Quarterly Magazine
Teaching Artists Guild
Issue 13 - FALL 2018
The Accessibility & Inclusion Issue INCLUSIVE ARTS EDUCATION PRACTICES Educator and Disability rights advocate Sara Morgulis shares her methodology for leading with advocacy when designing arts education programming. p. 14
TEACHING IN A NEURODIVERSE CLASSROOM Aliza Greenberg Provides practical tips for how TAs should approach their work in a neurodiverse classroom. p.44
TAKING THE “DIs” OUT OF DISABILITY insight and expertise on making classrooms more accessible, coming from an experienced TA, who identifies as an artist with a disability p.26
JUST LAUNCHED: The teaching artists asset map NEW TOOL COnnects teaching artists across the united states
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Quarterly Magazine Staff:
TAG Executive Director: Jean Johnstone
TAG Membership Director: Kenny Allen
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) Louise Music (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Maura O’Malley (New Rochelle, NY) Nick Rabkin (Santa Cruz, CA) 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.
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Teaching Artists Guild is also made possible through the generous support of our members.
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Inclusive & Accessible - November 2018 Dear Reader, This issue of the TAG Quarterly magazine is about celebrating every individual. This is a profoundly important issue to us. In it, we focus on accessibility and inclusion. You may already work with a neuro-diverse population; you may knowingly and actively work with people with disabilities, or this may be a new area of learning; in any case, there is, as they say, something here for everyone. I am proud and excited to bring these knowledgeable voices center to share their wisdom and expertise, and I hope it will broaden your lense on the landscape, as it did mine. This is a people-centered issue, and as such it is also a perfect issue to debut our largest project to date. For 4 years, we have been first contemplating, then work-grouping, then researching, writing, reporting, building, testing….a map of our field. Where are Teaching Artists and organizations working? Who is being served, and how equitably? How do we find each other? Read all about it, and then click on through to the map itself: a digital, interactive map of the field. We launch it today, with this issue, and look forward to seeing it grow as you place yourself on it. We look forward to highlighting your work. We are here to help create a thriving, sustainable profession for artists who teach, towards a nation where the arts are accessible to all, and network building is just the very first step. Get on the map! We are so happy to be growing perceptions about the field and strengthening the network across the U.S. to support all the amazing, profound, challenging work being done in this nuanced area of work. Even as we seek to connect and to develop a common vocabulary, I challenge us to resist “the limitations that labels incur,” to quote one of our contributors, writing here about inclusive learning environments (name, pg. xx), “not making assumptions...even as we struggle to find a common vocabulary to address the realities and challenges of leading arts education..” These seem like the perfect words for this moment. So I’ll leave it there. In Gratitude,
Jean Johnstone Executive Director Teaching Artists Guild Page 3
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
CONTENTS
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Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
THE TEACHING ARTISTS ASSET MAP The Teaching Artists Asset Map just launched! Learn more about this powerful new tool, how it came to be, and how you can add yourself to it. p.6
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LEADING WITH ADVOCACY Educator and disability rights advocate Sara Morgulis shares her methodology for leading with advocacy when designing arts education programming. p.14
THE MOST FAMOUS TEACHING ARTIST: LEONARD BERNSTEIN What we all can learn from one of the most influential teaching artists of the 20th Century. p.20
Taking the “dis” out of disability
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Jaehn Clare provides insight and expertise on the subject of making classrooms more accessible, as someone who herself identifies as an artist with a disability. p.26
MY FATHERS WAR Readers interested in working with Veterans will enjoy this article from Carol Ponder about her show, My Fathers War. p.32
ALL ARE WELCOME AT CO/LAB Abby Schreer from Co/Lab shares lessons for the rest of us about how to expand our arts education practices to be more inclusive and accessible. p.36
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TEACHING IN A NEURODIVERSE CLASSROOM Aliza Greenberg provides practical tips for how TAs should approach their work in a neurodiverse classroom. p.44 Page 5
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
THE TEACHING ARTISTS ASSET MAP IS HERE! by NICOLE RIPLEY & JEAN JOHNSTONE
teachingartistsguild.org/asset-map
TAG is thrilled to announce the launch of the national Teaching Artists Asset Map! This unprecedented tool serves to connect people and resources and supports strengthening and professionalizing the field of teaching artistry by accounting for its scope and depth.
What is the Asset Map and Why? The vital work of Teaching Artists has historically been undertaken in a wide range of settings, with diverse types of participants, and often by those working in isolation or with limited resources in far-flung communities throughout the country. TAG is dedicated to making visible the underrepresented work of Teaching Artists and to capturing the breadth and depth of the Teaching Artist field on a national scale. The Asset Map serves the field by mapping: Where are Teaching Artists and organizations working? Who is being served, and how equitably? How do we find each other? It articulates and deepens understanding of the field at large, maps and promotes the work of teaching artists, enables partnerships to grow, and build connections regionally and inter-regionally in a field that has been traditionally disconnected and siloed in regional pockets. Page 6
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
How? The Mapping tool does this by connecting individual Teaching Artists and organizations to the resources and networks they need, and helps determine which populations are being served – or not being served – enabling a more comprehensive study of equity and access to arts education. The map reveals the depth of Teaching Artists’ work in regional hubs but also the scope of work across the country. It has the potential to link individuals and communities across geographic lines, provide bridges for those relocating to new areas, and to strengthen the national community by facilitating linkages between work happening in different locations. At the beginning of the project Eric Booth, ‘godfather of the field of teaching artistry’ and TAG National Advisory Committee, articulated: “The Asset Mapping project… would be a field-changing contribution to teaching artistry. Perennially disconnected, almost invisible, and having far less voice and influence than it should have, given its size and skill, the field of teaching artistry has languished as a national player. The Asset Mapping project would provide a structure, focus, toolkit, clarification of identity, and sheer surge of collaborative energy, that would catalyze long-stalled advances for the field.” After three years of development, we are delighted to finally launch this essential resource.
HOW DOES IT WORK? The interactive, multi-layered map is available to anyone online at: teachingartistsguild.org/ asset-map. The map houses account profiles to showcase: 1) Individual Teaching Artists, 2) Organizations, and 3) Programs, in addition to “field assets” – the institutions or people that support the work of teaching arts as funders, field leadership, or through professional development. Users can search or filter the map by area, asset type, art form, experience level, populations served and more. Any individual, organization, or program can be registered on the map in as little as three minutes.
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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
WHO CAN USE THIS MAP? The map is designed to serve the entire field of teaching artistry and was designed with key constituents in mind: Teaching Artists Teaching Artists that add themselves to the map are able to highlight their professional experience, showcase a compelling visual history of their work, and link their profile to their professional website. The map makes it possible to see how the Teaching Artist is networked to other TAs, hiring organizations, partners, and projects. Teaching Artists with profiles make it easier for nearby employers to find them based on their specific skills and experience level. Teaching Artists can search hiring organizations or other TAs by discipline, program type, and locations served. Organizations The organizations that hire and work with Teaching Artists are able to display information about their programs and the Teaching Artists they work with. By submitting “Programs” as unique assets on the map - organizations are able to illustrate where the work is being done and by whom. They are able to highlight their teaching artist faculty, partnerships, active work, showcase a compelling visual history of their program activities and reach in the community, and link their profile to a website. Organizations can search for Teaching Artists by program experience (for example after-school, in-school, or populations served). They can identify potential partners and program recipients. Advocates, researchers, policymaker, field assets, and allies Partnering organizations – such as schools or community centers – that host or directly benefit from a teaching artist program can use the map to make strategic choices about partnerships. Advocates, researchers, and policy makers will use the map in order to determine which populations are being served, how they are served, and to what extent in order to gain a picture of equity and access in the field. Field assets – such as institutions or people that support the work of teaching arts as funders, field leadership, or through professional development – are able to add themselves to the map and gain a full picture of impact, resources, and networks.
Take a look Users can find the map at teachingartistsguild. org/asset-map or in the drop-down menu on TAG’s website. Here, it will prompt users to create a profile or simply to go directly to the map. Page 8
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Creating a profile is fast and easy with the guidelines provided:
On the map page users can see the breadth of work happening across the country! Small dots represent Teaching Artists, circles represent organizations, and large dots represent the programs implemented by organizations. Each is color-coded according to discipline and asset type.
Users can use the search fields at the left of the map to implement a number of search filters, or can click to zoom in on a particular region of the map for more detail:
Whether at a wide angle or zoomed into a regional hub, the user can use search filters or simply click on an asset for a quick view of a particular profile:
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Official launch and regions participating thus far The map was beta-tested in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and New York and is quickly gaining momentum across the country. The official launch of the map is November 14 and we are excited to announce that early adopters include communities in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, in California (Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Diego), and the state of Vermont. If you would like to build participation in your state or region with existing data or by sharing the project in your network, please reach out to us at membership@teachingartistsguild.org . This project is based on gathering existing datasets that are shared with us by partners and other networks, and by individuals adding themselves and their organizations. Let’s build a network of us!
