TAG Quarterly Issue 10 by Teaching Artists Guild

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#10

Back to School Issue September 2017

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

Quarterly Magazine Staff TAG Executive Director: Jean Johnstone

TAG Membership Director: Kenny Allen

TAG Quarterly Magazine: Administrative Associate Caryn Cooper

TAG Quarterly Magazine: Design Associate Wendy Shiraki

National Advisory Committee Glenna Avila (Los Angeles, CA) Eric Booth (Hudson River Valley, NY) Lindsey Buller Maliekel (New York, NY) Lara Davis (Seattle, WA) Kai Fierle-Hedrick (New York, NY) Jon Hinojosa (San Antonio, TX) Lynn Johnson (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Nas Khan (Toronto, Canada) Tina LaPadula (Seattle, WA) Miko Lee (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Ami Molinelli (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Betsy Mullins (Miami, FL) Louise Music (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Maura Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley (New Rochelle, NY) Nick Rabkin (Chicago, IL) Amy Rasmussen (Chicago, IL) Nicole Ripley (Chicago, IL) Sandy Seufert (Los Angeles, CA) Yael Silk, Ed.M. (Pittsburgh, PA) Jean E. Taylor (New York, NY)

Teaching Artists Guild is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives.

THANKS

Teaching Artists Guild would not be possible without funding from these generous organizations:

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Teaching Artists Guild is also made possible through the generous support of our members.

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

FALL 2017

Unexpected detours and arts journeys. The variety of stories we’ve compiled in this autumn’s issue underscores the complexity of experience in serving both muse and community in the same breadth. Like so many short stories, you’ll read about the journeys of artists thru several teaching artist training programs and what they learned. You’ll also read about a couple integrated learning programs, where the arts are the “how”, not the “what,” and more than anything, several powerful personal journeys which illustrate strength and resiliency in the face of the unknown, and how the artwork we do is tied deeply and fundamentally to our place in the community as participants, learners, and teachers. One of our stories, about a contemporary visual arts program co-created by teaching artists in Houston, was submitted to us before Hurricane Harvey hit. Their offices and galleries were damaged in the storm, and you can donate to help them recover (they’re going to need a new roof) here. You can donate to artists and arts organizations impacted in Greater Houston at Harvey Arts Recovery Fund, and you can find out more about other arts groups in the area and their needs, here. This “Back to School” Autumn has been incredibly profound and dramatic: politically, socially, environmentally. The intensity of the world and our experiences these months has been non-stop! What climax are we hurtling towards, what crescendo? Only our artists can tell, and we will, in the next issue. Send us your articles, your thoughts, your artwork. See you in December. In solidarity,

Jean Johnstone Executive Director Teaching Artists Guild

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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

Issue 10 Contents CROSS ORGANIZATION COLLABORATION

TEACHING ARTIST INTERVIEWS

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by Kate Bell

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD

GUTLESS & GRATEFUL REGIONAL UPDATES

UPDATES FROM TAG Page 5

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

Thank you to our sponsors

We want you! If you’re a teacher or a teaching artist, share your experiences with the teaching artist community! Send your queries and submissions to editors@twc.org or see teachersandwritersmagazine.org/submit for complete submission guidelines.

At teachersandwritersmagazine.org you’ll find: • Lesson Plans • Articles and ideas about teaching writing • Examples of great student writing Teachers & Writers Magazine is a resource for teaching the art of writing in kindergarten through college and in non-classroom settings. This online magazine presents a wide range of ideas and approaches, as well as lively explorations of T&W’s mission to “educate the imagination” by providing a variety of publications and resources to support learning through the literary arts. Page 6

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

CELEBRATING ISSUE 10!

GET THE ATTENTION OF

THOUSANDS OF ARTS EDUCATORS

Help make the TAG Quarterly possible while promoting your program! Sponsorships start at just $50 per issue. For more information, email kenny@teachingartistsguild.org Page 7

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

What’s TAG up to? Huge drumroll! TAG is growing, and we introduce our California branch in this issue. Need an assembly of teaching artists in your state? Let us know. We will be at the Grantmakers in the Arts conference in Detroit in October, presenting on teaching artists professional development certification, a project we are pursuing. What’s that? It’s a certification program for organizations that offer teaching artist training, with the goal of establishing a set of national standards for excellence and quality in the professional development of teaching artists. September will see us unveiling the beta version of our pay-rate Calculator, which can calculate a suggested rate based on living wage data and our own special sauce. We hope to see many of you at the National Guild for Community Arts Education annual conference in November in our home base in the San Francisco region. We are hard at work on an asset map of the field, which will premiere in California this Fall... and which you will hear much more about very soon, when we will be asking each and every one of you to tell us about yourself and where you ply your craft! We are also working closely on a project to advance public education transformation, via the arts. Sound massive? It feels almost manageable, with the Community Plan now in development with the Alameda County Office of Education and many others. Call us optimists, but we’re really excited about this one. And last but not least, MEMBERSHIP! We recently added new services to the rest of the teaching artist booty and we invite you to show your support and become paid members of TAG. Can’t quite afford it this month? Ask an organization that hires you whether they offer TAG memberships for their teaching artists!

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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

REGIONAL UPDATES WASHINGTON Seattle The Creative Advantage Summer Arts Partnership Institute April 12, 2017 - April 13 - 2017 creativeadvantageseattle.org On August 17, 2017, Seattle Art Museum (SAM) hosted the fourth Creative Advantage Summer Arts Partnership Institute for classroom teachers, teaching artists, administrators, youth development workers, and community members. Dancers from Northwest Tap Connection opened the day with a rousing performance garnering multiple standing ovations, that showcased the skill, passion, and creativity of three incredible youth performers. Leaders from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, SAM, and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) contextualized the day through a lens of racial equity and social justice, which serves a foundation for The Creative Advantage, Seattle’s citywide initiative that is reinvesting in equitable access to arts education for all SPS students. Author, professor, and activist, Dr. Shawn Ginwright provided a timely and relevant keynote entitled, “Radically Healing Schools and Communities: The Power of Policy from the Heart.” Dr. Ginwright and teacher activist and organizer, Farima Pour-Khorshid, offered sessions on his Radical Healing Framework, which is based in the premise that, “Radical healing involves addressing both (1) collective healing, and also (2) transforming the institutions, policies, and systems that are causing harm in the first place.” Seattle teaching artists Lauren Atkinson (visual arts) and Roberto Ascalon (poetry, creative writing) engaged participants in creative reflection workshops to unpack what it means for practitioners and administrators to be authentic, take risks, and work in community. Page 9

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

TEXAS San antonio Activating Youth Voice to Spark Change How do you incorporate student voice into your programming? How do you shift your curriculum from teaching at youth to learning with youth? Here at SAY Sí, a creative youth development nonprofit in San Antonio, Texas, student voice plays a vital role in our culture and weaves through our multidisciplinary program formally and informally. Informally, students are expected to call their instructors by their first names and share in the culture of reciprocal learning. They take ownership of their learning and value their ability to contribute to each studio. More formally, we offer meaningful leadership positions for our young-artists with specific responsibilities to be role models for younger students, make decisions on behalf of their peers and act as spokespeople for the organization. Historically, new programs have also been developed and revised based on student-need and feedback. One key example of youth leadership in action is SAY Sí’s annual Stories Seldom Told project. The process is guided heavily by student liaisons in our high school programs. Student liaisons facilitate conversations in their studios about “stories” or issues they feel are important to talk about but are not being addressed by their communities or society at large. The liaisons then work to narrow down the topics together based on the real world needs of creating an exhibition. They present on the strongest ideas and all students vote for their favorite ones. Students then work together across studios with teaching artists to conduct research and create installation-based works on the subject. Through Stories Seldom Told and SAY Sí’s culture of youth-driven leadership, student-artists are given a platform for change. By creating an organization-wide show around their chosen “story,” they shed light on an issue, educating the community and invoking change.Though in many cases problems that our communities face have complex and intangible solutions, we have recognized that change can start with a conversation. It can start with an individual seeing a work of art and being moved to share it with others. In previous Stories Seldom Told exhibitions, students have tackled issues of race, mental health, poverty as well as the impact of corporate America. Most recently, students chose to use the exhibition to deconstruct inequities in San Antonio’s education system. In their research, students discovered the stark contrasts in school funding across San Antonio’s school districts, further widening the social and economic gap in our city. This prompted them to ask: “If current educational funding patterns continue, what will the divide between the student-haves and studentPage 10

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

have-nots look like in the future?” In response, one group created a performance art piece called “Future Divide.” On the opening night of the exhibition, students acted as “living sculptures” with elaborate futuristic costumes to represent what they fear students of the future may look like if the pattern of resource inequity continues. In the first installation visitors see as they enter the galleries, titled “Human Geography,” data and facts about each Bexar County school district are projected onto a carved map of the districts. Color-coded pencils stabbed into the wall show student dropout statistics by race. Each pencil and its color illustrates the correlation between student success and a school district’s median property value. Students envisioned the contrast of San Antonio’s inequity embedded into the patron experience as well, which began right at the entrance of our building. As guests walked in, they were each randomly given a San Antonio zip code card that determined their experiences throughout the evening. In the Black Box theatre, where student performances took place, a SAY Sí student-artist greeted guests and scanned their zip code card with a digital barcode scanner. Low income zip codes entered through an

alternate door, where they were asked to step through a mock metal detector before taking their seat. In the low income seating area were signs that read “Due to limited funding in your zip code, there are not enough chairs for every audience member. Please allow elderly or ailing patrons to use chairs. You may stand or sit directly on risers.” We can learn a lot by simply asking young people to comment on something they care deeply about. As an organization we can choose to speak on behalf of our youth and appeal to our city, state and nation to make change. However, we know that when our youth are empowered to make that plea themselves in creative ways, the impact is wider and more meaningful. Page 11

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RHODE ISLAND RI Teaching Artists Center Produces Mini-documentary Promoting Teaching Artists

RI Teaching Artists Center produced a 6 minute video that demonstrates the impact of teaching artists in schools, hospitals and community organizations. The video is intended to engage and motivate the public to hire teaching artists. It is featured front and center on the homepage of the RI Teaching Artists Center website.

