Written by Tina LaPadula
The Creative Advantage implementation team is thrilled to have Gabriel as part of our initiative to establish equitable access to arts education for every student in Seattle Public Schools (SPS). Gabriel joins forces with visual and performing arts leaders Gail Sehlhorst and Pam Iveciz at Seattle Public Schools as well as Seattle Office of Arts & Culture colleagues Tina LaPadula and Ashraf Hasham to steer the collective work.
He will project manage from the district side of things and oversee the implementation of SPS arts vision and action plans in Creative Advantage schools; act as a liaison for partnerships between schools and community-based arts organizations and teaching artists; support the partnership with Seattle Office of Arts and Culture including communications and advocacy, grants, advisory groups, and initiative evaluation; and plan for future expansion to other schools and strategies for systems-wide change to expand arts learning to every student at every school. This position lives within SPS’s Curriculum, Assessment & Instruction’s Visual & Performing Arts Program and the School & Community Partnerships Department.
About Gabriel:
Gabriel-Bello Díaz is a Puerto Rican artist and educator born in London and grew up in New Jersey outside of Philadelphia. He began his academic career in architectural engineering and founded his first company before graduating in 2006 for subcontracting in architectural drafting in Boston MA. He later continued his education with a Master in Robotic Engineering from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona Spain, which pivoted his focus towards instructional education. His work in robotics was published in over a dozen books, which led to his consistency in developing research workshops, seminars and classes for University of Michigan, University of Sydney, Carnegie Mellon and other universities before his move to Seattle. Here he honed in on his experience through higher academics, his expertise in STEM and digital fabrication, and his love for teaching which brought him to Technical Access Foundation where he was the CTE Engineering teacher for 6th – 12th grade.
After fostering such dynamic and creative classrooms, he began to dive into the administrative side of supporting innovative curriculum and programming that was directly responsive to the culture of his students and the community of these schools. His goal is to continue uplifting educational spaces with resources and ways to bring the learning experience out of the classroom. Most recently he was the Youth and Teen Program Manager at Pratt Fine Arts Center. Gabriel is looking forward to bringing all of these experiences to Seattle Public Schools and The Creative Advantage.