History The idea of some kind of directory, and better yet, and interactive map of the field, has been incubating for some time, and thanks goes out to many early and important thought partners, including, our first work group team: Adam Johnston, Eric Booth, Kai Fierle-Hedrick, Lynn Johnson, Tina LaPadula, Jessica Mele, Lindsey Buller-Maliekel, and Nicole Ripley. After working together on the Teaching Artists Manifesto out of a National Guild for Community Arts Education conference, we came together to figure out a next best step for our community, and the idea was born. Initial research for the project began in 2014 in partnership with athis group of advisors from across the United States. Funding from Aroha Philanthropies in 2015 paved the way for the initial research report and data flow and allowed us to seek further funding for the project. We received generous support from the Stuart Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, and the California Arts Council in the initial build out and data collection, resulting in the Map you can visit and add yourself to now. Page 10
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Put your asset on the map! Please join us on the TAG Asset Map and help bring our field together by showing what you do in the arts education ecosystem. It’s easy to get started. All you need to begin is: Your name, email address, art form, a brief bio/description, and a photo to upload. We invite every individual and organization in the TA ecosystem to join us today! Find the map at: teachingartistsguild.org/asset-map
ADD YOURSELF TODAY GO TO MAP
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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
TEACHING ARTIST CERTIFICATE PROGRAM (TACP)
TEACHING ARTIST CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
The NCCU Teaching Artist Certificate Program (TACP) is an online program equipping artists with a comprehensive foundation to plan, design and implement a vast array of arts experiences for all ages. Distinctly separate from teaching licensure programs, the Teaching Artist Certificate prepares performing artists with the job-readiness tools to create auditorium performances, school residencies and cultural arts programs for schools and community-based organizations.
WHO DOES THIS PROGRAM BENEFIT? Artists of all disciplines who have: £ a
minimum of an associate’s degree and a background in the arts; or
£ a
bachelor’s degree in an arts discipline; or
£ five
years as a professional practicing artist with a high school diploma.
SHARE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR ART
Your passion and experience is a doorway for others! Teaching Artists facilitate learning through the arts by teaching audiences how to interpret and understand works of art. They encourage investigation of the creative origins that inspire works of art and foster recognition of cultural nuances represented in works of art.
DESIGN ARTS EXPERIENCES
Research has shown that 21st-century education design must meet the needs of diverse audiences from many cultural backgrounds. At NCCU, our TACP is designed to cultivate a diverse and qualified pool of Teaching Artists to meet this growing need by developing arts experiences designed to serve a wide range of multicultural audiences.
www.nccu.edu
VISIT WWW.NCCU.EDU F Page 12
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A 2-STEP REGISTRATION: Step 1: Apply to NCCU as a certificate-seeking student (currently enrolled students can skip this step) at www.nccu.edu/apply. Click on “Start the Online Undergraduate Application Now” and submit your information. Step 2: Complete the Teaching Artist Certificate Program application at nccu.submittable.com/submit and submit your portfolio of work.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PORTFOLIO A TACP portfolio should have:
tacp Skilled Teaching Artists play a pivotal role in the ever-changing constellation of arts education. Teaching artists work with classroom teachers and arts specialists in grades K-12 and community settings.
£ Completed
TACP application
£ Artistic
Statement (A) Why you are interested in the TACP (B) Who are you as an artist?
£ Professional
resume (1-2 pages)
£ Letter
of Recommendation from someone familiar with your professional work
£ Work £ $35
samples and samples list
nonrefundable application fee
why teaching artists? “Not because we expect our students to major in music; Not because we expect them to paint or dance all their lives; Not only so they can relax; Not only so they can have fun; But so they will be more human; So they will recognize beauty; So they will be sensitive; So they will be closer to an infinite beyond this world; So they will have something to cling to; So they will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good — in short, more Life. Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live? — William “Butch” Standerfer
U FOR MORE INFORMATION Page 13
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Sara teaching in the classroom. Photo by Nick Morgulis
M
y mission as an educator and disability rights advocate is to create asset-based arts experiences with and for individuals of all abilities. As the Director of Education at New York City Children’s Theater (NYCCT), I design and teach accessible in-school literacy and theatre programming for elementary-aged students. As the Director of Programs at Actionplay, I facilitate and manage inclusive after-school theatre, music, and film programming for young adults and adults with autism and related conditions. Although the programs are structurally different, these two organizations have a shared goal: to use the arts as a vehicle for learning and communication. In both of these roles, I empower my students as self-advocates and support their growth as individuals. This article will crack open my methodology for leading with advocacy in all stages of program design: preparation before the program begins, program facilitation, and steps for future student learning. Page 14
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LEADING WITH ADVOCACY In Inclusive Arts Education Practices by Sara Morgulis Director of Education, New York City Children’s Theater Director of Programs at Actionplay
BEFORE THE PROGRAM: PREPARATION How are you preparing your students to learn effectively and advocate for themselves in the classroom? How are you educating yourself about your students before the program begins? In order to set my students up for success, I send visual, written, or auditory pre-visit materials to prepare them for the experience before the program begins. At NYCCT, when we tour our multi-media musical “FIVE” to classrooms, we send a detailed letter for the teacher and a visual story for the students in advance. Our visual story contains photos of the actors and the puppet, photos of the sensory objects that we will be using, and an explanation of each moment of interaction between the actors and the audience members. At Actionplay, before we begin a program, we survey the studio space and our
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classroom tools to make sure that we have set up accomodations for our students, including extra studios to act as quiet break-out spaces, and sensory supports for our students who need these tools to focus. No matter what I have been told by the school principal, the teacher, or the caregiver about the student, I do not assume labels. I focus on the idea that each child is their own individual and has their own needs, desires, and quirks. At NYCCT, we have created a protocol that before we start a residency for students with disabilities, the teaching artist observes the classroom in action and meet The marketing photo for the NYCCT show FIVE. the students, teachers and para-professionals. At Actionplay, before the program begins, we invite the students and caretakers to have a meeting with our team. There is a terrible tendency in society to talk ABOUT individuals with disabilities in front of them, instead of TO them. In these meetings, I spend just as much time talking to the student as I do talking to their caretaker. I prepare questions that will help guide our curriculum creation: “What do you love to do? How do you learn best?” The most important lesson that I’ve learned over the years is to ask how my students want to be identified and listen to the way that they identify themselves! As an educator, my goal is to teach my students to be their own self-advocates. By asking them (instead of their caretaker) about their needs, I give them the opportunity to speak for themselves, instead of being spoken for. This conversation sets our relationship up to be one of mutual respect and care. In my practice as an educator, I have learned an incredible amount by reading the written work of disabled authors about how they experience the world. The most illuminating book about autism that I’ve read is The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida, a 13-year old boy on the autism spectrum who wrote the book by spelling out words on a Japanese alphabet letter board. His book includes chapter titles such as ““Why do you speak in that peculiar way?” and “Why do you like spinning?” His insightful explanation of his behavior should be required reading for anyone teaching a young person with autism. If you are interested in expanding your library, I have provided a list below of my favorite books and blogs by disabled authors! DURING THE PROGRAM: PROGRAM DESIGN Does your lesson plan have multiple entry points that can be adapted for each individual student? Is your lesson accessible for students with sensory, motor and communication differences? How are you creating opportunities for students to be their own advocates in the room? There is a systematic tendency to generalize individuals with disabilities, so I constantly push against this notion by creating lesson plans with the goal of celebrating each unique interest and ability of my students. In classroom settings, there is so much emphasis placed upon what students with disabilities can’t do. Page 16
There is a terrible tendency in society to talk ABOUT individuals with disabilities in front of them, instead of TO them.
