From the Executive Director

FROM ATA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DALE DAVIS

Members:

ATA will be convening the first national Teaching Artists' Congress in New York City on April 16. Save the date! Eric Booth, Richard Kessler, and Nick Rabkin will be joining us. More will be forthcoming soon. For information: ddavis@teachingartists.com.

Thank you to those of you who so generously contributed to ATA's year end campaign. Your donations make a difference!

If you blog about your work as a Teaching Artist, please let me know so we can include your blog on http://www.teachingartists.com/. Thank you to Teaching Artists organized http://www.teachingartistsorganized.org/ for mentioning ATA's Teaching Artists' blogs in your last newsletter.

If there is a Youtube video of you working as a Teaching Artist, please let me know so we can include it on ATA's website.

ATA will be presenting "Creating a Positive Work Environment and Community with Teaching Artists" at The New York City Arts In Education Roundtable's Face To Face on February 24. We hope to see many of you at Face to Face.   

Happy 2011!

Dale

A Message From Dale Davis

July 21st, 2010


A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR


Members of the ATA Listserv,

ATA thanks Board Chair Glenn McClure for his years of service on the Board. Thank you Glenn for your commitment and all the expertise you brought to the ATA Board.

And ATA thanks Georgia Popoff for the dedication she brought to ATA. Georgia's experience and insight as a Teaching Artists and her advocacy for those in the profession are unparalleled.

ATA thanks you Glenn and Georgia!

This is the beginning of ATA's twelfth year and more than ever your financial contributions are important to us. We need your help.http://www.teachingartists.com/membershippay.htm

And here we are in midsummer!

Dale Davis
Executive Director
The Association of Teaching Artists

Useful Things

From ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis:

There are some new resources on the ATA Homepage.

Thanks to ATA Board Member Russell Granet, The Dana Foundation's and VSA arts of Texas' webposium for teaching artists, moderated by Russell Granet, conducted at City Hall in Austin, Texas on Friday, January 29, 2010 is now available on the ATA Homepage. The webposium is a not to be missed opportunity for Teaching Artists to view an online discussion about the challenges and successes of working with students with disabilities.

In response to the many, many inquiries in regard to conferences of interest for Teaching Artists, the ATA Homepage will list Conferences of Interest to Teaching Artists. Your input is needed to build this important resource. Have you attended a conference in the past that was extremely helpful to your work as a Teaching Artist, please let me know ddavis@teachingartists.com and we can post this year's conference.

Also please let me know: (1) What do you look for in a conference; (2) What do you like to come away with from a conference; (3) How far are you willing to travel to attend a conference.

Thank you! With resources so tight right now, shared information on conferences is important!

And lastly, the results from the Teaching Artists and Their Work Survey will be posted on  the ATA Homepage in May.

Dale

Dale Davis

Executive Director

The Association of Teaching Artists

Remembering Barnetta Carter

Remembering Barnetta Carter

ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis informs us that her dear friend, Barnetta Carter, a former ATA Board Member, died on Thursday. 

A tribute from Eric Booth:

"When I met Barnetta, she was feisty, insistent and fierce on behalf of young people and their creative identity. As I worked with her for a couple of years, I had to bring her into working with some approaches she initially resisted, with appropriate and empassioned caution. Over time, she found her own way to working with "assessment and evaluation instruments"--as boring as that sounds--because she discovered how it helped young people learn and take ownership of their creativity. She learned more about this work, and faster, than any teaching artist I ever worked with. She was one of the most naturally gifted teaching artists I ever met, and her heart was as big as Montana. If teaching artistry is an art form, as I think it is, she was a master. It was a delight to know her, and be slapped into shape by her, and see the beautiful work that she midwifed forth from so many grateful learners."

To record your thoughts about Barnetta, go to http://www.barnettacarter.net/

Thank You, Gary Dayton

A Message From ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis:

Now that you have retired from The New York State Council on The Arts, how do we say thank you to you, Gary Dayton, for all you have done for artists in education and for The Association of Teaching Artists.