New Partnership With RI Latino Arts Makes Great Connections For Teaching Artists This 6 x6 experimented with a new addition to the format. As part of the six minute presentations,each of the 6 artist presenters created a canvas (12 x 12) that focused on the question “What is most on your mind right now?” Artists could use the canvas however they wished—with visual, performing, or literary arts. The themes ranged from the pain of the immigrant to the layers of culture within individuals. The canvases will be on display at La Galleria del Pueblo. The presenting artists made connections with educators and members of the RI healthcare community that will lead to collaborations in the schools and with the medical community. Read the entire blog post and view images here.

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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

RI ARTS & HEALTHCARE ADVISORY GROUP MOVING AHEAD WITH STATE PLAN The Arts and Health Advisory Group, comprised of teaching artists who work in healthcare and other healthcare personnel, is moving ahead with its state plan for arts and health. An evidence map is being created, looking at rigorous research that describes the benefits of the arts in health. The state plan will be grounded in the evidence map findings. The project is being facilitated by Stacey Springs of the Brown University School of Public Health with a grant from the RI Foundation and a partnership of the RI State Council on the Arts and the RI Department of Health. The state arts in health plan is projected to be finished by January of 2018.

Pictured above is facilitator Stacey Springs

CALIFORNIA

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY

ATP Begins 8th Year of Arts Integration Programming The Artist Teacher Partnership (ATP) begins its 8th year of arts integration programming, providing high-quality arts instruction to elementary classrooms by bringing classroom teachers together with mentoring SPECTRA teaching artists under the leadership of Arts Council Santa

Video of circus artist/dancer Saki Tamao, explaining her process on voiceover as she teaches it. Page 13

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

Cruz County. The program provides professional development to both generalist teachers and teaching artists while developing a collaborative culture of value for arts education in an underserved region. http://www.artscouncilsc. org/artist-teacher-partnership/ Video of dancer Laurel Shastri explaining her process on voiceover as she teaches it.

KERN COUNTY

Arts in Corrections in Kern County This year, the CA Arts Council and CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have expanded funding for arts programming to all of the 35 state adult correctional institutions. Teaching artists are in demand for this work. After training and orientation for prison teaching, they are contracted by an arts provider to teach ongoing classes at their assigned site. Kern County is one of those providers, gearing up to offer visual art, storytelling/poetry, ukulele and guitar this fall in three state prisons. The 4 teaching artists for the Kern Co. program are Alex Gallardo, Porter Jameson, Kevin Birkbeck and Marcos Delgado. “Teaching at a prison is a rewarding experience…and a crucial aspect of rehabilitation,” said one of the artists. www.kernarts.org

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SACRAMENTO COUNTY An Innovative Model for Building Teaching Artist Skills and Access to Jobs How do you strengthen multiple local cultural arts organizations, build their capacity for producing strong, diverse education programs in schools, employ teaching artists, and provide arts education to an underserved school district – all while saving money? CLARA Studios for the Performing Arts in Sacramento is doing it. You contract with a school district (Sacramento City Unified School District) to donate a large, vacant school building in midtown (Fremont School), remodel the building with City funding into rehearsal studios, performing spaces and offices, and lease the spaces to diverse emerging and established cultural arts organizations for reduced rent to cover basic costs. In exchange, the tenants “pay forward” the remainder of their studio rent in the form of arts education programming for Title I schools at no cost to the district. To ensure that the educational element works as intended, CLARA hired TA and Education Outreach Director, Emili Danz, to do the outreach, artist placement, contracting and program development with the school district. She also mentors the artists at CLARA and the district teachers on how to develop and implement effective integrated arts curriculum and assessment strategies. The arts organizations are then free to focus on developing education programs that build on the assets of their particular art form and cultural perspective, and on the needs of the district’s classrooms. Hundreds of students then gain access to art forms and cultures previously unavailable to them through the residencies, classes and camps in the program. It’s not hard to add up all the ‘wins’ in this model! The cultural arts organizations at CLARA are: Alliance Francaise, the Brazilian Center for Cultural Exchange, Capitol INDIE Collective, Capital Stage, McKeever School of Irish Dance, Sacramento Ballet, and Sacramento Preparatory Music Academy. www.claramidtown.org

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Teaching Artists Guild is growing! Announcing the first statewide branch of TAG. We are proud to announce a new chapter in the history of Teaching Artistry in the United States. Over the past 30 years, our burgeoning profession has grown from relative obscurity to become the backbone of arts education delivery, affecting the educational environment in schools, community centers, and other learning settings across the US. In the last few years, the field of Teaching Artistry has taken several giant leaps forward, with national convenings, greater recognition and focus from progressive funders, and new and stronger networks that are helping to raise the voice of the teaching artist and connect our disparate community. The next step forward in this development? Statewide chapters, backed by a national body, that can cater more specifically to the needs of teaching artists in distinct and diverse regions. The first of these chapters is actually an evolution of some fantastic work that has been going on for years. The Teaching Artists Support Collaborative of California is now becoming TAG of CA.

As a strong, well-equipped network of professional teaching artists in California, TAG of CA is picking up TASCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good work: building public awareness for the value and role of teaching artists in the community, sharing best practices and resources for delivering quality arts education experiences, and advocating for the professional status of teaching artists. For teaching artists working in California, this development means stronger representation for CA teaching artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs nationally, as well as more focused and tailored service from TAG within the state of CA.

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We encourage teaching artists working in California to serve on the advisory group for TAG of CA. Joining the advisory group presents a unique opportunity to connect with other leaders (emerging and established) in the field, as well as an opportunity to play a meaningful role in the development of specific initiatives for teaching artists within the state. You can apply to the advisory committee here.

APPLY HERE Some of the exciting projects you can expect to see from TAG of CA in the coming weeks are:

The CA pilot of the Teaching Artists Asset Map

In-person professional development and networking events

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Teaching Artist 101â&#x20AC;? professional development workshops for rural California communities

Funders and stakeholders in California are increasingly recognizing the incredible value that teaching artists provide to our educational ecosystem. TAG statewide networks are a natural next step in the growth of our national teaching artist community. If you are the leader of an organization doing arts education work in California, please be sure to join us on this journey. Today, we announce a new page of the TAG website specifically catering to the needs of California teaching artists.

Please visit us online at http://teachingartistsguild.org/california Yours in Community, Jean, Kenny, and The National Advisory Committee

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INTEGRATED LEARNING IN ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA Excerpts from a piece on integrated arts learning in the Bay Area. By Nicole Sumner As arts-integration takes a firmer hold, programs such as Alameda County’s Integrated Learning Specialist Program fill up with teachers eager to find pedagogic support for integrating discrete arts and academic disciplines across the curriculum. Others are looking for ways to collaborate with their colleagues in inquiry-based learning, or to teach in more culturally responsive ways. All are interested in arts-centered learning- a phrase most clearly articulated by one of the ILSP’s main architects, Julia Marshall. Lead players in the pedagogy of the Integrated Learning Specialist Program are Making Learning Visible (MLV) and Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM)- frameworks coming out of Harvard’s Project Zero. A general emphasis on teaching for social justice runs through the three-course program, varying in depth according to who the instructor is. The courses are divided into Course A: Strategies and Resources for Arts Integration; Course B: Ongoing Assessment Strategies and Applications: Making Learning Visible, Studio Habits of Mind, Rubrics and Portfolios; and Course C: Collaborative Curriculum Design The participants in my ILSP courses collectively represented all the arts disciplines, multiple grade levels and learning differences, multiple languages and cultural settings for our teaching, multiple histories of activism in our lives, different class and racial backgrounds, and multiple levels of cultural responsiveness within our pedagogies, practices and schools’ missions. The asset list is long, and, as Julia Marshall would say, leaders learn by doing, not by following others:

“Leaders must know themselves and be metacognitive in their learning and actions. These are skills, dispositions and knowledge developed in art-centered enquiry.”

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Becoming Each Other’s Assets With the opportunity to explore the intersections between each other’s practices, we construct knowledge about our experiences and strengths, about the patterns in our choices, and the omissions -- the things we steer around. We become each other’s assets when we interview a class partner with empathy and then construct a prototype of a means for addressing a real issues in that person’s life. The mirror critique exercise gives people a chance to describe someone else’s artwork or written piece as if we ourselves have made it, and in doing so, we often reflect assets the artist or writer may not have known s/he had.