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Therefore, whenever I go into a classroom, I lead with an asset-based pedagogy that focuses on what the students can accomplish. When lesson planning, I consider the strengths of my students and recognize how they learn best by factoring in sensory, motor and communication differences. My favorite wordy character development game may be enjoyable for some students, but not everyone in the class. But by altering the activity so that it is a physical exploration of character development with costume pieces, I have now made it accessible for all students in the group. By recognizing each student as an individual and building a relationship with them based on their own interests, I create spaces in my lessons so that each student can find their own entry point. Not all communication between me and my students has to be verbal. ALL behavior is communication. The key is to get to the heart of what is being expressed! In NYCCT’s “FIVE” show, the actors use music, physical movement, and sign language to support the use of verbal language in the show. We chose to make our puppet character non-verbal so that the actors model multiple forms of communication within the narrative structure of the show. During my trip to visit Oily Cart in London, Artistic Director Tim Webb explained that he uses a “sensory rubric” when he creates shows for audiences with disabilities. In any given moment of the show, he analyzes how the audience members are constantly receiving sensory input. This is important because if an audience member has a visual impairment, for example, his goal is to make sure that they receive input through their four other senses at some point in the show. There are many low-cost ways of exploring this concept in your classes. For instance, if you are exploring the environment of a forest in the classroom, bring in photos of trees for the students to see, pine needles for them to smell and touch, and the pre-recorded sounds of a forest to listen to. If you are creating a sensory experience for the students rather than just verbally communicating it, they are more likely to learn and remember the content. Many classrooms for students with disabilities already have sensory toolboxes filled with objects (sensory balls, fidgets). Find a way to scaffold these objects into your theatre lesson so that they are de-stigmatized and can help support the artistic content. The language that you use to give
A photo from the FIVE visual story, featuring actress Dawn Newman. Photo by Nick Morgulis
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Sara with an Actionplay participant. Photo by Nick Morgulis instructions to your students is just as important to analyze as the lesson design. I am continuously scrutinizing my instructions to remove any ableist language. For instance, instead of “let’s all stand up!”, I have adjusted to “let’s all rise to our working level.” This small adjustment is a radically inclusive change! As an non-disabled person with hiring power at both of my organizations, I recognize the importance of hiring disabled artists to teach disabled students. Actionplay commits to hiring disabled artists to teach and volunteer for our programs each year, and I witnessed an incredibly impactful moment just recently. This spring, we piloted a new program called the Actionplay Audition Workshop, in which we ran a 10-session class for adults with disabilities who are interested in pursuing careers as professional actors. We hired the incredible actor Gregg Mozgala, who has Cerebral Palsy, to guest teach a session of the class, in which he provided feedback to our actors about their scenes and spoke about his experience in the industry. This session was monumental for all of our actors, but especially for our two actors with the same disability. Due to their shared experience, Gregg was able to talk with them about
A collection of my favorite books and blogs by authors with disabilities: The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida Disability and Contemporary Performance-Bodies on Edge by Petra Kuppers Loud Hands - Autistic People Speaking by Julia Bascom Kerry Magro’s blog - http://kerrymagro.com/blog/ Mickey Rowe’s blog - https://mickeyrowe.me/author/rowemickey/ Page 18
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
their physicality in a way that I could never appropriately do. One of the actors, Henry Gage Johnson, noted “Working with this man had been a dream of mine. Getting to meet this gentleman that had the same disability as me was a wonderful experience -that taught me whatever you are faced with in life, don’t let it keep you from pursuing your dream.” AFTER THE PROGRAM AND PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE How have you prepared your students to continue the work after you have left? A large element of self-advocacy in my arts education practice is to successfully set up the students to continue learning and growing after the program ends. At New York City Children’s Theater, whenever teaching artists lead an in-school arts residency, we aim to provide the classroom teachers with new tools to use with the students after our program is over. These tools can include anything from a new name song, a visual aid, or a physical exercise to warm up the students’ bodies from their chairs. In order for our field of impactful inclusive arts education to grow, I strongly believe in information and best practices sharing. In the Actionplay Audition Workshop, we provided the actors with auditioning skills, but we also gave them the essential tools to continue their careers after the class was over. The workshop provided them with new headshots and resumes, a list of websites to search for audition listings, and a showcase with 15 top NYC casting directors. Long after the class ended, our educator team has stayed committed to sending the actors out to auditions and connecting them with casting directors for future casting calls. Another element of my advocacy in practice is the goal to train my current students to become volunteers or future teachers of our Actionplay programs. After running our signature theatre and music program with many of the same students for the last seven years, our former students are now becoming leaders of our education team. It is our responsibility to provide our students with the tools to master the program’s skills in order to seek future employment in the field. By building relationships with our students and recognizing their individuality, we provide them with the confidence to grow as self-advocates. About Sara’s accessibility work As the Director of Education at New York City Children’s Theater, the main focus of Sara’s work serving people with disabilities is through “Literature at Play”, an in-school arts residency program, in which a Teaching Artist explores a children’s book through theatre, creative movement, and songwriting exercises. In 2015, Sara aimed to deepen NYCCT’s commitment to serving young people with disabilities by creating a show that was specifically designed for them. She applied for and received the TYA/USA Ann Shaw fellowship, which funded a research trip to London to study with Oily Cart and research their play-making process. After her trip, she co-created a touring multi-sensory musical named “FIVE” with Brooke Boertzel. Since 2015, this show has served over 6,000 students in all five boroughs of New York City. This year, she spearheaded the development of sensory-friendly performances of NYCCT’s mainstage season. As the Director of Programs at Actionplay, Sara co-leads and trains teaching artists for their theatre, music, and film programs for children, young adults, and adults on the autism spectrum during after-school and weekend hours. Her three lead programs include a theater devising class that results in an annual original musical by an inclusive company of young autistic adults, a professional chorus class of teenage autistic singers, and an audition workshop for adults with disabilities who are interested in pursuing professional acting careers.
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THE MOST
FAMOUS TEACHING ARTIST By Eric Booth
This year is the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. There are thousands (that’s no exaggeration) of tributes and concerts around the world that celebrate one of the most compelling American figures in the arts of the 20th Century—Bernstein as conductor, composer, teacher, scholar, and social activist. Some have called him the most iconic American artist of the American century. One of his roles is less reknown—he was the first public teaching artist. The first major artist to expand his artistry to engage with everyone, not just those with arts-rich backgrounds. To bring everyone inside the music he loved, he invented and used a multi-faceted toolkit and actively engaged the wide public to excite individual discovery of personal connections inside great music. Legend (perhaps apocryphal) has it that he risked his big break—being offered the job of Music Director at the New York Philharmonic—when he held out for a commitment to launch a TV broadcast series of Young People’s Concerts before he would sign. Even if that is an overstatement, I am sticking with it because it captures the truth of his bold intentionality as a teaching artist.
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In 1990, at age 72, Leonard Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Arts Association for lifetime achievement, and he used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund. The Bernstein Center, launched in 1992, relied upon teaching artistry as a model for whole school education reform. Research and experimentation at the Bernstein Center developed the Artful Learning school model that still thrives in 17 schools in 8 U.S. states; these schools use the core approaches of teaching artistry across the curriculum, led by trained classroom teachers. The core tenets of Artful Learning will be entirely familiar to all teaching artists: https://leonardbernstein.com/artful-learning/ how-it-works I feel a special affinity for the connection between Bernstein and teaching artistry. I was the Founding Director of the Teacher Center at the Leonard Bernstein Center. It was a thrilling time when great teachers were working side by side with great teaching artists, and sharing their teaching tools in inventing Artful Learning. Together we devised new ways to teach that developed curiosity-driven learners through the arts—an early and distinctive kind of arts integration. (And I should note that Artful Learning has proven to not only vitalize instruction and school culture, but also to produce distinctively higher scores on standardized tests.)
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Since my Bernstein Center years, I have not felt that same electricity of creative invention about teaching in schools again until El Sistema-inspired programs began to grow in the U.S. ten years ago. Bernstein loved inventive ways of teaching in, through and about the arts, and he recognized his lifelong affinity with teaching artistry from his first encounter with it. He discovered it in aesthetic education at Lincoln Center Institute and the Nashville Institute for the Arts and quickly pledged to dedicate the next chapter of his creative life to expanding this work—a chapter that was sadly short because of his death in 1990. That abbreviated chapter has become a long chapter as his family has honored his commitment and invested themselves in Artful Learning. Bernstein and all practitioners know that we are at our best as teaching artists when we invent, experiment, take risks, and change people’s lives, as Bernstein did.
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There are three ways Bernstein’s example serves us well as teaching artists (and especially for those teaching artists who are pioneering new methods in the El Sistema-inspired movement and elsewhere.)
1 He broke the silos. Certainly, and famously, he broke the musical silos that separated genres. A world luminary in classical music, he composed for musical theater and opera, he used jazz, rock, pop, and Latin styles in his compositions. When young, he composed in the required-by-academia twelve tone style and then publically rejected the musico-academic community’s insistence on using the 12-tone method to the exclusion of any other musical idiom. Genres couldn’t hold his creative curiosities and passions, and he forged a new kind of musically-plural career in front of us.
