TEACHING ARTISTS IN THE K-12 SYSTEM
FALL BACK INTO SCHOOL
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE TA TRAINING LIST EVER!
WEALTH
& TEACHING ARTISTRY
plUS! HOW TO LAND YOUR NEXT JOB!
#2
The Back to School Issue September 2015
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
Executive Director: Jean Johnstone Membership Director: Kenny Allen Teaching Artist Hangouts Producer: Lynn Johnson Membership Operations Manager: Beth Walker-Graham Social Media Intern: Christina Ball
National Advisory Board: 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) Jessica Mele (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Ami Molinelli (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Betsy Mullins (Miami, FL) Louise Music (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) Nick Rabkin (Chicago, IL) Amy Rasmussen (Chicago, IL) Nicole Ripley (Chicago, IL) Sandy Seufert (Los Angeles, CA) Yael Silk, Ed.M. (Pittsburgh, PA) Jean E. Taylor (New York, NY)
THANKS Teaching Artists Guild would not be possible without funding from these generous organizations:
Page 2
Teaching Artists Guild is also made possible through the generous support of our members.
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
BACK TO SCHOOL
W
Welcome to Issue 2 of the TAG Quarterly magazine.
It’s back to school for a lot of us! I just dropped off my own two little ones for their first day this morning. It was hard to walk away but I am excited at all that is in store for them. I milled about in the cafeteria afterwards with other nervous parents, drinking coffee, exchanging names and stories. I met a few other artist parents, and invited (nudged them) into our arts planning committee. Finally it was time to take a deep breath and go. As a parent of young children, a teaching artist working in communities, and the Executive Director at TAG, I get a unique angle on the education system (grassroots all the way to about 30,000 feet it seems sometimes). What has only become clearer to me over time, however, is how important it is for all of us to band together in our communities in order to get anything wonderful done.
This Fall’s issue, our second ever, focuses on “Back to School”, which was kind of a no-brainer, but we wanted to go a little bit deeper than that. We spend a lot of time here recognizing the work of teaching artists outside the K-12; in businesses, jails, healthcare, etc, so we wanted this issue to both celebrate the artist-educator in school, but also keep that perspective wide-open and focused on the individual doing the work. We wondered, what are the entry points for artists into education and work in the community? Can you go back to school? Should you? Listings of some amazing training programs and burgeoning certification programs are in this issue. We also go deep into the relationships we have with other educators and artists, and the ecosystem we all need to be healthy.
This summer was extremely busy at TAG. Lots of travel and writing and grant writing and planning! Fortunately our amazing and very professional team of National Advisory Committee members who are now working with me and the TAG team have been a huge help as we grow to support Teaching Artists all over the US. We broke 1000 Twitter followers in early August! Kenny, our Membership Director, has been hard at it, making sure we reach you, wherever you are. We have all been productive jugglers, gearing up for September and points beyond. This November again sees one of the biggest events in the TA world, when the National Guild For Community Arts Education will host it’s annual conference in Philadelphia, including a first time ever pre-conference day devoted to advancing the field of teaching artistry. We have been working with them to plan out this incredible happening, and we hope many of you will be there too! This is where the teaching artists manifesto (see pg. 17 for more details) was first begun, and many other stellar projects and tools and we hope to see new efforts evolve as we tackle this hybrid profession and make it work for all! Have an excellent “new year”, and drop us a line with your thoughts about this issue, your own residencies, advice, etc. We are all ears and we love to hear from you. Good luck out there in the world. Take a deep breath, and go! Happy Autumn.
Jean Johnstone Executive Director Teaching Artists Guild
Page 3
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
CONTENTS COVER STORY
FALL BACK INTO SCHOOL In this issue we take some time to explore “Back to School� options for Teaching Artists. We talk a lot about professional development, and present the most comprehensive list of Teaching Artist Training programs ever published. Dive in, starting at Page 12.
Cover photo: Carrie Wilson at the Integrated Learning Summer Institute in Oakland, California. Photo by Bryan Farley.
Page 4
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
BACK TO SCHOOL FOR CHICAGO THEATRE TEACHING ARTISTS Learn all about the incredible work of Theatre Teaching Artists across Chicago. Fall is a busy season - and it’s all winding up again! Page 06.
THE ROLE OF Teaching artists in k-12 Education
06
Teaching Artists play an incredibly important role in classrooms. Read more about their work in K-12 education on page 10.
In Schools: Art specialists & Teaching What’s the difference between an Art Specialist and a Teaching Artist? What happens when they work together? Read more on page 12.
THE BUSINESS OF BEING A TEACHING ARTIST In this installment of our ongoing column, Teaching Artist and Entrepreneur Lynn Johnson discusses wealth and the ways our thinking affects our earning abilities. Page 32.
THIS ARTIST DON’t STOP!
29
Todd Berman is an Arts Integration Specialist and Teaching Artist based in San Francisco. Learn more about him in the interview. Page 16.
Professional Development New ways of thinking about PD. The most comprehensive list of TA trainings ever published. Updates on a certification project you want to keep an eye on. This is a big section. All the fun starts on page 20.
Featured Teaching Artist: Emilio Robles Learn about Emilio’s path into Teaching Artistry, some of his favorite memories from the field, and his tips for other Teaching Artists. Page 28.
16
Finding your next job In this issue, we bring you job listings from organizations all over the country, and we have collected job hunting tips from people on the hiring side of the table! Check it out! Page 34. Page 5
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
BACK TO SCHOOL IN THE WINDY CITY by Nicole Ripley Chicago’s vibrant theatre community, in storefront and neighborhood theatres and large Equity-houses alike, contributes to a rich fabric of teaching artist work in classrooms and community settings. Whether through trainings, pedagogical reflection, or taking time to revisit personal practice, here’s how just some of the Windy City’s many theatre teaching artists are “going back to school”: Barrel of Monkeys (BOM) is an ensemble of teaching artists (company members are actor-educators) who deliver creative writing workshops and in-school performances of students’ original stories. In preparation for a new
Page 6
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
school year, BOM holds a company-wide retreat every summer for teaching artists to get together to learn and build new skills for the coming year and to cultivate artistic ensemble. This year BOM explored topics including how to effectively communicate
their mission, approaches to in-depth engagement with the communities they serve, and building performance skills for their adaptations. And, maybe the best way to get ready for a new year‌ they ate hot dogs and had a campfire sing-along!
Teaching Artists in Steppenwolf for Young Adults (SYA) program participate in a multi-day training in aesthetic education designed to delve deeply into a work of art in the season. This fall they focused on a production of 1984 by revisiting best
Page 7
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
practices in their approach to teaching and stepping into the role of art-makers themselves. Notably, SYA’s teaching artists learn alongside classroom teachers during this fall professional development and get ready to co-teach in schools across Chicago. Northlight Theatre, hosts a “back to school training” for teaching artists during which TAs from all of the company’s programs overlap in the middle of the day to contribute to the Education Department’s strategic planning process. Teaching Artists play a key role in growing how the department defines its core values and identifying how these fit into curriculum Page 8
and assessment. Teaching artists reflect on their practice as teachers and artists and consider, “What is my specific planning and implementation process? Where is the intersection between my artistry and teaching practice? And how does this duality become incorporated into the way I teach?” Writers Theatre (WT) teaching artists engage in a rigorous training on arts-integration, curriculum development, and cultivating imaginative inquiry through student-centered learning. In the spirit of approaching teaching artistry as co-learners, teaching artists step into the shoes of their students and engage
creatively in activities and participatory lesson plans in order to create new curriculum. In addition to focusing on central tenets and goals of each WT program, teaching artists are also given the space to reflect on key thinkers in the field, the core mission of WT’s work in communities, and set goals for their practice. “I value the chance to reflect deeply on my core values as both an artist and educator and to brainstorm ways to activate these for my students,” says Kelsey Chigas a teaching artist with WT’s team. Victory Gardens Theatre teaching artists meet with the Arts Education Director
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
Robert Cornelius in preparation for going back to school in order to reflect on what worked best last year and goals for the coming school season. These teaching artist-centered conversations are the basis for adjusting curriculum and are followed with a PD day to “refresh and recharge batteries,” says Cornelius.
facilitators) through an audition/interview process and then both new and returning TAs pull up their sleeves to create two new touring shows. This “back to school” month-long artistic collaborative process feeds into an October training around how to effectively bring these stories into schools, best practices when talking about
teaching practice and what I want to work on in the upcoming year. It’s a moment to take a step back, breathe, and get ready for the different theatre education connection possibilities to come!” Performer and TA Zoe Schwartz adds, “I spent the summer creating work for myself and for my artistic community. I am excited to reengage with youth and share my experiences and learnings.” Chicago Public Schools started September 8th and TAs have hit the ground running!
