Before Dr. Maya Pindyck joined Moore’s Creative & Critical Studies faculty as an assistant professor in 2018, she spent years developing artistic and educational practices that combined visual arts with writing. She earned her PhD in English edication from Columbia University's Teachers College while serving as an adjunct at schools like Parsons School of Design, Long Island University and the Teachers College itself. Pindyck is also the recipient of several major poetry awards and exhibited visual work at The Clemente and the Lewis Latimer House Museum in New York City.
In her role at Moore, Pindyck facilitates a writing program for first-year students and teaches writing and research skills through a multicultural lens. Read on to learn more about Maya!
What’s your earliest memory of being creative or knowing that you wanted to do something creative with your life?
I’ve always loved drawing, painting, performing and writing. All those practices are a part of me, and I remember knowing at an early age that I wanted to keep doing all those things. I couldn’t separate them. I couldn’t choose. Each offered me distinct and interconnected joy.
I have a memory of drawing in my math workbook in third grade and the teacher getting angry and throwing my workbook in the trashcan in front of my peers. I felt shame. I wonder if that was part of what prompted me to later intervene in books—drawing in them, cutting them up, soaking them in water, writing over the text, embedding images inside the pages. Manipulating books was a turning point in my practice as an artist and as a writer.
Who is the artist or designer who has influenced you most and why?
There are so many, but the first who comes to mind is Adrian Piper. Her work jolted me to create. As a teenager, I was moved by her photographs of erased faces with the statement “Everything will be taken away” stamped over them; her Calling Cards series addressing racism, sexism, and erasure through social interventions; and her subversive but simple public performances.
I was inspired by her poetic ways of saying it like it is exactly in the language she needs to say it, as well as how she creates discomfort and confrontational moments that feel both serious and playful. That blew open a lot for me, and still does. Piper’s work influenced my understanding of what language can do, what tone can do and what the body can do as its own language.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done recently, professionally or otherwise?
I’ve been dancing in my office at Moore for the past two years. I try to do it each day I’m there. One song, one dance.
What is it like in your classroom at Moore?
I prioritize building community so that we can take risks in what we write and create, how we think and how we engage each other. I encourage multiple perspectives and differing experiences. I try to foster a classroom environment for creative experimentation, discussion, study and care. I hope my students take what they learn and turn it into something else.
If Moore had a mascot, what would it be?
A balloon animal that’s always changing shape.
Moore College of Art & Design is the only independent art and design college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Want to learn more about our Creative & Critical Studies program? Contact our Admissions team at enroll@moore.edu or 215.965.4015 to set up a call or a campus visit. We’d love to tell you more!
