Maple Grove teacher develops a new type of art class

Erin Boe is a relative newcomer to the world of teaching. After spending more than a decade as a freelance children’s book illustrator and working for various nonprofits, she decided it was time for a change.

In 2019, she found a job at Park Center Senior High. “They asked me to teach Unified Art,” Boe said. “And I asked, you know, what is Unified Art?”

District 279 partners with Special Olympics Minnesota to offer Unified courses, which encourage students of all ability levels to collaborate. The district offered Unified Physical Education at the time and wanted to translate the concept to other subjects.

In the following years, Boe worked with the Special Olympics organization to build a curriculum from the ground up. Now, she is a teacher at Maple Grove High School and entering her second year teaching Unified Art.

Led by Boe, special education and general education students work with each other on various projects. “I have personally seen how it can change students’ lives. Not just our special education kids, but our gen ed kids, too,” Boe said. “They feel like they have a purpose and find that they can be vulnerable and authentic in the classroom.”

Boe was recently named the 2024-25 Art Educator of the Year by Art Educators of Minnesota. On Sept. 27, she will be recognized and awarded at the AEM conference in Mason City, Iowa.

As she looks ahead to the big event, Boe hopes to share her curriculum with teachers from across the state.

“There's 12 weeks of it just sitting there ready for you. It's free, it's a cool program and I stand behind it,” Boe said. While Special Olympics Minnesota contracted her to write the curriculum, she doesn’t make money off of it. “I just want to talk about it because I think it's just the coolest thing ever.”

In the classroom

Unified Art pairs students one-on-one for every project. “We call them artists and partners,” Boe said. The artist is typically the student receiving special education services and the partner is the student in general education.

“When these groups are working together, the room is full of so much energy and vitality,” Boe said. “They're not looking to the teacher as this supreme source of knowledge who has all the answers, making sure they're saying the right thing.”

According to Boe, Unified Art is about more than what happens inside the classroom. “Students become active agents for social change,” she said. “I tell them from day one it's more than just a class, it's a movement, and art is just being used as the vehicle to foster inclusion and belonging.”

Last year, Unified Art was offered during just one of Maple Grove’s three trimesters. Now, the class is offered year-round with a waitlist of students hoping to fill the 12 general education spots.

Finding her passion

Boe, a Hopkins resident, was 35 when she became a teacher. She spent two years at Park Center Senior High School for two years and is now going into her third year at Maple Grove Senior High School.

“It took me a long time to come to this, but now that I'm here and I've found the right place, it's almost like you can't stop me," Boe said.

At 38, Boe earned her master's degree at Augsburg University. “I got such an incredible, equity-focused, progressive education from Augsburg. It really set me up to succeed,” she said.

Boe spent much of her early career looking for a job that fit her values. In teaching, she has found what she was looking for.

“This is the best job I've ever had,” she said. “I get to be around young people and learn from them. I feel inspired and empowered by them. I feel really lucky to have this job.”