About Face Theatre, which creates innovative and adventurous plays to advance the national dialogue on gender and sexual identity, works with teaching artists in after school, youth ensemble programming and outreach performances. About Face hires their teaching artists (who also serve as actors and
sensitive issues with students, anti-oppression sessions, and About Face Youth Theatre’s core values. Theatre artist and TA Sindy Castro reflects, “Going back to school is a time to refocus and think about the year ahead. This time includes the luxury of attending teaching artist trainings for the different programs I teach with. It’s a time to think about my
Nicole Ripley is is the Director of Education at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL where she overseas community partnerships, on-site programs, in-classroom residencies, and touring productions that reach 10,000 Chicago students each year. She currently sits on the National Advisory Committee for Teaching Artists Guild.
Page 9
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
THE ROLE OF TEACHING ARTISTS
IN K-12 EDUCATION Teaching Artists play an important role in K-12 education and they have played a role in schools, albeit somewhat under the radar, for many years. The historic role of teaching artists goes back to the era when artists began teaching during the Settlement House movement of the 1880’s. Beginning in the 1970s, organizations such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, Lincoln Center in New York, and the Music Center in Los Angeles began hiring teaching artists to bring arts education to thousands of students in public schools. This more recent movement starting growing in the 1980s and 1990s and has continued growing up through the present with many more non-profit arts organizations hiring teaching artists to work in public schools nationwide. This trend has been a positive addition to what schools could offer in the arts at a time when education budgets dwindled and the arts Page 10
in schools were drastically reduced or eliminated altogether. The arts can be the portal to engaging students across the curriculum and helping students to succeed academically. Teaching artists create the entry point to this portal. The role of teaching artists in schools addresses several different areas of need:
1
Teaching artists bring deep knowledge of their art form to schools where classroom teachers are possibly not as knowledgeable about the arts.
by Glenna Avila
2 Teaching artists are able
to infuse the arts into many subject areas, as in arts integration. The arts in general are able to address the many subject areas in schools and are most engaging for students, especially students who may be challenged academically.
3
Teaching artists can be equal partners with classroom teachers in delivering high quality art lessons and projects.
4 Teaching artists can
assist or coach classroom
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
teachers to create successful lessons in all of the visual, performing, media, and literary arts.
5 Teaching artists can
assist or coach classroom teachers with arts integration, with both the classroom teachers and the teaching artists bringing their expertise to collaboratively design engaging lessons.
6 Teaching artists can fill in
gaps when a school is unable to hire classroom teachers in all five arts disciplines (visual arts, dance, music, theater, and media arts).
7
Teaching artists are essential in teaching students and teachers the skills necessary to interpreting and understanding works of art.
8 Teaching artists are role
models for students to see that a creative career or pathway is possible—they may be the only real working artist that a student has the chance to meet.
9 Teaching artists bring the
joy of creativity and imagination to students in thousands of schools every day! But let me set one thing straight: Teaching Artists do not want to take the jobs of credentialed classroom teachers! If they did, teaching artists would go to school to earn their teaching credentials. Teaching artists are artists who teach—they want to engage fully in their artistic practice and share their art with students through teaching and learning. Ideal-
ly, teaching artists working in educational settings are seen as equal partners with the classroom teachers. Both teachers and teaching artists bring their expansive expertise to their students with the ultimate goal of producing students who are creative, collaborative, communicative, and critical thinkers for the 21st century.
Glenna Avila is the Artistic Director of the Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program and currently serves on the National Advisory Committee for Teaching Artists guild.
Page 11
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
In School: Art Specialists and Teaching Artists by Courtney J. Boddie
As the 2015-16 school year gets underway, excitement is in the air for PreK-12th students and educators alike. Reinvigorated by the summer, educators again explore how they can best provide curricula designed to serve the whole child. As Director of Education/School Engagement at The New Victory Theater, which provides arts education for more than 160 schools and after-school programs throughout New York City, I provide support and professional development for teachers and supervise an ensemble of 55 teaching artists. In providing deep partnerships with a number of school communities, I’ve found that an impactful way for schools to provide a well-rounded arts education for their student body is to support partnerships between Arts Specialists and teaching artists (TAs).
multiple grades and scaffold students’ arts learning from year-to-year. Arts Specialists are often innovative in their approach to student success through teaching technique, art history and styles. They can see progress in students’ abilities to express themselves, communicate and make choices as an artist.
Arts Specialists are certified teachers of various art forms--specifically the four major disciplines of dance, music, theater and visual arts--who are hired by schools as part of the teaching staff to work across
Teaching artists are professional artists from a variety of arts disciplines who bring their craft into their teaching technique. TAs may work in the arts independently or for cultural organizations. When integrated into a school com-
Page 12
I’ve found that an impactful way for schools to provide a well-rounded arts education for their student body is to support partnerships between Arts Specialists and Teaching Artists.
munity, TAs tend to work with a specific group of students to build an intensive arts experience/residency that could have a powerful and lasting impact. While TA residencies could be set up yearly, there are typically a finite number of sessions. All too often, due to restrained resources, schools must choose to provide an Arts Specialist or the opportunity to engage a teaching trtist. However, when students have the opportunity to learn from both Arts Specialists and teaching artists, the possibilities are infinite. Inconsistent arts engagement does a disservice to PreK-12 students. Without Arts Specialists working in schools to sustain and deepen artistic experiences, students struggle to make connections across their careers. When a teaching artist or a team of artists partner with an Arts Specialist, they can work together to utilize complementary artistic skills to build a strong and rigorous residency plan. The goal is to maximize the potential for building, expanding and/or deepening students’ abilities in a particular art form
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
skill that the art teacher has defined for the year. Often, there can be a shared language that allows room for deeper artistic exploration within a residency, focusing on process, students learning vocabulary and being creative like an artist. When this artistic cohort meets to plan for the residency, the work includes socio-emotional goals (i.e. trust-building, peer-topeer support, etc.), a specific pre-text and an assessment of the team’s artistic expertise to define the residency goals, lesson plans, and teaching strategies in relation to the students’ needs.
craft with learners, including students and teachers. The New Vic provides strong mechanisms for these artists to do the highest quality work in our learning environments, including professional development sessions in various topics like different modes of teaching strategies, trends in the field, best practices in partnering with teachers of all disciplines, classroom management, curriculum development and implementing residency content, etc. Additionally, The New Victory emphasizes ensemble building, unified core values and peer-to-peer professional
All too often, due to restrained resources, schools must choose to provide an Arts Specialist or the opportunity to engage a Teaching Artist. However, when students have the opportunity to learn from both Arts Specialists and Teaching Artists, the possibilities are infinite. To support this partnership, schools should make space in the year for field trips to museums, theaters, etc., and invite teaching artists into the schools to work directly with students. Concurrently, cultural organizations need to support their roster of teaching artists. At The New Victory, another aspect of my role is to recruit, hire and train professional artists who are gifted at sharing their
development in specific art forms (circus arts, dance and music). The theater also contracts outside facilitators to lead sessions on behavior management, special education, process drama, etc. This TA-specific training builds teaching artist loyalty to the organization and deepens commitment to both the quality of the arts education and their service to the field at large.
