How does research help us understand the dynamics between teacher and artist collaborations? “Moments, Movements, and Manifestations” invites us into the evolving story of CAPE’s Collaboration Laboratory Program (CoLab)—a two-year initiative that brings new schools, arts organizations, and teaching artists into CAPE’s network of arts-integrated teaching and learning. CoLab was started in 2003, and is now in its 10th cycle!
This exhibition highlights work from the 2023–2025 cohort in a selection of seven schools and eleven teacher–artist partnerships, featuring:

Student artworks created during the second year of CoLab,
Documentation from the first year, including photos, reflections, and notes,
Curricular and instructional materials that shaped the work, and
Voices of teachers and teaching artists reflecting on their experiences

For more than 20 years, CAPE’s Collaboration Laboratory has been a catalyst for lasting partnerships between schools and artists. This is the program’s first dedicated exhibition, a milestone that not only celebrates student creativity but also honors the teachers, artists, and researchers who are shaping the future of arts integration.

Participating schools in this exhibition: Adlai E. Stevenson Elementary School, Hamilton Fine and Performing Arts School, Harriet E. Sayre Elementary Language Academy, John Hay Community Academy, Joseph Lovett Elementary School, Lionel Hampton Fine & Performing Arts School, and William Howard Taft High School.

Join us for an evening of networking and arts integration research!

5:30 PM: Exhibition reception
6:00 PM: Dialogue and Q&A
7:00 PM: Reception continues

Framing the exhibition Moments, Movements, and Manifestations are insights from research conducted by Geralyn (Gigi) Schroeder Yu (University of New Mexico), Juana Reyes (Lewis University), Patricia Goubeaux (DCG Enterprises, LLC), and guest Erin Preston (Independent Educational Research Consultant) who studied how some of these collaborations are formed and developed throughout the CoLab program. Their findings offer language and perspective for understanding how creative partnerships take root and transform classroom practice.

Meet the Researchers of the CoLab Program
Click here to listen to a presentation that Gigi Schroeder and Juana Reyes gave to CoLab teaching artist and teacher partners during a professional development session on May 30, 2024 at CAPE.

Gigi Schroeder Yu
Dr. Gigi Schroeder Yu is an associate professor of art education and the College of Fine Arts 2025 interim associate dean of research at the University of New Mexico. She has over 25 years of experience collaborating with young children, adults, and educators in various art-related settings such as art museums, community-based art contexts, and public-school settings. Her creative work and research are inspired by the early learning programs of Reggio Emilia, Italy, which emphasize the importance of children’s artistic languages. Gigi is also the co-founder of the Collaborative Teachers Institute, a community of practice that co-constructs interdisciplinary, aesthetic inquiries based on the interests of families, children, and educators. Her research mainly focuses on collaborations between artists and classrooms, utilizing the co-construction of aesthetic inquiry within ecologies of creative practices. She is the recipient of the National Art Education Association 2020 New Mexico Art Educator of the Year award. Her research is featured in international publications such as the International Journal of Education Through the Arts, IMAG InSEA publication, and Visual Art Research. She is a co-editor with Brenda Fyfe, Yin Lam Lee-Johnson, and Juana Reyes (2023) of Affirming the Rights of Emergent Bilingual and Multilingual Children and Families: Interweaving Research and Practice through the Reggio Emilia Approach. Routledge.

Juana Reyes
Juana M. Reyes, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor in Early Childhood Special Education at Lewis University in Illinois. She has worked with emergent bi- and multilingual families as an early educator and as a consultant in various Chicago area neighborhoods and in Phoenix, Arizona. She is a founding member and Chair of Crossroads for Learning, an organization that works to connect educators as they seek to understand and apply principles and practices of the Reggio Emilia Approach. Dr. Reyes is also a consulting editor for Innovations published by the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA). She was delighted to be one of the co-editors of Affirming the Rights of Emergent Bilingual and Multilingual Children and Families Interweaving Research and Practice through the Reggio Emilia Approach, published in 2023.

Patricia Goubeaux
Dr. Patricia Goubeaux, Founder/CEO of DCG Enterprises, LLC, is a former college educator turned researcher, consultant/coach, and executive administrator. As a life-long learner/researcher and advocate for children’s health and education, she has prioritized clients committed to collaborative community-based approaches focused on increasing equitable opportunities for under-served children and families. Examples include Valley of the Sun United Way, First Things First state agency, Arizona Community Foundation, Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, and BUILD Arizona. From 2018 through 2023, Dr. Goubeaux served as researcher/evaluator of a Reggio-inspired professional development program for The Center for Early Childhood Education at Paradise Valley Community College (Phoenix). Previously, as co-founder and president of Odyssey for Peace – an NGO dedicated to transnational partnerships and violence prevention education – she spent 7 months in post-war Bosnia working with government leaders and university students to establish virtual cross-cultural student exchanges and a Sister City relationship between Toledo, OH and Banja Luka, Republika Srpska.

Erin Preston
Erin is an emerging educational researcher and former arts educator who draws upon eight years of teaching visual and digital art. Professional experience includes working with Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, the Chicago Humanities Festival, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Project Zero on program evaluation and research. Research centers on tensions of knowing, trust, and values in adult and student collaborative learning in a variety of contexts, including professional development settings and arts-integrated classrooms. Particular focus is on the role of surfacing tensions through artistic processes, collaboration, and interdisciplinary inquiry to promote agency and spatial transformation. She earned a Master of Education (Ed.M.) in Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and is currently a doctoral student in Educational Psychology, Human Development and Learning, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Tags: Bridgeport, CAPE Dialogue, Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Education, Erin Preston, Geralyn (Gigi) Schroeder Yu, Gigi Schroeder Yu, Juana Reyes, Patricia Goubeaux, The Roles of Documentation in Arts Integration Partnerships