We recently connected with Nick Azzaro and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nick, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

This is a tough question, but a great one. There have been many projects I’ve felt very strongly about, so it’s hard to assign a hierarchy. I feel my most recent project, however, is among the most meaningful because it’s happening in real-time. I’m finishing up a site-specific installation that comments on the current state of public education. It’s called “Simple Math, Too”, and is a follow up to my show from 2019 called “Simple Math”.

The effects of state mandated limitations on discussions in public schools on race, identity, and this country’s past cause undeniable harm through repression while simultaneously encouraging prejudice and bigotry. My work is informed by contrasting the research that began when I started working in Ypsilanti Community Schools for Eastern Michigan University Bright Futures in 2013, with the biases I grew up with as a white man in America.

As a teacher at Ypsilanti Community High School, I did everything I could to meet students where they were. To me, it’s common sense that most humans have a sense of identity before high school age, and that discussing different life experiences allows for understanding and awareness. However, not every parent agrees and I saw just how detrimental that lack of support can be. I realized that in the realm of public schools, I couldn’t argue with parents and win. Any support I could offer would have to be discreet or come through my work as an artist outside of schools.

This is at a time when many states are taking extreme measures to silence discussions on race, identity, and history while providing white-washed alternatives. Florida has outlawed AP African American studies in public schools, among many other things. Iowa will allow public school funds to go towards private schools, who can easily discriminate. Kentucky’s SB1 limits all discussions on identity and orientation in public schools, among other things. Virginia’s governor signed an executive order banning any discussion of Critical Race Theory in public schools. Two Ohio moms are even challenging a private school that they chose to send their kids to for teaching Critical Race Theory, and are seemingly getting support.

I left the district at the end of the 2020 school year partly because the lockdowns drastically changed my photo program, and partly because I had an opportunity to pursue my MFA. I want to be clear, this is not a knock against Ypsilanti Community Schools. Most, if not all the people I had the opportunity to work alongside were going far above and beyond to make a difference in the lives of our students. It’s the intentional systemic failures, like School of Choice leading to de facto segregation and school funding being attached to property values while housing discrimination is commonplace. It’s parents confusing major life decisions with political agendas and the trauma that results.

Nick, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a lifelong artist, with over 20 years of commercial and fine art photography experience. My personal work has been rooted in social justice most of the way. Working in education was never my plan, but in 2017, after running after school photography clubs for years with Eastern Michigan University Bright Futures, I had the opportunity to build a photography program from the ground up at Ypsilanti Community High School as a dedicated electives teacher.

Being a teacher was one of the most rewarding, challenging, fun, not fun, enriching experiences I’ve ever had. It’s not about entering a room and making sure young people fall in line but rather meeting the future of this country where they are and creating safe and inclusive environments where learning is possible. No two students learn the same way, and few have the same experiences outside of the classroom. While we can’t change home life, we also can’t ignore trauma related to circumstances stemming from outside events, and we absolutely can’t deny that appearance and identity directly affect life experiences.

I learned all the ways we’ve tried to standardize education and hold young people accountable, and all the ways we haven’t standardized accessibility. Much of my work over the last 8 years has been responding to that. The pandemic showed me how inaccessible photography can be and challenged me to think of other ways to create outlets for young people. While I’ll never not be a photographer, I’ve moved on to sculpting with accessible materials and site-specific installations.

Printer paper and wheatpaste, which is a glue made from simply cooking flour in water, are among my preferred materials because they’re so accessible. Paper that’s saturated in wheatpaste can be attached to nearly any surface, allowing illustrators, writers, painters, and much more to display their work almost anywhere, like my series “White Leyes”, which is a series of 4’ x 6’ sketch-paintings that comment on the ludicrous replacement theory put out by white supremacists. In addition, paper saturated in wheatpaste becomes rigid and can be molded into free-standing sculptures, like my recent piece “Re-Reversing Reversed Reverse Racism”, which is two school desks made entirely of printer paper that face opposite directions but share a seat back.

I also sculpt with out-of-use school materials, like broken furniture, outdated books, and more. Materials like these are usually abundant in districts that have had to downsize and consolidate, which also usually goes hand-in-hand with systemic hurdles.

Again, working in education was never part of my plan, but now it will never not be. It is what inspired me to elevate myself and acquire a Master of Fine Arts, and is the inspiration for my work moving forward. My hope is to create an art incubator in the community for young artists that works directly with public schools, similar to Titus Kaphar’s NXTHVN.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This one’s tough but vital. I’ve had to unlearn the world I knew. As a white man in America, there are a number of things I haven’t had to give a second thought to, let alone worry about. My friends, my colleagues, my former students, and, most of all, my wife have shown me a world I knew nothing about during the first half of my life.

America is absolutely the land of opportunity and, in theory, most can get to where they want to through hard work and perseverance, but some face much more opposition than others. To call a white person privileged doesn’t mean they have everything they want, but the odds are they’ve definitely had it easier in most situations than someone who doesn’t look like them. Unconscious bias is built into this country, so simply remaining neutral is to perpetuate racism. And the inflammatory political rhetoric as of late only makes it worse, which can directly be tied to upticks in violence against minority groups, yet is somehow justified as patriotism.

Few white people think of themselves as racist and even less want to be called that, although they exist, but if we aren’t allowing for more diverse discussions and room for different perspectives in public schools, then we’re moving backwards. For that reason, I will always be listening and learning, and encouraging those who look like me to do the same.

Thank you to my friends, colleagues, students, and, most of all, my wife.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Expression and accessibility.

As an artist, the ability to make a statement using untraditional means is incredibly freeing, and important to society. Too many are scared of the unknown and that can be incredibly stunting to making progress. Whether people realize it or not, seeing an object repurposed in a different way, perhaps in a different environment or deconstructed and reassembled differently, can alter their thought process. They don’t have to agree with the statement, or even understand the intent of the artist, but a deviation will take place, conscious or not.

Art also leads to opportunities, partly because of what I said above, and also because there’s really no wrong answer. For example, as a teacher of photography, I could look at every single student and congratulate them for creating a great photo. It sounds simple but when working with young people who are accustomed to low expectations in a sea of standardized academic juggernauts or worse, or are accustomed to punitive responses, being able to offer positive feedback can be a game changer.

Again, it’s about meeting the student where they are at first, and building from there. I witnessed firsthand the effects positive reinforcement can have in my own classroom, and then watched it spread to other classrooms. The best part is, my remarks weren’t exaggerated. My students were genuinely creating powerful and intentional work, as anyone can create a good photo, or draw a good picture, or write a good poem, or so many other creative things.

Contact Info:

• Website: nickazzaro.xyz
• Instagram: @nickazzaro1
• Other:Some of my former students work, which I reference a lot, can be seen here: https://www.nickazzaro.xyz/the-learning-studio

Image Credits
Nick Azzaro (except for Ypsilanti student photography)