Asset-Oriented Discourses We still live in a primarily deficit-oriented learning climate, regarding learning abilities, race and class background. The ILSP program is a welcome relief. In my book, everyone could take student-centeredness further, while deepening critical literacy and culturally responsive practices, but the ILSP program takes a giant step in creating asset-oriented discourses. Define one “glow” in your teaching practice (an aspect of your practice that you’re confident about) and one “grow” (a vision you’re working toward), and then choreograph a way to move from one to the other. The intersections between our visions is what builds artistic and social justice movements- or, on a smaller scale: research groups, support groups, musical bands and community action projects. Knowing how to do this in an ILSP course is invaluable in replicating it later in other settings.

MCV: Making Connections Visible I’ve always been interested in mapping - visually charting the assets of our experiences on the walls. According to Julia Marshall, who has written extensively about the architecture of the ILSP program, the second of four central principals of education is “honoring and employing student life experience and knowledge.” To do this most effectively is to make connections visible and audible in multiple ways - I’ll call it MCV. As a slam poet, I like this acronym because an emcee’s job is to connect people to one another, to M-move the C-crowd. With connection, comes collaboration, both within and after the course. We are experts in what we’ve experienced, and need chances to own it. This is what leaders and MCs need to do. Moreover, we need each other in order to help synthesize material and unpack dense issues. Collaboration is our best friend. People with a lot of MCV capital make collaboration unavoidable.

Learn more at http://www.integratedlearningacoe.org/

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At the conclusion of each intensive, teens organize a public exhibition which includes collaboratively determining a title and theme of the exhibition, as well as layout and hang their show.

Looking Back to Look Forward:

Reflecting on Artist-Driven Programming for Teens Page 20

by Zachary Gresham

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

Artist-Teacher, Patricia Vazquez Gomez with the 2016 cohort of teens.

t the close of this summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Summer High School Studio Art Intensive program, I felt almost euphoric. The four-week studio program for Houston-area teens aged 14-17 was an overall success.

As an arts administrator at a small non-profit visual art space, I rarely have the opportunity to pause and reflect on successes after an opening, event or new program. Typically I might take a moment to acknowledge that things went well, things that went awry, thank all involved, put away the art-making supplies, and swiftly move on to the next project or program. However, prompted by a conversation with a visiting Artist-Teacher that highlighted the importance of careful reflection, I decided to set aside time to revisit not only the things that went well--planned and unplanned--but also the fundamental aspects of the program that are most important, or the reason why we all come together and work so hard on building the program in the first place. Rather than making a list of the great things that happened, I made a list of the twenty aspects of the program that are most important to its success. What are the things that are valuable and vital to the success of the program? From these items, it occurred to me that one of the most important aspects of this program is that it is artist-driven. By artist-driven, I mean that as an administrator I take a back seat and let the Artist-Teachers and the teen artists in the program, as well as alumni, guide the way. Other than selecting the Artist-Teachers that will be involved with the program, I take a passive but attentive approach to organizing this particular program. Letting go of the control and leaving

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space for experimentation and chance can be uncomfortable, but I have learned through this program that this is also where the magic can occur.

ABOUT THE SUMMER HIGH SCHOOL STUDIO ART INTENSIVE AT ART LEAGUE HOUSTON

The Summer High School Studio Art Intensive at Art League Houston was created in 2014 following a meeting with an art teacher at a local arts magnet high school. I went into the meeting with a particular program idea in mind – weekly life-drawing sessions – but walked out with focus in an entirely different direction. The teacher expressed a unique need for pre-college studio art program for teens in the Houston-area. There are many pre-college studio programs for teens across the United States. However, despite Houston’s status as the fourth-largest city in the country, there were no opportunities available for area teens to attend similarly to what is taking place in other large cities, such as New York or Chicago, that provides an intensive studio art experience that is like getting a glimpse into the BFA experience. From the ideas generated in this meeting, I built a two-week pilot program that consisted of studio art classes (primarily in drawing and painting), guest speakers and panel discussions, an individual portfolio review session, and concluded with an exhibition in the hallway gallery at Art League Houston. The teens shared great feedback about the program and expressed interest in returning the following year. Since that initial year, the program has continued to evolve and expand each year. In its current iteration, the program still has a structure similar to the initial year; however, the program now includes site visits to other community art spaces and more than a week is dedicated for students to work on self-directed projects with studio visits from area artists. Not only has exhibition portion of the program expanded to a larger physical space, but the teens also now have full collective control over exhibition’s content, theme and title.

Based on student feedback through surveys, as well as interviews with program alumni, I began to engage with Artist-Teachers about developing coursework that engaged with their own art practices, rather than typical studio coursework that the teens might encounter at their own high schools.

This past summer, for example, the program lasted a month and included twenty-six visiting Artist-Teachers, speakers, and portfolio reviewers. Although the majority of Artist-Teachers are local, we also were able to bring in several out of town artists, like Hazel Meyer, an artist from Toronto, Canada. This pairing of local and out-of-town artists provides rich context for teens as they enter a period in their lives where they will engage with both local and broader experiences in life and art. One thing that has remained the same, however, is the program’s size. Throughout the years, we have capped the number of participants at sixteen. While we originally landed on this number due to the capacity of our facilities, we also recognized the inherent benefit of a small, close-knit Page 22

During theArtists 2016 andQuarterly: 2017 iterations of the Teaching Guild Issue 10 Summer High School Studio Art Intensive, Artist-Teacher, Gabriel Martinez conducted one-on-one studio visits with the teens in preparation for their final exhibition.

group that would allow for stronger relationships and more one-on-one time with the Teacher-Artists.

Artist-Driven ProgramminG

In the program’s first year, I was heavily involved in all aspects of the program, from planning to execution. I reached out to specific Artist-Teachers to teach particular subjects, like the fundamentals of drawing or figure painting. This not only forced the Artist-Teachers to fit within certain confines, but also forced prescribed content on the participants that ended up feeling closed-off and restricting. Based on student feedback through surveys, as well as interviews with program alumni, I began to engage with Artist-Teachers about developing coursework that engaged with their own art practices, rather than typical studio coursework that the teens might encounter at their own high schools. This act of surveying students and listening and responding to their feedback has continued to be essential to the growth of the intensive. As an added bonus, I’ve found that this has allowed the artists to extend their practice into the classroom and experiment with new coursework that is organic and original. Patricia Vazquez Gomez, an artist who splits her time between Mexico City and Portland, was a Teacher-Artist for the 2016 intensive, noted, “it was particularly productive to create assignments based on my own practice and the issues I explore through it, as well as other artists whose work I admire. Exposing teens to the possibilities of socially engaged art feels particularly relevant as I hope it broadens the spectrum of possibilities to function as artists, beyond the conventional systems of art circulation.” Patricia guided students through coursework that related to her current project, Jornaleros, in Page 23

Each year, theArtists curriculum changes on the Teaching Guild Quarterly: Issuebased 10 diverse range of Artist-Teachers are brought in to teach.

which she has been working with day laborers in Portland, Oregon to create art projects such as prints, murals, and t-shirts. Her coursework at Art League Houston was called Invisible labor and asked students to research, observe, and document instances of under-recognized labor in place they frequent. From this research, the teens used digital design software to create an award that gives recognition to these individuals. These awards could then be given to the employees, acknowledging their work. For many students in the program, this activity and the others that Patricia presented were foreign ideas of what art can be. In addition to the Invisible labor project, students were also asked to make zines based on their interviews with a stranger and to subvert a popular song and present it to the group through karaoke. In their feedback surveys, students shared that Patricia’s coursework was “very helpful, fun, and open,” and that it “got me out of my comfort zone.” Overall, I have seen that students are interested in pushing ideas of what art can be. A 16-year-old

“Exposing teens to the possibilities of socially engaged art feels particularly relevant as I hope it broadens the spectrum of possibilities to function as artists, beyond the conventional systems of art circulation.” - Patricia Vazquez Gomez mentioned in her overall reflection about the program that, “the people involved in the program were amazing, open, and memorable. Having the chance to work in different mediums wouldn’t have been as great if not for my classmates, the staff, and artists. Great community.”

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Flexibility and The Power of the Unknown

Working at a small community arts organization, I have learned over time to lean into the power of the unknown. As much as I naturally want to over-plan, this is not realistic. Limited time, energy, and lack of psychic abilities prohibit this. The reality of this is that this program is a huge administrative undertaking. Working with over twenty artists from the community, creating and fostering relationships with and between the teens, coordinating site visits and guest speakers, while simultaneously putting together an exhibition – this feels huge and at times overwhelming. Instead of getting frustrated or burnt out, I have come to realize there is something really great about being open to “failure.”

Being flexible and open to the unknown led to this type of connection, which wouldn’t have happened if I had set-up prescribed portfolio reviewers before getting to know the where the teen’s interests lie. Leaving a few unscheduled areas within the two weeks means there is some flexibility and room to listen and respond to the needs of the teens in the program, as well as fill in the gaps with what has not been covered. For example, the portfolio reviews typically occur on the last day of the program. Once I have gotten to know the teens better, reoccurring themes or ideas presented in their work start to become apparent. This past summer, a number of teens described their work as being inspired by architecture and space. One participant had even mentioned that she might want to pursue architecture as a career. Hearing this, I reached out to an artist in the community, Garland Fielder, who is both a practicing artist as well as an architect to be a portfolio reviewer. Being flexible and open to the unknown led to this type of connection, which wouldn’t have happened if I had set-up prescribed portfolio reviewers before getting to know the where the teen’s interests lie. Additionally, there have been many times that we have engaged with artists that weren’t 100% certain as to what their coursework would include. Either they were experimenting on the lesson they would present or wanted to respond to the teens organically. This terrifies me. However, it has been my view that typically these are the sections of the program that have the most creative energy and excitement. All of this being said, I am still wholeheartedly an advocate of planning. However, it is a balancing act of structure, while also being flexible. In fact, the program came together in state of flexibility. The organization was able to be flexible enough to create a program that responded to the needs of area teens. It would be a disservice to the teens that we serve to cease listening and force a heavy-handed vision onto the teens without their input.

