News

Piano Factory artist named Educator of the Year

by Michele D.  Maniscalco
Wednesday May 1, 2019

This article is from the May 2, 2019 issue of South End News.


Piano Factory artist named Educator of the Year

Visual artist, teacher and Piano Factory resident and Piano Craft Gallery president Erik Grau was named Educator of the Year by the City of Boston, Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Boston Teachers Union (BTU).

Although he has only been teaching at the Higginson School for less than three years, Grau, who holds a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Boston University and studied education at UMass. Lowell, has conducted Applied Behavior Analysis case supervision and consultation in over 50 BPS schools since 2011.

According to Higginson principal Marie Mullen, Grau is one of the youngest to receive Educator of the Year and he received it earlier in his tenure than his predecessors.

Grau's passion for art and education came together in the Piano Craft Gallery, 793 Tremont Street, on April 12 and 13 when the gallery hosted an exhibit of creations by K0-2 students from the Henry L. Higginson Inclusion School, 160 Harrishof Avenue, Roxbury. Images both realistic and fantastical, executed with notable talent, skill and detail in watercolor, crayon, paper, dioramas, cardboard sculpture and more, filled the gallery.

The exhibit capped a week in which students from the school came to the gallery to learn about and produce art in two-and three-dimensional media and to write and illustrate autobiographical booklets.

A private preview of the exhibit including Higginson school students, staff and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, took place on Friday, April 12 at 11:00 AM, with an opening reception from 6:00-8:00 PM that evening for Piano Craft Guild residents.

A the preview with Mayor Walsh, students gave readings and performed skits surrounded by their handiwork: sculptures, elaborate dioramas and cityscapes as well as drawings and watercolors. A member of the Boston Public Schools, (BPS) the Higginson school serves a wide range of students with differing abilities and circumstances, including homeless, autistic and learning-disabled children.

Mayor Walsh was visibly charmed by the performances, smiling broadly and applauding. Students created dioramas of land- and seascapes with carefully crafted trees, animals and other figures; models of the State House, the Hatch Shell, the Leonard Zakim Bridge and the Piano Factory building, among other local landmarks.

The Boston Marathon model was truly multidimensional and multi-media, comprising a racecourse surrounded by wooden sides; model buildings along the path and crayon illustrations on the nearby wall depicting cheering family and friends. Piano Craft Guild management was sufficiently impressed with the model of their historic building to inquire about purchasing it for display.
Beaming as he was surrounded by dozens of students and several colleagues from the school, Grau spoke with great pride about the creativity and sophistication of the students' artistic offerings and the writings of their charming and candid autobiographical booklets.

















"To see a five year-old write a whole paragraph about a learning experience is amazing," he said. In a collage of self-portraits in crayon accompanied by student musings on what they think of the Higginson school, one child said it all, "I like the Higginson. It's fun. We have gym and art and music."