Matt Reynolds is a Teaching Artist at LA Promise Fund. Matt brings media arts instruction to classrooms across Los Angeles with a focus on South Los Angeles schools.
Reynolds has joined LAPF as one of two full-time teaching artists for the federally funded ArtsMatter program. He has experience teaching animation and media art to a diverse range of learners: from San Fernando 5th graders in the Making Movies that Matter program, to Santa Monica retirees as a resident artist at the Camera Obscura Art Lab. Prior to joining LAPF, Reynolds worked for 6 years as an animation instructor for middle and high school-aged learners through free after-school programming operated by the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP). Reynolds also designed and taught a popular course at CalArts called “World Building,” that borrowed values of coherence taken from speculative fiction to determine the narrative and aesthetic decisions that better articulate a given personal vision.
Reynolds received a B.A. in Art & Visual Culture from Bates College and an M.F.A. in Experimental Animation from CalArts. His animated short films have won awards at The San Francisco International Film Festival, The Anim’est International Animation Festival in Romania, and The Ann Arbor Film Festival, and have screened at such festivals as SXSW, AFI Fest, and The Annecy International Animation Film Festival. As a freelance animation director, he has produced work for such clients as Adult Swim, The Atlantic, TED Ed, and Spotify.
Alongside his career as an educator, Reynolds maintains a personal practice in sculpture, animation, and comic art. He finds inspiration in LA architecture, science fiction, nature, and the tireless work of progressive community activists across Los Angeles.