A prime example of a successful Arts Specialist-teaching artist relationship at The New Victory is illustrated by the team at PS 48 in New York City. The school’s theater teacher, Mr. Figueroa, has been partnering with teaching artists Heidi, a musical theater performer, and Billy, a clown/physical theater artist, in engaging multiple classes in PS 48’s 3rd grade, which participates in an annual spring production. Through the school’s partnership with The New Victory, the students have seen multiple professional productions on the New Victory stage and subsequently participated in 15 classroom workshops to explore the art forms in an interactive way. With guidance from the New Victory teaching trtists, the students chose the Grimm tale The Lady and the Lion to meet Mr. Figueroa’s curriculum goal of epic storytelling. As the theater specialist, he guided students through a script and character analysis process. Concurrently, Heidi lead the students through a series of activities around
Page 13
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
making choices based on character objective and motivation while Billy’s role was to work with the young actors to make physical choices informed by the technique work they did with Mr. Figueroa and Heidi. This process-driven work helped the students share their ideas and express themselves in new ways through language, emotion and physicality. The students worked together as an ensemble in a concrete way that helped the transition from process to rehearsal to performance go smoothly. The production was well-received by the school community of fellow students, teachers and families. But more importantly, the confidence in the students, many of whom are English language learners, was astounding. The students were overjoyed and proud of themselves for their hard work. Their experience working with this adept team of educators made the students identify themselves artists and they are eager to do more work in the following year. Many principals feel illequipped to supply quality arts education for their students due to the inherent challenges of today’s academic environment, namely shrinking budgets and increased emphasis on standardized testing. However in New York City, Chicago, and across the nation, a spotlight
Page 14
is shining brighter and brighter on the importance of arts and arts education for our youth.
New York City, the largest public education system in the country with 1.1 million students at over 1,800 schools, does not currently meet the state requirement of systemically offering sequential arts programs to PreK-12 students in the four major disciplines; however, in July 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina announced the addition of $23 Million to the NYC Department of Education budget specifically for arts education. The NYCDOE Office of Arts and Spe-
cial Projects is tasked with ensuring these arts education initiatives are supported and a portion of the funds are earmarked specifically to increase the number of credentialed arts specialists in schools throughout the five boroughs. This breakthrough empowers principals to apply for grants that will enable them to hire and maintain arts specialists as part of their teacher staff to increase arts teaching and learning. In Chicago, the city’s Public Education website states, “Through a comprehensive and sequential study of visual art, music, dance, and theater from Pre K-12th grade, all Chicago Public School students will have the opportunity to develop into innovative thinkers and creative problem solvers who are capable of expressing themselves, understanding others and contributing to their city’s culture and economy for years to come.” It’s significant for a city to identify arts education as a crucial avenue to help cultivate students’ creativ-
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
ity and their ability to think differently about the world around them. On a national scale, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities launched Turnaround Arts in 2011 at 8 of the lowest performing
schools in the country; since then, the program has expanded to 49 schools in rural and urban districts alike. Not only does this program identify the necessity of Arts Specialists, but it also defines what that role should be, stating that this staff should provide “rigorous, sequential, and weekly (or more frequent) standards-based instruction to students during the school day and collaborate with staff regularly to develop arts integration.” Turnaround Arts also stresses the importance of professional development for non-arts classroom teachers and partnerships with local arts organizations. There is evidence that a deep engagement in the arts has
a great impact not only on students but also the teachers and school communities, including increased attendance, decrease in school suspensions, increased test scores, and more. Each of these examples are small but effective steps toward acknowledging and tackling this major issue. As an arts advocate, I believe it is imperative that we continue to share stories like the work happening at PS 48 and push to keep arts at the forefront of conversations around education in this nation. By partnering with Arts Specialists, cultural institutions and teaching artists can activate students, teachers, administrators, parents and government leaders to cultivate a learning environment that supports the arts.
COURTNEY J. BODDIE, Director of Education/School Engagement at The New Victory Theater, has worked for New York City’s only theater for kids and families for 12 seasons. She oversees the New Victory Education Partnership program, which serves 36,000 kids from more
than 160 institutions each year to introduce them to a broad spectrum of productions, cultivate creativity in the classroom and lay the groundwork for a sustainable foundation in art-form learning and arts infusion across the curriculum. She also oversees Victory Dance a summer arts education model for 4,000 NYC campers and summer school students. Additionally, she is responsible for supervising an ensemble of 55 New Vic Teaching Artists. During her tenure, The New Victory received the 2008 Americans for the Arts Education Award. Ms. Boddie is adjunct faculty for the Educational Theatre Graduate Program at New York University, The Teaching Artist course, where she also holds a Masters degree. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Teaching Artists and is on the NYC Arts-in-Education Roundtable: Teaching Artist Affairs Committee and Diversity Task Force; she is a member of the National Teaching Artist Collective in conjunction with the National Guild for Community Arts Education. Prior to working at The New Victory Theater, Ms. Boddie was a teaching artist for Roundbabout Theatre Company and Program Associate for Empire State Partnerships (NYSCA).
Page 15
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
CAL ARTS SUMMER RESIDENCY FOR TEACHING ARTISTS
by Glenna Avila
The CalArts Summer Residency for Teaching Artists takes place each summer at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California in northern Los Angeles County. This 5-week residency is designed by the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), celebrating its 25th anniversary of bringing innovative visual, performing, literary, and media arts programs to the youth of Los Angeles free-of-charge. The Summer Residency for Teaching Artists provides artist educators with the training they need in order to succeed in teaching their art forms and engaging students after-school, in-school, on weekends, and in summer. The CAP Summer Residency for Teaching Artists grows out of the current educational landscape both in California and nationally, and the need to train artists in a deep way to engage in teaching the arts in both educational settings and in out-of-school environments. The State of California, in its Create California initiative, recognizes the need to include teaching artists as an important factor in delivering high quality arts education to the state’s K-12 students. Teaching artists in California and across the country are not only involved in providing arts education in schools, but in diverse community settings, and in providing education through the arts, as in arts integration. The CAP Summer Residency for Teaching Artists has also been designed in reference to CAP’s strategic planning process and in response to the needs and requests of hundreds of CalArts Student Instructors teaching in the CAP programs throughout its 25-year history. The Residency provides teaching artists with skills for developing creative curricula, understanding learning theories, implementing classroom management, utilizing Common Core State Standards and Visual and Performing Arts Standards, professional practices, critical reflection and assessment, arts integration strategies, creativity and imagination, syllabi and lesson planning, special education, and the social and cognitive development of children and adolescents. Teaching artists play a substantial role in tens of thousands of arts organizations and schools throughout the United States and in many cases are in need of high quality, college-level, professional training in order to fill these positions and provide K-12 students with a first-class arts education. As an established field, teaching artistry is newly emerging, even though there have been teaching artists throughout history such as artists who began teaching in communities during the Settlement House movement in the 1880s. This field of teaching artists is beginning to recognize itself as a field and needs to establish best practices across multiple subject areas. The CAP Summer Residency for Teaching Artists at California Institute of the Arts broadly equips students to teach the arts and teach through the arts in many different types of settings—in communities, in schools, in arts and youth organizations, and in social service agencies. The CAP Summer Residency begins to address the national and local need for in-depth teacher training in the arts to prepare art students for a multitude of roles in the arts education field, and is designed as a model for a potential Teaching Artist Certificate, a much-debated subject.
Page 16
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
THE TEACHING ARTIST MANIFESTO WE ARE TEACHING ARTISTS. schools • theaters • concert halls • museums • wellness centers
WE WORK WITH: correctional facilities • families • businesses (and other partners)
TO MAKE THE ARTS ACCESSIBLE TO ALL, REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES OR “TALENT.” TO PROVIDE OUR COMMUNITIES WITH innovation • critical thinking • curiosity QUALITY ART-MAKING EXPERIENCES joy • understanding • self-expression empathy, • awareness THAT STIMULATE: TO EMPLOY THE ARTS AS A MEANS OF BRINGING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER
CELEBRATING THAT WHICH MAKES US JOYFUL,
CALLING OUT THAT WHICH WE WANT TO CHANGE. WE ARE STORYTELLERS. WE ARE OBSERVERS. WE ARE PERFORMERS.
WE ARE WRITERS. WE ARE CREATORS. WE ARE DESIGNERS. WE ARE MAKERS.
and...
WE REPRESENT ALL ART FORMS.
WE ARE STRONGEST WHEN WE ALL WORK TOGETHER.
