A CONVERSATION WITH: OUR NEW PROGRAMS STAFF
Our staff is constantly growing and adding new faces to the team. We’re glad to have the opportunity to welcome the newest members of our programs team who are all bringing a whirlwind of passion, creativity, and zest for all things media arts. Read along as we get to know our new program instructors and outreach manager.
Camille Ollivierre (Media Instructor) is a first-generation Vincentian-American multimedia specialist with a passion for animated storytelling through stop motion. She received a BFA in Visual Arts, Animation Concentration from University of Maryland, Baltimore County where she studied under-the-camera techniques and created her own multi-plane camera.
Hailey Jordan (Media Instructor) is a self-taught graphic designer with a BS in Neuroscience and Entrepreneurship from Johns Hopkins University, and trained in human-centered design at the Carey Business School. At the intersection of art and science, Hailey is dedicated to empowering communities by designing visual solutions that make complex concepts more accessible.
Christian Lewis (Media Instructor) is a multi-disciplinary artist and screenwriter residing in Baltimore, Maryland. Graduating from McDaniel College’s Cinema and Music programs, Christian uses the tools of various art forms to make works indebted to the people that came before him and the city that made him.
Jake Saltzberg (Outreach Manager) is a Baltimore photographer with a strong passion for the arts, transportation equity, and community health. After earning his BA in International Business from Dickinson College, he worked in community engagement for a local education nonprofit that connected students with volunteer tutors to improve literacy rates.
What do you like the most about Baltimore?
Hailey: I’m a transplant from Norfolk, Va, coming up on 10 years in Baltimore! 🎉 I love a Baltimore porch! Folks sitting on the porch or stoop of their row home enjoying the weather, chatting with a friend, giving a warm hello to people passing by gives me a sense of community I’d been looking for. Also, from a design eye, it's so cool looking through a stretch of porches creating this sort of infinity effect.
Christian: Our art scene. Growing up here, I always liked how distinct Baltimore was from other cities. Our inability to be defined is our superpower. The north doesn’t really claim us; neither does the south, but there’s a freedom in lack of definition. This uncontrollable and pure spirit is what fuels Baltimore, and it seeps into the ethos of our art scene.
Photo by Jake of the Light Rail.
One of Jakes favorite photographs, taken in northeast market.
What is your dream personal passion project?
Hailey: My happy place where information meets design. It would be a joy to coach city-wide public service leaders through redesigning systems and promotional practices that further information accessibility. This would raise the standard for the design of websites and printed materials and city-wide canvassing to uphold community members’ right to access health, housing, and opportunity resources.
Jake: My dream project would be to create a photo book of my favorite street photos from Baltimore.
Camille: I want to create a video game that is animated in stop motion and follows a journey related to my parents' island of origin, Bequia. I enjoy creating interactive media and stop motion is my jam, so it would be the best of both worlds. My senior thesis at UMBC allowed me to experiment with some techniques to create the style I want to pursue for stories related to my experience as first generation Caribbean-American, but I need to clock more hours into Unity before I can connect the pieces.
Camille practicing for the drumline.
Jake in his band uniform.
What after school activities did you participate in?
Camille: When I was in grade school I did a lot of STEM and music related activities: SeaPerch, concert band, jazz band, indoor drumline, and marching band! Fun Fact: I started on flute, then went on to learn piccolo, alto saxophone, vibraphone and marching cymbals. I was this 🤏🏽 close to pursuing a music minor in college.
Jake: I was a band geek in high school, so I was part of our marching band.
What have you enjoyed most about teaching/ your position at Wide Angle?
Camille: So far, I have really enjoyed seeing students connect with each other while making stuff, it is a camaraderie that is unmatched! It's also cool to see them get practical experience with professional equipment and software. In middle and high school I took a few classes in Photoshop and web design, but it’s nothing like the experience you get in Wide Angle classes!
Use three adjectives to describe your teaching style.
Hailey: Interconnected, joyful, abundant.
Jake: Authentic, organic, respectful.
Hailey and her mentor Katie.
A portrait of Jake’s grandfather Sheldon, with his own camera, just before he passed away last year.
Do you have a teacher that inspired you to pursue a career in education? How did they inspire you?
Hailey: My biggest inspiration would be Katie Smith, who is still a mentor of mine to this day. She was one of the first educators who felt distinctly present when working with young people. To her, it wasn’t just a job but a way to connect and share big ideas with young people. She had a way of making sure every student felt heard and received, not because of their grades or performance, but because they simply showed up. I hope to bring that sense of presence to my own classroom and make sure my students feel seen and know they are a part of a community.
Jake: Two different amazing people are my inspiration. My mom is a doctor at a community health center, and I was always fascinated by her ability to connect with people and her passion for working with under-resourced communities. My grandfather was always the photographer in the family, and he gave me his film camera when I was in college, which set my already strong interest in photography on a path to become my true passion.
A collection of self-portraits by Christian.
Why are you passionate about teaching Media Arts Education?
Hailey: When you look around, it is clear that we are living in the manifested imagination of white men and white-supremacist capitalist patriarchal values. When Black and Brown and Queer and Disabled people imagine and are given the tools to make that vision a reality, we begin to shift what is possible for our communities. As a design instructor, I have the joy of protecting and uplifting the imagination of the students I work with, showing them how to bring it to the world. I have every belief that what they design in this space will ultimately become the world we live in, and that’s the world I want to be in.
Christian: It’s crucial. There are few inventions as powerful as the camera. They have the ability to restore and the ability to destroy. Teaching the next generation how to harness this power for good is a must. The way that we’re expected to read Hamlet or The Scarlet Letter, we need to teach visual literacy.
Hailey teaching her first graphic design course in 2020 virtually.
Hailey facilitating a workshop.
What was your first experience teaching media arts like?
Hailey: The first time I taught graphic design was actually over zoom in the summer of 2020. What I thought was going to be an uphill battle of talking at a sea of turned off cameras, actually became something beautiful to witness and be a part of. Through small things like making our own custom zoom profile pics, we were able to explore how we represent ourselves in the digital world. I saw quiet and reluctant students begin to open up more through the chatbox. I saw ambitious students find their artist voices as they shared the “why” behind their design decisions. By the end of the summer, students were lingering in the zoom-room after class and I realized that this was more than a graphic design class, it was a point of connection, shared creativity, and hope in a time when the world felt like it was falling apart in front of us.
How did your teaching/outreach style change over time?
Jake: My outreach style has become more in-person focused over time. A lot of my initial outreach work was done during the first phases of the pandemic, and so there wasn’t much in-person work to be done. As things have opened back up and returned to being in-person, I’ve had to shift gears and learn new techniques for outreach and recruitment.
Hailey: My teaching style has loosened up for sure. I used to stick to my time-blocked lesson no matter what, but I’ve come to realize how important it is that we protect time to breathe, to share ourselves with one another. The information of the lecture can be googled, but you can’t replace the power of peers sharing and growing and challenging one another– there is never just one person you can learn from in the room.
Now that you’ve learned more about our amazing new programs staff - check out the programs that we have to offer!
MEET THE AUTHOR
Lacee is a student at the University of Baltimore pursuing her bachelor's degree in Psychology. Lacee began as an intern with Wide Angle through Urban Alliance. She found great interest in media-making after working on various projects from design to photography to video. She has developed life plans, workforce readiness skills, and design projects for clients such as Baltimore Mediation Center and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her content writing and creation skills have developed tremendously. She’s developed multiple informative posts for Wide Angle’s social media platforms, highlighting Black August, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, National Coming Out Day, and more.