Nick Azzaro uses sculpture, installation, photography, and performance to challenge the systemic failures in and around the American public education system while simultaneously working to empower future artists through collaborations in the classroom. The ability to easily recreate and share his process is a priority, so accessibility in materials and audience is vital. He often works with art materials found in under-resourced public school art programs, out-of-use books and furniture, wheatpaste, found lumber, and other low-cost items.
Azzaro’s approach was born out of necessity when the COVID-19 lockdowns brought his high school photography program to an end. As a classroom teacher and art programmer, he has seen firsthand how access to creative outlets can course-correct for inequitable academic standards. He believes that equitable, inclusive, and accessible facilitation means meeting every student where they are, hearing them, and generating a space or spaces where learning, collaborating, and creating are possible.
Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Azzaro worked for the public school system at some level from 2013 to 2020. From 2017 until the COVID-19 lockdowns, he taught visual literacy through a remarkable photography program at Ypsilanti Community High School, where his students created charged, intentional imagery based on their own experiences.​
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