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Bernstein wasn’t “just” a teacher, or just a conductor, or just a composer, or just a scholar. He was enthusiastically everything in art, and beyond art. He embodied the organic flow of passion-driven learning, celebrating the way that teaching thrives in creative discovery that jumps subject boundaries excitedly rather than tunnel-track instruction. He was energized by the way those discoveries in teaching inspire one as an artist. This synergy— that what you discover through your teaching inspires your artistry; that your explorations in art inspire you to explore in new ways with learners—is the goal of all teaching artists, the holy grail of a teaching artist’s sustainable career. Teachers in all youth-development-focused arts programs, which includes El Sistema-inspired programs, share this multiplicity of roles with learners. El Sistema teachers take on the multiple roles that Bernstein did to achieve their highest goal: for students to develop the inner skills to make boldly affirmative choices in their lives, often breaking generational patterns or emerging from traumatic situations. This configuration of roles that teachers assume in this ambitious youth development has been dubbed the CATS model. The term Page 23
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
CATS arose from the first cohort of Sistema Fellows at the New England Conservatory in 2009-2010, and it is an elegant description of Bernstein’s career—the teacher as Citizen, Artist, Teacher, Scholar. A CATS educator enables the students to see and engage with a teacher in all those roles, as the U.S. public did with Bernstein. Students see how the creative problem-solving they do with their teacher is the same and different in each role. Call it what you will—CATS, citizen artist, teaching artist—it was then and still is the highest expression of the art form of teaching artistry.
2 BERNSTEIN MODELED BOLD EXPERIMENTATION He took chances with his career, trying things that had never been done before. He proposed bold theories in his Norton Lectures, amid the intellectual hothouse/snakepit of Harvard. He used his celebrity to further political issues he believed in, even when this was frowned upon, when he was attacked for it (and earned a thick FBI investigation file), and when it hurt his career. He experimented within and around his music. The Young People’s Concerts were an innovative experiment, and they became the entertaining national public classroom for classical music that engaged a generation of young Americans. In my own growing up, wherein television watching was severely restricted, we all gathered on Saturday mornings to watch the Young Peoples Concerts together. Of course, not all his experiments were triumphs; and of course he hated negative responses to his efforts, but he was undaunted, undauntable. He took big artistic chances (these are famous and documented in dozens of books), and he took less well documented educational chances—the 14 years of the Young People’s Concerts, the Norton Lectures at Harvard, the Leonard Bernstein Center. Good teaching artists are relentless experimenters, and really good teaching artists are relentlessly bold experimenters.
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3 THE LAW OF 80% (Some readers have heard about this from me before. Probably often.) Eighty percent of what you teach is who you are. Your greatest teaching tool is you being the artist you want your students to become – irrepressibly curious and positive, indefatigable, artistically joyful, aesthetically attentive, determined in problem solving and continual improvement, brimming with energy and aliveness. This is who Bernstein was as a human, and it’s no wonder he inspired his orchestras, his field, his nation, and the world. Because of his CATS nature, he modeled a holistically creative life for teaching artists. Rather than the small view of what a teaching artist’s life can be—trying to get work that enables you to make art, and having to do teaching artist gigs to pay the rent—Bernstein modeled the big life of a teaching artist. In this model, a teaching artist is radiant with the benefits of a life in art in every part of life. The silos come down, the artistry colors everything, spills into everything. This reaches into citizen artistry because of its belief that a teaching artist’s responsibility extends into social justice and cultural equity. Bernstein was at least as much a teacher-by-example as he was a teaching-artist-by-instruction. He modeled the best of America, for a global audience, for decades. During this centennial year, as Bernstein is re-appreciated for his artistic contributions, don’t forget his less-famous role as the first and foremost public teaching artist. He would be delighted by the way the field of teaching artistry has continued to grow in sophistication, influence, and global connectedness. We proudly carry that banner forward with CATS commitment and Bernstein passion.
Eric Booth (Hudson River Valley, NY) In arts learning, he has been on the faculty of Juilliard (13 years), and has taught at Stanford University, NYU, Tanglewood and Lincoln Center Institute (for 26 years), and he has given classes for every level from kindergarten through graduate school; he has given workshops at over 30 universities, and 60 cultural institutions. He has designed and led over twenty research projects, and seven online courses and workshops. He serves as a consultant for many organizations, cities and states and businesses around the U.S., which has included seven of the ten largest U.S. orchestras, five national service organizations, Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center. Formerly the Founding Director of the Teacher Center of the Leonard Bernstein Center (now on the Board of Directors), he is a frequent keynote speaker on the arts and teaching artistry to groups of all kinds. He is the Senior Advisor to the El Sistema movement in the U.S. He gave the closing keynote address to UNESCO’s first ever worldwide arts education conference (Lisbon 2006), the opening keynote to UNESCO’s 2014 World Conference. He led the First and Second International Teaching Artist Conferences (Oslo 2012, Brisbane 2014).
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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Takin’ the
“Dis-”
Out of Disability by Jaehn Clare
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In the spring 2018 TAG Quarterly Issue 12, I read with great interest the piece titled “AATE Symposium Reflection,” with thoughts contributed by Brandon Hutchinson, Christopher Totten, and Emily Baldwin. These teaching artists attended the February event “Best Practices: Inclusive and Accessible Theatre” convened by the American Association for Theatre in Education (AATE). My interest was grounded in two things: my professional work as a teaching artist, and my personal identity as an artist with disability. As I concluded my reading of the three reflections, I reviewed the artists’ brief bios, and I also noticed the little box with the teaser: “Sneak Peak! This article is a preview of our next issue, which will be on accessibility and inclusion.” Immediately a question arose in my mind: “I wonder if there will be any writing by a teaching artist with a disability – or if once again all the words will be about people with disabilities, rather than by a person with a disability?” I mulled over the possibility of responding to the teaser’s invitation to submit an idea for an article. I never followed through on that impulse, as the final weeks of my residency assignments gathered momentum in April and May, and my energy and time were focused on being a working teaching artist. Then in early June, I received an explicit invitation, based on a referral from a colleague, to contribute an article to this issue. It was an invitation I simply could not refuse - or resist. Since 2006, I’ve worked professionally as a certified Wolf Trap teaching artist with the Georgia Wolf Trap program operating under the auspices of the Alliance Theatre Institute, in Atlanta. In the past twelve years, I have noticed that more and more general education classrooms include one or more students who may or may not have a diagnosis of a specific disability and an official Individual Education Program (IEP), but who nonetheless seem to present as a student who might benefit from receiving so-called “special education services”. And I’ve found myself asking their classroom teachers, “Does this child have an IEP? Are you in a position to recommend them for assessment?” As our residency partnerships progressed, we would (at least once) discuss specifically how the arts integration strategies I was utilizing in my lessons might engage these students in particular, and help support meaningful learning opportunities for them. I found myself quoting research and data regarding the benefits and impact of arts integration practices on students considered “at risk” – including students labelled “disabled”. These conversations often then led to a discussion of people-first/person-first language, as well as a practice known as lowest levels of intervention. These are practices and conversations that I have endeavored to share with both classroom educators and other teaching artists (as well as education and arts administrators), in my vocation as a teaching artist and professional development workshop designer/facilitator – and my avocation as a
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disability-access-inclusion advocate. During the course of my employment with the Alliance Theatre Institute, I have repeatedly communicated my explicit interest in working with teachers in classrooms that include students with disabilities. In this past school year, 2017-2018, for the first time I had an opportunity to work with more than one inclusive class, partnering with teachers in several Pre-K classes within the Fayette County School system here in Georgia, and one self-contained class of five lads who are Autistic. (In preparing for this article I did a bit of research online concerning language preferences among Autistic people, which has prompted me to re-consider how and when I use person-first language: http://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/ identity-first-language/) It was a year chock full of challenges, but also a very satisfying endeavor to work with these teachers and students. The teachers I partnered with in these inclusion classes are deeply committed to their students’ learning and well-being. They also demonstrate an authentic belief in their students’ capacities, and a willingness to see each child as an individual human being. This is very notable to me as a person with a disability myself, for I have encountered a great deal of stigma in the past thirty-eight years of life with an acquired disability, living within a culturally constructed identity that I did not choose for myself. Some people make quick and facile assumptions about me, based on the fact that I use a manual wheelchair. There are those who evidently never see past the label “disabled,” and clearly get stuck on the negative prefix “dis-“. As a result, I feel a compelling sense of determination not to make any such assumptions about any of the children I encounter in the classrooms I work in as a guest teaching artist. The opportunity to partner with teachers who readily accept me as a professional, working teaching artist is also deeply meaningful – and empowering. I have learned so much about the necessity of resisting the limitations that labels place on us, even as we struggle to find a common vocabulary that we may use to discuss and address the realities and challenges of leading arts education activities within inclusive learning environments. For me, one of
