The Arts as a Bridge to Community

Cultivating belonging & action through visual arts. Story 4

At the International School of Uganda (ISU), visual arts teacher Jill Pribyl is creating transformative learning experiences. Through thoughtfully designed projects, she connects students to their sense of identity, place, and global citizenship while fostering deep community engagement. I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Jill to explore how visual arts can amplify belonging, well-being, meaningful connections and community engagement. By LeeAnne Lavender, AISA Community Engagement & Learning Coordinator.

The Arts as a Bridge to Community

For Jill, engaging with the local community isn’t just an add-on to the curriculum—it’s essential to authentic learning, especially in an international school context.

“When you are in a country like Uganda, it’s important to have links with the community. Otherwise, you’re just in a bubble, and the learning that you take away will not be as impactful if you don’t engage with the community,” she emphasizes.

This philosophy manifests in upcoming collaborations with the African Children’s Choir school, where ISU students will work alongside Ugandan children to create environmental art and music using recycled materials. Jill approaches these partnerships with a commitment to reciprocity and mutual learning.

“I see them as our partners. I want there to be no hierarchy here because they bring amazing skills, and we bring different kinds of skills,” she explains. “How can we find ways to bridge those cultural differences, and work together to create something completely new?”

The Human Element in Art Education

As we concluded our conversation, Jill reflected on the profound importance of relationship-building in education—a reminder that in an increasingly AI-driven world, the human connections fostered through art remain irreplaceable.

“Teaching is also about building relationships and getting to know people,” she notes.

Through her innovative approach to visual arts education, Jill creates spaces where students can be vulnerable, take risks, and discover their creative voices while connecting deeply with themselves, each other, and the wider world.

In the process, these young artists learn lessons that extend far beyond technique; they learn to embrace mistakes as opportunities, to see themselves as part of multiple communities, and to use their creative expression as a force for positive change.

As one of Jill’s fifth-grade students wrote about their painting of Amsterdam: “I learned that mistakes happen, and that’s totally okay. It’s good to learn new things from our mistakes.” This is a sentiment that captures the essence of Jill’s approach: art as a journey of growth, connection, and belonging.

Please enjoy the full interview with Jill about the grade 3 and 5 units, as well as a grade 4 unit that features the community partnership with the Kiteezi Women’s Centre.

• About Jill

  Jill arrived in Uganda 20 years ago as a Fulbright Scholar in Makerere University’s Performing Arts Department. “I came to Uganda as a practicing artist—both visual and performing—and transitioned into education from there,” she explains. “My experience in teaching comes from a very strong arts background into education, not education to be an art teacher. So I think that’s a different inroad.”

  This artist-first approach informs everything about her teaching philosophy. When discussing strengths of the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum, Jill notes: “I’ve really loved working in the PYP because it is so flexible and open, and it allows for teachers to have a lot of agency in how they’re approaching the subject matter, and what lessons or units they decide to develop.”

  Perhaps most powerfully, Jill models what it means to be a practicing artist alongside her students. During a recent Literacy Week at ISU, she worked on illustrations for her upcoming children’s book, The Brush, while her students tackled realistic art projects of their own.

  “[The students] were really engaged in my process, and of course, I was also engaged in their process of drawing realistically,” Jill reflects. “Being vulnerable by sharing something that isn’t perfect yet, and that they had a say in some of the creative decisions I made – that kept the students excited.”

Arts brochures from the grade 3 and 5 units have become artifacts of belonging and advocacy in the ISU and local communities.