of Portland Public Schools*

The school has deep roots in another time of rapid change and re-thinking of how children learn and grow. MLC, with its history of student-centered choice and empowered decision-making, allowing youth to develop their own pathways to learning, was initially modeled after Summerhill Independent School and the work of British educator and pedagogical philosopher, A.S. Neill. Since at least the early 2000’s, MLC has also incorporated the Storyline Method of instruction. Developed in Scotland in 1965, this pedagogical framework invites students into an inquiry and project-based environment that provides a structured approach to learning, catalyzing students’ enthusiasm and storymaking capacities.

The culture of MLC centers the child in his or her own exploration of education and meaning-making, with adults functioning as collaborators, guides, and co-creators of a democratic learning community. While MLC has evolved in the 56 years since its inception, it remains an essential and vital place of alternative K-12 education in Portland.

The Arts at MLC

MLC is a relatively small school with only 60 students in the high school and an overall student population of about 350. In addition to Ned Hascall teaching visual arts, this year there are both music and drama teachers. The Summerhill philosophy of student-centered choice pertains to the art classes as well as general education classes, with each semester middle and high school students choosing which art path they would like to take for that term – visual arts, music, or drama.

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Hascall teaches a class in the much-loved Betty’s Room, the art classroom at MLC. Photo: Cibyl Kavan — *Hascall teaches a class in the much-loved Betty’s Room, the art classroom at MLC. Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan*

The art room at MLC is affectionately known as “Betty’s Room,” named after a much beloved, founding faculty member and art teacher, Betty Mayther. During Mayther’s tenure, the art room was known as the “beating heart of MLC.” Located in the basement, yet with large windows to the south and west, the art room is a light-filled and capacious working studio. The room bears evidence of years of creativity – indeed, the kind of gestalt that can infuse a space that has been a locus of creative teaching and learning, art experimentation and making.

Ned Hascall, art teacher

Ned Hascall has been teaching in Portland Public schools for 24 years, including 20 years as a 6th grade teacher at MLC and, since 2022, as the K-12 art teacher. He holds a BFA in painting from University of Washington, studying under Jacob Lawrence and Michael Stafford. In 2011 he earned his Masters of Education from Portland State University.

Ned Hascall, K-12 art teacher at Multnomah Learning Center. Photo: Courtesy of Portland Public Schools — *Ned Hascall, the K-12 art teacher at Multnomah Learning Center. Photo: Courtesy of Portland Public Schools*

Even while in art school, he felt certain that he wanted to teach and work with children, despite well meaning advisors who cautioned him about the impact this could have on his own art practice, as well as how difficult it is to teach children. He went on to earn his Certificate of Teaching in 1998 and began his teaching career in Seattle. He moved to Portland in 2000 and was first hired at Gregory Heights Middle School in NE Portland.

In 2004 a 6th grade teaching position opened up at MLC and Hascall jumped at the chance to work in an alternative environment that aligned more closely with his teaching values and personal learning styles, which embraced the Scottish Storyline method as his primary curricular planning tool. Even while Ned was teaching 6th grade classes at MLC, he also taught art electives at the school. But after the challenges of the pandemic and online learning, Hascall was very excited to take on teaching art full-time in 2022. “I was ready for a change and the art teacher opportunity really excited me.”

His methodology

The elements of art and principles of design form the foundation of Hascall’s art classroom. The “elements of art” refer to the basic visual components that artists use to create a piece, including line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space. Essentially, these are the building blocks of any artwork, like the ingredients in a recipe. The “principles of art” are how those elements are arranged and combined to create a composition. “This is the umbrella or skeleton around which everything else lands on,” he explains. These foundational elements are also used as an organizational technique. For instance, the colored pencils are organized by warm and cool colors. Hascall finds that organizing materials like this or having readily visible reference materials, such as an installation of paint chips on the wall, also arranged in warm and cool colors, allows the art room to have some sense of structural continuity. It also offers integrated lessons about basic concepts and a shared language that all the students can develop.

*Getting a feel for color. Photo: Ned Hascall*

Middle School students did a project on animals where they took scientific illustrations that they traced and then added color. The lesson involved observations, discussion, and practice about how cool colors recede while warm colors come forward. Upper elementary explored form and line through a wire and fabric sculpture. Hascall explains that the elements and principles “create a useful language for talking about the things you use to create art, the choices you make with your art, and how things are put together.”