Thank you Gary!

Thank you for bringing us together in Poughkeepsie, in 1998, where the seed for an organization for artists who worked in education was planted. Thank you for nurturing that group of artists as we met again, developing a mission statement, goals, and the name of the new organization: The Association of Teaching Artists.

Thank you for your personal belief in artists and what we have to contribute to education. Thank you for your guidance.

Thank you for all of your work on ATA's behalf!

Dale

Dale Davis
Executive Director
The Association of Teaching Artists

Support Group

Sometimes, a teaching artist needs a break, and today is that day. Before it's all over, please consider making a donation to the Association of Teaching Artists.

If you have utilized ATA's treasure trove of resources, including the ATA Listserv and Facebook Page, then making a donation is a spectacular way to help make sure those sites are still around next year.

Your gift celebrates ATA's vital role as a support system for teaching artists just like you. Give an amount that is meaningful and significant for your circumstances. Every dollar helps Executive Director Dale Davis, Glenn McClure and the entire Board of Directors of ATA continue to advocate on behalf of teaching artists everywhere.

Contributions to ATA are tax-deductible, and may be made here.

Thank you.

Memo: Until the new year, postings will occur with less regularity, because all work and no. Thanks for reading ATA Blog!

Our text for the day is from The Pillow book of Sei Shōnagon, translated by Ivan, I. Morris:

Snow

It is delightful when there has been a thin fall of snow; or again when it has piled up very high and in the evening we sit round a brazier at the edge of the veranda with a few congenial friends, chatting till darkness falls. There is no need for the lamp, since the snow itself reflects a clear light. Raking the ashes in the brazier with a pair of fire-tongs, we discuss all sorts of moving and amusing things.

A Holiday Message From ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis

A Holiday Message From ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis

On Friday, November 20 the National Endowment for the Arts presented a live webcast on http://www.arts.gov of a forum about America's artists and other cultural workers who are part of this country's real economy. Academics, foundation professionals, and service organization representatives came together to discuss improving the collection and reporting of statistics about arts and cultural workers, and to develop future research agendas and approaches. The agenda http://arts.endow.gov/news/news09/cultural-workforce-forum.html

The Archive will be available on arts.gov this week.

Today Ian D. Moss blogged on Fractured Atlas on the NEA Cultural Workforce Forum:

"The format was more academic research conference than industry gathering; each of the three “panels” actually consisted of a 10-minute presentation from each participant followed by a Q&A period at the end. The primary discussion took place among the invited researchers and several other guests granted spaces at a very large U-shaped table setup, but Sunil Iyengar, who ran the show for the NEA,made sure to solicit regular questions from the 30-40 onlookers aswell. The panelists hailed from a mix of academic institutions and nonprofit organizations of various types, though curiously only one, Ann Markusen, was from west of the Mississippi (and she made it byless than a mile)."

He highlighted some facts, including:

"We also had Nick Rabkin talking about his research on teaching artists. Quoting Eric Booth, he said that teaching artists are “experts in the verbs of art” - the process, rather than the product.

His survey showed that:

50% of teaching artists had a master’s degree or higher, and a majority worked for nonprofit arts organizations. Half of respondents had over a decade of experience. The median compensation was $35/hr, but the number of paid hours was not that high.

Median total personal income was $36,200, while the median income from teaching was just $17,850. 20% had no health benefits. On the other hand, they love teaching and see it as a calling."

When we take a close look at all the above, what is the message Teaching Artists are receiving? I would love to hear from you on this?

ATA's survey Teaching Artists and Their Work http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=F_2bJJwetasGgrnMZUcqQ99g_3d_3d clearly demonstrates Teaching Artists know what is necessary for the work of Teaching Artists to become sustainable. If you have not taken the survey, please do.