DIVERSity

During orientation on the first day of the intensive, I begin with a caution that during the program they are going to encounter something out of their comfort zone that maybe doesn’t resonate with them. However, at the same time, in this program they are going to come upon an idea that blows their mind. And also, what resonates with one person, might not with their peer. On one Page 25

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Hazel Meyer’s coursework encouraged students to reimagine space and messaging by creating concepts for banners.

day, for example, students might be discussing controversial work of artists such as Santiago Sierra and Mierle Kaderman Ukeles, and the next they might be creating large-scale watercolors of native flora collected in the close vicinity of the building. Henry Sanchez, the Artist-Teacher who led the latter studio coursework in 2017, points out that, “the program succeeds in having a variety of instructors to understand various perspectives and practices.” Hazel Meyer is another artist who perfectly illustrates the idea of presenting diverse curriculum in her coursework, A banner, a tee-shirt, some oranges and sweat: installation and performance for everyone. I was struck by her honesty and openness to discuss issues that are typically avoided in programs with youth. Hazel shared with the students her reference points on queer history, illness, and led a thoughtful dialogue about how sports and art do not have to be mutually exclusive. She guided students through coursework that included writing exercises, conceptual text-based drawings, sewing, collaboration, stop-motion animation, sewing, and collaborative movement and performance pieces. I’m a fan of Hazel’s work, however, I was a little nervous about how students might respond. In the end, I received only positive feedback about from the teens about their time with Hazel. Hazel’s ability to create a safe and open environment allowed for new ideas to be explored and discussed. Addressing Hazel’s coursework, one student noted that, “her work is awesome and it allowed for new ways of expression through art.”

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There is diversity not only in the range of ideas and techniques included in the coursework, but also in the instructors brought on to lead the program. Houston is the most racially/ethnically diverse city in the United States. The Artist-Teachers we bring in, as well as the students that are accepted into the program reflect this diversity. A student from the 2017 intensive commented in her evaluation of the program: “I really liked the wide range of things that we got to try. Also, I feel like this program was so beneficial to me because of everyone’s openness. I’ve been to other art programs, and while I liked it, I wasn’t really this sad to leave because the people there were not open to new ideas as much.”

Final thoughts

Gabriel Martinez, a Houston-based Artist and recurring instructor in the Summer High School Studio Art Intensive program at Art League Houston reflected that, “the joy for me is in seeing these ideas form and transform over the course of the summer. The process takes hold of the work through dialogue, material changes, intuition, and whim. The movement of the artwork from the ideas that inform it to the final pieces hung in the exhibition is the best part of teaching. I learn from the students: how they approach materials, the concerns they choose to address, and the ‘voice’ they employ to do so are all insights into the artistic mind.” In my brief comments to the visitors of the opening of the exhibition last year, I told the audience that there was no way to really communicate what just happened in the studio over the previous weeks. This journey and process that Gabriel recounts is accurate. Over four weeks, the participants, Artist-Teachers, and myself are navigating through and organically creating the program as it happens. Allowing for programs to be artist-driven, from the artists enrolled in the program to the artists that guide instruction, means a much more diverse and dynamic program. There are times of uncertainty and the need to pause and readjust, but that’s inherent to anything worth doing.

Zachary Gresham is an educator, administrator, artist, and musician. Zachary is the Education Programs Director at Art League Houston and is a lecturer at the University of Houston. He is also a cellist where he performs with various community groups, including the Symphony of Southeast Texas. Instagram: @zegresham

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EVERYONE HAS A STORY How being a teaching artist became my beautiful detour.

By Amy Oestreicher

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“ If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. ” - Nelson Mandela Do you remember being asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For me, it was being on stage. Singing and acting were ways I could connect with the world around me. I was the kid who got sent to the principal’s office because when the teacher left the room, I would jump on her desk and start tap-dancing, forcing every unwilling classmate to join me in a showtunes medley, and all through high school, I was “theatre-girl”, writing songs on my binders as I waited for the school bell, then hopping on the train to the next open call I’d found in Backstage. Even though theatre was my passion and identity, I’d always possessed a tremendous curiosity and gratitude for the world around me, and saw creativity as a way of mindset, way of life, and means of finding joy wherever you are - including OFF stage!

At 18, a week before my senior prom, having just received my college acceptance letters, I awoke from a coma.

That creativity that saved my life. At 18, a week before my senior prom, having just received my college acceptance letters, I awoke from a coma. Although surgeons were more concerned about keeping my organs alive, I was still trying to grapple with one frightening new concern:

Would I ever be able to sing and dance on stage again? With a ventilator and a tracheotomy, I couldn’t even talk. I had “just been” in my tap classes, and instantly, after months of bed-rest, I couldn’t sit or stand, and was horrified that every muscle had turned Jell-O. I then was told that my stomach exploded due to an unforeseen blood clot. So much pressure had built up inside of me that in the operating room, my stomach actually burst to the ceiling. Both my lungs collapsed, I needed 122 units of blood, and now without a digestive system, I couldn’t eat or drink, and nobody knew if I would ever be able to again. What do you say to that? I remember asking every person I could find in the hospital if they thought I would ever be able to sing and dance again. I was faced with many apologetic “I don’t knows.” With time, and dogged determination, I was eventually discharged from the hospital. What I’m glossing over are the 27+ surgeries, countless setbacks and frustrations. Page 29

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If I didn’t think like an artist, I would have never been able to re-imagine my identity and maintain an inner fire that kept my spirit alive.

What IS important: Above the IV poles beeping, I still heard the music. In my bleak ICU cubicle, I could still see me dancing someday. Creativity gave me hope. If I didn’t think like an artist, I would have never been able to re-imagine my identity and maintain an inner fire that kept my spirit alive.

But without theatre, I felt disconnected, purposeless, a “has-been.” I missed the vibrant girl I remembered being the first to sign up for auditions, now condemned to a realm of medical isolation. I had always had a dream of combining song and dialogue in a show of my own design. I love the idea of storytelling through theatre, but as a teen, I didn’t really have much of a story to tell. But sometimes, a setback is an opportunity in disguise. Suddenly, I had a tale of hurdles, triumph, and heart. Eight years after my coma, I was finally headed towards a life of medical stability. I learned through experience that things can heal with time, and that’s not always the prettiest or easiest way. My one-woman musical autobiography, Gutless & Grateful, started out as stapled pages of my journal – a few pages from the thousands of journal entries I had completed when unable to eat or drink for years. I selected 16 songs—some of which I had written – that had always resonated with my journey and me, and loosely strung them together to sing for my own therapy. I’d perform Gutless & Grateful for my parents, my dogs, but mostly for myself. Through the songs, I could allow myself a safe place to feel the charged emotions I was still trying to process from years of medical trauma. I called it my “world in a binder”. My parents called it “Amy’s little play.” To their (horrified) surprise, I booked a theatre in New York for my world premiere! I performed Gutless & Grateful for the first time in NYC in October 2012. It was a frightening, bold, vulnerable, and breathtaking experience. I told everything – the pain, the joy, – with music, drama, and humor, most importantly. I had played “roles” before, but for the first time, I was honestly revealing my own medical and emotional struggles for strangers - a risk with reward. My own vulnerability finally made my story relatable. I could rejoin the world now. Since then, I’ve graduated college at 30 years old, and feel as though I have only just begun to discover who I am as a playwright and an artist. Just as my life unexpectedly exploded one day and had to be pieced back together, the structure of my work began to follow this same premise. As an artist, I gather the leftovers—the scraps of life—those fragmented pieces that some might consider worthless, and I Page 30

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reassemble them into a coherent narrative. I’m a scavenger, gathering memory, images, and meanings, to tell stories through mixed media art, movement, music, and text, finding meaning in catastrophe. I’m also a “Detourist,” (the subject of my first TEDx Talk) embracing unexpected routes as opportunities for creative growth, and the opportunity to build a culture based on empathy, curiosity and inclusion. Through Gutless & Grateful, I realized that sharing the gifts of the arts with others makes those lessons all the more potent. This detour transforming to the “teaching artist” path, and my lesson plans are driven by the power of stories. Through storytelling and creativity, we can turn anything into a “beautiful detour.” After 27 surgeries, I was miraculously reconnected with my remaining intestines. To persevere through those tumultuous years took strength I didn’t know I had until tested. I learned the human spirit feeds off of hope, and hope is fuel we can cultivate ourselves. Ultimately, I learned that with resourcefulness, creativity, and unwavering curiosity, we can transform any adversity into personal growth and resilience. Everything became possible once I was willing to intentionally wander from the life I planned and embrace this “detour” as an opportunity for discovery. This is not the life that I planned for myself – but does anyone’s life ever work out exactly how they plan it? My first TEDx Talk “follow your road, find your flower” TEDx Syracuse GLITCH April 2016

