Call to Professional Artists of All Artforms: YALA’s Teaching Artist Institute Returns December 2021
Professional artists can expand their artistic range by discovering their role in arts education. Teaching Artist Institute is December 8th – 10th, 2021 at Broadmoor Arts and Wellness Center.
Young Audiences of Louisiana returns with their fourth Teaching Artist Institute (TAI) this winter, December 8th - 10th, 2021 at Broadmoor Arts and Wellness Center. TAI is a three-day training intended to prepare professional artists to teach their artform in a classroom setting and deliver high quality arts education. Professional artists of all artforms will benefit from the collaborative nature of the workshop as well as the topics presented over the three-day event.
“I left with a solid understanding of the role of a Teaching Artist and felt empowered in taking steps to continue to educate myself with knowledge of available resources,” said Grace Booth. Booth is a Physical Theater Artist and CIrcus/Movement Teacher who attended a prior Teaching Artist Institute and works in the New Orleans area.
“YALA provides a streamlined scaffold of guidance, preparation, and then the opportunity for direct application. Above all, I appreciate their commitment to the work of the artist as invaluable in its own right within the educational system.”
This year, Artist Services Manager Chris Sheard designed a training that will focus on the role of the teaching artist, how teaching artists can create a positive classroom environment, and how to cultivate a culturally responsive teaching practice.
“Too often, educators view students’ culture and experiences as deficits to learning that need to be overcome,” Sheard said. “We want to acknowledge and say loudly that they should be not only assets but the very basis for student learning.”
Sheard designed the training with the idea that New Orleans artists are the backbone of New Orleans culture and play an important role in preserving and progressing the artistic legacy of this city. In recognition of the fact that the arts rely on the people who create and preserve it, Young Audiences of Louisiana is committed to educational equity, culturally responsive teaching, and anti-racist work in serving the students and educators of New Orleans. The Teaching Artist Institute training and residency centers on undoing racism and honoring the culture and lived experiences of students and educators whom we serve.
At the end of the institute, participating artists will be invited to teach a five-day arts residency with the Young Audiences of Louisiana afterschool program. Artists who complete the training and residency will be invited to continue training and explore further career opportunities. Each teaching artist who completes TAI will receive a stipend of $200. Artists will receive an additional stipend of $300 after they complete their afterschool residency.