Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sam Vance's Improbable Beautiful

Artist Clown, by Sam Vance



1. How long have you been a teaching artist?
I started teaching right out of my undergraduate program back in 1996.  I had the fortune to already be involved with a growing acting studio in Seattle where my wife was teaching.  
2. What discipline(s) do you teach?
 Theatre predominantly but I have also taught visual art and music.  
3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.
I am adjunct theatre faculty at Northwest University where I teach Intro to Theatre, Improvisation and Principles of Acting.  I am also a regular instructor at Taproot Theatre Company where I have taught classes, workshops and summer camps.  In my last job as Director of Education at Teatro ZinZanni, I taught juggling and circus skills to PE classes all over the Pacific Northwest.  
4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?
It's not something I ever really thought about.  It seemed to be a natural extension of my art practice and it has always been a factor when it comes to piecing together a living.  
5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?
It used to be purely financial.  But I have come to enjoy teaching and have been able to make connections to my own practice.  The most noticeable shift has been personal confidence when standing up in front of people, speaking, acting, improvising or directing.  I used to be very shy and nervous in front of people.  
6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?
 The important aspect for me is to keep building a body of work while teaching.  That is the thing that keeps me relevant and viable as a teaching artist.  
7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?
 I have an Applied Associate of Arts Degree in Music & Business (after a failed attempt to get a degree in commercial art) from the Art Institute of Seattle, a BA in Theatre from Seattle Pacific University and I am currently a degree candidate for an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College.  I also studied classical painting from a private instructor in Spain.  
8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?
 Complacent or uninterested students- it's rare but it happens.  
9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?
 Drawing connections from the classroom to the studio in ways that feed my practice.  Usually that is some sort of improvisation or "a Ha!" moment that makes me think about something I'm working on.  
10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?
I think you have to really like people and want to relate to them in order to teach.  It's one thing to be a master of your subject but you have to possess the ability to break that information down into reasonable chunks, build on that info in order to give your students a sense of accomplishment immediately.  Teaching art should be fun for you and your students.  
*Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience.
 I was working with world-class Russian juggler, Sergey Krutikov on a circus camp for kids.  At the beginning of the week we had a 10 year old student who flat refused to participate.  His reason was that he didn't want to learn to juggle because he didn't want to live on the streets, juggling for a living.  Sergey was great because he didn't pressure the kid.  He just kept introducing different items to the entire class- juggling balls, rings, cigar boxes, scarves... gently drawing him into the enthusiasm the rest of the camp was experiencing.  By the end of the week, that kid was juggling like  a crazy person.  He is now living on the streets.  
Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice. Provide links to websites, event sites, etc.
I will be acting, singing (and doing a little clowning) in an upcoming show that my wife and I wrote.  Le Club Noel opens at Taproot Theatre Company in Seattle on November 29th and runs through December 28th.  Tickets and info can be found at:

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Dr. Jerry M. James' Improbable Beautiful


Beginner's Luck, Jerry M. James



1. How long have you been a teaching artist?  

I was a teaching artist at Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) for 15 years

2. What discipline(s) do you teach?

  Visual Art

3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach: K-5, after school, university, community center, etc…

 All of the above

4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?

Fay Zetlin,  Maxine Greene, John Toth, Paulo Friere

5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

When I was a teaching artist, I participated group shows with other TAS. Also had my own shows and projects.  I felt that in particular, teaching the Aesthetic Education model informed my philosophy of art and piqued my curiosity about all the arts. Leading sessions at museums opened my eyes to different genres, ultimately affecting my own work in positive ways

6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?

Maintaining a private studio and selling my work

7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?

BFA and MFA in painting Ed.D, in art education

8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

One challenge was switching approaches to suit different arts organizations.  Some were more skills based, others more aesthetic still others more arts integrated.  Since my work involved teaching in other states and countries managing my schedule was challenging at times.  Fortunately, as a full-time TA I had four weeks paid vacation time I used blocks of time to prepare for shows etc.

9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?

The joy evident as students learn, witnessing improved collaboration among school communities, planning with teachers and other stakeholders. The transformative effects of arts experiences on people of all ages, as reported in discussions and written  reflections.   As an administrator now, watching  the professionalization of the TA field unfold has been a pleasant surprise!

10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?

Learn how to facilitate learning, rather than only teaching what you know.  Many of your students will benefit more from working on big ideas with TAs than they will from learning a specific artistic skill.

Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience.

