Professional Development Tips for Teaching Artists
Check out this FREE e-book brought to you by our friends at the Teaching Artists Guild.
Make. Teach. Prosper.
The 12 Essential Business Tools You Need to Kick Start the Teaching Artist Career of Your Dreams
What if there was a way to find a new path towards prosperity as a Teaching Artist? And what if we could do this in a way that builds on and honors our skills, passions, experience, and expertise?
Make. Teach. Prosper. is written by Lynn Johnson and contains:
- A process for creating a simple but powerful business plan
- Tips for unleashing the power of social media
- Advice about developing your unique brand
- A step-by-step guide to getting your website set up
- Information about liability insurance, setting up administrative supports, and much more!
Download your free e-book here.
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Resources
for Teaching Artists
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Don’t miss a beat: head over to an amazing information-packed music site maintained by the California County Superintendents Arts Initiative. This jam-packed resource supports an array of links that lead to other wonderful music-related links that…well, here’s just a few of the resources:
The Rock +Roll Hall of Fame and Museum provides a wonderful site full of useful, and historical information (and visuals) on all eras and facets of rock and roll, and rock's most celebrated artists. Search the timeline by artist, event, era, genre, or year. Follow programs to a collection of great lesson plans.
The Web site of the Percussive Arts Society is informative and useful for both teachers and students. Search for in-depth information on anything regarding percussion technique, instruments, education, research, performance, and appreciation throughout the world. An online magazine is included for the latest percussion news plus valuable links.
The National Sound Archive housing over 2.5 million published and unpublished recordings; this amazing international music collection is one of the largest sound archives in the world. All genres, cultures, and most musical traditions of the world are represented, even wildlife sounds. Enough of a sampling is available online for listening to make it worthwhile. Scroll to bottom of first page for international music collection links.
Below, Mark Twain’s Martin guitar, from The Museum of Musical Instruments.
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How can we evolve and stay relevant as teaching artists?
In this month's blog, dance teaching artist Tiffany Bong asks,
How can we evolve and stay relevant as teaching artists? Her answer is cultivating quality to create quantity through ACCESS! Read more below
for Tiffany's inspiring take on how teaching artists can be Ambassadors, build their Community, live in Curiosity, Elevate their craft, build from their Sweet spot, and create Space in their lives for success!
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Engaging art to educate? YES!
From Blueprint to Action, the theme of the two-day CREATE* CA conference being held in Oakland January 30 and 31, promises to paint the big picture as California prepares to restore arts education to public schools in a significant new way.
The Oakland conference will be the public unveiling of the new “California Blueprint for Creative Schools,” a collaborative vision two+ years in the making, which places art and creativity at the very core of learning, as in the new Common Core curriculum.
Gov. Jerry Brown will speak; California Arts Council Director Craig Watson will provide opening remarks; Sarah Anderberg, director of Arts Initiatives at the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) will discuss her work with county offices of education throughout the state to develop curriculum models that incorporate project-based learning employing the arts as tools of inquiry, creativity, exploration and discovery.
Read more about the conference, including information on attending, here.
*CREATE = Core Reforms Engaging Art to Educate
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The Voice of Teaching Artists in the Collective Conversation
TASC invited California Arts Council Director Craig Watson, a member of the
Leadership Team for CREATE CA, to respond to questions about where the
CREATE process is today and where teaching artists fit in.
By Belinda Taylor, TASC Advisor
Last summer the TASC advisory council met in Los Angeles to shape our goals for the coming year. A statement in our resulting planning document caught my eye this week:
“We believe we are seeing the cresting of a social movement (CREATE CA, Turnaround Schools and other indicators). How do we support the day-to-day work of the teaching artist and offer a leg up into the collective conversation and inspire action?”
Ironically, TASC – the only statewide organization representative of teaching artists – while part of the early collective planning for CREATE, was not invited to be part of the executive leadership that emerged following reorganization of what was no doubt a big, roiling pot of interested stakeholders.
Our feelings were not bruised, but we wondered: where was the voice of teaching artists in this monumental revamp of public education in California? I posed this question to California Arts Council Director Craig Watson. Before we get to his responses, first a little history.
CREATE CA, the arts education coalition, emerged three years ago after representatives from the California Arts Council, state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s office and the state Department of Education returned from a pivotal gathering in Chicago; California
was one of only five states invited to participate in the 2011 Education Leaders Institute.
The NEA underwrote the event with the expectation that participants would be inspired to pursue significant new arts education strategies back home.
The California contingent indeed came back thoroughly jazzed by the possibilities. So much so that they recreated the meeting format and speakers in a two-day mini-version of the Chicago gathering, this one at Loyola Marymount University. Teaching artists, teachers, arts leaders and stakeholders from around the state were invited to re-imagine art as a crucial learning tool across the curriculum. Re-imagining was no problem for the teaching artists in the crowd.
