Hannah Banwell (Visual Arts 2020) Guest Teaches at Perpich with University of Minnesota Program

December 4, 2025

Hannah Banwell (Visual Arts 2020) returned to the Perpich campus on December 4, 2025, for the first time since March, 2020 when the pandemic closed schools across Minnesota just two months before graduation. Hannah wasn’t the student this time, but instead was the teacher, joined by three colleagues in the University of Minnesota’s Arts in Education licensure program, along with Professor Betsy Maloney Leaf, co-License Program Lead in the Arts in Education program.

Hannah Banwell (Visual Arts 2020) (right) is joined by her colleagues in the University of Minnesota’s Arts in Education licensure program

Banwell, Jerome McRoy, Lucy Polyak, and Miracle Rogers-Campbell are enrolled in the University of Minnesota’s Arts in Education licensure program which is a graduate pathway toward K-12 dance, theater, or visual art licensure and an M.Ed. It’s a one-year program, and the graduate students who were teaching at Perpich were completing the second of the three semesters of course work.

“In partnership with my colleague, Iyekiyapwin Darlene St. Clair, who teaches in the Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD) program at the U, students enrolled in the arts in education program have spent three months learning about Native identity in schools, especially in arts programs, and have worked on developing culturally-relevant lesson plans that address the MN Academic Standards in the Arts, Standard 10, which acknowledges the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities,” said Maloney Leaf. “Students met frequently with Darlene to think about Native identity in K-12 schools, but also had the opportunity to collaborate with two local Minnesota Native artists: Jennie Kappanman and Ernest Briggs. Students designed original curriculum for middle and high school students in conjunction with Kappanman and Briggs and then implemented the lesson material in local schools, including at Perpich.”

Hannah and her colleagues led a lesson that focused on poetry by Native authors paired with animation and music. Students viewed the materials, discussed the components of the pieces, and then analyzed the work in small groups.

The University of Minnesota offers robust Arts in Education programs through its College of Education & Human Development. The M.Ed. in Arts in Education with K-12 Teaching License is an intensive, 12-month, full-time graduate program for visual arts, dance, or theater, integrating theory with practice and focusing on anti-racist curriculum to prepare teachers for classrooms.