Miki Hsu Leavey | On The Move

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*My Story

I am: a painter and arts educator, and a new OTM member who is facinated and inspired by the vision, practices and people who make up On the Move.
I earn my daily bread: as Program Coordinator for OTM's ArtLinks After School program at Salvador Elementary in Napa, CA. I also earn my living from being an abstract painter, exhibitng and selling my artwork throughout the Bay Area, the East Coast and in November of 2008, in Shanghai, China. I am a local arts adovcate and teaching artist, who for the past 30 years,has been working on the ground and in institutions; with students from K-12 in Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco and Marin counties as an Artist-in-the-schools, as the Arts Educator for Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, as an Admission Associate for The Oxbow School, an intensive visual arts program for juniors or seniors in high school, and most recently, as the Curator of Education for Napa Valley Museum. I currently facilitate and design the family art program, "ArtistTree", for the maginificent di Rosa Preserve for Art & Nature in Napa.
Where I’ve come from and where I expect to be in the next 3-5 years: I have spent a very long time being a professional abstract painter and teaching artist. And after many years in Program Design for the Arts, Museum Education, and Coordination, I am expanding my interests towards the next generation of young artists who are interested in sharing and developing their skills for teaching. In 3-5 years I expect to be a more effective advocate of the Arts, to learn Leadership skills for influencing Public Policy and to be a better colleague who has built solid working relationships.I intend to learn how to share my skills and gain new ones by accepting the life training found through OTM's vision, principles and practices.
My story of impact: The impact of my current work at school is focused on bringing the 'greater world out there' to the small worlds of our students through exposure to professional artists, performers and best arts practices and mediums. By brining the visual and literary arts, world music and dance, natural science and environment together, I hope to impact my community by sharing the value and beauty of the Arts and Nature for the greater good; the success of a culturally rich community through personal creativity.