Featured Blog: A California Teaching Artist in Oz

Jean Taylor from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York directing her workshop at ITAC2 in Brisbane, Australia.  Photo credit: Maria Antvort

Reflections from the International
Teaching Artist Conference ITAC2

By Sabrina Klein, TASC Advisor

This July, TASC Advisory Council member Sabrina Klein headed off to Australia to participate as one of 200 delegates from around the world at the ITAC2 Conference engaging with issues in our field. She blogged for TASC and the Teaching Artist Journal during the convening, and her collected posts appear below.

Prelude to the ITAC2 Conference | June 30, 2014

I’m in Australia (my first visit here), a day or two before the second International Teaching Artist Conference convenes in Brisbane, Australia. I had a lousy flight over, never having been one who handles hours on a plane very well even during the smoothest flight, which this wasn’t. Landing in Sydney, still queasy and disoriented, I found myself oddly ready to be surprised, to do as Maxine Greene conjured us teaching artists--to “uncouple from the ordinary” by seeing with fresh eyes and listening with new ears. I welcomed Maxine’s spirit on this journey. Though her body left us recently, she resides powerfully in hundreds, if not thousands, of us in spirit and imagination.

So I tapped my set of useful teaching artist frameworks in order to focus myself and chose the simplest one to help me get grounded.  What do I see? What do I hear? What does it make me think about? What does it make me feel?  Click to finish reading today's blog post here or read on for more reflections from Day 1 of the conference.

Day 1 of the ITAC 2 Conference | July 1, 2014

Photo credit: Maria Antvort

Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!  -- Well, actually, no one was drowned or presumed drown, though there is at least one viola player here. But indeed, we were thrice welcomed. And then welcome again throughout the day. It’s a beautiful custom and expectation to welcome any gathering with an honoring of the traditional owners of the land and their elders, past, present, and (at least for one speaker) future.

Vignettes from the day:

First Welcome:  Australia continues to show us her best weather.  Arriving at QUT (Queensland University of Technology), I’m thrilled to find that my experience before the conference (see my first entry) is echoed at the start of today's ITAC2 convening. Turns out EVERY gathering in Australia begins with a welcome ceremony that is customized to each event, but which always honors the traditional peoples of the land and reminds us that we stand on ground with a rich history of culture, art and human experience. Deeply respectful, utterly engaging, and inviting us--again--to attend more carefully to where we are and what has come before us.  [...]

Conjurers:   Brad Haseman of QUT and Eric Booth of just about everywhere conjure us to think ambitiously about our work together. Eric asks two key questions we will consider on Thursday, our third and final day of this ITAC2 conference. He asks: 1. What is in common in our worldwide practice? What is invariant? What is at the irreducible core of teaching artistry? and 2. What could we accomplish as a worldwide functional network?  Click to read more from today's blog post here, plus more reflections from Days 2 and 3 of the conference.

ITAC2's 200 delegates pose for a group photo at the close of the conference. Photo credit: @FeralArts

Held from July 1st through 3rd in Brisbane, Australia, ITAC2 set out to identify the productive conditions that give rise to the diverse ecologies of Teaching Artistry in various parts of the world.  More information can be found at http://itac2.org.au/.