Know a Monkey: Amanda Farrar
Posted by Alexis on December 16, 2010
This month’s installment of the “Know a Monkey” interview series introduces us to the executive director of Barrel of Monkeys, Amanda Farrar!
What does it mean to be the executive director of Barrel of Monkeys?
That means basically I’m doing all of the administrative work – you know, doing grants, working with the board, doing the fundraising and the financial management.
How long have you been the executive director?
A year and a half now.
Okay, so what’s a typical day for you at work?
The typical day is usually run by deadlines - whatever is due that week. I go through grant phases and marketing phases, and once a month we have board meetings. It basically depends on what is on the plate.
Do you ever go into the classrooms?
Yes we have been doing a lot of assessment so I’ve been going in to observe.
What’s it like to observe a classroom?
The first time I went in, it was like no experience I’d ever had. I’ve been in the classroom a lot before, and I taught dance for a long time and there is quite a lot of chaos in a dance classroom - imagine 30 9-year-olds in tap shoes. But the five Monkeys coming into the classroom and creating their own controlled chaos is really amazing. Just seeing the kids be quiet and watching the monkeys be insane is really fascinating. And also seeing the kids buy into it and get crazy themselves, and then the silence that comes over the children when they sit down to do their individual writing and just are really concentrated on it. The ebb and flow of the energy in the room is really amazing.
Did you like writing when you were a kid?
I did. I have a very clear memory of going to the dentist and having all the stuff in my mouth and him asking me what I wanted to do when I grew up, and I said I wanted to be a writer. It was one of those things that he was somehow able to understand what I said. And I was like, “How is that possible?”
What have you learned so far as the executive director?
Before this I was in development, and I did just fundraising. And it’s pretty wonderful now to have my hands in everything, so my marketing corresponds to my development, corresponds to … so I can have one project but I can integrate it myself. So I think I’ve been able to kind of stretch my wings in the marketing department, because before this it was more in classroom settings where I did that. I’ve also learned quite a bit about managing.
What did you before you came to BOM?
I was co-founder of a dance company called Inaside Chicago Dance. The name is a combination of our founding principles: integrity, passion, and pride. I took the role as the administrative director, and realized how much I didn’t know about running a company. So that motivated me to go to Columbia College to get my masters in arts management. Since then, I’ve worked as a development professional at arts organizations and social service organizations.
How old were you when you started dancing?
I am one of those people who started dancing when I was three years old. And, again I told the dentist that I wanted to be a writer – I didn’t tell anybody I wanted to be a dancer. But that was never my dream but it always was something that I felt that I had to try out professionally.
So did you dance in college?
Yes, I went to college as an English major, but by my second semester I was a double major in English and dance. It’s one of those things that has always hung on.
What are your goals for Barrel of Monkeys?
There is so much the organization has achieved already, but there is also so much more potential, so the question is how do we get it to…to where it is the best it can be. So we’re assessing the work that we’re doing in the classroom in a more advanced way, and it’s helping us learn about ourselves in a way that we haven’t before. We are also attempting to expand That’s Weird, Grandma so that we can bridge the gap between the students that we serve and the audiences that we serve. And the board is looking at strategic planning right now, so we are getting started with that process of creating and executing a new strategic plan.
What is the purpose of the strategic plan?
The questions that we are going to be asking are how do we achieve more depth with the students with whom we work. How do we not just be there for six weeks and go away— how do we expand that interaction? So some of that is working with the teachers in he classroom to teach them some of the ways that we are doing things in the classroom, and teach them how to incorporate aspects that they think are useful for them. So that’s one way, yeah but that’s this planning process, is saying where are we going and how do we get there.
How many students does Barrel of Monkeys reach each year?
More than 900 through the writing program – and 3500 through performances because the entire school comes together to watch our performances.
Okay, if you were a police officer, what would be your police officer vehicle of choice?
I think I’d want to be on a bike. Chicago is such a biker friendly city, and I do like biking. And you could eat as many donuts as you wanted.
Do you have a favorite Barrel of Monkeys memory?
I do. Last year I went into the classroom to observe with our assessment consultant. It was argument day, where the Monkeys act as town criers and they ask students to come up and give an argument. You get a soapbox, and you say something you believe and why you believe it. A girl got up to give her argument. The agreements in the BOM classroom are every idea is a good idea, support each other’s ideas, respect yourself and others. And there are a couple others but those are the important ones to this story. This was an ESL/ELL classroom and she was bilingual, and and she got up and was making an argument why her cousins should be nice to her. And she got to a point where she was like “And there are sometimes when I . .. “ and she couldn’t come up with the word, and she kept going like this [making a hand motion behind her] and so the town crier said, “Oh, you mean fart.” And the girl was just like, “Yes. When I fart they make fun of me. But that’s a real thing that happens and they shouldn’t make fun of me.” And she was so eloquent and wonderful beyond that, but that moment sticks out, because she said “fart” in a fourth grade classroom, and nobody laughed. It was such a wonderful example of how the students have really embraced those agreements that they make. That’s the kind of thing, seeing the students and how they react to the experience, they are always surprising and always completely honest. And it’s an amazing experience working with them.