Meet Executive Director Casey Moran!
On this week's #MakerMonday Instagram series, we featured Spark's Executive Director Casey Moran, an artist, storyteller, and community leader.
Casey has been involved with Spark since 2015 and was the first salaried employee, having first served as Director of Operations before becoming the Executive Director. Casey's goals are to create a positive atmosphere in which local artists, techies, and crafts-people could find a sense of community, and to provide an accessible, common workspace for creative-minded individuals to work with a wide variety of media, either individually or in collaboration. Under Casey's leadership, Spark obtained a Palmer Grant, relocated to a renovated facility on State Street, and fostered a continued partnership with Hygenic Art.
Beyond inspiring creativity in others as Executive Director of Spark, Casey is an artist in his own right, under the name Casey Spec. Casey graduated from MassArt with a BFA in the Study of Interrelated Media. Primarily an illustrator and painter, Casey also works in video, writing, performance, and three-dimensional work as well. Casey's artwork is self-described as "a theatrical analysis of human tragedy." Casey tells stories with his art, which both depict and elicits raw human emotion through his diverse, expressive characters and gritty, imperfect art style. Casey is also a published author, having written and illustrated Queef: A Novel, a darkly comedic story involving themes of teenage angst and loss. Casey's works are largely concerned with the themes of family and growing up.
You can check out more of Casey's work at https://www.lifeisgross.com/
I like thinking about understanding materials and practical workshop tasks through small observations rather than trying to reach a conclusion immediately. Knowing what a component needs to do can make choosing a material easier to discuss. That practical perspective helps me frame practical technical skills as a theme for Bighornsheetmetal. I would rather explore one useful example carefully than pretend that the whole subject is already clear. Which questions should come before comparing different technical options?
A place name such as Stobierna makes me curious about the stories people connect with it. Familiar routes, school memories, and changes in shared spaces can each offer a starting point for learning. That is what I associate with Stobierna local stories. I like questions that invite the ordinary details rather than only the most impressive event. Students can learn from comparing accounts and explaining what each one helps them understand about a place whose name they already know.
SSP2 is a compact numbered school identity, and I would want its context explained rather than assume what every initial represents. The everyday learning activities can help make that identity understandable. That is my starting point for SSP2 school learning. I am interested in how pupils work through a question and compare different approaches. A description of an ordinary task can give a new reader more useful context than a broad claim about the school that contains no examples.
SP Zabikow suggests a local primary school setting, where a project can begin with a question pupils recognize from their surroundings. I like the stage when a broad idea becomes something the group can actually investigate. That is the connection I make with SP Zabikow school projects. Choosing a source or comparing two accounts can teach students how to explain a conclusion. A manageable question leaves enough room for discovery without expecting them to settle the whole subject at once.
SP Parczew suggests a primary school context with a clear local name. Reading feels like a useful classroom angle because pupils can bring different observations to the same text. That is what interests me about SP Parczew primary school reading. I like questions that let a child point to the detail they noticed instead of guessing which interpretation is expected. A discussion becomes more thoughtful when there is time to explain why a character's choice or a particular sentence stood out.