Written by Courtney Sloan. Photographs by Courtney Sloane.
How Brit Bremser pulls from her life as an artist and student to encourage expression in her preschool classroom.
The three-year-old class rushes towards Brit when she opens the playground gate. “Ms. Brit! Ms. Brit!” they call out as they swarm around her. “It’s my favorite thing. They’re so excited, like I’ve never been there before and I’ve been away forever,” Brit said.
Brit Bremser is a 21-year-old preschool assistant who brings creativity into her students’ lives at every opportunity she gets. She works in the three-year-old classroom at The Children’s School at St. John’s while also being a senior photography student at Savannah College of Art and Design. She is set to graduate in the Spring of 2027. The lead teacher in the three’s classroom, Ms. Chelsea, turns most art-related tasks over to Brit since she is both an artist and educator.
Sitting across from me at Asher and Rye, a coffee shop right next door to St. John’s, Brit radiates under the warm sunshine allotted by outdoor seating. The sun bounces off her blonde hair. Despite having been under her classroom’s fluorescent lights all day, and the cold air that has her pulling her red Patagonia fleece over her hands, she glows when speaking about her students.
“It’s special to know that they are benefiting from me being there,” Brit said.
Brit started working at St. John’s in July of 2026 after seeing their job posting on Indeed. She applied knowing it was something she could do as she had an extensive and fond history with childcare and education. Brit began babysitting during high school in her hometown of Port Aransas, Texas, and her enthusiasm for being around children and teaching them blossomed from there. She began volunteering at afterschool programs. During her past two college breaks, she has volunteered at summer camps in Vermont and California.
It’s this position in the three-year-old class that solidified her passion to pursue art education after she graduates. “The two most important things for me are education and some sort of outdoors,” Brit said. “That’s what benefited me when I was younger.” Ideally, she wants to move to San Francisco, California, and teach at a science-based outdoor school.
As an artist, Brit focuses on documentary style landscape and nature photography. However, she’s recently switched her major concentration from documentary to fine art. “Fine art is when I’m telling a story through my photography that isn’t right in front of you,” she said. Brit loves to travel and be outdoors, which she expresses through her photography and her teaching. Her experiences volunteering at summer camps have shown her how the outdoors brings people, especially young people, together.
While we talk, friends of Brit walk past us. They smile and wave at her, and she waves back. She’s created a community here in Savannah, one that she hasn’t always had elsewhere. When her parents, John Bresmer and Alison Logan, moved to Port Aransas, Texas, they were surrounded by a religious community. Brit attended a Catholic preschool with twelve students because it was the only option that offered aftercare. “Being a shy aftercare kid made me realize how likely it is. I kind of see it in some of my kids,” Brit said. “I try to prevent that shyness and get them out of their bubble. Of course it’s natural, but it’s important to understand and encourage them.”
Religion isn’t something Brit or her family subscribes to, but being surrounded by it has made her curious. It became something she wanted to explore in her photography. Right now, she has an ongoing photography project titled The Dirty South where she documents religious iconography and signage, and portrays the south the way she sees it. She shoots black and white images of old homes, churches, and signs proclaiming Jesus. They hold an eerily homey feeling to them. The rest of her photography consists of mostly color images of the outdoors or intricate details and moments. Looking at her photos, whether they’re of concerts or beach days, feels like revisiting a place you left behind somewhere, a place you’d like to go back to.
Growing up in a tight-knit community meant a close school environment. Brit was lucky to have good teachers and a good school district available to her. Her high school graduating class had 50 students, 10 of those who had attended that catholic preschool with her. This has made her compassionate towards her students. “Brit provides a big comfort for the kids. Every morning I hear them shouting, ‘Ms. Brit! Ms. Brit!’ when they walk in the room,” said Kirsten Franklin, the lead teacher in the two-year-old class at St. John’s.
The support from her teachers is what Brit remembers most about her past schooling. They cared both about her education and passions. In 2020 Brit discovered disposable cameras and began going on photo walks. She’d take photos of random stuff as many did during that time. “I was liking what I was seeing. I hadn’t found anything I enjoyed like that. It was something that was only mine,” Brit said.
After working at St. John’s, Brit has spent more energy towards fostering relationships with professors. “I thrived off having close relationships with my teachers. I remember every good experience I’ve ever had with an educator,” Brit said. Currently one of her mentors is Vivien Allender, a photography professor at SCAD who specializes in photographing youth cultures. “She gives good critiques and wants you to grow from her classes,” Brit said.
Working at St John’s has also made Brit appreciate her present education more. “It’s slowed me down, made me more focused on my work and personal projects,” Brit said. The teacher’s schedule is something Brit appreciates because of how it allows her to create as an artist. She gets to work in an inspiring environment and gets evenings and summers off to work on her projects. Education, both from a teacher and student perspective, has been fundamental in the ways she goes about life.
Because she’s an assistant teacher, she takes on a supportive role. St. John’s has offered a serious environment with more structure and expectations than what Brit was used to. It intimidated her at first but that hasn’t stopped her from bringing creativity to her students and empowering them the way her teachers empowered her.
Brit gives her all to the children in her care. On St. John’s website, it states that the three-year-old class “-Will express themselves through art, creative play, music, and dance,” which aligns with Brit’s teaching goals. She focuses on encouraging expression and interpretation. “They’re growing into who they’re going to be and they’re finding themselves. Their minds are so creative,” Brit said. “I show them ‘this is why, here’s the bigger meaning behind what we’re doing.’” This type of teaching is called process art. “Process art provides opportunities for social and emotional interactions. It can spark dialogue among teachers and children, help children form connections, and create a learning community within the classroom,” states The National Association for the Education of Young Children on their website. By talking students through the process of everything they are learning, Brit is planting the seeds preschoolers will need for their future education.
It takes a lot of patience to run around with three-year-olds all day. “Maybe it’s something about my generation being raised more patiently, maybe it’s just because I’m young and I’ll eventually lose it. I let situations ride out and see where they’re going. With three-year-olds there are so many big emotions. If you take the time to understand what’s happening and guide them, they can express themselves positively.” In the classroom Brit also focuses on slowing things down for her students and making everything intentional. This is beneficial to her students because it allows them to take in the information given to them, process what is being taught, and spend time in the classroom building upon their own understanding.
Graduation in the spring doesn’t just mean leaving behind the community she has found in Savannah, it means moving on from her students. “My least favorite thing about teaching is the fact that it’s so big for me, but not for the kids. They won’t remember me after this,” Brit said. This is due to a phenomenon called childhood amnesia, where most children don’t recall memories from before they’re three.
“I want to be in a middle school classroom in the future,” Brit said. “That’s the most themselves a young adult will ever be.” Teaching at a middle school will allow her to work with students that will remember her lessons and impact. “Although it can be a tumultuous time for students, it can also be a time where students find their niche. Art class can be a safe haven for students as they grow into adults,” says The Art of Education website. Teaching art education in middle school will allow Brit to provide an outlet for her students. She’ll be able to give her students that same opportunity to express themselves that her teachers gave her. “I want to create an engaging, interesting, and expressive environment,” Brit said. “A place where my future students can do what they’re drawn to.”
