Re-Defining the Teaching Artist: the Marriage of Pedagogy and Artistry
October 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
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By Sobha Kavanakudiyil
What does it mean to be a practicing artist?
I started as a teaching artist in the spring of 2001. I didn’t even know what a Teaching Artist really was. I was sometimes referred to as a Workshop Leader, a Visiting Artist, an Artist Educator or a Teaching Artist and I often wondered – what did all these things mean? Was it just semantics?
Are there really necessary skills to support the work that I do? Is it really a practice?
I was in grad school and still learning.
Often I have prospective graduate students come to the City College Educational Theatre program, not really knowing what a Teaching Artist is. I speak to emerging practitioners in the field who have no idea how to develop a career, artists who did not seem to reach their desired level of success in their artistry and think that being a Teaching Artist will buy them some time until the big break. How hard could it be? My need for a definition emerged. Read more…
Sobha Kavanakudiyil is Faculty in the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at The City College of New as well as an Arts Education Consultant. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and a Co-Chair for their Teaching Artist Affairs Committee.
First Online With Fran Episode 2: Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School Students Speak Out
June 12, 2013 by 54 Comments
On April 5, 2013 First Online With Fran asked a group of students from Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School to respond to this statement, “The Arts are extra-curricular and disposable.”
Here’s what they had to say…
“You can’t take away something from someone that goes to bed every night and smile about. . . It helps you find who you are as a person and where you belong in this world.” ~Justin Figueroa
This is a critical moment for the future of education in New York City.
There’s change everywhere in education, and it’s never been a hotter political topic. Major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland have seen civic leaders join with parents, students, cultural organizations and businesses to expand access to arts education. New York City needs to be on that list.
The NYC Roundtable, together with more than 40 other cultural and educational agencies, invited the declared mayoral candidates to weigh in on what a quality education, including the arts, will look like if they are elected. Their responses are now up for all to see: View the responses now.
To become part of the solution sign a petition right now to show your support for arts and creative learning in New York’s educational future.
Visit CAE’s Arts Education Action Center! Here you’ll find tools, tips, and information to help ensure that all of New York City’s more than one million public school students are receiving an arts education.
First Online with Fran 
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