A student learns perspective through drawing. Photo: Ned Hascall

Although there are commonalities between art professionals, every teacher has his or her own unique perspective, style, and goals. For Hascall, an essential question or guiding principle that drives his teaching is “how do you allow your own creative self to exist, your fragile, tiny flame of creativity that’s always burning, to not get snuffed out?” Another goal is to have a sense of love for all the work that the children make, “even if, maybe especially if, it’s not conventionally perfect.” At the beginning of the year, Hascall introduces the kindergarteners to the books “Beautiful Oops” and “The Book of Mistakes”. These stories become both a springboard into exploration and making, as well as a framework for students to become comfortable making mistakes and trying again and again.

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Encouraging students to fail

Hascall’s generous and warmhearted perspective provides the space for children to know that they are okay, that their art is okay. His “prime directive” over 24 years of teaching has been to create and nourish a safe place where a child’s perspective, knowledge, and interests are valued. And when it comes to the goals and meaning of the art classroom, he states emphatically that “I am looking for the energy and majesty, the authenticity in a child’s artwork.”

Younger students can create clay sculptures. Photo: Ned Hascall — *Younger students create can clay sculptures. Photo: Ned Hascall*

In contrast to conventional wisdom, Hascall also feels that one of his main objectives in the art room is to encourage his students to fail. “I want students to learn that failure is not only okay, but really the only possible way to genuinely learn,” he explains. “Trying, falling short, reassessing, and trying again. Nothing is more important to me than imparting to students that it’s okay to not be perfect. That they’re not supposed to be perfect in this environment.”

Hascall also brings a wide-ranging background in art history into the art classroom. This knowledge base, combined with a palpable sense of passion for the subject, helps him make meaningful connections and associations for students. For instance, in observing the emerging voice of the young artist in their artwork, Hascall can point the student to resources or avenues for further exploration. “I might observe things in a student’s work and be able to say ‘oh, you might find Agnes Martin’s work interesting.”

Hascall points out the unique and personal masks his 8th grade students created this past year. Photo: Cibyl Kavan — *Hascall points out the unique and personal masks his 8th grade students created this past year. Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan*

Recently a student who was new to the classroom was adding some interesting elements to her identity mask that immediately brought to mind things Hascall has seen in Inuit art. After he shared this with the student, she felt validated and shared her Inuit heritage with him. Hascall feels “being able to make connections to other artists or contextualize works of art or art movements, or having a wide range of understanding of different cultural and ethnic motifs, is a strength I bring to the art classroom that helps my students see their own explorations as part of the continuity of art history.”

Middle grade students begin their exploration of self-expression with masks. Photo: Cibyl Kavan — *Students begin their mask-making by responding to the question “What are the masks we wear as we go about our lives?” Photos: Ned Hascall*

Students begin their mask-making by responding to the question “What are the masks we wear as we go about our lives?” Photo: Ned Hascall — *Students begin their mask-making by responding to the question “What are the masks we wear as we go about our lives?” Photos: Ned Hascall*

He is also committed to teaching his students the basics about materials, tools, and techniques. “Materials matter,” he points out. “They are interesting in and of themselves.” For example, kindergarten or lower elementary lessons might include explorations of collage, white Conté crayon, chalk, or oil pastel on black drawing paper. One project this year was looking at the aurora borealis. Students watched a video about the borealis and discussed what they saw. Then they used liquid watercolors in shades of green, pink, and purples on strips of paper. Then each of the individual strips were laid next to each other on black paper to represent the aurora borealis.

*Lower grade elementary students combine science and art to create images of the solar eclipse. Photo: Ned Hascall*

Another way Hascall teaches students how and why materials matter is in making painted paper. For this project, students learn how to make a rich panoply of colors and textures using tempera paint and a variety of mark making tools on sulphite paper. Students are engaged in making their own custom made materials to have as an ongoing resource for other projects in lieu of purchased construction paper.

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Hascall is planning on teaching even more technical skills, such as building his students’ capacity for understanding how your choice of material can impact or influence how you want your artwork to look.