So many gifts came out of this. I also discovered painting in hospitals and flourished as a mixed media artist with art shows and creativity workshops. I was not able to fully appreciate the beauty of my detours until I was able to share them. As a performer, all I’ve wanted to do was give back to the world. But now I have an even greater gift to give: a story to tell. The stories within and around me have inspired an irrepressible passion for helping others find their own artistic drive. I will never forget how I was literally given a voice by the arts, after this decade of trauma threatened to permanently claim my voice and write my story. I had experienced years of setbacks, triumphs and frustrations in isolation, stifled by circumstances that appeared so much larger than myself. Playwriting, art-making, singing, dancing, and every possible form of expression granted me creative ownership, launching me back into society as a storyteller, rather than a victim. Page 31

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Writing a musical transformed my traumas into a universal narrative, and seeing my struggles through the lens of the archetypal hero’s journey revealed the gifts of adversity. The even greater surprise was witnessing how this theatrical arc I had constructed from chaos was universally relatable. I realized that creativity could facilitate healing for both the artist and audience, as they engage with the story. Theatre was the “great equalizer” which created a common language between marginalized voices and an audience ready to listen. I’ve learned that, just as healing cannot take place in a vacuum, neither does art. I believe that everyone has a story worth sharing and theatre is one of the greatest A slide used during my 2nd TEDx Talk: patterns at VCU February 2017, in the launchpads for societal transformation. photo, I am painting during a residency at Art Kibbutz. The talk was on using the archetypal heros journey to make healing from trauma an exciting adventure. As the curtain lifts, the audience sits in solidarity, watching stories unfold, hopefully tales that create bridges between marginalized populations and inspire both personal and societal growth. My teaching is a continuous celebration of life’s beautiful detours, and of creativity, which I feel is an essential mindset. I found art accidentally on my way to healing, and have learned that it is one of the most rewarding, forgiving, beautiful ways to find my way through the darkness and into the light.

Where has being a teaching artist led me? I get to share and (mostly) learn from children of all ages, backgrounds, interests and abilities and I’m more inspired than ever. And I’m making a different. I also tour my plays across the country to show students that a detour is not a dead end. Somehow I’ve managed to cram more surgeries than I can count into a one-woman autobiographical musical, a presentation on mental health, and a takeaway that difficulties can truly make you stronger. Ten years of uncertainty and setbacks were frustrating and difficult, but the lessons I learned from that beautiful detour — yes, you heard that right — are truly immeasurable. You’re on a road, and you have to make an unexpected turn. Sounds like life, right? Nobody expects a detour to happen in life. It’s what happens when we think we have things planned and all figured out, and then we’re thrown a curveball. But the great part about a “detour?” You get to travel a route you never would have expected. The Page 32

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road may be tough, long, winding and seemingly out of the way, but what I finally realized is that it’s the twists and turns in life that ultimately make us who we are. Graduating college myself, while both performing for colleges and being a teaching artist has shown me that we all need to learn how to cope when life doesn’t go like we expect it to. We all could use a few tips on learning how to love who we are. How I traveled my “detour” was by trial and error — it still is. But sharing my story, I was finally able to heal and move on from it. Gutless & Grateful is the story of how I became a “Detourist.” It takes “guts” to use such an transparent medium with so many audiences, but I share to give courage and a sense of belonging to people who are struggling with all kinds of mental health or physical challenges, but also to help build a world that is generous, aware, and adaptable. If we all share our “detours,” we see that our detours are not detours at all. Every road leads somewhere, and the more we share, the more we realize we’re not alone. Just talk. Share. Sing a song, do a dance — or if you’re not a theatre ham like me, draw a picture, journal or tell a friend. You never know if someone else is feeling the same kind of uncertainty when a path doesn’t go as you expect. My detour took me has taken me everywhere from wound-care conferences to humor academies. From there, well, the beauty of a detour is I don’t know where it might lead. My advice is to:

Show up.

Trust that you are capable.

Be curious to see where the detour may lead.

Me in my art studio. Painting and making messes as always. It’s the one place where I don’t think; I can just focus on physical sensation. Used to be an old furnace room, made it from scratch as soon as I was discharged from the hospital!

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Detours can lead to new, unexpected and amazing opportunities. What will you find on your detour today? As artists we tell stories constantly. Every time I “perform” or “create” what happened to me, I find myself somehow transformed in the process. The arts teach us we’re capable of anything, and usually tells us this at times we need it most. After my show, people would come up to me and tell me how inspired they had been by my story. They would almost apologize, as if ashamed that their own problems could possibly compare. This always struck me odd because I believe that suffering is relative. Although my situation was extreme, I experienced universal feelings that everyone goes through in life, whether it’s a surgery, a break-up, or a broken heart. Whatever the story, it is ours and uniquely ours and we all have to get it out there. Through telling our stories, we realize that we are not alone. We feel connected by a shared experience, and this experience strengthens us just enough to keep getting through life’s experiences day after day! This realization I had that we all need to tell our stories inspired me to start leading workshops about the healing power of our storytelling to organizations, schools, and underserved communities. Working with at-risk youth, and mentoring students through my own educational theatre program, has required flexibility, organization, and continuous communication with their parents and teachers. Let’s just say I’ve grown up a bit myself after my adolescence was literally frozen overnight. I’ve created customized curriculums and facilitator guides for my program, Mental Health Mindset, which uses theatre games and creative prompts to help students of all abilities transform adversity to creative growth. What excites me most about being a teaching artist is bringing theater to individuals just like myself, who, over a decade ago, needed theater as a reminder of the human spirit’s potential. My teaching is a celebration of the creativity within us all, and the stories we deserve to express freely. When I realized how combining powerful firsthand experience could transform lives, I developed my little-show-that-could into a mental health advocacy and sexual assault prevention program for students. Nearly losing my life at 18 years old, I’m now reaching out to students at that same pivotal point in their own lives. Medically, my life is far from perfect, but now when a surgery goes wrong, I use it as more material for my show – if we can’t learn to laugh from hardship, we can’t learn anything. And for me, when I learn, I feel alive. Through Gutless & Grateful, I’m sharing my story and helping others find the the gratitude in hardships. As a performer, all I want to do is give back to the world. Being up on stage and singing is one part of the joy, but what brings the process full circle is knowing that somewhere in the audience, I am affecting someone and making them think in a different way. Theatre stirs you to see differently. Doing what I love, my passion once again freely flows through my veins. I’m a person now, not just a patient or a medical miracle. Passion may not heal 27 surgeries, but passion has healed my heart. My passion has re-anchored me in who I am. And for that, I’m a very Gutless, Grateful teaching artist! Page 34

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What excites me most about being a teaching artist is bringing theater to individuals just like myself, who, over a decade ago, needed theater as a reminder of the human spirit’s potential. My teaching is a celebration of the creativity within us all, and the stories we deserve to express freely.

Performing excerpts of new play Fibers for local news station, a play inspired by three years of oral history interviews I conducted with my relatives about my grandma’s survival through the Holocaust, exploring the relationship between history and memory.

Amy Oestreicher is a PTSD specialist, multidisciplinary teaching artist, author, writer for Huffington Post, TEDx and RAINN speaker, award-winning health advocate, actress and playwright. She has headlined international conferences with her keynote speaking and mental health advocacy/sexual assault awareness programming. Her one-woman musical autobiography, Gutless & Grateful, has won 8 national honors on an international tour since its NYC “Best Theatre Debut” in 2012. Her writings have appeared in over 70 online and print publications, and her story has appeared on TODAY, Cosmopolitan and CBS. www.amyoes.com Page 35

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A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Teaching Artist, Marcus Crawford Guy, becomes a student in his own classroom

Marcus working with ASTEP at SHANTI BHAVAN, Bangalore, India Page 36

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A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Teaching Artist, Marcus Crawford Guy, becomes a student in his own classroom

When I graduated The Juilliard School’s Drama Division in 2014, I remember telling myself that the most important skills I had acquired were stamina and structure. They would be key to my success as a young actor in New York City but so too would flexibility, and being comfortable with the unknown. So what kind of survival job do you take? Can you be an actor and have another job that provides more than just subsistence? Add into the mix that I’m a foreigner, with a very specific list of roles I can take on in the US and a promise I had made to my self-esteem that I wouldn’t take a job that would put me in the firing line of questions like: Are you just doing this until you make it? Or: What’s next for you? It’s really hard for actors. I needed to find an environment where my pursuit would be supported, encouraged, and maybe even celebrated. It took me a while… but I found it!

Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City helmed by Broadway Musical Director, Mary-Mitchell Campbell. I had heard a lot about their work throughout my time at school, but wasn’t quite sure how to get involved. People older than me, who I admired and had preceded me at Juilliard were involved in the inception of the organization and I allowed my anxiety associated with being “less than” to separate me from their important work. Get it together, Marcus! I did. Within weeks I was on their roster of artists and hitting the ground running all over New York City: from homeless housing shelters in corners of Brooklyn I hadn’t seen, to workshops with elementary schools in Queens teaching students about Scottish culture, to facilitating the Arts Olympics with underserved youth in Washington Heights, my new neighborhood. I got an abrupt and necessary education on the real New York City – the parts that an education centered in over-moneyed Lincoln Center can’t give you. (It’s important to mention that I’ve been very involved in community outreach since moving to New York in 2010, but it’s a different beast when you’re seeing and experiencing it without being wrapped in institutional cotton wool.) The moment I realized that my work with ASTEP would be fundamental to my success as an actor was when I asked a student, “What do you know about Broadway?” at a facility closer to JFK than Manhattan, and she said, “It’s out there, and there are lots of cars?” with a face that said, Can we get back to the BAH! game we were playing before you tried to play teacher? This is downtime, not school! Page 38

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Marcus sets up for the annual ARTS OLYMPICS event for young students at the ASTEP summer workshop Page 39

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Very quickly, my experience of New York was contextualized. I am immensely privileged to be living in New York City, by choice, in pursuit of dreams that my middle class upbringing allow me to visualize as possible. There I stood, with kids and their families who will be pleased to see themselves through the next week without chaos, able to enter this environment for a moment with the knowledge that I would also be able to leave. I took a moment to resist the urge to refresh my email, to trust that there was something in my bank account, and to acknowledge that, perceptions of success aside, I was living quite comfortably. This was just the beginning of my education as an ASTEP Artist. ASTEP has many short-term opportunities for volunteers that allow you to fill up the gaps in your schedule with meaningful action, but also offers programming in South Africa, India (where I served last September), and Southern Florida. Many of these projects require meticulous financial planning and most challenging, leaving the city for up to 6 weeks, which any young artist knows is the inevitable moment when your phone rings and offers come in. This summer I put my desire to travel aside and encouraged myself to stay put, applying to volunteer as a team member in ASTEP’s 6-week educational program and partnership with a refugee resettlement agency. The program serves newly arrived Refugees and Asylees from over 50 countries around the world. I was fortunate to be the recipient of the Jennifer Saltzstein Kaffenberger fellowship through ASTEP, which offers a generous stipend to cover living expenses, and has made my participation in this program possible.

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A hallmark of ASTEP’s programming is the emphasis that is put on staff training – defining roles, drilling procedures and making sure that everyone on site is equipped in a way that can serve and support the students, who come from a multitude of backgrounds that we can’t begin to imagine. The resettlement agency shares this viewpoint and so I felt robust and ready for action after 5 full training days. This appeased a great deal of my typical anxiety before entering the classroom on day one. ASTEP had led us through a class where our on-site administrator, Gladys, taught entirely in Spanish. This spotlighted Empathy and Respect, two of the core values of the programming we were embarking on. We also engaged in a larger staff-wide dialogue about ideas of home and where we come from that allowed us to witness the vast variety of experience that existed on the program even before our students arrived. Before I had even stepped foot in the classroom I had been reminded that preparation is key – that we must feel secure and steadfast in the work we are going to present, before we present it. We must be ready (but not rigid) with our plans to a point where a single adverse circumstance in the room won’t throw us – we can adapt, we can change, and maybe even thrive in spite of this. This felt like a massive and transferrable lesson to my work in audition rooms. It is so easy to predict a product that casting are looking for, and be thrown into a spiral of self-doubt when direction is offered that veers away from that carefully planned outcome. I hear my teachers and professors once more – find ease in the work, Marcus! Meet the challenge as an equal, don’t fear it.

We focus on digging deep into the work in the arts classes, getting lost in creative activity in hopes that the English language skills develop without that being the hard focus.

Speaking of fear, I find that when I lead English-speaking classrooms, there is a need to move on quickly. Comprehension isn’t the problem. It’s a question of “Are my students enjoying this?” I feel the need to have my students like the work, especially when they are equipped with language that could quickly unpeg my best efforts. In these classrooms the dynamic is different. We focus on digging deep into the work in the arts classes, getting lost in creative activity in hopes that the English language skills develop without that being the hard focus. The students are also engaged in this. And so I, the teacher, get to relax and focus on the activity at hand and not any pre-emptive responses to it. Kelsey and I latched onto a teaching philosophy learned during training – I-WE-YOU – that allows us to lay focus on the process of learning, rather than an outcome. I demonstrate the skill, we then practice the skill in tandem with our students until we feel ready to watch them perform it on their own. It is time-consuming, but it works! There is a clear channel through which knowledge is being exchanged and nothing is left up to chance. We taught our young English language learners about story-structure Page 41

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We hoped to give them a skillset that would allow them to be in control of their imaginative life, rather than simply dictating an experience to them.

and parts of speech with a view to engaging them in imaginative circumstances – this is a huge leap for students who have previously lived pragmatically, with no room for frivolity and play. We hoped to give them a skillset that would allow them to be in control of their imaginative life, rather than simply dictating an experience to them. Together we’ve met Jerry the tiny Giraffe, Arturo the Dolphin and Pete the Purple Elephant. The fact that these characters talk, dance and live in houses made of pizza and ice-cream no longer confuses the students – we have provided the time and space for them to cultivate their imaginative life without iPads and apps, just words and thoughts, which are powerful beyond measure.

Expectation is a specific kind of thought that often proves powerful and problematic in my professional work. I write an expected narrative for how things will work, in an attempt to control the outcome. But there is great freedom in the unknown, especially when we can dissociate our exploration from any sense of expectation. Entering the classroom with a plan, but without a manufactured idea of how it will roll out always allows me to be surprised and enjoy all of the work my students produce. Raising our hands to stretch up can turn into a round of “twinkle, twinkle!” and that’s ok! It’s a lesson that brings joy in the classroom, but not always in the audition room. Things do not go as planned. The expected result is rarely the actual result and that can be troubling. I’ve had some auditions (enough that I can’t complain about it being quiet!) and I’ve worked hard to take the values learned in the classroom into these audition rooms. I can have agency to lead my own audition in the direction I want to take it, and I can also be moved in directions that veer away from my meticulous planning without worry, panic or stress. It’s a process, but it’s one I’m learning to embrace. Shifting perspectives with regards to expectation has taught me to actually listen to my students and to remember that the classroom is a live, spontaneous place, where anything can happen. But perhaps the most important lesson of the summer was learned from a single student, our youngest, who I will call Joey. Joey was almost entirely non-verbal on day one. We weren’t sure any of our other students spoke his native language and it just seemed like an insurmountable gap that needed to be bridged. In this specific instance, I felt ill equipped to do that. His wavering focus, new surroundings, early development and lack of acclimation to the classroom environment made it hard to gauge how to work productively and pro-actively towards growth. As we moved into weeks 3 and 4, when the majority our students became comfortable with their English language skills and take strides creatively, we were concerned that Joey was going to feel the distance between his own ability and the developing skillsets of his peers who were becoming more confident, sophisticated and vocal in the classroom.

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Right in the moment when we started to feel a little helpless, we noticed that he was suddenly throwing out random vocabulary that we had taught in class. Often it came without cuing, and many times it was 3 or 4 minutes after a question had been asked, but Joey was demonstrating acquired knowledge and when we assessed his improvement against those of his classmates – it was equivalent. I often think of my passage out of my training at Juilliard into the professional world. Unprotected from the reality of rejection by top-tier, corporate representation, the truth was often delivered to me through harsh and unfiltered emails, unanswered calls and general apathy towards someone who hadn’t excelled on the other end of excellent training. I felt like the student who couldn’t communicate ideas, didn’t have the same access to career development as his peers and as a result I lost the ability to assess my own successes. Everything felt like failure. Working with Joey this summer has given me fresh perspective. My movement is comparable, even though my circumstances are wholly different. Maybe one day I’ll have the chance to connect with Joey and let him know how his own learning enabled my own. This particular ASTEP experience has been transformational. In six short weeks, I have been offered fresh perspectives on the creative life I am leading. I feel empowered by the successes of my students and moments that the students may not remember have very clearly punctuated this next chapter in my professional endeavors. Their tenacity and willingness to bounce back and continue working in the face of adversity is awe-inspiring. I am excited to watch our students take stage tomorrow, likely not understanding the value I attribute to the act of getting to share my work with an audience. But, I’ll take this moment to live vicariously through them, remembering my first moment on stage, when I caught the bug. I’ll remember that the curiosity found on stage in the back hall of a museum in Scotland initiated a pursuit that led me to New York, to Juilliard, to the desire to find work that fulfilled me, to ASTEP and to the classroom where these young storytellers learned the skills that they’ll get to share. We’ve been brought here on very different journeys but tomorrow our paths will truly intersect as we share a common space, and hopefully a common memory of taking stage and then walking forward with confidence, clarity and conviction. Marcus Crawford Guy is a Scottish actor and teaching artist living and working in New York City. SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter + IG: @mcrawfordguy ASTEP SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter, IG + Facebook: @asteponline

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Preparing for a Creative School Year From The I Interview Teaching Artists Series by Kate Bell

Instead of interviewing just one Teaching Artist for this back-to-school issue, I decided to gather the wisdom of five outstanding Teaching Artists that I know here in New York City. When asked what their best practices were for getting ready for a new school year, this is what they recommendedâ&#x20AC;Ś

Robin Bady Art Forms: Storytelling, Theater, Writing Organizations: ElderShare the Arts, Global Arts to Go, Brooklyn Arts Council, Dorot How do I get ready for the new year as a Teaching Artist? Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my to do list.

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Speak to the universe, asking for those who control the monies to remember the importance of arts in education so that enough funding is designated to create work that will keep me (and the rest of us) solvent another year! Call the organizations I currently work with and check in. Do they need anything from me (new bios, pictures, listings)? Will there be meetings to attend? Are there new protocols in place?