I  usually time the components of workshops. Demos, if any, are short. I devote most time to arts making, which is interspersed with reflective activities of varying lengths, One of these, poetry writing, usually lasts five minutes.  In Mexico, however,  participants wrote poetry for 20 minutes and they could have kept going! It was my first direct experience of educators in another culture having a relationship with culture that was much different than mine. For them poetry was as natural as prose.

Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice.



Friday, October 11, 2013

Daniel Kelin's Improbable Beautiful




 1. How long have you been a teaching artist?
Nigh on 30 years 
2. What discipline(s) do you teach?
 Theatre/Drama
3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.
In-School, after school, professional theatre, community centers, university...in just about every setting I can 
4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?
 Very probably my theatre teachers in elementary and high school, but it is hard to pinpoint one person or situation
5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?
 A tightly woven rope, as each depneds on the other for strength of purpose and effectiveness. Each has influenced the other to the degree that it is hard to know what was influenced by the other.  Each gives me the opportunity to practice approaches in different settings to gauge effectiveness.
6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?
My art is a part of my teaching so it is sustained by continuing to teach.  I also don't believe that I should be doing 'an' art, but engage in artistic pursuit in various ways and disciplines.
7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?
My art was college and university, primarily and since then workshops as I can.  Education was initially practice.  There were not many opportunities for training when I first started.  Now it is sustained through conferences, workshops and collegial dialogues.  In addition I lead many trainings and learn through those.
8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?
The fact that in the US there is still the sense that TEACHING art is the bastard child of DOING art.  Stupid, egotistical attitude that cultivates an elitist attitude and makes it harder to rally support for the arts.
9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?
Relationships, renewal of purpose, witnessing the authenticity of response on the part of young children 
10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?
Reflect, often. Adjust to your setting, don't make the setting fit you. Be prepared to change at any moment and embrace it. There is no 'right' way.  Learn as you do, don't set yourself up as the expert.
Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience or your favorite resources for lessons.

FAVORITE: Viewpoints, Studio Thinking, Releasing the Imagination 
Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice.

Monday, October 7, 2013

In deep waters...



When I started this blog I was in between my first and second semesters as an MFA student, struggling with my role as a teacher and my desire to just make art. Now heading into my third semester and I have learned much from everyone who has contributed. 

The lesson so far... There is not a division between teaching art and making art. Instead it's about learning to live an artful life. How does my life inform my art and my art inform my life? What am I striving for as a person this earth? How can I express my values, goals, fears and hopes through my work? My work is equally teaching and making art. Sometimes I'm deeply engaged in the classroom and other times I need to withdraw a bit and focus on my studio practice. For a long time I was focused on who I am as a teacher. I fully developed my teacher persona. I started to think I needed to abandon that persona and develop and artist persona. Now I see the folly in that approach. There is no persona - just me. I need to know and be who I am, fully, in order to succeed as a creative person. The journey continues, the lessons are good and deep and sometimes painful but mostly the ride is joyful, improbable and beautiful.

Check out the current work of past contributors:

Ryan Canarro  "this hour forward..." Performance installation i Juneau Alaska

Jill McLennan at Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland, CA


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Heather Ridgeway's Improbable Beautiful


student art work


1. How long have you been a teaching artist?
28 yrs 
2. What discipline(s) do you teach?
Drawing, painting, mixed media, digital art, printmaking, ceramics, murals, ....
3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.
Currently 9-12 (high school) and an occasional teacher training, used to do integrated elementary.
4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?
 My art teachers through k-12
5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

Teaching keeps me learning new things but makes it very difficult to become master of anything, though it forces process analysis, so I feel like I'm more aware if what I know...
6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?

My teaching is my art 
7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?

Ak State certifications in MAT-K12 Art Ed & K-8 BA of Ed; internship in Set Design w/Perseverance Theater, IATSE backstage hand training; London City & Guild Certification in Architectural Restoration and Decorative Painting; numerous "Canvas" workshops, Community Schools classes, professional development etc....
8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

Time management - consistent expectations and assessments that promote positive production, quality and growth for all
9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?
 Learning from my students
10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?

 Let your students teach you stuff, share your mistakes, etc
Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience or your favorite resources for lessons.
The day a kid got up the nerve to approach me respectfully after class and tell me I made him uncomfortable when I rolled my eyes. I had no idea I was rolling my eyes!! 20 years later, that exchange shapes me daily.

Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice
Heather's artwork


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Ryan Conarro’s Improbable Beautiful


http://tajournal.com/

1. How long have you been a teaching artist?
I've been a teaching artist since 2002.
2. What discipline(s) do you teach?
 I teach theatre.
3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.
(K-5, after school, university, community center, etc…)
 I've taught in all of the above settings. Most often, I teach in K-12 school settings in rural Alaska schools.
4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?
 My first teaching artist experiences after college were while I was a company member with Aquila Theatre Company-- members of that group helped me learn ways to teach Shakespeare that can be playful and accessible.
When I moved to Juneau, Alaska, I found two great mentors--the woman who then ran the high school theatre program, and another woman who designs programs and writes grants for rural arts projects. They've guided me, respectively, on good strategies for modeling performance for young people, and on navigating cross-cultural landscapes as an educator. They also both took risks with me, signing me on to projects that were beyond my past experience and which stretched me.
Before all that, I started getting involved in theatre in middle school, with a children's theatre in north Georgia. The director of that theatre was a big influence on me. She had a huge passion for making art at a high standard and making it accessible to kids and families.

5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

I see the two as coexistent and feeding each other. There have been times when I've opted to accept a teaching gig over performing or directing a professional project. Among many other things, teaching theatre has helped me become more facile with articulating my processes and techniques as an actor and director.
6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?
 I seek out TA opportunities in which I can experiment artistically in ways that I couldn't or am not ready to do with adults. For example, in 2011-12 I did a year-long puppetry project with a school district. I wouldn't have felt comfortable telling adults I could teach them to build puppets--but I told the kids that! And we all learned together.
7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?
 I went to undergrad at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for Drama and English. I also spent one summer back at NYU in their graduate program for Educational Theatre. I've participated in several summer Basic Arts Institutes for educators through the Alaska Arts Education Consortium. A lot of my learning has been by doing.
8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?
 I think my biggest challenges include finding consistent, adequate planning time with teachers. My dream gigs are those in which I really feel like I'm co-teaching with a teacher, that s/he is learning alongside me and I alongside him/her. But it doesn't often happen that way. Part of the reason it doesn't is because teachers have way too much on their plates to begin with.
Another challenge I face, in Alaska, is budget cuts. Two major programs I depended on have gone away this year, and so the arts education landscape is changing a bit. There are still plenty of opportunities here for me for school engagements (thankfully), but my rate of pay has dropped drastically, so I'm having to adjust my standard of living accordingly.
9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?
 I've lived in Juneau for 10 years now, and began doing school arts projects my first year here. One thing I couldn't have anticipated then is how well-connected I feel with the community because of the projects I've done. I know lots of parents. Many kids who were in high school have gone away to college and come back--or they never left--and now here they are, with jobs and kids sometimes, and they're my peers now. I love it.
10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?
 Do it!
Classroom management is key. Find/experiment with playful/artistic ways to create behavior routines with students. And don't be afraid of being a disciplinarian.
I think, for me, as long as I'm having fun, I can pretty much bet that the students are as well. And I always look for teachers who are interested in mentoring me and helping me improve my teaching practice.
*Bonus*
Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience or your favorite resources for lessons.

 This website is not that impressive looking, but teachers consistently love it:
There's a helpful link for Reader's Theater. I've realized a lot of teachers don't really know what RT is, per se, and they're sort of sheepish about that. This website is a useful resource for those of them who want to do more RT--which is to say, to get their kids reading with fluency and motivation!
Please share any upcoming events or shows you are involved in so we can find out more about your personal art practice. Provide links to websites, event sites, etc.
 I'm currently involved with Theater Mitu's production "Juarez: A Documentary Mythology":
And I'll be leading the Drama section of the summer Arts Education Institute in Alaska:
I'm facilitating a residency now in Juneau, a joint puppetry project between Thunder Mountain High School and Glacier Valley Elementary. 
In October, I'll open a new performance installation at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center Gallery, "This Hour Forward."

Monday, August 19, 2013

Storme Webber's Improbable Beautiful


Storme Webber’s Improbable Beautiful
Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theater

1. How long have you been a teaching artist?
All my life. Professionally, over the past twenty years.

2. What discipline(s) do you teach?
Primarily creative writing/poetry - from an interdisciplinary place incorporating visual art, music, movement, meditation & performance.

3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.
University of Washington -Young Writers Workshop- middle school summer camp 2 week sessions.
Arts Corps. - After school at low-income housing developments. Also at secure facilities for youth involved with juvenile justice system.