Thus, we pledge our commitment to: BUILDING STRONG, PASSIONATE, AND ENGAGED NETWORKS OF TEACHING ARTISTS
WHO ARE READY AND WILLING TO BOTH CONTRIBUTE TO AND BENEFIT FROM THE POWER OF OUR COLLECTIVE WORK. PROMOTING FAIR AND HIGH QUALITY STANDARDS IN THE FIELD. ADVOCATING FOR WAGES THAT ENSURE TEACHING ARTISTS
CAN MAKE A LIVING WHILE DOING THEIR WORK. MOBILIZING AND SUPPORTING THE LEADERSHIP OF TEACHING ARTISTS
AT THE LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND NATIONAL LEVELS TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN IN THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE.
SHARING
resources • research • news • opportunities projects • curriculum and stories from the field.
PRODUCING AND SUPPORTING NATIONAL EVENTS, CONVERSATIONS,
AND CONVENINGS THAT ALLOW TEACHING ARTISTS TO
LEARN, CREATE, PLAY, AND WORK TOGETHER
TOWARDS COLLECTIVE ACTION.
JOIN US. HELP US MAKE THESE GOALS REAL. Page 17
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
THIS TEACHING ARTIST DON’T STOP! Exuberant yet thoughtful, Todd Berman of The Art Don’t Stop is unstoppable! This teaching artist’s work was recently chosen to fill 10 San Francisco Muni busses with art as part of the Muni Art project. Calling his work on the project, titled “City Of Awesome”, community art, Todd explains the process, “Like the community of San Francisco, the art is a group effort. My role is to rally people to contribute drawings of themselves taking action to make the city more awesome. Then, I cut and color each self-portrait and collage them into a painting, resulting in a chaotically colorful scene of community awesomeness in action.” Here Todd shares with musician and teaching artist Ami Mollinelli his unique path into visual art, co-creating, and teaching.
Page 18
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
AM: How did you become a teaching artist? TB: I came into being a TA somewhat organically. Out of college I got an Americorps VISTA job and was working with a non-profit at a San Francisco high school. That led me to becoming a substitute teacher as a day job. I’ve always been a practicing visual artist - drawing and painting and naturally would bring it into the classroom while I was teaching. I found that art bridged a gap with the students and that especially with the middle/ high school students (teens); they respected me more when they saw me as a professional artist. I worked with my art and would invite students to participate in creating drawings. This worked especially when I was in a classroom with out much of a lesson plan. It ended up becoming “guerilla arts integration” and I got into being a teaching artist through my experience as a substitute teacher. AM: How long have you been doing working as a substitute teacher and teaching artist? TB: I’ve been doing this for about 15 years. AM: How has your teaching artistry changed or evolved? And how has your art evolved? TB: I’ve been able to workshop several ideas about my art in the classroom. Inevitably this has also affected the art that I make. I’ve come
to see that the practice of teaching is a creative practice in itself - it’s like Fluxus or Situationist art, shaping an experience for group people. AM: How would you describe your artwork? TB: I’ve always been interested in collaborative art and a populist art approach; combining different peoples views and creativity into one artwork - so a big part of my practice has been getting people to do drawings and then collaging them into paintings. AM: Tell my about the inspiration for the “City of Awesome” project? TB: It’s a project where I collage other’s people’s drawings; so basically it’s crowdsourced art. I might think about the following: “What kind of effect do I want my art to have on the world”?
The answer is; “I want people to be more creative and think about issues (community or personal) more creatively”. This mission has very much been informed by my teaching practice and it is true whether it is students in a classroom or adults at a party or on the street. AM: How do you approach someone to participate in “CITY OF AWESOME”? TB: I would ask the following: “What do you do to help make your community awesome?” Draw yourself in action - no skill needed and stick figures are OK! I then take them and collage them into paintings using San Francisco as the backdrop. I’m able to do this in classrooms and at events and have mixed student drawings with adult drawings. AM: What have been some
Page 19
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
of your students’ responses to seeing their work collaged and seeing the final product? TB: Unfortunately, I don’t always get to follow up, but when I do and they see themselves or their image or their drawing in something bigger than just themselves, it’s often something like the following: Student Artist: “Hey, that’s me! Wait a minute….., that’s me! That’s ME!
Usually they repeat the same phrase over and over a few times. AM: It sounds like they are in awe of it.
Page 20
TB: They are surprised. Yes. AM: Tell me a little more about some integration experiences. TB: This has started to happen if I’m in a position of a long-term substitute teaching position. For example, a librarian took a sabbatical at Galileo High School and I was at the school for a year. I ended up collaborating with classroom teachers that
came into the library with their classes and doing some art integration projects with their students. The biggest success was
illustrating Dante’s Inferno with contemporary cultural references. The material was difficult and being able to add the art helped with understanding I think. We ended up installing those collage paintings down a staircase at the school. So actually, I will be back at Galileo next week subbing for an English class and hope to do more of arts integration. I find it’s the best way for me to teach English. For example, grading an essay I can’t give the same feedback as their actual English teacher, but I can cover the same topic with an art lesson. The benefit is that it can help them explore the material they are studying from a different entry point and I can accentuate the English lesson through the art. AM: What is something new that you are working on now? TB: How can I demonstrate better the process of what is happening in the classroom? I’m playing with Tumblr to document my art lessons and document the art students are making. I want teachers or other teaching artists to be able to look at the classroom routines that I use and a look at my lesson plans. In addition, I’m documenting my personal classroom practices and ways of doing art on any topic so that I can help create a resource for teachers to deepen learning.
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
AM: How has Professional Development evolved how you teach? TB: The Alameda County’s Integrated Learning Specialist Program (ILSP) and The Summer Institute have been essential to helping me become more of a professional teaching artist. It’s also making me a better artist because I’m seeing teaching techniques, approaches and ideas that were intuitive with specific language and specific names associated with them. I’m able to see the studies behind the practice and give it a certain amount of weight. It gives a name to the practice and the “making learning visible” tools are fantastic. This has helped me with tools on how to conduct reflections or little tools like “pairing and sharing” that just help get kids sharing and talking better. It’s about getting ideas to surface that helps get the students really reflecting. When we talk about what we are learning - we learn it better! Community - the ILSP has this feeling of being a movement. We are making connections, we are improving together and it’s encouraged me to document and record what I’m doing so we can make more connections and better advocate for arts education. Last year, I attended the Arts and Passion-Driven Learning Institute at Harvard,
which gave me I have the sense now that I’m part of something that is a national and international movement. I was very inspired by Liz Lerman! Her work as a teaching artist has became essential to her work as an artist and I could very much relate to that. AM: What advice might you give to someone just starting out in the field of teaching artistry? TB: I’ve benefitted by just getting into classrooms. Getting into classrooms and being yourself with the students in the classroom. Talk about your own art.I’m talking about art here. It’s valuable and whatever it is that motivates you as an artist is valuable. Trust that the students will respect it. AM: What is in the near future for you? How do you involve your self in the community other than being in the classroom and painting our city of San Francisco? TB: The last few years I’ve been trying to vary my experience. I’ve been enjoying the process of writing arts curriculum. I wrote some curriculum and art lessons for visitors to the WPA murals there at Coit Tower. It was an honor to be a part of that. I work with the SF Arts Commission and, The dept of public works onand the project, “Where Art Lives”, and I’m active with Arts Providers Alliance of San Francisco. AM: Thank you Todd. So next
week we can imagine you back at Galileo. Good luck! TB: Thank you.
Ami Molinelli is a professional percussionist and educator who received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in World Music with an emphasis in percussion and performance. Currently, Ami works as a music integration specialist at Music In Schools Today and has created an early education music and literacy program, Music FIRST!, in collaboration with Head Start sites in San Mateo County.
Page 21
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
ARE YOU CERTIFIABLE? This issue focuses on some of the many programs and resources available for teaching artists in their professional development. Take a look with Sandy Seufert on the why’s and wherefores of professional development, and check out some in-depth coverage of a couple of the excellent programs available: at Cal Arts in Southern California, and various programs in Chicago. We also bring you the most comprehensive list available of training and professional development opportunities from around the US. But it isn’t complete- yet! Go on over to our website and add to it. This resource was created from independent research by Kate Goldcamp, funded by Aroha Philanthropies, and supplemented by our own growing database of information for the Teaching Artists Asset Map, also funded by Aroha Philanthropies. This interactive national resource is in the process of being built out, but while we work hard behind the scenes on that, here it is in a handy list form for you on our website. We hope it is helpful!
