Resolution via the impact this work has had on the students and educators
Curator, DGS: Playtime, The Pioneers: Co-Op
Marian Goodman EDU
The High School of Art & Design
The Alternative Art School
2025
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Saul Appelbaum: Alena and Andrew, will you talk some about how the HSAD and MGG programming has impacted students’ and-or your own lives?
Andrew Bencsko: I'm providing a forum and allowing my students to make choices. Whether they become designers after I hand them their diploma is irrelevant. What they end up with is having followed through on a program that they chose to be a part of, and learned something from. I tell them If you look at your life through the principles of art and design, you can't lose. You want a balance in your life, unity, and contrast. You'll find people that are your people and not your people, and you'll learn how to work with them, whether you are in alignment or not. It's humbling to know I’m now in my 17th year of teaching art and design, and that I have dozens of former students that I now consider friends. Some still call me Mr. Bencsko even though they're married and have kids.
AB: I say you could call me Andrew. I learned how to accept that one. It's been an amazing experience and a trip to see the impact that I've had on their lives. I don't take that lightly.
AB: I received a Career of Technical Education (CTE) Award. They asked teachers to nominate a former student to present the award. I'm looking at all these fabulous students that I've had that went to the best art schools. They had great design jobs. I picked one kid, and he was probably one of my worst designers. When we first met I had to step over him because he just laid in the hallway, and always had a smile on his face. I said, Felix, what's your story, man? What do you aspire to be? I'm thinking I'm going to change the world here. He said, to be homeless. I said, well, I think you could reach a little higher than that. Over the years, the kids all called him useless because he wouldn't show up to school.
AB: Then he finally got his act together halfway through his junior year. Long story short, through teaching I found he had a great skill though an essay assignment. I'm reading through the essays and they're horrendous. Then I get to his and I’m like wow, this kid can write. His writing was so eloquent. It was beautiful, the grammar, everything. There were no spelling errors, which was amazing in and of itself. I said, you have a job. I can't edit 80 essays. Can you help these students write? The student that they called useless was now sitting with them and showing them how to write. He contacted me the year before I got the award, and he said, Mr. Bencsko, I graduated from Stony Brook University, and I'm going to work for a credit card company as a programmer. He was speaking in Philadelphia at a lecture. And asked what that was like? He said, well, to be the only Hispanic in a sea of Asian people is really quite remarkable.
AB: I reached out to him and asked him to present me with the CTA award. He asked, why are you picking me? I said, Because you designed the life you wanted. I said, That's all I want. When he got up to speak, he said, I was not a model student. I was the one kid you did not want.
SA: That taps back into what you were saying earlier about teaching life lessons through design as a way of thinking, a way of being. If your students walk away with that, that lasts for a lifetime.
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Alena Marchak: When students came to see one of Tavares Strachan’s exhibits it was performance based. It was something one would never dream to see. They walked through the gallery space and it was transformed into a courtroom, a pool hall, etc. There were performers moving around them and engaging. It was really special that they could experience that at that age. Our educational programming runs the gamut from painting to film. We had a project about Gabriel Orozco up for three years called Space-Time. It was in a small gallery, dimly lit. It was like an archival exhibit, but also like stepping into an artist’s work space. It contained unfinished works and completed works that were damaged. It was nice for the students to see works in process instead of finished pieces on a clean white wall. So they've been exposed to a lot of new art and ideas.
AM: It's made an impact on me because when you're working in the art world for so long, you can get a bit jaded and lose your way. To work with the students, I'm always blown away at how raw they are. It's so inspiring to hear them talk about their work. They're so open, and it's great. There's no weird art speak. They're not playing a game.
SA: It’s why we went into this in the first place.
AM: Exactly. Yes. I remember why I liked art again. That's why I'm doing this.
Nato Thompson: You need that. I think it's a mixed blessing when you make a living from the thing you love.
SA: Nato, I’m curious about the impact you’ve seen in your students’ and-or your own life.
NT: Certainly, some all-stars come out of our school, like Sasha Stiles. She was one of our first students. But for those others it's not a career. For all it’s about finding solace and community, finding a way that art can fit into your life. The way we judge is not just about accolades and resumes. As Andrew said, it's about designing a life.
NT: Everything in life as in everything in school. You get as much as you put in. For those that want to meet people and enjoy a global community through continuing education, it's great. We had Raqs Media Collective as instructors. They said to me, it is so wonderful to teach a cohort of people who have been through life. It was nice for them to teach peers and colleagues in a global community. It changed them.
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NT: From a political angle, my mom was losing her mind saying we have to stop Trump. We have to stop Trump. And my fiance's mom was saying the same. They're glued to the television. They're losing their minds. The world's ending. Everyone has these dark opinions about fascists. They're right about MAGA. I spend a lot of time with the artists at my school, and they become my reality, and they are also my news source. When I hear these horrible things about humanity, I'm able to definitively say people are awesome. I know so many great people. Yes we’re hearing alarm bells, but there’s also good people out there. I feel energized by the small wins that I see so many people achieving. To me, that is something they give back to me. I feel more emotionally regulated in this emergency tech economy. I feel like I can handle the day-to-day stressors because I have a community of amazing people around me.
SA: That's huge. I need to meditate on these sorts of reminders all the time.
AB: It’s just like working with young artists. When people make these sweeping generalizations about young people I ask what are you talking about?
NT: Yes. They’re really cool. The critics don't even know what they're saying.
AB: Many of my students are a square peg in a round hole. They're artists. They're creatives. These young people are a reminder that humanity still exists.
A collaborative project bringing together Alena Marchak, Andrew Bencsko, Nato Thompson, and students from the High School of Art and Design to explore the role of arts education in shaping lives, building community, and cultivating creative practice.
Produced and Moderated by Saul Applebaum
Marian Goodman Edu
The High School of Art & Design
The Alternative Art School
Luna and Irene