Prisons- men’s and women’s.
1.     Hedge brook – women writers retreat on Whidbey Island
2.     Vashon Island Poetry Festival
3.     Chuckanut Writers Conference
4.     NYC public schools
5.     NYC shelters
Varies…

4. What funding source(s) support you as a teaching artist?

nonprofits, barter, grants, scholarships and patrons of the arts.


5.     Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?

The experience of being saved by art as a child.

6. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?
Ideally in synch, expressing the powerful transformative nature of art.

7. How has your training and/or other life experiences benefited your teaching?

Immeasurably, by telling  & showing me how mighty creativity  is.

8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

Financial support.

9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?

Inspiration in seeing others especially youth & elders empowered & inspired.

10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?

Training is helpful, and community with other teaching artists.

11. What is your hope for the future of arts education?

I hope that it is expanded & placed everywhere that education is, and that it is funded so that TA s will be fairly paid (min $50/hr)

Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience.

Seeing someone who seemed impervious to the very idea of creative effort, catch ahold of an impetus, write some truth about their life, and be subtly amazed.

*About the photo: 

This was an outstandingly wonderful experience- I also co directed, chose music & dramaturged, & dressed the cast in period wardrobe.

The challenge was to imbue them with the revolutionary spirit of the 60s. This occupation followed Alcatraz & was inspired by the emerging AIM activism. In the end it happened, and the play debuted at Daybreak Star itself- the cultural center created by what happened in the play! on Palm Sunday. Resurrection City was the name given to the encampment. Several elder activists were present and appreciated the work. For me it was a powerful affirmation of the transformative nature of storytelling and activist history. Truly a highlight of the journey thus far.




https://www.facebook.com/Red.Eagle.Soaring?fref=ts

I just returned from www.michfest.com where I performed & debuted  my new CD of poetry/ stories & vocals called "Blues Divine". Available from me: storme.webber@goddard.edu



Friday, August 16, 2013

Improbable Beautiful Gratitude




Thanks teaching artists who have participated in the questionnaire so far.  
I'm honored by your willingness to share. A lot of new folks have sent in responses. I look forward to posting your thoughts and work in the future. 

Enjoy this collaboration between Tanya Davis and Andre Dorfman.





Monday, August 5, 2013

Trena Noval’s Improbable Beautiful


"Improbable Beautiful"
The Teaching Artist Questionnaire




1. How long have you been a teaching artist?

I have been teaching art things and thinking for almost 25 years (yikes that makes me old!)

2. What discipline(s) do you teach?

Community arts, public arts and design thinking, Graduate Advisory, Teaching and Creative Practice, Curriculum Design, and other things from time to time includng Stop Motion Animation. I teach college, Graduate students and support classroom teachers

3. Describe the setting(s) in which you teach.

College and with teachers in K-12 settings, Also special projects with kids as well but all project base learning in collaboration with classroom teachers - not a classroom art teacher

4. Who shaped your initial thinking about teaching art?

It was a spontaneous thing when I got out of college and was looking for a job years ago and was offered a job to teach middle school art at a private school - did not need a credential so decided to try it out!

5. Describe the relationship between your personal art practice and your art teaching?

It seem mostly seamless to me - they both feed and have become an integral part of each other! For me my teaching is part of my creative practice.

6. How do you sustain your art while teaching?

It is hard but I work on more project based stuff so I usually do the work when the project is going and then can have longer break in my work until another project starts but I am always doing something it seems - writing or some kind of creative practice...reading things that peak my interest, research etc...

7. What training in the arts and/or education have you had?

BFA and MFA and years of practice and other professional development through collaboration and collective thinking

8. What are the biggest challenges you face as a teaching artist?

Funding, job security, health insurance, exhaustion

9. What are the unexpected rewards of being a teaching artist?

Living and working a creative life, making art and thinking through creative lenses to make a difference in others and in the world, working with a rich engaging community of other artists and educators!

10. What advice do you have for other artists interested in teaching?

Go for it but find balance and set limits around pay and time commitments so that you have a balanced life, become engaged in contemporary art practice and keep making room for your own creative thinking and work.

Please share one anecdote of a memorable Teaching Artist experience or your favorite resources for lessons.

Oh my so many hard to sort it out right now - I love the project zero stuff for teaching. We are so lucky we live in a time when there are so many rich resources online and easy ways for us to connect and share.

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/