It’s what they do as educators: engage students in art to explore ideas and discover meaning.
TASC invited California Arts Council Director Craig Watson, a member of the Leadership Team for CREATE CA, to respond to questions about where the CREATE process is today and where teaching artists fit in. His responses follow.
1. TASC: What role do you envision for Teaching Artists in the implementation of CREATE’s goals. Is this a critical role? How so?
Craig Watson: Each member of the team brings their own perspective to the table, but as you know well, the CAC takes its historic support of the Teaching Artist community very seriously.
“CREATE CA is an independent coalition comprised of individuals and organizations that are invested in arts education and the ability of the arts to improve the lives of California’s students. The role of CREATE CA is to bring all of the various perspectives and players in arts education together to share and align all of our goals for the good of California’s kids, and to build public will for arts education."
Craig Watson responded to our request with more thorough and thoughtful answers: Click here to read on.
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I Am a Teaching Artist
 Tiffany Bong poses with some of her students in a Los Angeles classroom. Her own first encounter with Hip Hop was through a school program, which in turn inspired her to later become an ambassador of her art form.
Cultivating Quality to Create Quantity
By Tiffany Bong
“I just want to know if you’re actually going to TEACH my students something.” This is how my first planning meeting went as a teaching artist rookie. Luckily, I had experience in my pocket as a competitive Hip Hop/Street dancer. Opposition creates opportunity, and in the end, this classroom teacher actually did me a favor. He ignited the fire in me, and I was on a mission to conquer and come out victorious.
The landscape of our Teaching Artist profession is unpredictable. In one class, the classroom teacher is dancing right beside you, only to follow with the next teacher who just wants to grade papers. One year, we are overflowing with offers, and the next year we’re rationing our resources. Instead of always being pulled by outer circumstance, how can we empower and position ourselves to be a non-negotiable constant in education?
This brings us to an essential question to explore together: How can we evolve and stay relevant as teaching artists? I’ve created an acronym for us to ACCESS new insight.
A: We are AMBASSADORS.
My dear mentor from the Music Center, Susan Cambigue-Tracey, shared on our first training day that “Teaching artists are ambassadors”. This has become my mantra ever since. I’m a living example of this statement because my first encounter with Hip Hop was through a school program, and it absolutely transformed my life. Anchoring ourselves in our immense value and purpose inspires us to uphold integrity in our work and endure through diverse situations.
What is your BIG WHY to get you through the storms?
C: Build your COMMUNITY.
I once had a teacher donate his class funds to preserve the dance residency during budget cuts. It taught me the importance of building a community of supporters wherever I go. Parents, teachers, and administration are our best advocates and they will invest in our programs once they experience the value of it.
Community is all about connection. At culminations, I build a communal atmosphere for everyone to participate and connect through the arts. Parents, and even principals, are included in a surprise dance lesson and closing freestyle circle.
How can you build participation and a tribe of supporters to champion your program?
C: Live in CURIOSITY:
I’m on a mission to redefine what it means to be a “Wonder Woman.” Instead of having a golden lasso, my super power can be an inquisitive spirit. Curiosity can help us through difficult or repetitive conditions by asking, how could I approach this situation differently to get a better outcome?” It can also help us expand horizons and take charge of our life my simply asking.
Read on for more on "ACCESS" and how Tiffany founded her own Hip Hop Arts Education Company, UniverSOUL Hip Hop.
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24 Jan 2015 • Los Angeles
31 Jan 2015 9:00 AM • Chico
03 Feb 2015 4:30 PM • Berkeley
Want to share your event?
Email event information to tascofcalifornia.info@gmail.com
What's New
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TASC would like to extend a warm welcome to Kendra Knight, the newest member of our Regional Advisory Council.
Kendra is the Arts and Education Director and Gallery Director for Mono Council for the Arts (MCA). She is a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. MCA is located in Mono County (the Eastern Sierra), a scenic yet rural community.
Welcome, Kendra!
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Submit Your Blog
TASC is in search of blog submissions that focus on teaching artistry and arts learning from a variety of perspectives. We invite teaching artist, arts administrators, educators, researchers and more to contribute to the ongoing conversation. Learn More.
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I am a Teaching Artist
The field of teaching artistry is a continuously growing field that can be as diverse as each individual artist. It encompasses many arts forms, teaching methodologies, learning settings and so much more. TASC wants to know your story as a teaching artist! Learn More.
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Share your videos & photos
TASC invites photos and videos that show the work of teaching artists. Do you have a video or photo that you feel is representative of your work as a teaching artist or what your organization does? Send video links and photos to tascofcalifornia.info@gmail.com.
Include names of individuals in the photo.
Please note that you must have full permission to use any photos or videos you share with TASC.
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