The Teaching Artist

A Teaching Artist is a practicing professional artist with the complementary skills, curiosities and sensibilities of an educator, who can effectively engage a wide range of people in learning experiences in, through, and about the arts.

(Booth 2010: 2)

Today, Teaching Artist has become the term used to describe the wide range of activities for those individuals who both practice their art form and engage in teaching others the knowledge and processes they employ as artists.

(McKean 2006: xii)

As drama/theatre Teaching Artists, we, the co-authors, shamelessly embrace the field. We recognize its great joys, its shortcomings, its highly engaging nature, its lack of clearly defined criteria and the related disagreements among professionals of drama/theatre and education. We also acknowledge the impressive spectrum of work included under the umbrella of drama/theatre teaching-artist practice.

In this chapter, we explore the definition and context of teaching-artist practice and pedagogy to give the reader a way to understand and define their own place and purpose in the field. Since reflection is central to our premise for the book — ask and reflect, think and rethink, question personal understanding and redefine possibilities — we will organize our reflection through guiding questions and conclude with brief activities for further self-reflection and synthesis.

WHO IS A TEACHING ARTIST?

Artists who teach. Teaching with great artistry. Teaching about art or through art or with art or using art to teach, explore and/or reflect on nonart topics. All of these descriptions could apply to the definition of Teaching Artist. Therefore we contend that to have purpose and credibility a Teaching Artist should be experienced and knowledgeable about both teaching and art. Sounds overly simple, but it underlines our journey with this book. The art of teaching. The Teaching of art. Teaching artfully. Art-inspired teaching. Art-full teaching. The art of teaching is to inspire. Inspired by their own art experiences, the Teaching Artist facilitates experiences that inspire, guiding students to discover their own inspirations.

WHAT IS A TEACHING ARTIST?

Drama/Theatre Teaching Artists work in a wide range of settings (e.g. professional theaters, arts organizations, schools, communities, universities, business, prisons, museums, etc.) in urban centers, communities and villages across the globe. Teaching Artists work with a range of populations who represent a variety of ages, gender orientations, sexual orientations, cultures, ethnicities and races, abilities, and socioeconomic statuses. Some focus on a specific population and/or location (e.g. preschool students) while still others practice a specific form of theatre with a variety of populations (e.g. youth theatre, such as devising and/or directing original or scripted performances with youth of all ages). Some are housed in a specific arts organization and/or a professional theatre. Others are employed independently, situated on a roster or are instructional staff for multiple arts organizations or they facilitate their residency or workshop practice through their own business. Still others are employed full or part-time by a school or university but use the title of Teaching Artist to illuminate a particular approach to education in and through the arts as a desired way of working. In this text we will characterize teaching artist practice as work located in specific settings: school, communities and professional theatre. Although these categories are fluid for many in the profession, the mission or intention and funding for practice is often facilitated through one or more of these larger entry points, and this shapes the approach or type of work they are asked to do.

WHY TEACHING ARTISTS?

Teaching Artists often serve as a bridge to the arts or an artistic process. In the continuing debate about who has access to art, who is engaged by art and/or who feels most welcome in art institutions, Teaching Artists are a valuable asset. The more experience an individual has with art, the more she understands how art works as a form of expression and as a medium in which she can learn to express herself. However, art access for young people is dwindling, particularly in public schools. There is less of an opportunity for students to experience and understand the power of art and art making. A drama/theatre Teaching Artist in schools, the community and in professional theatre has the potential to be the conduit for a complement of experiences that inspire a desire to encounter, practice, investigate, understand and appreciate theatre.

WHO AND WHAT SUPPORTS AND SHAPES THE TEACHING ARTIST PROFESSION?

Teaching Artists in schools

Since the days of the Settlement House in the early twentieth century in the United States, teaching artist practice has been shaped by the way society has viewed creativity and the education of its people, particularly its young people. Now, in the twenty-first century, globalization and innovative technology has shifted the ways we educate (Nicholson 2011). The field of drama/theatre has also changed in significant ways. New media and technologies have impacted some of the ways performance is created and shared with others. Educational reformers have adopted art-based terms — creativity, imagination, innovation and collaboration — as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2011). The US Government May 2011 report from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities recommends arts education and arts integration as an effective and cost-efficient way to address teachers' and students' needs in schools. It specifically names Teaching Artists as a source of innovation and a sea change in the field.

The field of drama/theatre teaching artistry has yet to fully benefit from the increased interest in the profession. Nick Rabkin's (and others) 2011 research study of over 3500 Teaching Artists, program managers, teachers, principals and other key stakeholders was predicated on the supposition that "arts education and Teaching Artists in particular are hidden, underdeveloped, and underutilized resources in our national effort to improve schools" (2011: 27–28). Nevertheless, the results of their study confirmed that Teaching Artists are "bringing innovative pedagogy and curriculum to schools. And [the] broad belief that there is something in the nature of arts learning itself that has a particular power to drive student development" (Rabkin 2011: 6–7).

As research opens more possibilities to the place of art and applied or integrated art in the classroom, the Teaching Artist can and should play an...