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3 4 5 6

Check new opportunities, to see if we could be a good match. If so, I apply to their programs, then send a follow-up email or phone call a few days later.

Apply to showcases through BOCES (New York Board of Cooperative Educational Services), libraries, etc. Clean up - organize my desk, my workspace, my calendar, my files, my records, and my supply closet. I wash windows in my office, dust books, rearrange shelves, and get rid of outdated material.

Make sure I have cards, brochures, and anything else that advertises or showcases my work. If they need to be updated (as they do this year), I make that happen. Then I relax, and wait for the fun to begin.

Donna Costello Art Form: Dance Organizations: BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange), Park Avenue Armory, Lincoln Center Education Teaching for me is aligned to my practice as a dance artist and my connection to the world as a human. When I teach during the school year, I am acutely aware of how much output there is in my energy, my resources, and my time. My ideal is to stay present, responsive, and curious in the communities I find myself in, so I prepare for the Page 45

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upcoming school year by replenishing myself. I try to find new inspiration and time to be present in my body. I go into the empty dance studio. I listen to music. I take dance workshops. I rehearse. I read books about teaching and social issues. I talk with fellow artists and educators. I try to spend time in nature. I take a lot of walks. During those walks in the weeks before the school year begins, I start to make connections and spark ideas for my teaching practice and content. I also organize! My “office,” which is an overflowing desk in the corner of my living room (and additional piles in my bedroom), holds the folders and notebooks from the year before. By organizing, I reflect. The summer weeks provide me the space to see where my teaching was authentic and honest, where I might have fallen into habits, and what the challenges and successes were from the past years. As a final preparation, I buy my notebooks and folders for the coming year, upload a lot of music, and treat myself to some new pens since I tend to plan, think, and dream in longhand.

Susan Gonzalez Art Form: Visual Arts Organization: Marquis Studios One of my more significant lessons in working as a Teaching Artist for the past twenty years: being a Teaching Artist is an ongoing practice, one in which there’s no “arriving.” Being a Teaching Artist is an exercise in extending and giving. We bring unusual and uncommon gifts to schools, not only to students but also to administrators, staff, teachers, paraprofessionals, and maybe even custodians. Therefore, in considering all these factors, I find self-care is paramount to this practice. I begin the year by organizing leftover supplies from the previous year, cleaning scissors, and labeling things in colors I like, knowing that in a few months it will become a mess again. With this in mind, I welcome mess. It’s a part of being a Teaching Artist. Many Teaching Artists experience times of the year where there doesn’t seem to be enough time. We’d like a twenty-fifth hour in the day or an eighth day of the week. Things get a bit crazy. Therefore, acknowledging where things can get messy in the year and thinking of strategies to deal with these messes are things to reflect on before a new school year starts. Messes can be in our calendars, schedules, projects, communications, materials, our even in some aspect of our personal lives. Organizing supplies provides an opportunity to reflect on previous years, plan, and strategize; it can give us a window of time to decide what will be done differently no matter how big or small the act may be. Maybe we’ll change some aspect of our lesson planning or we’ll treat ourselves to a nicer bag to carry supplies in—or perhaps we’ll make no changes at all. Page 46

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Larry Jackson

Art Forms: Visual Arts, Architecture Organizations: Park Avenue Armory, Marquis Studios, The Buckley School, Center for Arts Education Over the years I’ve learned to use my summer downtime for total creative re-fueling. Right after it all ends in late June, I take a break. During those first two or three weeks of summer, I refuel in other un-school-related ways: maybe go on a trip, have lunch with friends, clean my studio, start an art series of my own (create/illustrate/conceive/prototype ideas), and do housework. After that, I look back. I look at class project photos and videos and then edit, label, and sort everything by classifying and cataloging the recent art works and projects. My summer practice of reflection and cataloging reminds me of what has just taken place and helps me clearly see and feel what was happening and (most importantly) what I like. I then begin to “art input” by bombarding myself with ingesting art in all forms (music, gallery shows, films, architecture, books, and just general wandering around). After that, I work on the three most important things to get ready for the coming new school year: 1) I figure out what I really want to do for the upcoming season. I eliminate what I didn’t like doing from the last season. 2) I research something that’s not present in my practice and I conjure up how I can use my talents and skills to fill that void. I’m always thinking of creating something that is going to make me incredibly valuable to whomever I am working for/with. Doing something that has not been done before is part of the charm. 3) I will add something new to my teaching repertoire (that keeps me engaged). Sometimes it’s a new art form, style, or direction. Lately I have been teaching myself software for 3-D virtual technology. Page 47

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Antonia Perez Art Form: Visual Arts Organizations: Elders Share the Arts, Lifetime Arts, Inc., Maspeth Town Hall, SU-CASA, The New York Public Library, Jacob Riis Settlement House Senior Program

My first thoughts as the school year rolls around are about what my calendar is going to look like. As an independent contractor, I piece together an assortment of teaching positions throughout the school year of varying lengths and durations. At the same time, I want to keep my artistic practice active and vibrant. To do this, each semester I make one or two days during the week studio days and I don’t schedule teaching work on those days. I may switch a studio day in order to accommodate a teaching site, but I won’t eliminate it. This is crucial to being a good Teaching Artist because if I’m not engaged in my own process of creating, I will not be able to communicate my excitement and love of invention and discovery through art-making to my students. And more than anything, I want to turn them on to the mental and emotional thrills of direct engagement with art. Next, I think about the students I have worked with before and what may interest them this year, what work we have already done together, and ways that we can build on that through learning new materials and techniques. I also consider the artwork we may be looking at and the concepts we may be considering. Since I am now working only with older adults as a Teaching Artist, the possibilities for curriculum are practically unlimited. On occasion I am contracted with an organization that wants me to teach a particular skill or technique, and in those cases, I pull out old lesson plans and make updates or revisions according to the particular population I will be working with.

From Kate Bell: A big thank you to Robin, Donna, Susan, Larry, and Antonia for sharing their ideas here! I’d also like to add that I’m a big fan of organizations that have either full-company meetings of all their Teaching Artists at the beginning of the school year, or even better, have a company retreat. Getting the chance to plan, create art, and socialize with other Teaching Artists always helps me to enter a new school year feeling inspired and excited. I hope all of you have a productive and innovative 2017-18 school year! Page 48

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Teaching Artist Interviews by Kate Bell Kate Bell is a writer, theater maker, musician, and Teaching Artist in Brooklyn, NY. Kate seeks to understand the field of Teaching Artistry more deeply through her â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Interview Teaching Artistsâ&#x20AC;? series, which is featured in the TAG Quarterly, and on her blog: www.katebell.info.

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CREATING CONNECTION in the EVERYDAY ARTS FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSROOM by Stefanie Singer

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EASE Coach, Melanie Goodreaux facilitates a greeting ritual with students and teacher, District 75 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New York City, 2016

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

“[Students] turn and make eye contact for a second, requesting things like sharing the tape or asking for water...making connections throughout the activities.” - Participating EASE teacher, 2016

Pass the Object creates an opportunity for students to connect, District 75 – New York City, 2016

The arts are about making connections - objects as simple as masking tape and water with a paintbrush can create meaningful moments of interaction between students. Over more than a decade, the Everyday Arts for Special Education (EASE) program has been impacting the communication, socialization, and other academic skills of students with diverse learning needs. In self-contained and inclusion classrooms in both New York City’s District 75 and the Los Angeles Unified School District, a dynamic team of EASE Coaches - experienced and trained teaching artists who also co-created this unique curriculum - support teachers to utilize the arts as a conduit for learning non arts-based skills and to engage their students in that process. The approach seems simple - distill the arts - music, movement, theater, visual arts - down to their most basic elements so that teachers can comfortably implement them into every aspect of their classroom.

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From building community, to establishing routines and rituals, supporting with transitions, using different modalities to learn math, science, and language acquisition skills, and for supporting students to see each other and be seen, in an EASE classroom, the arts are the how not the what of learning. By connecting visually, kinesthetically, and musically to the world around us, we become intrinsically motivated to learn, to challenge ourselves, and to explore new ways of interacting. This is as much true for any student - cognitively young or “neuro-typical.” What does the embodied experience of moving freely down a path of tape on the floor in order to answer a math or ELA question have to do with art? What does this have to do with learning? For a student who must move in order to process information, this approach is the difference between disconnecting entirely and being appropriately engaged. Arts activities in the EASE curriculum are intentional and scaffolded. The unique philosophy of Rules + Play = Game implies there are goals within any activity - social, communication, and academic goals, or habits of daily living.

this approach is the difference between disconnecting entirely and being appropriately engaged.

With support from the teaching artist, teachers develop methods for presenting these “rules” in ways that are naturally engaging and motivating to their students. This looks like: 1. Setting up an environment that encourages interaction - allowing students to set up and break down the space 2. Slowing down instruction and using one step directions 3. Creating opportunities for exploration of materials 4. Encouraging students to work together 5. Choice-making and leadership opportunities 6. Reinforcing the “fun” in all areas of learning

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An inclusion classroom uses ribbon wands to demonstrate active listening skills, LAUSD – Los Angeles, 2017

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

A simple theater activity such as Pass the Object takes on new meaning in the special education classroom. Students may make eye contact with their peers for the first time, use their fine motor skills to grip an interesting object and then release it into the hands of another student, exercise self regulation when passing something to another person, or engage in a scenario of imaginative play that promotes certain cognitive development. As artists, we understand how to use our bodies to communicate with others, play an instrument to convey emotion, create an image to tell a story, alter the tone of our voice or create authentic emotional responses when prompted. By making the arts accessible and framing it as a method rather than a set of artistic skills, teachers participating in the EASE program have seen tremendous growth in their students. According to findings from the federally funded i3 research grant, students who received EASE performed significantly higher on the NY State Alternate Assessment Reading test compared to their peers who did not receive EASE.