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the most important “take-aways” from the residencies I participated in this year is the value of making the time, as well as the head- and heart-space, to respond to each person in the room. It certainly helps me to know that B. (a child with a visual impairment) does have some vision, but that she needs to be very close to the object. This empowers me to make certain she is seated close to me when I do a story basket, and perhaps create an opportunity for her to hold and closely view one of the props. However, it was also clearly evident that all the students want a chance to do that - not just the kids with so-called disabilities. Well, of course – duh!! And remaining aware that Z. has some challenging behaviors/issues and often is not fully engaged in the learning activities helps me understand why Mrs. E. is so very excited when he readily comes to the circle and sits right next to me, leaning in closely to see what’s in my story basket – remaining fully engaged and responsive for the entire lesson. That is my professional goal for each of the lessons I share in these residencies: I want to engage and encourage all of these children and their teachers to participate fully in the creative learning moments provided by the arts integration activities – each in their own way, within the context of their individual capacities and interests, and in community with their peers. The opportunity specifically to work with children who have disabilities also provides me with the opportunity to achieve one of my personal goals, which is to make certain that children and young people who are identified and labelled as “disabled” have role models in the community. I yearn for them to see and experience adults with disabilities functioning as active citizens participating in the world that they will inhabit as they learn and grow. In 1980, when I survived a spinal cord injury – which occurred in a theatre, during my sophomore year as a Theatre Arts major at a Midwestern university – I became a person with a disability. During the initial months of my recovery and rehabilitation, I wondered if I could return to university and eventually pursue my dream of working as a theatre professional. I did not see any people with visible disabilities – no one like me – in any of the media comprising the entertainment industry that I was exposed to on a daily basis. Yet, I wanted to return to my undergraduate studies and complete my Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts. In the absence of any visible
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role models in the culture around me, I felt utterly unsure if that was possible. This was quite frightening and discouraging to me. As a wheelchair user, could I be a professional theatre artist? Was I capable of it? Would anyone take me seriously as an artist – and employ me? Then, in a moment of quiet and very personal epiphany, I just got ornery and pig-headed. I decided to be my own #$%@ role-model. Decades later, I still recall the moment when I saw a brief glimpse of a man in a wheelchair in a television commercial. I was stunned! I recall thinking, “Mmm … perhaps the world is changing. And maybe I can be part of that change.” In the mid-1980s, as I began a job as an Actor-Educator (no such thing as a Teaching Artist in those days…) my heartfelt prayer was that I might make a difference for even one child or young person with a disability who was an aspiring artist. My fervent hope was that they might encounter me, and think to themselves, “She did it ... maybe I can to do it.” When I work with teachers and children in arts integration residencies, we very seldom talk about my disability. Occasionally a child will ask me, “Why do you have that?” … clearly curious about the manual wheelchair that I use to locomote through the physical environment. If the context allows, I endeavor to answer them simply and directly, and then promptly move on to our lesson for the day. The first time the children see me transfer out of my wheelchair to join them in the circle on the rug, some of them literally cannot contain their expressions of surprise. Yet in my role as an Alliance Theatre Teaching Artist I’m not there to be a disability
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advocate or activist. I am present in their school and in their classroom as an arts advocate and activist. In these settings, I am with them in order to share my professional artistic skills, and my passion and enthusiasm for the arts as a meaningful path to significant learning. My intention is to support them in learning how to be not just a human being, but a humane being. And of course, we aim to have some major fun together, creatively exploring the power of our imaginations! As you continue to develop both personally and professionally as a Teaching Artist, or as an arts administrator – whatever your context is in this field of endeavor – I encourage you to join me in a simple, direct commitment to the arts, and to our shared human community: All the Arts … All the People … All the time. When we can take the “dis” out of disability, we may then strive gracefully, collaboratively, to grapple with the fact that we human beings are diverse in myriad, fascinating and sometimes mysterious ways. And we may successfully mitigate and minimize the negative and often stigmatizing effects of the labels that all too often serve to separate us from each other. When we can do that, then issues of “access & inclusion” may cease to require a politically correct special effort on behalf of a particular sub-set of our community, and we may begin to develop genuine CommonUnity. In this 21st century endeavor to evolve our Selves, our culture and the communities in which we live, the complexities and challenges can become overwhelming. Yet, I repeatedly find myself drawn back to a relatively simple, albeit paradoxical, truth: No matter what labels we put on each other, and ourselves, each of us is totally unique – just like everyone else.
Jaehn (pronounced “Jane”) Clare is a theatre artist with more than forty years of experience as an actor, director, producer, playwright, touring artist, teaching artist and arts administrator. She has worked with a variety of professional theatre companies both in the U.S. and abroad. In 2006 Jaehn was included in the inaugural class of VSA Teaching Artist Fellows, and she is a certified Georgia Wolf Trap Teaching Artist, working with the Alliance Theatre Institute since 2006. She has been active as an access and inclusion trainer for almost four decades, serving domestically and internationally as a professional development/learning facilitator collaborating with artists, educators and learners of all ages from diverse countries and communities. Jaehn seeks to support productive social change, share meaningful learning, foster the inclusion of all citizens in the arts community; and contribute to the creation of progressive public discourse concerning access and inclusion issues and policies. She is a fierce advocate, a resourceful artist, a disciplined worker, a dedicated arts educator, a skilled arts administrator ~ and an enthusiastic participant in the banquet of Life. www.linkedin.com/in/JaehnClare
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My Father’s War:
Herschel in his P-47 Thunderbolt
A Young Man’s Journey through Conflict, Survival, and Grace.
By Carol Ponder Vision To be a catalyst for healing and reintegration for veterans of all ages within their families and communities; to raise awareness in all audiences of what we ask from those who serve.
Mission Through performances of the highest artistic quality, post-show discussions, and creative workshops, to honor our veterans and to help our communities process the social and cultural effects of war with integrity, in an honest and
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responsible manner. My Father’s War is a moving and entertaining first-person storytelling and music presentation based on my father’s memoir as a young WWII P-47 fighter pilot in the 510th Squadron in Europe. My husband, Robert Kiefer, plays my father and I provide narration, songs, and underscoring. During pre-combat training with his airplane, my father became a self-described “professional exterminator.” After the war, he had to reintegrate into civilian life
while dealing with PTSD that lasted for decades, until he wrote his memoir. We believe that, because it is one man’s story, Dad’s “hero’s journey” provides a profound, universal catalyst for healing in veterans of all generations.
Tip: The capacity of My Father’s War as a catalyst for healing has been so striking that I would encourage any of you working with veterans to start by sharing your own art with them, creating a strong foundation for potential work together. Your presentation/perfor-
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
mance doesn’t have to be related to military service, although a well-executed song or poem, slam or monologue, painting or sculpture concerning war can work wonders to thaw skeptics in your workshop. You will work with veterans affected by a full range of unseen and all too visible wounds of war. They are vulnerable in ways we can’t imagine.
Tip: Allow veterans to know you as a vulnerable person and artist before you ask them to write about and trust you with their own closely guarded thoughts and feelings.
Tip: First, PTSD and other unseen wounds are real. Second, they can be relieved. It is never too late to start healing. My father was 67 years old. My Father’s War as a catalyst for healing led us to design creative writing and performing workshops and residencies with veterans, their families, and communities, using the show as an aesthetic and informational jumping off point.
Tip: Writing has emerged as one of the most powerful therapies for veterans reintegrating into civilian life. If you work in the visual arts, dance, or other non-verbal art disciplines, consider providing small notebooks for your veterans so they may journal over the course of your work together. The creative writing process – whether you are writing creative non-fiction, songs, poems, slams, short stories, essays, or journaling – allows them to examine, relate to, and release old patterns, and to create something new out of old injuries. With that release comes real relief for veterans and their families and friends. This work is therapeutic, especially in clinical settings, but don’t slip into thinking that you are a therapist. Instead, work in partnership with therapists in these dangerous and delicate waters. They know the people with whom you interact, can advise you, or can intervene if someone is overcome by emotion or flashbacks during a session. We must not stir up something that we can’t handle unless we are collaborating with expert mental health practitioners.
Tip: Remember you are not a therapist, no matter how therapeutic your work is. Seek collaboration with certified counselors and social workers and begin by trusting their information and advice. Listen to them. Unless you are a veteran, DON’T think that you understand what they have been through, no matter how empathic you are, what a deeply effective artist you are, or how well you can imagine your way into their experiences via books, movies, and other works of art.
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Tip: Avoid lines like, “I know what you mean” to a veteran.
We don’t know. We can’t. If we presume to say that we do, we may as well walk out the door. Most do not believe that anyone but another veteran can understand them. I think they’re right.