Page 22
Relatedly, we at the Quarterly would also like to broach the topic of certification. Certainly it is a natural derivative of the exploration of training programs and professional development, and it is an on-going topic in many regions. Over the last 10 years, a few studies and many conversations have cropped up around this issue, a sort of slow cooker bubbling as the field warmed. The venerable and steadfast Teaching Artist Journal recently published an article by Doug Risner and Mary Elizabeth Anderson delving into the topic, which looked at surveys of TAs and their thoughts on the matter. This month the discussion is being brought again to the forefront in California by TASC, a regional network of California teaching artists and administrators, who are
by Jean Johnstone
hosting a series of community conversations on the topic this month and next throughout the state. Meant to generate feedback from local TAs on the topic towards California’s “Blueprint for Creative Schools” , which published in January of 2015 recommended some form of certification for teaching artists, the events are detailed in this issue. If you are in California, we recommend joining one of these community conversations. But beyond conversations
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
about “should”, there are efforts towards “how”. In an exciting new endeavor in Cleveland at The Center for Arts Inspired Learning, technology is being put to work. Intending to deepen and grow the level of their teaching artist trainings, which they developed with on-staff teaching artists, this organization is also developing a digital badging system. What is a digital badge? A digital badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality, or interest that can be earned in many learning environments. Think Girl Scout or Boy Scouts, but online, for example, on your profile on the Teaching Artists Asset Map! Says the MacArthur Foundation, “Digital badges are an assessment and credentialing mechanism that is housed and managed online. Badges are designed to make visible and validate learning in both formal and informal settings, and hold the potential to help transform where and how learning is valued.” Also called micro-credentials, they have the potential to be based on prior learning as well as current trainings and professional development. They can honor that your pathway to this hybrid profession of a teacher who is an artist, an artist who is a teacher, is unique. There isn’t a set way from A to B in becoming a teaching artist, and for this reason, we come to the hiring table with a
whole host of qualifications garnered from different institutions and experiences. This makes us special but it also sometimes makes it more difficult to understand our histories and treat us appropriately in the eyes of larger organizations and hiring institutions. • How do we prove our qualifications? • How do we present our special skill sets? • How are we verifiable? • What level are we at in our profession, and what specialties do we possess? • How much should we be paid accordingly? We’ve been working on the concept since Spring 2014, and are very excited about the effort in Cleveland. They detail the initiative in these pages. So, Professional Development is good for you, and it’s good for the field. But look for programs developed with TAs, for them, not “at” them, which will truly serve you in the work you do. What does excellence look like? LCE, Lincoln Center Education, has been exploring this question deeply, and their training program focuses in part on a rubric they developed for “Excellence and Sustainability in Teaching Artistry.” We want to go!
Want to be somehow certified? It isn’t necessary, but I see where it will eventually help us a lot, if we can do it right. It can help in the effort towards the development of a transparent system for equitable pay, among other things, because hey, visibility is power. But who is determining these standards? How? If you are concerned that this should be a teaching artist-led conversation, then jump in. The very act of our identity formation, intertwined with our growth outward to connect in a network--and the recognition of ourselves as members of a group-- is an important form of self-determined organization. Certification, if you choose it, should be developed to further this: not a codification which will stifle our creative spirits and lessen our opportunities, but rather serve who we are as individual creatives and support us in building a professional, well-paid and valued career-- whichever of the myriad and fabulous paths we take to get there, and in whichever combination of employment we as artists who educate and work in communities choose to take.
Page 23
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
Professional Development of Teaching Artists: Exploration of a Different Model
by Sandy Seufert
I have been thinking a lot about professional development, partly because my career has centered and circled around the professional development of Teaching Artists for the past several years, and because I have been on a steadfast personal crusade to better myself in many areas. This has led me to some interesting conclusions and even more provocative questions. What follows here is centered on two questions: How as a field can we create more value for the professional development of Teaching Artists? And, How can Teaching Artists make an ongoing commitment and take personal responsibility for their own professional development? The scaling back of the support and training of teaching artists seems to be a common knee jerk response during times of budget issues. I get it. Choices need to be made and the show must go on. And while I don’t have advice for arts organizations on how to manage
Page 24
their cash flow, I would like to present another view or model, one that mobilizes Teaching Artists to both advocate for more professional development AND to find their own path of growth and to pursue it wholeheartedly. Let me start with a story that sets a metaphorical stage. Quite recently I went for my yearly eye exam and a few things caught my attention. My eye doctor had all kinds of new diagnostic equipment that seemed out of a Star Trek episode and we even had a conversation about how nutrition supports eye health. In addition, he was lovely and sensitive about my feelings around having age related vision changes. I appreciate that my eye doctor keeps updated on the newest technologies as well as how he continues to improve in those important people skills. And I bet you that one of the things that keeps my eye doctor growing and relevant is ongoing professional development.
So this makes me wonder - Is his professional growth due to mandates for him to keep his license, or does he (and implicitly his field) deeply value ongoing professional development? Does he do it to remain competitive in the marketplace? Does he do it for the intrinsic value of doing not only a good job, but doing his job better and better? Hmmm. Here are some personal observations I have made: Many arts organizations, government agencies and individuals value the importance of the professional development of Teaching Artists; however, this support is often reduced or eliminated in the time of budget stress. There is not a professional licensing or credentialing agency for Teaching Artists that recommends or mandates professional development. Individual pursuit of professional development (such as in training, workshops,
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
conferences) for Teaching Ais not necessarily supported by arts organizations, grants, etc. While the encouragement and financial support in this area certainly exists, it is not a widespread value. Fewer and fewer arts organizations have full time staff dedicated to the growth and development of Teaching Artists. While some Teaching Artists are very proactive in seeking professional development opportunities from a variety of sources, many are not. While I wish I could help shift the overall arts education culture to increase the value of professional development, I do have one suggestion that could begin a meaningful change. Take personal responsibility for YOUR professional development, whether you are a Teaching Artist, Arts Administrator, or Educator. Start with where you are. I recently was working parttime with an arts organization where I did training and coaching of Teaching Artists. There I developed a system where Teaching Artists filled out a weekly survey that I created on Survey Monkey that asked each person to identify the main skill or strategy in which they were attempting to improve, their plan to implement that strat-
egy, and the evidence of what happened in the classroom around that implementation. Having that information for my site visit allowed me to focus my attention on support of that skill/strategy and to track each weeks’ growth. On a weekly basis I would meet one-on-one with each Teaching Artist to debrief the lesson with my observations as well as their own, asking key questions to guide their reflection. And while I think this process indeed helped Teaching Artists to be more reflective in their practice, it still was somewhat awkward and forced for some. And it still was a little “top down” as I was driving the whole process and was giving deadlines and accountability.
So a question remains – How can we instill the value of deep self-reflection on professional practice and come up with a model or system where this can be sustained without the need for outside support or accountability? I feel deep down that this very question will help in both the value/advocacy of professional development of Teaching Artists in the field
as well as the growth and sense of agency of Teaching Artists in their professional path. If you are interested in exploring this idea further, I welcome a collegial discussion. I truly feel that meaningful and systemic change starts with a shift in mindset and practice on an individual level. That is my personal focus right now and we’ll see where it leads!
Sandy Seufert has over ten years of experience in teaching artist training, curriculum development, program management, teaching artistry, and professional development. She currently works as a consultant for non-profits and individuals for teaching artist training and curriculum development. She is a member of the National Advisory Committee for Teaching Artists Guild.
Page 25
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
DO YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL? Teaching artist trainings across the USA
by Kate Michelson Goldkamp
You ready for a little PD? That’s right, we’re talkin’ professional development. Whether you’re interested in a short weekend or a full-on university degree, there are a number or programs old and new across the country. We were interested to know just how many programs existed, as, to our knowledge, no centralized list existed. Researcher Kate GoldKamp did the extensive legwork, with generous support from AroPage 26
ha Philanthropies, and came up with roughly 50 programs across the US. Below, she summarizes the types of programs she found; you can click through here to the database directly. We know there are more out there still, so if you notice something missing please let us know. We’d love this resource to be as complete as possible!