How many roads must Teaching Artists walk down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvkhzkS4bw

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dale Davis
Executive Director
The Association of Teaching Artists

ddavis@teachingartists.com

A Message From Dale Davis

A Message From Dale Davis, ATA Executive Director

As part of the Arts and Humanities Month and October as Arts Education Month, ATA asked you to help us celebrate the importance of arts and cultural organizations to the work of Teaching Artists. Thanks to the many, many e-mails and the responses contained in ATA's Teaching Artists and Their Work Survey, ATA has compiled a list of New York State and national arts and cultural organizations who you have let us know put the Teaching Artist first,understand the role of the Teaching Artist in education; honor Teaching Artists' contributions to education and the skills they bring to the classroom; offer competitive wages; are always looking for new opportunities for work for Teaching Artists; provide professional development opportunities. The list includes organizations from around the country, from Alaska to Connecticut, from Hawaii to Georgia, from California to New York!

Please help us spread the word and celebrate and thank those organizations paramount to the work of Teaching Artists http://www.teachingartists.com/TArtistsCelebrateArts.htm

ATA is committed to making Teaching Artists visible and educating schools and communities on their contributions. One way we do this is publishing writing on Teaching Artists' and their work on the website.

There are two new reflections on the website. Kristin Rapp of Rochester, New York reflects on founding ArtPeace five years ago and what it takes to establish, fund, market and maintain a small not-for- profit organization. This month Kristin, with ArtPeace, produced Nilaja Sun's "No Child" featuring Rochester poet, performance artist, and Teaching Artist Reenah Golden for a week's run at Geva Theater Center in Rochester. There is also essay by New York City Arts In
Education veteran Andrew Salgado, "Rediscovering Ourselves in Tumultuous Times." http://www.teachingartists.com/reflections.htm

If you would like to write a reflection for publication on http://www.teachingartists.com/ please contact me ddavis@teachingartists.com

Responses to ATA's Teaching Artists and Their Work survey continue to come in. If you have not completed it, please do and please let everyone know about it! The responses are powerful.

ATA, like all non-profit arts organizations, has felt the results of declining public funding in the current economic climate. Thank you to those who have contributed this fiscal year (July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010), and we ask Teaching Artists, arts and cultural organizations and Arts In Education consultants who work with Teaching Artists to donate to ATA to help us with our mission to advocate, strengthen, and serve Teaching Artists from all disciplines in New York State and beyond. ATA needs your help as we look ahead.

Make a contribution.

Thank you,

Dale

Dale Davis
Executive Director

Who Knows?

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Perhaps their best known, and least loved program, is the SAT--but they do much more. For example, they have an annual conference for professional educators that focuses on something important. This year, the conference is about "Education and the American Future."

As part of a session on ways to motivate students to stay in school, Dale Davis, ATA Executive Director, read a few stunning poems written by young men who were not actually adults when they were "tried and convicted as adults."

As educators, we need to find more effective strategies for keeping young people engaged, and in school. Perhaps, as the New York State Literacy Center has already done, we should ask a few of the thousands of children in our prisons what they think about the schools, institutions and adults that failed them?

Imagine the answers we'd get.

Also: A Quick History of the Young Lords - Documentary

A Message from Dale Davis

From ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis:

Our numbers on the listserv continue to grow!

(There are also 524 ATA members on Facebook.)

The Survey

Thank you to Fractured Atlas, Teaching Artists Organized (Bay Area California), Chicago Teaching Artists Collective, and Young Audiences of Western New York for helping ATA spread the word about our national Teaching Artists and Their Work Survey accessed at www.teachingartists.com.


If you have not completed the survey yet, please! We, also, continue to need your help with distribution of the survey. We would like to see it distributed nationally to reach as many Teaching Artists as possible. ATA's focus in this survey is Teaching Artists' experiential knowledge. We ask you to share your knowledge, your stories, and what your experience as a Teaching Artist has taught you. Thank you.