Tip: Another really good reason to work with veterans and their families in groups is to affirm that none of them is alone. We have learned that My Father’s War is equally viable and valuable in diverse performance venues (large and small); in education settings from middle school through colleges/ universities; in places of worship; and in community centers, living rooms, and other social settings. Still, our first focus has
My Father’s War, Carol and Robert emerged as veterans, their families, and communities; however, equally important is to bring those who are not related to the military into a deeper understanding of what we ask from those who serve.
Tip: Try to find ways in which to serve families of veterans and even whole communities. This is the only way we can begin to process the social and cultural effects of war with integrity, in an honest and responsible manner.
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Lastly, we originally chose “reader’s theater” because we are both affected by severe arthritis. Readers theater meant we could sit on stools and work with our scripts on music stands (plus my guitar). Then – wonder of wonders – we realized that readers theater was the best possible aesthetic choice we could have made to keep focus on the words from my
father’s memoir. The minimal staging allows every person to experience the “mental movie” of the story, created through their own imaginations. That single voice speaks to people across demographics: age, gender, race, ethnicity, and differing abilities (mental, emotional, and physical). It creates community – as good art does – among diverse people
with vastly different experiences. Hence this last
Tip: We invite TAs working with veterans with disabilities to view these disabilities as challenges for creative teaching, not as barriers to it. Disabilities of any kind are an opportunity to look beyond the obvious solutions in art, in teaching, and in life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Carol Ponder, a professional singer, actress, and musician of almost 40 years, has 20 years of experience in education through the arts. As a Teaching Artist and consultant, Ponder has taught in classrooms in the North and Southeast and California, and makes a point of doing residency work to make sure that her theory is always grounded in reality. Working with the Lincoln Center Institute, the Kennedy Center, the Empire State Partnerships program, VSA arts (International and Tennessee), the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, among many other organizations, she has provided professional development for teachers, administrators, and Teaching Artists. Learn more about My Father’s War at: http://www.myfatherswar.org Herschel as a newly minted pilot
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THE BEST THING IN T
CO/LAB’s “secret formula” that mak by Abby Scheer Director of Operations and a Teaching Artist for CO/LAB Theater Group
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THE WORLD
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akes it all happen…
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I
saw CO/LAB’s very first show in 2011, “The Mystery of the Flying Ball at the Canary Island Circus: Part One,” and I’ve been hooked ever since. CO/LAB (Creative Opportunities without Limits And Boundaries) Theater Group is a non-profit dedicated to providing individuals with developmental disabilities a creative and social outlet through theater arts. Our CO/LAB:core programming consists of theater classes that meet weekly, and it typically ends in a final performance of an original, devised show or in-class sharing. We aim to offer financially accessible programming, and therefore most classes are at little to no cost for our participants. As a CO/LAB Teaching Artist, it’s my job to celebrate each individual that comes through the door and to carry out the mission in every class. CO/LAB just wrapped up our Spring Musical Theater Production, “The Best Thing In the World,” a few weeks ago. This culminated a year-long devising and rehearsing process with fifteen Actors (our participants), two Teaching Artists, five Supporting Artists (our in-class volunteers) and a host of designers, musicians, volunteers and supporters. After the show, we’re often greeted in the lobby by family members and friends asking, “How do you do it?” To me, we’re putting on a Page 38
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musical just like any group of theater-makers would. To the outside world, it looks like we have a secret formula to make it all happen. Folks who work with or volunteer for CO/LAB are frequently asked what makes up the secret formula; how do we create an environment for inclusive theater for individuals with developmental disabilities? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint the readers, but we don’t have any secret ingredients that we’re hiding. Of course, I think CO/LAB does a great job of recruiting extremely smart, passionate and talented Teaching and Supporting Artists. Beyond that, I think our pedagogy and daily practices could be used in any theater ensemble or classroom, and they aren’t exclusive to our particular group. Over the years, we’ve test-driven various agreement structures for our classes, and we recently landed on the “CO/LAB Pact”—guidelines that help set the tone for our ensembles. The goals may vary per Actor or class, but the Pact is our list of non-negotiables, no matter where or when class takes place. It is introduced on Day 1 and agreed to by the entire ensemble (we literally sign Page 39
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it), and it is reviewed at the beginning of every class as a reminder of what is most important to us. Not only are these good reminders for our participants, but I think they also serve as a sort of North Star for our Teaching Artists. The CO/LAB Pact is: Respect Seems like a no-brainer, right? You’re thinking, “Obviously I do this when I teach! I’m a nice person!” But when first interacting with our Actors, many people have a tendency to talk down to them, rather than following that age-old rule of treating others the way you would want to be treated. While this is of course not malicious in intent, it’s important to remember that the average age of a CO/LAB participant is about 35, and a good portion of our teaching staff and volunteers are actually younger than our Actors. And regardless of age, we need to speak to and interact with the Actors as peers and equal members of our ensemble. We try not to make assumptions about what they can or cannot do or say. Dignity is an afterthought to most typically developing individuals, but unfortunately this basic human right isn’t a given for many of our Actors. At CO/LAB, they find themselves in a place where their ideas matter, and they are seen and heard. Page 40
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Listen But, I mean really really listen. On the most basic and literal level, some of our Actors are hard to understand or follow. We encourage the entire ensemble (our Teaching Artists included) to not only take the time and focus to decipher the words, but also to really listen to what those words mean. Our Actors always have such interesting stories to share, and I think having the patience to really listen—both in and out of the classroom—helps me to understand their interests, passions, challenges and strengths. “Listen” also means using more than our ears; we need to watch what’s happening, to pay attention to side conversations, and, cheesy as it may sound, to listen with our hearts. Everyone wants to be heard. They want to share. And CO/LAB is always there to listen. Keep Space CO/LAB employs a few different cues that help with classroom management and are usually only administered by Teaching Artists. However, “keep space” is a cue that can be used by anyone. When we made our Pact, we needed a non-negotiable that would help create a safe physical and emotional space to work and play. “Keep space” is a gentle cue Page 41
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TA Tips from Abby 1. Use “people-centered language.” As an organization, CO/LAB refers to its participants as Actors with developmental disabilities, putting the person before the disability. However, it’s good practice to always ask an individual how they identify (i.e. person with Autism OR Autistic). 2. Give explicit prompts. Break a task down into one-step directions that are easy to follow. Use different modes of communication—visual, verbal, gestural, physical, etc. Offer declarative, but not demanding, language (i.e. “Join us!” “Let’s stand up!”). 3. Engage creatively. Find a way—any way—to involve the Actors and challenge them individually. Some might really succeed with dialogue, while others might be better at movement, accents or technical theater. It’s important to get to know your participants and modify exercises and material accordingly.
to ask someone else in the room to take two steps back, and it’s one we return to time and time again. It can be used if someone is sick, doesn’t want to be touched or simply feels like they need some physical space. We try really hard to make sure that our Actors feel like they are safe and in control. We remind the ensemble often that this is not a negative cue; everyone has varying sensitivities to space, people and touch. It’s nothing personal—it’s for safety, just like a seatbelt or a helmet! All Are Welcome In all honesty, it took a while to come up with the right language for this. We wanted an all-encompassing phrase that truly served our entire community. The bottom line is that everyone—no matter their disability, t-shirt color, race, religion, hairstyle, place of origin, sexual orientation, music preferences, gender identity, favorite musical… (you get it, the list goes on an on)—everyone is welcome, safe and supported at CO/LAB. Clearly I’m biased, but I happen to think our Pact is really great. But I don’t think it applies to just CO/LAB. One of our training documents is called “Tips for working with CO/LAB Actors with developmental disabilities… or really anyone!” That’s exactly it: our participants are just like everyone else: people. At CO/LAB, we often talk about “meeting people where they’re at.” When an Actor walks into CO/ LAB, you never know what else has happened that day, and it’s important to be sensitive and recognize individual stressors and outside experiences. Again, this mentality can be taken out into Page 42
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the world. Think of your barista who was particularly unfriendly, the boss that snapped at you, the colleague who missed a deadline, the feisty student in your class or that really loud person on the subway. Instead of jumping to conclusions about their behavior and how it affects you and your day, consider offering an ear to listen, some support or a smile.
Abby Schreer, based in New York City, is the Director of Operations and a Teaching Artist for CO/LAB Theater Group. She has previously worked at AKA NYC, an entertainment advertising agency, and The Shubert Organization. She holds a Masters Degree in Educational Theatre from New York University and a BS in Communication from Boston University. Connect with CO/LAB FB: @colabtheatergroup Insta: @colabtheatergroup abby@colabtheatergroup.com
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TEACHING IN A NEURODIVERSE CLASSROOM
by Aliza Greenberg
A teaching artist walks into a classroom and is greeted by a friendly student who verbally makes an introduction, chatting with the teaching artist. The student asks how the teaching artist is doing and if the teaching artist is having a good day. The teaching artist is charmed, excited for the creativity that will be evident during the lesson. But when the teaching artist begins the lesson, the same student who was so friendly and interactive completely shuts down. What happened?
