> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Lessons From a Children’s Art Teacher - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/lessons-from-a-childrens-art-teacher/ - Published: 2026-02-12T11:00:43.000Z - Updated: 2026-02-12T17:21:30.000Z - Description: Amy Sherald’s solo show breaks attendance records, remembering artists we lost this week, and an exhibition proves critical theory doesn’t have to be a snore. - Author: Hyperallergic - Tags: Daily Newsletter, Newsletter The world is in desperate need of sensitive, caring art teachers who are as eager to learn as they are to instruct, and Mónica Palma is a shimmering example of just such a teacher. The Mexican-born, Brooklyn-based artist and educator reflects today on the lessons she learned from teaching art to young children. As some of the hundreds of children at ICE's horrific Dilley detention center in Texasshare testimonies this week, I can't stop thinking about one clay workshop she organized for children who had recently migrated from Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. They immediately associated the clay with the dangerous crossing through the jungle to reach the United States. As an educator, Palma followed their lead and allowed the clay to become a medium for working, kneading, and processing memory. "The children were holding two stories in their bodies: one that narrated a harrowing experience, another that cultivated fantasy and joy," she writes. *—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/MPalma3-1-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/teaching-children-taught-me-how-to-be-an-artist/) Mónica Palma, “Vaho/**Fog*″ (2025) at Underdonk Gallery in the Lower East Side (image courtesy the artist) ### [Teaching Children Taught Me How to Be an Artist](https://hyperallergic.com/teaching-children-taught-me-how-to-be-an-artist/) "When I stopped and studied the way children were using their mouths, I was mesmerized," writes Palma, whose work beautifully explores language, lineage, and memory, often through the use of her own body and mouth. She observed that bites, sounds, licks, and tastings were her students' way of processing and interacting with their surroundings in a way language cannot. It struck her as a principle she could borrow as an artist: "I took that intimacy and revelation with me and brought it into my art." --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/Hyperallergic-Announcement---F-C_-All-2.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/vilcek-foundation-awards-five-immigrants-250000-for-fashion-documentation/) ****Vilcek Foundation Awards Five Immigrants $250,000 for Fashion Documentation** Tanya Meléndez-Escalante, Diego Bendezu, Jalan and Jibril Durimel, and Natalie Nudell received the 2026 Vilcek Prizes in Fashion & Culture for their contributions to fashion representation. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/vilcek-foundation-awards-five-immigrants-250000-for-fashion-documentation/) --- ## News [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/sherald-ecclesia.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/amy-sheralds-show-sets-visitor-record-at-baltimore-museum-of-art/) Amy Sherald, “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons)” (2024) (image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth) - Amy Sherald's exhibition *American Sublime* made headlines last year after the National Portrait Gallery reportedly attempted to censor her painting of a Black trans woman. Now, with 63,000 visitors and counting, it's the [best-attended show at the Baltimore Museum of Art since 2000](https://hyperallergic.com/amy-sheralds-show-sets-visitor-record-at-baltimore-museum-of-art/). - Photographer Jerry McMillan, a stalwart of the LA art scene and pioneer of photo-sculpture, [died on Tuesday at age 89](https://hyperallergic.com/jerry-mcmillan-whimsical-chronicler-of-las-art-scene-dies-at-89/). - Debra Wimpfheimer was named [executive director of the Queens Museum](https://hyperallergic.com/debra-wimpfheimer-named-executive-director-of-queens-museum/), succeeding Sally Tallant, who held the position for seven years. --- ## From Our Critics [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/cd-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/a-surprisingly-enjoyable-show-about-critical-theory/) A work from Melvin Edwards’s **Lynch Fragments* series (begun 1963) in **Echo Delay Reverb: American Art, Francophone Thought* at Palais de Tokyo (photo Cat Dawson/**Hyperallergic*) ### [A Surprisingly Enjoyable Show About Critical Theory](https://hyperallergic.com/a-surprisingly-enjoyable-show-about-critical-theory/) *Echo Delay Reverb*’s exploration of the influence of French critical theory on American art finds inspiration in diasporic thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire. | Cat Dawson --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/KAPOW-Naoto_Nakagawa_2026_Still_Life_With_Wine_Opener_Lemon_and_Pomegranate-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/naoto-nakagawa-2026-is-on-view-at-kapow/) ****Naoto Nakagawa 2026 Is on View at KAPOW** The Lower East Side gallery presents new works by an artist who has shown in major US museums since the 1960s. The exhibition is open through February 22. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/naoto-nakagawa-2026-is-on-view-at-kapow/) --- ## Art Problems [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/paddy-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/art-problems-should-i-sell-my-work-to-people-whose-politics-i-hate/) Can I make it in the art market without selling my soul? (edit Shari Flores/**Hyperallergic*) ### [Should I Sell My Work to People Whose Politics I Hate?](https://hyperallergic.com/art-problems-should-i-sell-my-work-to-people-whose-politics-i-hate/) In an art market flush with conservative collectors, it might seem challenging to avoid selling work to patrons with abhorrent politics. But art advice columnist Paddy Johnson explains that artists have more agency than they think to do the right thing. "You might need sales to survive, but any given collector is usually replaceable," she writes in the latest Art Problems. --- ## In Memoriam [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/pete-felten-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-ted-berger-christopher-white-and-hudson-talbott/) Pete Felten (photo @lifeiswildphoto via [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUbixD3kR-l/?img%5Findex=2&ref=hyperallergic.com); screenshot Lisa Yin Zhang/**Hyperallergic*) ### [Remembering Ted Berger, Christopher White, and Hudson Talbott](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-ted-berger-christopher-white-and-hudson-talbott/) This week, we honor a devoted patron of the arts, the director of the Ashmolean, and a beloved children’s book illustrator. --- ## Member Comment Tati on Adam Broomberg's “[Israel’s Plan to Artwash Genocide at the Venice Biennale](https://hyperallergic.com/israels-plan-to-artwash-genocide-at-the-venice-biennale/)": Brilliant article. At the Adelaide Writers Festival, writers withdrew due to the exclusion of a Palestinian writer. So many writers boycotted that the festival was cancelled. I have to wonder why all the artists who signed the request for exclusion of Israel don't refuse to participate. That would be a true sign of resistance. Commenting privileges are reserved for paid members. [Join us today](https://hyperallergic.com/membership/#/portal/account/plans)! --- ## From the Archive [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/02/arewa-b-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/arewa-basit-amy-sherald-portrait-alchemizing-trans-joy/) Arewà Basit (photo by and courtesy Bryson Piscetelli) ### [Arewà Basit on Her Amy Sherald Portrait and Alchemizing Trans Joy](https://hyperallergic.com/arewa-basit-amy-sherald-portrait-alchemizing-trans-joy/) “How people are perceiving me is not my business,” the performance artist and model told *Hyperallergic*. “What I can do to make the world a better place is my business.” | Ridikkuluz