Two students exchange gifts made out of foil, District 75 - New York City, 2015 Page 53

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Two students work together to put an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Xâ&#x20AC;? on the floor, District 75 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New York City, 2017 Additionally, of students participating:

84%

80%

mastered communication goals indicated in their IEP

mastered socialization goals indicated in their IEP

75%

made significant improvements in their arts proficiency

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demonstrated increased motivation, attention span, self-confidence and positive risk-taking, and general interest in their school programs

75%

improved their selected academic goals indicated on their IEP

Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 10

What the arts tell us about the special education classroom is that students with a diverse range of learning styles and physical abilities want to enjoy learning in the same way as their general education peers. There is no difference between a student who requires musical prompts to move around in order to identify different stages in a plant’s life cycle and a student who can listen once and retain the information. The only difference is the extent to which we don’t see the opportunity for fun in every classroom - the chance to connect students to each other and their learning through the arts.

“The only difference is the extent to which we don’t see the opportunity for fun in every classroom”

To learn more about the Everyday Arts for Special Education program, visit http://www.urbanarts.org/program/ease/ @UrbanArts.org urbanartspartnership Stefanie Singer is the Project Director for the Everyday Arts for Special Education program and oversees all program-related activities for educators in New York City and Los Angeles. She brings nearly 10 years experience as an educator, facilitator, and community artist with a dedication to building community and creating dialogue through hands-on art experiences. She holds an M.A. in Cross-Sectoral and Community Arts from Goldsmiths College in London. Her professional practice has led her to work with refugee and migrant populations in the UK and Netherlands to developing arts programs for young children, youth, families, and early childhood professionals.

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Participant, Community-Word Project Workshop Page 56

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CrossOrganization Collaboration by Katie Rainey (Community-Word Project) and Jordan Dann (Teachers & WritersPage Collaborative) 57

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Cross-Organization Collaboration by Katie Rainey (Community-Word Project) and Jordan Dann (Teachers & Writers Collaborative)

Participants, National Dance Institute â&#x20AC;&#x153;Effective Teaching Strategies Through Danceâ&#x20AC;? Workshop Page 58

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any of us who are administrators or teaching artists in the field of arts education are familiar with the benefits of collaboration. We have all had the experience of having a creative idea, project, or piece of art become stronger, or reach a larger audience, after the work is shared with a trusted friend or colleague who either enhances or challenges our vision.

Participants, City Lore “Roots, Routes & Rhythms” Workshop

It was the promise of enhancing and challenging the vision for the field of teaching artistry that brought twelve NYC arts-education organizations together in June of 2016. The group sat around a conference table in Midtown Manhattan to respond to the following questions: • What is the process for providing meaningful and effective professional development to Teaching Artists? • How can we combine resources in order to maximize our money and time? • Can we all agree on what we deem to be valuable professional development and best practices for the field in an effort to respect teaching artists’ time and not ask them to repeat the same training for each organization they represent? We named ourselves the Teaching Artist Project (TAP) Cohort and during 2016-2017 we launched a pilot initiative intended to further investigate these questions by creating a series of professional de-

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velopments for the Teaching Artists who work for the TAP Cohort organizations. The TAP Cohort is a network of arts-in-education organizations collaborating on a series of Teaching Artist professional development seminars and internships as a part of Community-Word Project’s Teaching Artist Project – a comprehensive training program for new and experienced Teaching Artists. The Cohort members believe that by working together, we can provide our Teaching Artists with a comprehensive and diverse range of skills, to improve the arts in education field and better serve the schools and students we teach. Facilitator Laura Lee Williams & Participants, Wingspan Arts “Teaching for After School” Workshop

In 2016-17, the TAP Cohort collaborated on 13 professional development workshops with topics that included teaching for social justice, strategies for teaching in non-traditional settings and teaching English language learners, inclusive practices in the visual arts, effective teaching strategies through dance, Sociometry and cultural mapping, and much more. “The first elective seminar I attended was called ‘Teaching for After-School’ and was held with Wingspan Arts, an arts education nonprofit that is a part of the TAP Cohort. This seminar made it

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evident that TAP and its organizational partners have mastered modeling.” – From “Teaching for After School” by Rabih Ahmed In addition to the workshops, the Cohort also collaborated on a The Cohort members believe that by working together, we can provide our Teaching Artists with a comprehensive and diverse range of skills, to improve the arts in education field and better serve the schools and students we teach.

panel called “The Business of Teaching Artistry: A Panel on Professionalism” and the 2017 Arts in Education Job Fair in NYC. Close to 100 people attended the panel on professionalism and the room was buzzing with panelists covering topics such as the ethics and logistics of representing multiple organizations, time management, responding to students’ fear about changes in immigration enforcement and possible deportation, and threats of reduced funding for arts education. “I found everything very helpful. Mostly hearing from all of the organizations in one place about the same issues was a rare oppor-

Participants, DreamYard & Community-Word Project “Teaching for Social Justice” Workshop.

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T. Scott Lilly, Community-Word Project Workshop

tunity and I felt lucky to hear from experienced veterans in the field about what to expect and what is expected from us.” – From an attendee of the panel on professionalism “My favorite moment of the evening happened when the gentleman gave the statistics for the uneven representation of art administrators of color hired at management level. Being a new Teaching Artist, I was wondering the same thing myself and was glad he “I just think this whole event is so amazing and I feel very thankful as a Teaching Artist to even know that this exists. I feel super supported.” – Ashkon Davaran, on the 2017 Arts in Education Job Fair.

said it. The conversation really opened up and people got honest, about race, about subversiveness, etc. I really appreciate the honesty from the field.” – From an attendee of the panel on professionalism The 2017 Arts in Education Job Fair (in partnership with the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable and the Borough of Manhattan Community College) hosted over fifty arts-in-education organizations

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looking to hire administrators, Teaching Artists, assistants, interns, and more. Over 500 job seekers attended the event, making it one of the biggest arts education job fairs in NYC history. Through these workshops, panels, and fairs, the TAP Cohort served “I found everything very helpful. Mostly hearing from all of the organizations in one place about the same issues was a rare opportunity and I felt lucky to hear from experienced veterans in the field about what to expect and what is expected from us.” – From an attendee of the panel on professionalism.

over 750 Teaching Artists in NYC. Of those, 67% reported that the workshops were critical to their professional learning and extremely important to their work in the field, and 30% reported that the workshops were beneficial to their professional practice. “I just think this whole event is so amazing and I feel very thankful as a Teaching Artist to even know that this exists. I feel super supported.” – Ashkon Davaran, on the 2017 Arts in Education Job Fair But why?

2017 Arts in Education Job Fair

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In light of the 2016 election and the role that nonprofit organizations and artists in particular play in ensuring a strong voice for social justice and self-expression, it is crucial for organizations and individuals to find common ground and support one another. In light of the 2016 election and the role that nonprofit organizations and artists in particular play in ensuring a strong voice for social justice and self-expression, it is crucial for organizations and individuals to find common ground and support one another. As arts organizations and artists face likely cuts to the NEA budget and the hostility directed towards the arts from the current administration, we must consider how to advocate, not just for our own survival, but for the survival of the arts and for the field of arts education. Our arts organizations have come together with the idea of creating meaningful, sustainable professional developments that are low-cost to the organizations that take part in the cohort, but are no less impactful to the Teaching Artists served. Through this initiative, participating organizations ensure that their staff receive high quality professional learning opportunities. They save money and time by having to offerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and pay forâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;only one workshop (in-

Patti Chilsen, Community-Word Project Workshop

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stead of multiple in-house ones per year). In addition, they deepen partnerships with other participating organizations, share and exchange resources and information with partners, and build and maintain a pool of well-trained, professional teaching artists. “This was a wonderful opportunity for us to put our model on display and create a sequential, multi-disciplinary lesson that let participants experience Wingspan Arts’ largest program. Facilitating this professional development also allowed us to evaluate our current structure and identify strengths and challenges as reflective practitioners.” - Matt Freeman, Wingspan Arts The TAP Cohort is currently comprised of Arts for All, Brooklyn Arts Council, Carnegie Hall, The Center for Arts Education, City Lore, Community-Word Project, DreamYard Project, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Marquis Studios, National Dance Institute, Opening Act, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, and Wingspan Arts.

Katie Rainey is the Managing Director for Training & Communications at Community-Word Project, as well as a freelance writer, web editor, videographer, and teaching artist. She cohosts the Dead Rabbits Reading Series in Manhattan and you can find more of her work at mkraineywriter.com. Jordan Dann’s focus in her work is to help lead organizations, teams, and clients towards authenticity, health, and well-being. She has a BFA (acting) an MFA (theater education) from Boston University and is currently undergoing training at the Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy for her Psychoanalytic License. Jordan serves as the Education Director for Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Website: https://www.teachingartistproject.org/tap-cohort Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/communitywordproject Twitter: @CommunityWordPr Instagram: @communitywordproject Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CommunityWordProject

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