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This portrait of a lesson could take place in any classroom, but is especially common in classrooms of neurodiverse learners, students who have autism or other cognitive or developmental differences. While a student may be very expressive, th student’s receptive language, the ability to comprehend what is said and what is going on in a given situation, may be very low. Greetings may be scripted, learned over time to ease common, everyday interactions. The student may get easily distracted, retreating into thoughts instead of attending to the teaching artist once the lesson has begun. What can the teaching artist do to engage this student? What can a teaching artist do to prepare for and adapt to a room of neurodiverse students? Teaching artists have an arsenal of tools for engaging students who may interact, think, and process information differently. As an arts specialist at a school for students with autism and a teaching artist in a program for adults with developmental disabilities, I know that artists have a unique capacity to engage with this population, but accessing those practices that can lead to successful lessons with neurodiverse students is an ongoing process of experimentation, discovery, and revision. While teaching artists have incredibles toolboxes for engaging neurodiverse students, how can they best use those tools given often short interactions that sometimes only consist of one visit? How can they prepare to make the most of the experience? What supports can they build into their work?
In teaching students with disabilities, one of the most successful elements is knowing your students well. For a teaching artist meeting students for the first time, this can be challenging. Use the classroom teachers or parents, depending on your setting, as allies. Find out what the students like, how they communicate, and what helps them learn best. Sharing lesson plans ahead of time is critical, not to forecast anything that might need additional support, but if students are using communication devices, information and vocabulary will need to be entered into the device ahead of time. Teachers, parents, and support staff can enter in key questions with choices so that the individual may participate. We want all students to have a voice and be able to participate.
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Connection with the teachers and caregivers continues into the classroom. Discussing any changes to the plan will help the teacher to know if anything might be a negative trigger to students or if anything needs to be adjusted in the work they did to prepare the students. Keeping last minute changes to a minimum will contribute to the success of the lesson. Consider your visit to the classroom to be like opening night! All the work done in rehearsals leading up to the show will pay off to make a wonderful performance. Preparation is so important for neurodiverse learners. As artists we love our lessons to be interactive and we often like the teacher to be a full participant in the lesson. Invite the teacher to participate but be flexible. Teachers of students with disabilities are often pulled in many directions and may need to attend to things we may not think about as teaching artists. As a teacher, I love to model and participate as I am often asked to do by the teaching artist, but sometimes I can see issues before they arise and am busy putting out a fire before it happens. Teachers may also be concerned with medical issues or safety concerns. Students in neurodiverse classrooms may have varying levels of independence. Students may need on-on-one support to participate and the teachers’ participation may look different than a typical classroom. One of the biggest challenges for neurodiverse students is communication. That could mean their ability to express themselves or their ability to process information. Teaching artists are well-equipped to address this challenge. Knowing that neurodiverse students process information in different ways, teaching artists may call on the varied ways they communicate as artists. By providing multiple ways to communicate, students are given multiple ways to engage in the lesson. As artists, language is only one of the ways we communicate. How can we communicate visually, through movement and gesture, through sound? While implementing multiple forms of communication is important (posting a visual agenda of the lesson, having visual support for vocabulary, gesturing and using signals), using language in the classroom is not unwelcome. Even if students don’t communicate verbally, they may still understand spoken language. However, when using spoken language, so that everyone has the best chance of processing the lesson, how can you refine your language to be as clear as possible? Like a playwright, how can the teaching artist use economy of language, choosing the best words to express what they want to communicate?
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Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
As teaching artists employ their multiple ways of communicating, they may also engage students through the multiple senses. We actually have eight senses! In addition to the standard five (touching, seeing, smelling, hearing, and tasting), we also have our proprioceptive sense, the feeling of our bodies moving; our vestibular sense, our sense of balance; and our interoceptive sense, our sense of internal bodily status (having a stomach ache, needing to go to the bathroom, etc.) - the last one may not be as relevant for teaching artists in the classroom settings. Taking a multisensory approach to teaching is fruitful in the neurodiverse classroom. However, one must take into account that while some students may seek out input in certain senses, they may avoid input in others. In the same way the teaching artist can offer multiple options for communication, they can also offer multiple options for sensory engagement. The arts give our students a chance to take on multiple roles and see things from varied perspectives. Perspective taking can often be challenging for students with cognitive differences, even the act of pretending might seem to be a challenge. Teaching artists can support these students by adding in language to help them, letting them know when they are pretending and using their imaginations. Perhaps using hats and props to signal times when they are Page 47
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taking on different roles. It also may be confusing for students when teaching artists take on a theatrical role in the classroom. Taking on another character can be very abstract. Students may be meeting a teaching artist for the first time or maybe have only met them a few times. They may not have a good sense of what the teaching artist is like, so they may not be able to fully differentiate between the character and the teaching artist. The teaching artist can ask a teacher, or maybe even a student, to try on the role. This may help them see the difference between the person they know and the character that person is taking on. Being a teaching artist in a room of neurodiverse learners is all about inclusion. Maintaining that all are welcome means sometimes adjusting expectations for what participation may look like. It may never be quiet when you are speaking. Students may not be able to copy dance movements the way you thought they would. Students may not be in their seats or even in the room the whole lesson. This doesn’t mean they aren’t learning. How can we hold students to high standards and push them beyond what is easy and comfortable, while also creating an environment that supports their differences? Decide what your essential learning goal is. When performing a scene, do you want students to embody a character, or read lines? Reading may not be possible for all students. Perhaps they repeat the lines after you as the character. Perhaps they just act out what they character says while you read the lines. Or maybe they say it in their own voice while the words are projected on a screen behind them. Learning looks different on everyone. Try on different looks for learning. Successes can be large, small and varied. Teaching artists are highly creative, flexible, fun, communicative individuals with all the tools to engage all learners. The more we explore and delve deeply into the capacities that make teaching artists who they are, the possibilities for magic are as diverse as the students that make up our classrooms.
Aliza Greenberg is the Arts Enrichment Coordinator at the LearningSpring School, a school for students on the autism spectrum, where she teaches the arts and coordinates cultural partnerships. Aliza is also the Project Leader for Supporting Transitions with the Museum Access Consortium, a project to increase opportunities for adults with autism, a teaching artists with CO/LAB Theater Group and a consultant with Trusty Sidekick Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, and other arts organizations. Previously, Aliza was a Program Manager at the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Education Program Manager at Roundabout Theatre Company. B.A., Bryn Mawr College (Psychology, Education); Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education (Arts in Education). Page 48
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What the Arts Needs Now: A Podcast That Puts Teaching Artistry Downstage Center
Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie, a podcast that examines the art of Teaching Artistry as a professional, rapidly-growing and increasingly influential career, is celebrating its inaugural season. But it’s only just begun. The team behind this series of arts talks has episodes lined up through 2018, and you’re going to want to tune in! Page 49
MichelleTeaching Yan Xiao, founder of the Yu Theatre Company in China, presents as a part of the Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13 international panel on “Theatre and Community: Engaging, Responsive and Inclusive.”
GENEROSITY OF TALENT ON A GLOBAL SCALE I am an independent teaching artist. Elsewhere in the world, I am a citizen artist, an artist who works in participatory settings, an artist in residence, a collaborative artist, a social practice artist and probably a whole host of titles I haven’t heard of yet. While different vocabulary and language can set some to see obstacles towards communal understanding and roadblocks towards advancement of a field as old as time, I see beautiful diversity and the endless expansion of my desire to learn more. I value professional development (PD) more than anything to keep my practice relevant. For those of us not employed by an arts organization that can support our PD, we have to pay our own way. Bang for the buck becomes a very big factor. Sometimes the bang is a gratifying, long-lasting explosion of creativity and inspiration which nourishes and enlightens. Sometimes… well, we’ve all been there as well.
by Elise May
Creating and making a statement for all to see at DreamYard.
ALL PHOTOS CREDITED TO: DreamYard Media Interns Page 50
Carnegie Hall Teaching Artist, Nick Demeris, led the group in rousing vocal improv at the opening and closing of the conference.