*For project work, elementary students use paint paper instead of construction paper for its deep color and compelling texture. Photo: Ned Hascall*

Creating a curriculum

When an art teacher is responsible for instructing classes for students whose ages range from kindergarten through 12th grade, planning the curriculum for each individual class can be overwhelming. Like many teachers, Hascall’s approach to planning is influenced by the Summerhill model. But there are emotional connections to the material which pull him in deeper. “Planning has always been challenging for me as a teacher,” he notes. “It’s important for me to have emotional strength or a connection to the material for my planning to be most successful. I typically develop units of study, but I also ask students for their feedback, solicit their ideas, and then they will vote on next projects. By hearing from students what they want, we co-create our art projects and planning.”

*Students can break with the regular curriculum to explore other creative forms, such as electronic tablet drawing apps. Photo: Ned Hascall*

In his lesson planning, he works to create opportunities where different students can be successful and find pathways into making. His focus is always on how the whole child can be successful, deserve respect, and access the support they might need. He also uses the designated ethnic history months as a framework to bring a diversity of perspectives into the art room, but notes that “I also don’t stick to just that framework, because sometimes a particular project might have multiple equity touchstones.” For example, Hispanic History Month and Indigenous History Month have many opportunities for meaningful crossover. Within this framework, Hascall observes that Hispanic artist Marela Zacarías’ free form sculptures at Seattle International Airport or the work of Indigenous artist Sara Siestreem’s mixed media work are examples of contemporary artists who are mining the gold of their indigenous heritage to create new artistic vocabularies. This year, high school students were introduced to Marela Zacarias’ work as part of a fresco project. Discussions and projects were developed around traditional plaster fresco and how a contemporary artist can be inspired by a tradition and then go on to reinterpret that tradition.

Integrating art with lessons from the academic classrooms is also part of the arts planning process. For example, he might work with a science teacher’s lessons to develop a visual arts model of a bee, collaborate with the general classroom teachers on creating opportunities for students to work on their individual tasks for a classroom Storyline project, or offer technical and material assistance for other projects the children might have.

*A younger student creates a collage. Photo: Ned Hascall*

Hascall says that while planning effectively has been a challenge for him, he worries less about this now than he did in the past. Instead, he asks himself “how can I capitalize on what I already do well? Some of my superpowers as a teacher are my ability to be spontaneous and responsive to the unfolding moment. What I’d like to be able to do more of is capture this responsiveness through recording or some kind of record keeping of what I’ve done with my students.”

Ned Hascall has been teaching at MLC for 22 years. Photo: Cibyl Kavan — *Ned Hascall has been teaching at MLC for 22 years. Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan*

The Beating Heart of Arts Education

The 2023/2024 school presented some significant challenges for teachers, students, and families due to the Portland Association of Teachers strike that November. “The strike really deeply impacted the art room, our sense of continuity, and our rhythm,” he says. Coming not long after the pandemic, those challenges made it difficult again for everyone. “I often felt like I was building the plane while it was flying,” he recalls.

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As we concluded our conversation, I asked Hascall what his aspirations are for the 2024/2025 school year. With the disruptions of the teacher’s strike now in the past, he is counting on finding the rhythm of a more normal school year. He is also interested in Teaching for Artistic Behaviors, which puts creative decision-making directly in the hands of student artists, by setting up stations in the art room with different materials and prompts.

*Exploring creative ideas through multiple mediums. Photo: Ned Hascall*

In true Summerhill fashion, he wants students to work harder at managing their work, from inception, use of materials, development of techniques to solve their problems, and accountability for cleaning up. “I’d like to help the students achieve more autonomy in the art room, maybe much more like MLC in its early days.”

Most important to his teaching practice, he believes “the students need to know I care about their work. I try to engage them, encourage their investigations. I offer them up front different pathways to discover what it is they want to do within the framework of what I’m currently teaching, but I don’t hold them accountable to my vision.”

As a practicing artist himself, Hascall often works in an intuitive way, letting the work inform his process and next moves. He brings this perspective into the classroom as well: “I try to teach my students that the work itself will develop and transform with your help, that serendipity and chance are good things. Mistakes are opportunities. I think this is one reason why art education is so important. In some ways the stakes are low in the art room in ways they may not be in other places. The fact that mistakes are opportunities is a lesson that’s important to carry over into other places. What we learn through this, relates to the rest of life.”

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