Teaching Artists (TAs), also known as artist educators, community artists, cultural bearers, participatory artists, activists, citizen artists, innovators, cultivators, imagineers, master artists, and more, are professional artists with deep roots in an established arts-making practice and specialized training in teaching and facilitating school and community groups of all ages. Both of these capacities enable a TA to create high-quality arts learning and making experiences that make the world better.[1]
Often working beyond the arts sector within the fields of Education, Healthcare, Creative Youth Development, Creative Aging, and Creative Justice, to name a few, this creative workforce design and facilitate arts-learning and arts-making experiences, collaborating directly with participants of all ages, in educational and community settings, such as in schools, after school programs, libraries, retirement homes, prisons, healthcare facilities, social service agencies, governments, corporations, and all community entities. The Arts In Education movement benefited from the work of teaching artists in schools.[2]
Teaching artistry is an art form in and of itself. Specialized training, skills, expertise, and experience in teaching artistry leads to mastery.
In August 2024, Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic recommended to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics to include “Teaching Artists” as a distinct occupation within the 27-0000 major group, Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations in the U.S. Standard Occupational Classification System (SOC code).[3]
The challenges from this lack of recognition became more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, TAs were among the first to be fired, furloughed, or have contracts terminated, with little recourse, as they typically work without labor union backing. Historically, TAs work in part-time or independent-contractor roles with compensation based on hourly rates or service duration, which undervalues their commitment to creating high-quality programming. Moreover, TAs lack traditional benefits, including healthcare, pensions, sick leave, and job security, placing them in a vulnerable position, despite their immense contributions to communities. In April 2020, a team comprising 16 U.S. national arts leaders and five arts organizations convened to address the critical moment TAs faced. That summer, they published a white paper calling on the arts and culture sector, the philanthropic community, policymakers, schools, libraries, retirement homes, detention centers, and all community entities to prioritize and value TAs. [4]
Arts learning consultant Eric Booth has defined a teaching artist as "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. [5] This term applies to professional artists in all artistic fields.[6] ” Arts integration is a teaching methodology commonly facilitated by teaching artists where students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form.[7]
Teaching artists have worked in schools and in communities for many decades.[8][9][10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Home". Teaching Artists of the Mid Atlantic. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ^ History of Teaching Artists Archived 2012-12-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "SOC Code". Teaching Artists of the Mid Atlantic. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ^ "Immediate and Structural Action Needed". Teaching Artists of the Mid Atlantic. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
- ^ Booth Article
- ^ Teaching Artist described Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/collections/arts-integration-resources/what-is-arts-integration/
- ^ Phillip Lopate, Journal of a Living Experiment, a documentary history of Teachers & Writers Collaborative and the writers-in-the-schools movement. New York: Virgil Press, 1979.
- ^ Jane Remer, A Brief History of Artists in K-12 American Schooling, Teaching Artists Journal, Volume I, Number 2, 2003.
- ^ Wakeford, Michael (2004). Rabkin, Nick; Redmond, Robin (eds.). Putting the arts in the picture: reframing education in the 21st century. Chicago: Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago. ISBN 9780929911113. LCCN 2004111847.
Further reading
[edit]- Gielen, Pascal and De Bruyne Paul, (2011), Teaching Art in the Neoliberal Realm. Realism versus Cynicism. Valiz: Amsterdam. ISBN 978-90-78088-57-8
- Rabkin, Nick; Reynolds, Michael; Hedberg, Eric; Shelby, Justin (September 2011). "Teaching Artists and the Future of Education" (PDF). National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. Retrieved June 7, 2016.