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
Living and practicing near New York City gives me countless opportunities for PD from prestigious arts organizations. I have been fortunate to experience many. However, just as some of the best actors I have worked with have never worked on Broadway, I know that I have much to learn from teaching artists who may never have practiced in New York. This is what brought me to the 4th International Teaching Artists Conference from September 13th – 15th. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to Scotland, Australia or Norway. ITAC4 was, conveniently for me, in New York City. Hosted at Carnegie Hall in partnership with DreamYard and Lincoln Center Education, ITAC4 brought together close to 300 teaching artists from 28 countries. ITAC’s plan, that 50% of the delegates come from the host country and 50% from elsewhere, was realized in the conference attendees and in the presented workshops. For the first time in ITAC history, parts of the conference were livestreamed connecting teaching artists from around the world who couldn’t attend in person. This is such a gift for those of us who may not be
able to attend in future due to expense or other conflicts. This year’s conference theme was “Artist as Instigator: The Role, Responsibility and Impact of Artists in Global Communities.” Full disclosure – I love to instigate, so when the call for proposals opened, I submitted a session which to my good fortune was accepted. The conference focused on answering the following questions: • What is the role of teaching artists as contributors to social justice? • What is the responsibility of 21st century artists as they engage in different communities? • How can artists transform schools and institutions of learning in radical ways? To suggest that there were highlights would imply that there were lowlights and be dismissive of the overall impact of the conference on me personally. Of course, there were some workshops that spoke to me more than others and some areas of focus that were more in my wheel house. Overall, the level of energy, professionalism and artistic generosity was unending and consistently inspirational.
Chitra Chandrashekhar presents “Story Activism: Facilitating Empathetic Co-Creation through Visual Storytelling”
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I don’t intend to single out presenters of the 69 workshops offered. You can find all listed at http:// www.itac-conference.com/ While I felt the one-hour workshops were a tease that allowed us to barely touch the surface of many topics, it gave presenters (including myself) a true challenge – engage and get to the point. There were some 90-minute workshops offered as well. Workshop sessions included The Evolution and Future of Social Justice Teaching Artist Training, A Theater of Opportunity, Creating Sustainability for Teaching Artists, The Shifting Role of a Teaching Artist in Prison, The Importance of Inclusion: Let’s Go Global!, to name just a few. Topics of social justice, sustainability, tools, community, reflection and more were explored through many art forms. The generous sharing of pedagogy (as opposed to “it’s all about me/my organization”) was so refreshing. The three days were filled with an overabundance of choices. A dynamic mix of 69 practical workshops, keynote speeches, site-specific observations, and round-table discussions offered something for everyone.
Each day included a keynote which was masterful (and available on the website.) Aaron Huey, National Geographic photographer and Founder and Creative Director of Amplifier.org spoke to the responsibility of telling the story right the first time. Embedding himself in an indigenous community, on reservations he likened to prisoner of war camps, he shared authentic voices from a historically brutalized culture. Marc Bamuthi Joseph, spoken word artist and activist shared through the lens of racism being so American that when we protest racism the average American thinks we are protesting America. He asked us, “Is it possible to pedagogically choreograph Social Justice?” Liz Lerman, choreographer, dancer, writer, educator and speaker turned our longitude into latitude regarding the dichotomy of art for the elite versus art for all. This spoke to me, validating the relevance of my practice which includes marginalized populations; communities which have not felt the arts are accessible to them and the beauty and power of finding their voices through arts exploration. Page 52
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Teaching Artists building community one piece of fabric at a time through Yazmany Arboleda’s Collective Art Project.
On the second day of the conference, we were offered a choice of site visit experiences which included Creating Artistic Communities (Carnegie Hall), Social Justice and the Arts (DreamYard) and Aesthetic Experiences and Social Imagination (Lincoln Center Education.) I traveled up to the Bronx and discovered the magic of DreamYard whose mission is to collaborate with Bronx youth, families and schools to build pathways to equity and opportunity through the arts. They immersed us through a joyful sharing of creative, hands-on workshops all centering on social justice and empowerment. Fun stuff: • Performances, both planned (Urban Bush Women, Lemon Anderson) and spontaneous • Special events in conjunction with NYC AIE Roundtable and Teaching Artistry with Courtney Boddie podcast. • A collective art project facilitated by Yazmany Arboleda building a flag from materials every attendee was asked to bring along with a handwritten letter expressing how the material represents where they are from. • Pre-conference workshops at New Victory Theater, Lincoln Center Education and Carnegie Hall. • Every coffee break was a chance to connect with a community of colleagues both new and old.
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Eric Booth, co-founder of the conference and the undeniable Father of Teaching Artistry, introduced the Global History Timeline Project http://www.itac-conference.com/the-global-history-timeline-project/, which will begin to write the history of our international field by creating a timeline of significant events from around the world. To move forward as a field, we have to look back and highlight moments, events and organizations that have elevated the field. Everyone is invited to submit to the timeline.
Eric Booth, Teaching Artist and Founder of ITAC, offering inspirational opening remarks, connecting the global teaching artist community.
VIEW THE GLOBAL HISTORY TIMELINE Page 54
Teaching Artists Guild Quarterly: Issue 13
The culmination of our global teaching artist flag is now beginning a journey to other host countries for teaching artists to add material and their story.
Madeleine McGirk, ITAC’s Development Manager, announced ITAC’s Funding for Projects and Partnerships, where two funding streams will be available for teaching artists to apply for. Keep an eye on the ITAC website for developments. Kudos to Madeleine, Amy Kirkland and all of ITAC4’s organizers. They did an amazing job resulting in a beautiful event. At the beginning of ITAC4, Eric Booth likened us all to leaves in a tree, sharing the etymology of “radical” being connected at the roots. I have never felt so connected to a large community; one focused on the betterment of humanity, social justice, the progressive movement of our field and the value of empowering all with agency through the arts. Here is hoping we all meet at ITAC5 in South Korea 2020! Elise May, Independent Teaching Artist, creates original arts education programming focused on enhancing communication skills through theater arts, empowering students of all ages and abilities. Elise presented The Importance of Inclusion: Let’s Go Global! At ITAC4. To join the conversation, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/1911625905806004/
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UPDATES from the field
3ARTS AWARDS (CHICAGO, IL) 3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, awarded 20 Chicago artists with unrestricted grants at the 11th annual 3Arts Awards Celebration on November 5 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Congratulations to teaching artist recipients Leida “Lady Sol” Garcia and Elgin Bokari T. Smith. https://3arts.org/news/announcing-2018-awards/
ARTIST CAMPAIGN SCHOOL (CHICAGO, IL)
Fractured Atlas is thrilled to be hosting the second Artist Campaign School which will be held in May 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. This program is a series of all-expenses-paid trainings to recruit and mentor artists and arts administrators for elected office.
NATIONAL GUILD ANNUAL CONFERENCE (BALTIMORE, MD) The National Guild for Community Arts Education held their 81st annual conference this year, from November 14 - 17, in Baltimore, MD. The Conference features breakout sessions, special community events, networking opportunities, site visits, and a host of other offerings. Learn more at nationalguild.org
DEPARTMENT OF ED EXHIBITION (WASHINGTON, D.C.) Upcoming Exhibition at U.S. Department of Education Puts Creative Spotlight On Collaborations between Nation’s Art Museums & Partnerships With Schools Beginning November 5, 2018, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) will present an exhibition of works by children from across the country, produced as a part of their participation in art education programs organized collaboratively by art museums and their local schools or youth programs. More than 10 AAMD member museums participated in the program, which is supported by the Department of Education; this the fourth such exhibition organized by the Association to be presented at the Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The exhibition will run through January 2, 2019. https://aamd.org/for-the-media/press-release/upcoming-exhibition-at-us-department-of-education-puts-creative Page 56
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TEACHING ARTISTS TRAINING (SAN DIEGO)
Arts for Learning San Diego is implementing the 5th annual Teaching Artist Training through the Teaching Artist Institute in January 2019. First initiated in 2012, the Teaching Artist Training (TAT) is a 15-week intensive including workshops with renowned specialists in the arts education field, one-on-one coaching with mentor teaching artists, and practical teaching experience in the classroom. Teaching artists in-training investigate topics including arts integration, trauma informed care, restorative justice practices, classroom management, creating standards aligned lessons, and collaboration with classroom teachers. Students learn from mentor/master teaching artists and receive constructive feedback with practical applications in the classroom. The program ends with peer-to-peer sharing of learning experiences and a culminating event that brings together the TAI community: the teaching artists in training, their mentor TAs, Arts for Learning San Diego staff, and the funders and family that make our program possible. TAT is a great way for practicing professional artists to develop the complimentary skills of an educator, and learn to effectively engage a wide variety of people in learning experiences in and through the arts. Artists from all disciplines, including dance, music, poetry and literary arts, theatre, and visual art, as well as interdisciplinary and cultural artists are encouraged to apply. This training is recommended for professional artists with a variety of levels of teaching experience, from those with as little as no paid experience looking for foundational knowledge; to experienced teaching artists seeking to enhance and refresh their work. For more information or to apply to the program, please visit http://www.artsforlearningsd.org/teaching-artist-institute
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