Here’s Kate: Currently, there is an ever-increasing number of teaching artist trainings and degrees in the United States. Most of these programs are for teaching artists working with school-aged children, but there are some programs that focus on working with adults, especially in the field of creative aging. Usually, a training program will fit into one of four broad categories:
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
higher education degree programs, extended programs and residencies, condensed workshops and conferences, and trainings for work with special audiences. Higher education degree programs include degrees where the study of teaching artistry is within the context of earning a degree or certificate. Sometimes this means a standalone teaching artist certification; the University of the Arts in Philadelphia offers Teaching Artist Certification through their continuing studies program. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design offers a Minor program in Teaching Artistry. In other instances, work in teaching artistry could be a part of coursework, whether required or elective, in the pursuit of a degree, such as BFA or MFA. The Longy School of Music in Massachusetts is an interesting example, as their Teaching Artist Program is required of all their conservatory students. Extended trainings and residency programs can be offered over the course of several weeks, a semester, or a whole school year. These programs can be sponsored by arts organizations, such as the ones offered at many Young Audiences affiliates around the country, or they can be run in partnership with a college or university. If run by a university, these
programs do not terminate in a degree. During their summer session, the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) hosts the Community Arts Partnership Residency for Teaching Artists. The fiveweek program is comprised of three courses focusing on teaching in after school and community settings, and in K-12 classrooms. There are also many training programs that require less time commitment than the above examples. Condensed, standalone workshops such as those offered by the Perpich Center for Arts Education, which sponsors workshops in a number of disciplines in the visual, literary, and performing arts. National conferences focusing on arts and education are also starting to develop programming specifically for teaching artists. Examples include the National Arts in Education Conference and the National Center for Creative Aging Leadership Exchange and Conference. Finally, there are some specialized teaching artist trainings that focus on working with special audiences, such as working with people with disabilities or inmates of correctional facilities. VSA affiliates around the country have been sponsoring programs for working with children of all abilities in a classroom. The California Lawyers for
the Arts and the William James Association put on Arts in Corrections: Opportunities for Justice and Rehabilitation, a conference that covers such topics as best practices, current research models, new developments, and challenges in the field of education in corrections.
Kate Michelson Goldkamp received an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center and an AB in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College. She is an arts lover that works with young children in St. Louis, MO.
Aroha Philanthropies is devoted to the transformative power of the arts and creativity, inspiring vitality in those over 55, joy in children and youth, and humanity in adults with mental illness.
Page 27
THE BIG LIST We just published the biggest list of Teaching Artist Training and Professional Development opportunities that’s ever been compiled! It’s live on our website, right now. Just go to www. teachingartistsguild.org/training-programs/ If you know of a program that we missed: please contact us! You can submit the program information yourself as an asset on our Teaching Artists Asset Map, or you can email us about it at membership@teachingartistsguild.org
www.teachingartistsguild.org
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
Teaching Artist Professionalization Initiative
From the Center for Arts Inspired Learning (a Young Audiences affiliate).
With National Core Art Standards now in place, it is more important than ever to demonstrate pedagogical rigor in arts education. The Center for Arts Inspired Learning finds it critical that we refine practices for training Teaching Artists and define standards for issuing credentials that indicate their qualification for professional practice. The goal of the Teaching Artist Professionalization Initiative, is to create and implement a complete framework to properly prepare, professionalize, and recognize Teaching Artists. This will consist of a modular Teaching Artist curriculum, a corresponding credentialing system that employs competency-based digital
badging, and an institute for Teaching Artists developed over the course of two to three years. This initiative will begin with the development of a timeline based on the necessities to launch the program. The timeline consists of developing research needs to refine proper modules, surveying artists in their desired areas of artistic and professional growth, and developing the creation of the digital badges. The Center for Arts Inspired Learning has partnered with Case Western Reserve University and Patricia Heilbron on the manufacture and design of the digital badges. These badges will showcase the professional development achievements of each artist as related to a specific module.
A total of six modules have been proposed and within the time line, three of these will be completed no later than June 2016. The modules will reach areas such as; contexts of teaching artistry, studio habits of heart and mind, culture and community in the classroom, teaching for all ability levels, creative collaboration, and residency design. In workshops ranging from eight to twelve hours, artists will have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in each module. This initiative will build CAL’s capacity to provide the highest quality artist-educators and educational experiences to the youth we serve, and by developing and disseminating best practices and standards, it will clarify and elevate programmatic standards for arts education beyond Northeast Ohio. The curriculum, credentialing system, and institute created through this initiative have the potential to serve as a model and a resource at the national level. CAL recognizes this as an opportunity to improve the quality and enhance the status of arts education—and to distinguish itself as a leader in the field—at the local, regional, and national level.
Page 29
THE TEACHING ARTISTS’ ASSET MAP Over the course of the next few months, we are building an interactive asset map of the field of teaching artistry. The purpose of this map is to: - Articulate and deepen our collective understanding of the field - Document and promote the valuable and often underrepresented good work being done by Teaching Artists and our advocates - Serve as a launching pad for partnerships and storytelling between individuals and organizations in a historically dis-connected field
Add your name to the map! teachingartistsguild.org/asset-map
TASC CREDENTIALING CONVERSATION Join TASC and teaching artists from around the region to discuss and challenge ideas about teaching artist training and questions of certification. TASC will host community conversations at several regional locations around the state. The conversations will be held at: Orange County: Sept. 12 Bay Area: Sept. 19 Sacramento: Sept. 26 Los Angeles: Oct. 3 Inyo/Mono Counties: Oct. 17 San Diego: Early October, Details TBA visit www.tascofcalifornia.org for more information.
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
FEATURED TEACHING ARTIST: EMILIO G. ROBLES City: Chicago, Illinois Discipline Taught: Theatre Setting of your TA work: Classroom Residencies, Studio Classes, Community Organizations, Summer Programming, Professional Development Workshops, Private Consultancy and Coaching What kind of an artist are you? How does your teaching artist practice inform your artistic life? My artistic background is theatre. And, l am a full believer in Robert Edmund Jones’ notion that “the theatre is a school.” In my practice, I like to free myself from self-imposed limitations and labels put on me by peers
and society at large. I like to courageously invite co-artmakers to do the same with no fear of consequence. This may ruffle some feathers, but I feel increasingly angered by perceptions that purport that I as a teaching artist AM SOMEHOW LESS THAN just because (by design) my artistic practice is
more informed by my teaching practice than vice versa. Why is this true? Because teaching keeps me grounded and real. Not in “ego, esoteric, artsy land” which I find to be terra inauthentica for me.
