This article is a Teachers' Life History study that centers on the context derived from current policies and budget cuts implemented to public services and education in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It explores how these affect the lives, moral commitments, and social senses of pedagogy of three art education specialists who have developed their careers within the last decade marked by losses, uncertainty, and intellectual isolation. Through biopolitical analysis of testimonies, we suggest a focus on art teachers' strategic acts of independence, resistance, and creativity existing within the limitations of current policies, scarce resources, and excessive pressure for achievement in large urban districts.