Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.

Teaching Artist Companion

The Teaching Artist Companion to Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change, written by Dennie Palmer Wolf and Jeannette Rodríguez Píneda with contributing teaching artists, shares how teaching artists, and the programs and institutions that support them, embody and activate the values in the Aesthetic Perspectives framework.

Teaching artists are engaging a next generation in making art as a way to ask questions, imagine new possibilities, and promote action for positive change in their communities.  Such “Arts for Change” requires teaching artists to develop cultural competencies, responsive teaching strategies, and skills in community-based and socially engaged artistic practices.  It also calls for a shared language for describing this work that enables others, who may be new to its values and strategies, to understand and assess it fully and fairly.

The Aesthetic Perspectives framework describes 11 attributes that heighten the potency and effectiveness of Arts for Change—creative work at the intersection of community development, civic engagement, and social change. Attributes such as cultural integrity, communal meaning, disruption, and risk-taking, provide a lens to understand what is distinctive about Arts for Change as an approach to teaching and learning. The framework was developed by artists and allied funders and evaluators who participated in the 2014–2015 Evaluation Learning Lab led by Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts.

The Companion offers:

  • examples of creative projects with youth implemented by teaching artists working in Queens, New York that describe: Arts for Change intent, on-the-ground practice, the aesthetic attributes in play, and questions to guide teaching artists’ practice;
  • examples of the work of program designers, organization leaders, and evaluators who support teaching artists working in the arena of Arts for Change;
  • an observation rubric for assessing processes and quality practices that promote student growth, contribute to effectiveness in teaching artistry and programs focusing on Arts for Change.

The Teaching Artist Companion supports artists who work with youth in K–12 programs in and out of school and the institutional leaders who support their work, but also informs funders, researchers, evaluators, and policy makers in the field of creative youth development.

Toolkit
Dennie Palmer Wolf and Jeannette Rodríguez Píneda
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File Title: 
Teaching Artist Companion
Research Abstract
Categories: 
Animating Democracy
Creative Workforce
Image Thumbnail of Pub Cover: 
May 2019