National Arts and Humanities Month

October is National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM), a coast-to- coast collective celebration of culture in America. It is held every October and coordinated by Americans for the Arts. It is the largest annual celebration of the arts and humanities in the nation. From arts center open houses to mayoral proclamations to banners and media coverage, communities across the United States join together to recognize the importance of arts and culture in our daily lives. New York State Senator José M. Serrano recently introduced a resolution in the New York State Senate designating October as Arts Education Month.

And as part of the Arts and Humanities Month and October as Arts Education Month, ATA is celebrating those New York State and national arts and culture organizations who provide Teaching Artists with good incomes from steady work, who always put the Teaching Artist first, who honor Teaching Artists' schedules and skills, who offer competitive wages, who are always looking for new opportunities for work for Teaching Artists, and who provide professional development. ATA is asking Teaching Artists to help us celebrate the importance of arts and cultural organizations in our lives!

We will be posting the arts and cultural organizations you want to celebrate on www.teachingartists.com during October!

Please e-mail me ddavis@teachingartists.com the arts and cultural organization you want to celebrate. Please include the name of the organization, location, a bit about the organization, your reasons, the url, and a photo of the Executive Director or an organizational photo you would like to have included.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey, help us get the survey out, and recognize the wonderful organizations who make the world a better place for Teaching Artists!

Dale

Dale Davis
Executive Director
The Association of Teaching Artists

www.teachingartists.com

All Yours

On the ATA Listserv, a celebratory post from ATA Executive Director Dale Davis:

Members of The Association of Teaching Artists Listserv,

We now number over 1,000, a record to bring together Teaching Artists in one forum! The listserv began in 2002 with twenty-five subscribers, and here we are in 2009, ATA's twelfth year. ATA began in New York State as the vision of a group of Teaching Artists who came together at the request of the Art In Education Program of The New York State Council on The Arts to consider the need and feasibility of forming an organization of Teaching Artists. And here we are in 2009 with membership in our listserv reaching Teaching Artists across the country and extending to Italy, Pakistan, Korea, and England.

On June 19, 2009 The Dana Foundation (www.dana.org) hosted a webposium on the Teaching Artist profession at the Seattle Art Museum. The webposium, "Artists in Classrooms: What is the role of the Teaching Artist?" can now be viewed in its entirely onhttp://www.teachingartists.com/

The webposium attracted 600 participants, another record to bring Arts In Education professional together to discuss essential questions on the Teaching Artist profession! ATA would very much like to hear from you on the webposium. After you have viewed it, please e-mail your responses to me at ddavis@teachingartists.com

Let us keep the dialogue going!

ATA is committed to its mission to advocate, strengthen, and serve

Teaching Artists from all disciplines in New York State and beyond.

The Association of Teaching Artists serves:

• To create a community of professional Teaching Artists;

• To empower the practice of Teaching Artists as a profession;

• To provide a network for communication and the exchange of resources;

• To collaborate with New York State and national Arts In Education

organizations and agencies;

• To collaborate on quality professional development and training;

• To publically recognize and celebrate distinguished achievement in

the field of Art In Education.

Michele Kotler and Alice Johns-Seeger now leave the ATA Board after serving with distinction for many years. ATA thanks them for their service, and we will miss their guidance and hands-on help. ATA Board

Chair, Glenn McClure, will soon be announcing ATA's new Board Members.

ATA Board Members Glenn McClure and Russell Granet will both be at Empire State Partnerships Summer Seminar at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, June 19 - 23. If you will be attending, please engage them with your thoughts and ideas on ATA's mission! ATA always welcomes the opportunity to speak with Teaching Artists!

ATA has a small budget. We did receive funding from The New York State Council on the Arts this year, and we are most grateful. However, like all arts organizations, we, too, feel the effects of reduced funding.

Your support, in any amount, is important to us as we plan this year and plan towards a Teaching Artists conference next year. We appreciate your help, as Teaching Artists we are working togetherhttp://www.teachingartists.com/

Please let me hear from you with your suggestions and ideas!

