“An adventure filled with wonder and curiosity” – Monica Acosta reflects on their Kurcz Fund project

When Teaching Artist Monica Acosta was awarded the 2021 Katie Kurcz Memorial Fund grant, they knew they wanted to take a deep dive into the relationship between visual arts and music.

The Kurcz Memorial Fund, created in honor of Snow City Arts Auxiliary Board founding member Katie Kurcz, gives Snow City Arts’ Teaching Artists an opportunity to pursue professional learning or collaborative projects outside of the hospital environment and across multiple disciplines. These projects enhance their artistic practice as well as their work in the hospital setting.

Monica encouraged each of their students to respond to a favorite song with a visual pattern of colors and shapes, forming something like a tapestry. This involved pairing the colors of the rainbow with low, middle, and high sound frequencies, or the musical notes C, D, E, F, and G, depending on student preference. Students were then given the option to paint their pattern, create a video composition using flashlights with colored lenses, or, for those with limited mobility, use a laser affixed to a headband to choose paint composed on a canvas.

Researching this project encouraged Monica to step out of their comfort zone – visual arts – and start exploring music. They say that researching an artistic discipline they hadn’t known they were interested in, and seeing an idea come to fruition, was a “truly amazing opportunity.”

Without the Kurcz Fund, they say, they never would have thought of all of the outcomes that happen when combining two disciplines. They compare it to a child shaking a can of soda and wondering what would happen if they pop the lid. “Kurcz, in a sense, is like the push that says ‘go ahead, pop the lid, see what happens.'” Because their Kurcz Fund project made space for that exploration of curiosity, they and their students experienced an “explosion of concepts and ideas.” 

While working with their students, Monica also found that each workshop transformed their original ideas – with wonderful results. When one student found that none of the pre-selected options resonated with them, they took their own path – teaching Monica more about the freedom of true collaboration. They note that each workshop became “a building block of how the next workshop would be executed.”

As the project was underway, Monica experienced the passing of their mother. Reflecting on this personal hardship, they say, “Coming back from that journey changed how I approached many things in life, including my art practice.” Experiencing this change in tandem with the collaborative changes in the student workshops, Monica was able to tap into imagination from another angle, combining music and visual arts into a multi-sensory experience using sound, sight, smell, taste and touch.

Monica is grateful for everything that the project – and their students – taught them, and for the opportunity to experience the pure excitement of unbridled creativity alongside their students every day. “The interaction we have with the youth is an adventure filled with wonder and curiosity,” they say.

Want to help teaching artists like Monica expand their own practice and create innovative new workshops for Snow City Arts students? Donate to the Katie Kurcz Memorial Fund today! 

You can explore all our teaching artists’ biographies on our Staff page, and check out the other incredible projects that our Kurcz Fund recipients have done over the years on our Awardee page.