Why or how did you initially become a teaching artist? What was your path? Page 31
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
I have always been a teaching “artist.” (Or is it that . . . I have always been a “teaching” artist? ---Like the licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.) I came from undergrad at Wabash College with a double major in Theatre and Secondary Education. After graduating I worked in my local school system in various assignments. Some short term, others long term in a variety of disciplines: ESL, Reading, Spanish, Theatre, Special Needs, Visual Art. The list goes on and on. My artist self was always present and in full effect. I was an arts integrationist before I even know what that was. For real. It was totally instinctual and matter of fact in my essence as an educator. Later, when I went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the largest draws to the program was the possibility of teaching various undergraduate courses and the ability to apply and fuse my own artistic and pedagogical practices. I have probably been a “full time” TA for close to 15 years now. With another five or six years of “traditional” classroom experience on top of that. What is most exciting to you in your practice right now? I’m energized that I have found a bonafide “in” for my-
Page 32
self (and hopefully for teachers, fellow teaching artists and students) in connection to George Orwell’s 1984. A dramatic adaptation of the novel is the fall production at Steppenwolf for Young Adults, where I am currently Senior Facilitator of Curriculum and Instruction. Thanks to Artistic and Educational Director Hallie Gordon’s concept, I’ve been intrigued to artistically explore the construct of memory. I am also really excited about thinking of ways to engage various audiences around our season question, which asks: How might one thought cost you everything and how does your past inform your future? How do you keep your practice fresh? I think my answer to this is pretty simple. It makes me think of several “key Emilio” exercises/explorations that I use in various contexts. (Similar to what anyone might have in their art discipline, that define “how they do their thang.”) No matter how many times I use these with participants, students and co-conspirators alike: It is never the same thing twice because of new ensemble members, new challenges, new rewards, new circumstances (emotional, physical, environmental, psychological) UNIQUE TO THAT GROUP AND THAT MOMENT IN TIME. In theatre, and teach-
ing artist work anything could synergize or go completely awry. If you strive to be in the present moment as a facilitator - in a state of openness, awareness and authenticity – the work is always fresh. Plus, I would like to think that I ALSO EVOLVE in dialogue with (and at times externally independent of) these circumstances. Life happens. You regress. You change. You grow. These things in concert with curiosity and a perfectionist nature, keep the work alive for me. Do you have a favorite teaching artist memory? I would be hard-pressed to identify just one. But, there is a set of “collective memories” related to the work I do with Global Voices Initiative and the partnerships and strong bonds I have formed with students, teachers, artists and administrators in Morocco that immediately come to the forefront. For brief context, Global Voices Initiative is a cultural and language artistic exchange program where high school students use playwriting (in a target language they are studying such as French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese) and perform staged reads of each other’s work via internet connection and videoconferencing. The work in Morocco has opened doors for my body of work to have global impact and for me to be an agent for artistry,
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
empathy, language fluency, cultural literacy and diplomacy. The first time I traveled there, nine years ago, I was giving a workshop in a tight cramped classroom. The concrete barebones space with a faulty chalk board and wooden benches was like a cramped standing room event with curious onlookers peeping through the open windows. Mr. Emilio was here. The warmth, curiosity, openness, hospitality and generosity of spirit of those students was overwhelming. I got quite emotional about the work that day, reflecting and sharing my personal story with students. I never could have imagined when I was their age (just a fat Mexican theatre kid from Ft. Wayne, Indiana) that pursuing my life’s passions would land me halfway across the world. I was embodying what I wanted for them. What I want for all of my students: to be transformed and transported to another world. This past year, I was able to personally host one of those students (who now works with the program in Casablanca) while he traveled and observed residency schools. His first time outside of Morocco. First time on a plane. First ever in the States. Talk about full circle. I consider that to be a great personal accomplishment.
Any surprising moments or fun anecdotes ‘from the field’? Last Spring, I was doing a residency at a school for Lookingglass Theatre Company. I’d been at the Chicago Public School for some time working with the 3rd and 4th grades on a unit thematically tied to an exploration of EMPATHY, PROMISES, and TAKING ACTION as students read Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan. Midway through the residency one of the students caught me in the hallway between classes and for whatever reason, it hadn’t quite dawned on him that somehow, I wasn’t “exclusive” to ROOM 210. He waved enthusiastically, but inquisitively. “Hey Mr. Emilio,” “¡Hola! Emilio” (Yes that was also his name). “Where are you going, with all your stuff?” “To Miss Maj’s class,” I said. “Wait, do they get you too? Are you doing Ivan with them too?” “Yeah, buddy. All of the 3rd and 4th grade. I go to all of the classes.” For several seconds, his face contorted from surprised to slightly disappointed and back again. “You do that ALL day?” he pondered. Then suddenly… a satisfied smile. He paused and gave a fist bump of spontaneous approval. “Coooooooooooooool,” he said. My arrangement of
large POST-ITS scattered to the ground.” “Yeah,” I said. “Most of the time... I guess it is pretty cool.”
Emilio G. Robles is a Teaching Artist, Actor, Director, Voice Coach and consultant. He is currently working at the Center for Community Arts Partnerships, at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and at Global Voices Initiative. Learn more about Emilio at: www.emiliogrobles.biz
Page 33
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
THE BUSINESS OF BEING A TEACHING ARTIST In this month’s installment of our “The Business of Being a Teaching Artist” column, teaching artist and entrepreneur Lynn Johnson asks teaching artists to think deeper about their relationship to money and abundance. The “Business of Being a Teaching Artist” column is an ongoing column in the TAG Quarterly. Want to make a suggestion or ask a question for next month? Contact us - www.teachingartistsguild.org
Do you believe you deserve to make a lot money doing what you do? You can. You just have to believe you can. Please...for the sake of all of us. As an entrepreneurial teaching artist, I am always talking about my business. People are interested in what we are up to and ask a lot of questions about how it all got started and how we have come to where we are now. I love talking my business. The more questions people ask me, the more excited I get. This excitement leads me to share my big, brave plans for the future, which, among many other things, include turning my little
Page 34
business into a multi-million dollar operation. When I share this, most people flash me a somewhat startled, mostly condescending smile, like I am a 6 year old who has just told them that I can wave my magic wand and make my dog disappear. At other times, the response is downright hysterical laughter. From my not-at-all-scientific research, I find that most people find it absurd and ridiculous that a teaching artist would build wealth as a teaching artist. And, what’s worse is that, more often than not, these doubting Thomas-like responses come from other teaching artists!
For too long, we have all lived in the shadows of the proverbial “starving artist.” We grew up hearing parents lovingly encourage us to have a career to fall back on because we would never make any money in the arts doing what we love. On the other hand, all of us have those artists friends who associate money with corruption, commodification, and...well...evil. As a result, we have inherited the hysterical laughter from a cultural meme that insists that: Money is for other people who aren’t you. If you make too much money as an artist then you can’t possibly be doing your work
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
with any integrity. As an artist, you should expect a life of poverty. I have to admit something to you. I am a big believer in the law of attraction. Do you remember this concept that we were all introduced to in The Secret in the early part of this century? The law of attraction is the New Age philosophy that all of us have the power, through our thoughts, to attract all that we want in our lives. When
poverty that we have inherited has negated any possibility we have of building any kind of wealth in our chosen profession. I implore you. Now is the time to transform our thinking. My own personal spiritual guru, Oprah Winfrey, says “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.” No longer can we let our parents or friends or any other well-meaning know-it-all in our lives convince us that being a teach-
this uncomfortable laughter breaks out over the idea of teaching artists making a lot of money, I immediately know that this is a case of the law of attraction working against us. This culture of artistic
ing artist equals a life of hardship and scarcity. It’s time instead that we recognize the undeniable resource we provide to our communities. In this information age - a time when we are in
desperate need for the most creative among us to step up and solve serious problems while creating more opportunities for deeper human connection - we teaching artists are an incredibly valuable commodity. I believe 100% that I can and deserve abundance in exchange for the gifts I bring to this world. Now, I am begging you to believe it too. I am on my knees. Because the law of attraction teaches us that “like attracts like,” I know that my success depends on me being in a professional field that believes that I can succeed. Our collective positive thoughts will benefit me. They will benefit you. They will benefit all of us. So, please, let’s stop laughing and come together to script the abundant lives of our dreams.
Lynn Johnson is the previous Membership Director of TAG and currently sits on the National Advisory Board. She is a Teaching Artist and Entrepreneur.