Thank you,

Dale

Dale Davis

Executive Director

The Association of Teaching Artists

www.teachingartists.com

Hurrah for Dale Davis and all the members of ATA!

I know that life is not a competition, still, I think Professional Teaching Artists are winners!

The News

Dale Davis, ATA Executive Director, has been posting many good and useful things on the ATA Yahoo listserv.

Have you been keeping up?

Join here.

Opportunity In Crisis!

As usual, we have to move fast.

From DALE DAVIS, ATA Executive Director:

The Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the legislative vehicle which will carry the stimulus package money into our schools. Unfortunately, ESEA, the precursor to No Child Left Behind, lacks specific language to guarantee that Arts Education will get its fair share. According to Bill Cleveland, one strategic move is to push for new language to be inserted into ESEA in order to ensure that Arts Education and Teaching Artists will not be left out in the cold.

Bill Cleveland's strategic recommendations, which are outlined below, benefit Teaching Artists. They benefit the education of all children in this country. We need to spread the word and become advocates for ourselves. We can't afford lobbyists and we do not, as of yet, have a national body to represent Teaching Artists specifically, so we must take up the ball.

FROM BILL CLEVELAND:

Strategies for including Arts in Education specific language into the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA)

In the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) that was amended to become No Child Left Behind and is the prime vehicle in the Recovery Bill for Education spending, I found a section that deals specifically with Art Education. It is Title V Part D Subpart 15 section 5551 of ESEA (see below). If we can convince a Representative or Senator to drop $300 million into the Recovery bill referencing this part of ESEA it would open the door to ARTISTS WORKING IN SCHOOLS!

To my mind the tack should be that the arts are a proven strategy for the retention and academic advancement for high risk students. There is an existing highly professional experienced community of artist-educators across the country who are shovel-ready to go in and make a difference in even the most difficult school environments. All that would be needed in terms of legislation is a short paragraph inserted in the Department of Education section of the Bill. Something along the lines of:

Inserting language on page l58 line 13

"Provided further, That $300,000,000 shall be for Arts in Education Programs under section 5551 of Subpart 15 of Title V of ESEA. This funding shall remain available through September 30, 2010."

WHAT CAN WE AS TEACHING ARTISTS DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Contact your Congressional representative and ask for his / her support for the recommendations for language to be inserted into the Elementary and Secondary Education Acto of 1965 (ESEA.)

Contact Representative Louise McIntosh Slaughter, Co-Chair of the Congressional Arts Caucus

Contact Arts Caucus Members of the 110th Congress.

Write an e-mail or letter to your senators.

Make a phone call to Capitol Hill!


Thanks to Nick Rabkin, Michael Nolan, Bill Cleveland, Arlene Goldbard, and Linda Frye Burnham for alerting us and keeping us informed ! Now we, the 15,000 to 20,000 Teaching Artists in this country (Eric Booth,"The Emergence of The Teaching Artist, Art Times, May 2003) and those who support our work have an opportunity to have our voices heard!

Yes we can!

Dale Davis
Executive Director
The Association of Teaching Artists
ddavis@teachingartists.com
www.teachingartists.com

IMPORTANT LINKS

(1) National Campaign to Hire Artists to Work In Schools
Community Arts Network, December 11, 2008

National Campaign to Hire Artists to Work in Schools
212 Elsie Street
San Franciso, California
Email:mikeydavis@gmail.com

(2) National Campaign to Hire Hire Artists to Work in Schools on Facebook

(3) Americans for The Arts Policy Brief to Obama's Transition Team

(4) San Francisco Arts Commission Inside/Out Blog
Campaign to Hire Artists In Schools, Nick Rabkin

(5) The Reading Room, Community Arts Network
The New, New Deal Part 2 - A New WPA for Artists: How and Why,Arlene Goldbard