Page 35
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
TEACHING ARTIST JOB LISTINGS Teaching Artist Performing Arts Workshop San Francisco, CA The Workshop seeks artists with flexible availability to teach preschool and in and afterschool classes, teaching availability two or more days of the week, at least one day of afterschool availability, and teaching experience in one or more of the following art forms: World Dance (Hip-hop, Salsa, African, Brazilian, etc), Creative Movement, Music, and/or Theatre. http://www.idealist.org/view/ job/jKkBfbk3dn2D/
also called up to be active members of the school communities in which they work, helping to build local cultures of teaching and learning in and through the arts. In addition to teaching, growth within the organization is possible through opportunities to lead after school and Saturday programs, mentor fellow teaching artists, lead professional development workshops, and manage school sites. http://dreamyard.com/careers/teaching-artists/
School Programs Teaching Artist DreamYard Bronx, NY
Pacific Chorale Academy Teaching Artist: Beginning Vocal/Choral Music - Mariners Site Pacific Chorale Santa Ana, CA
DeamYard Teaching Artists are hired on a part or full time basis. Besides teaching duties teaching artists are
The Teaching Artist is part of a two-person teaching team, collaborating with the regular music teacher from
Mariners Elementary. This teaching team will ensure the highest quality beginning choral experience for PC Academy, select repertoire and teaching materials, and support each child holistically. The team will support the program’s El Sistema-inspired philosophy and assist in facilitating community and family involvement. http://www.elsistemausa. org/job-teaching-artist-beginning-vocal-choral-music-mariners-site-187.htm Media Teaching Artist, Education BRIC Media Arts New York, NY BRIC seeks seasoned, innovative Teaching Artists with an active media arts practice for in- school and after-school art residencies in New York City public schools in the following fields: Video
JOB SEARCH TIPS FOR TEACHING ARTISTS “Show your strengths as an artist and educator by putting together a teaching artist reel. Clips of student work, combined with some highlights of you at work in the studio or classroom, can offer a strong sense of your style, aesthetic and pedagogical approach.” + Jordan Dann; Education Director, Teachers & Writers Collaborative Page 36
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
Production and Post-Production, and Animation. http://bricartsmedia.org/ about/jobs-and-internships#media-teaching-artist X-celerated Theatre Teaching Artist The Magik Theatre San Antonio, TX The Magik Theatre’s Education Department is looking for enthusiastic theatrical teaching artists for its X-celerated Theatre program. Selected educators will teach theatre for at-risk youth in multiple San Antonio facilities. The instructor will work with a group of students for 16 weeks, helping them develop an original work for a performance. http://www.magiktheatre. org/index.php/behind_the_ curtain/job_opportunities/ internship_for_teaching_artists_and_interns/x_celerated_theatre
Teaching Artists for Inschool/After-school Programs Casita Maria Bronx, NY Casita Maria is seeking dynamic, enthusiastic candidates for a variety of teaching artist positions for its in-school and afterschool programs in the South Bronx. The programs serve students from 6th through 12th grade. Casita Maria is one of the oldest arts and education organizations operating in the city and there is plenty of career growth potential for exceptional candidates. http://www.idealist.org/view/ job/8KgG8SXzMgW4?utm_ source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed Teaching Artists Air Alliance Houston Houston, TX “Air Alliance Houston is seeking two Teaching Artists–one bilingual–to teach our Ozone
Theater youth education classes. Air Alliance Houston is the Houston region’s leading environmental health and air quality nonprofit. Our mission is to reduce air pollution in the Houston region to protect public health and environmental integrity through research, education and advocacy. We are seeking a motivated individual to teach our educational cross-collaborative lesson plans for grades K-8. “ http://airalliancehouston.org/about-us/careers-with-air-alliance/ Teaching Artist 1 Big Thought Dallas, TX Teaching Artists/Community Instructors are practicing artists and instructors who possess a strong commitment to working with educators and young people. Specific responsibilities include teaching in all aspects of Big Thought programs, includ-
“It always leaves a favorable impression when teaching artists thoughtfully display that they have researched our organization and identified shared values - usually via the cover letter.” + David King; Program Director of School Partnerships, Community Word-Project
Page 37
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
ing but not limited to DISD schools, professional development workshops (including summer and custom sessions) and other special events. Teaching includes planning and implementation with Big Thought staff and delivering high quality direct instruction to students in pre-K through grade 12 in alignment with Big Thought’s instructional framework of Six Dimensions of Quality, Social Emotional Learning and Project Based Learning. https://www.appone. com/maininforeq. asp?Ad=264278&R_ ID=1113846&Refer=http:// www.indeed.com/jobs&B_ ID=44 Classroom Teaching Artists Art Resource Collaborative for Kids Boston, MA Art Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK)(ARCK) is a Boston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit looking for part-time
Teaching Artists to teach in the classroom and be part of our curriculum development team. ARCK currently partners with three Boston Public Schools and one after-school program, bringing arts and STEAM education to students in grades K-8. Our classes align with academic content and learning themes specific to each partner school and classroom as well as the Common Core Curriculum and National Visual Art Standards. http://www.idealist.org/view/ job/35SFpfSmkmZMD?utm_ source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed Artist in Residence, grades 7-12* Paseo Academy (Kansas City Public Schools) Kansas City, MI The purpose of this job is to teach ballet, modern, jazz, tap, musical theatre — including dance history, composition, and choreography — at
Paseo Academy. https://kcmsd.tedk12. com/hire/viewjob.aspx?jobid=3897 Story Pirates Seeking New Teaching Artists Story Pirates New York, NY We are currently looking for new teaching artists to work in our New York-based after-school programs and in-school residencies. Prospective teachers should have at least 2 years of experience working with kids, either in a classroom or alternative educational setting, and should be VERY comfortable being dramatic, silly, and ready to think on their feet. Our teaching artists work as a team to engage kids using our curriculum, which is packed full of Viking costumes, giant plush monster attacks, secretive extra-terrestrial organizations, and evil monarchs bent on taking over your classroom. http://www.idealist.org/view/
“We received an illustrated resume from a comic book artist that really impressed us. It showed how she could bring her skill and artistry to her professional life.” + Miko Lee; Executive Director, Youth In Arts
Page 38
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
job/FH8hxDNkNhSP?utm_ source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed Teaching Artist Urban Arts Partnership New York, NY Urban Arts Partnership advances the intellectual, social and artistic development of underserved public school students through arts-integrated education programs to close the achievement gap. Urban Arts Partnership is looking for highly-motivated, organized, and supportive Teaching Artists with a minimum of 2 years’ experience working with inner city youth in grades K-12 in a public school settingin the following art forms: Digital Video, Digital Media/Music Production, Photography, Graphic Design, Video Game Design, Dance, Theater, Music (Percussion, Chorus, Live Instruments), Visual Art, Arts Integration, and Yoga. http://www.artjobs. com/art-jobs/united-states/
teaching-artist-7
grams-teaching-artist
In-School Residency Programs Teaching Artist New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, NJ
Teaching Artist: Video Game Design + Coding Say Si San Antonio, TX
NJPAC In-School Residency Programs Teaching Artists are professional artists and educators who teach theater, dance, and music in various school environments across the state of New Jersey under the auspices of NJPAC’s Arts Education Department. NJPAC In-School Residency Programs enable New Jersey students in Pre-K through 12th grades the opportunity to experience the performing arts through close interaction with professional teaching artists twice per week for 7-10 week residencies. These programs are offered to schools, community centers and childcare centers throughout New Jersey. http://www.artjobs.com/ art-jobs/united-states/ school-residency-pro-
Seeking a Part Time Video Game Design instructor for SAY Sí a nationally awarded creative Youth Development organization. Ideal candidate will be a committed, professional, and creative teaching artist willing to passionately contribute to growing and help shape The HIVE [Home for Innovation and Video Ecology] our program focused on video game design. They will embody the mission of SAY Sí’s values and belief in the transformational power of art and creativity, and will lead highlevel weekly classes specific to game design and coding for our high school youth, and support our middle school programs as well. http://www.saysi.org/job-opportunities/
Looking for more Teaching Artist Jobs? Be sure to check out the TAG job board at www.teachingartistsguild.org/jobs
Page 39
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
GET SOCIAL WITH US!
Page 40
facebook.com/teachingartistguild.org
Teaching Artists Guild Newsletter: Issue 02
BECOME A MEMBER OF TEACHING ARTISTS GUILD TODAY!
Teaching Artists Guild (TAG), a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives, is a member-driven organization committed to the professionalization and visibility of artists who teach. We are the voice of the teaching artist, communicating the depth and breadth of work that teaching artists provide our educational systems and communities. You can support our work by becoming an Allied or Full member. Our membership provides Teaching Artists with the tools and resources they need to take their career to the next level. Want to learn more? Visit us on the web: www.teachingartistsguild.org
MembersHIP BENEFITS:
TAG Careington Card – comes with big discounts on Dental, Vision, Alternative Health Providers, Tax, Financial, and Legal services, LASIK Surgery, Pet Medications, Online Shopping, Identity Theft, Child and Elderly Care, and Concierge services. Need we say more? These services are not insurance.*
Free access to the TAG Job Board. Featured placement on the TAG Member Directory Placement on the Teaching Artist’s Asset Map Free access to the TAG Events Calendar 40% OFF a one-year subscription to Teaching Artists Journal Free and discounted in-person and online professional and social events and Discounts to businesses and organizations in your area that provide you with the tools & experiences you need to enhance your art (shows, admissions, supplies)
Page 41
TEACHING ARTISTS GUILD
www.teachingartistsguild.org