(Out)Laws & Justice - 2007

Dana funding enabled (Out)Laws & Justice to offer 60 hours of Professional Training for theatre-teaching artists and classroom teachers. The training built upon the existing theatre, history and language arts curriculum in schools and was combined with a yearlong in-school residency.  The training workshops incorporated drama pedagogy based on recent neuroscience research findings on learning and emotional/social intelligence.  During the residency, teams comprised of the teaching theatre artist and classroom teacher guided eighth grade students to create dramas based on what they learn about the American frontier and what they know about life on the urban frontier.  Concurrent with the residency was continued training and evaluation of the program.

(Out)Laws & Justice - 2008

 (Out)Laws & Justice is a grade eight interdisciplinary curriculum integrating the multiple subjects of history/social studies, language arts and drama. The curriculum is framed in such a way that compels students to critically reflect on westward expansion, to discover the mythic hegemonies of the Wild West on contemporary culture, public policies and their individual lives. 

Funding from The Dana Foundation grant supports a multi-phased Professional Training Institute in Los Angeles and New York City, which will be followed by implementation of the OLJ/NYU curricula and drama strategies in public middle schools in both cities. The training will build upon what has been learned from the teacher artist training program funded by Dana in 2007.

The New York City training is to be conducted in partnership with New York University Steinhardt School’s Program of Educational Drama.  Faculty from the Program along with selected teaching artists in Los Angeles and New York will provide a colloquium of instruction for approximately twenty NYU Steinhardt students. Colloquium students will learn how to integrate language arts, social studies, and using the process of drama to help middle school students connect the ethical consequences of historic and current events. 

18th Street Arts Center - 2004

The Dana grant will continue support of the artist training component of SMARTS in the Schools, a three-year old collaboration among 18th Street Arts Center, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) and the Cultural Affairs Division of the City of Santa Monica. The ultimate goal of SMARTS is to provide young people with hands-on experience in the arts. 18th Street achieves this goal by training local professional artists in the California Core Curriculum Standards and the Visual and Performing Arts Standards, equipping them with the expertise necessary to work collaboratively with classroom teachers to provide integrated curriculum-based arts education in local public schools.

18th Street Arts Center - 2002

A+ Schools Program/ UNCG Excellence Foundation

The A+ Schools Program received funding to conduct comprehensive training for 44 teaching artists in two rural regions (11 counties) of North Carolina. The purpose of the training is to increase the capacity of Teaching Artists to conduct residency programs that integrate their art form with state-mandated curriculum in PK-12 public schools. The project will impact approximately 4,000 students and 340 teachers in 13 A+ Schools.

In each region, 22 teaching artists will be recruited in collaboration with local arts councils.  After attending a four-day training Institute, participants will work with facilitators to develop their own three-day integrated residency plan.  They then pilot that residency in a regional A+ school. While piloting their residency, TAs are paired with another Institute participant, each serving as process observer for the other.  A one-day follow-up meeting will be held in each region for participants to review and reflect upon their residencies.  The ultimate goal of the project is to build the capacity for the creation of a sustainable network of arts professionals and educators in rural areas of North Carolina.

Acadiana Arts Council

The Dana grant will enable The AAC to implement a pilot project providing professional development in the performing arts for artists and select personnel working in schools. The concept is a two-year, four-part project that includes a workshop designed to give teaching artists and arts specialists in schools experience teaching in dance, theatre, and music. It will also give participants and presenters an opportunity to identify and problem-solve issues related to teaching the performing arts in the largely rural schools. Part IV of the program will involve teaching artists in a series of professional development workshops led by Kennedy Center Partners in Education Master Artists. The goal is to have the participating artists, after completing the program, become mentors to other arts educators and continue the cycle of teaching and mentoring.

Acadiana Arts Council - 2009

With renewed funding, the AAC will offer the Performing Arts Learners project which provides professional development in the performing arts for artists and select personnel working in schools. The concept is a two-year, four-part project that begins with a moderated forum in the spring of 2009 designed to educate participants on the history of the pilot program and its goals and will encourage open registration for Part II. Part II will provide a six-hour workshop which will introduce participants to an intensive teaching/learning experience in using their body as their instrument in dance and theatre. It will also offer an opportunity to identify and problem solve issues related to teaching the performing arts in the largely rural schools of the region.

Part III will give the workshop participants involved in Part II the opportunity to apply for an intensive mentoring program. Project administrators and master artists will select a maximum of 8 workshop participants of diverse levels of experience and ability in the art forms of dance and theatre.

Part IV will involve all past and new participants in a series of professional development workshops led by presenters from the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Program

Actors' Fund of America

With Dana Foundation funding, the Actor's Fund will export its five year-old New York City teaching artist training course, the Actors' Work Program, to Los Angeles. While structurally the program will mirror its New York activities, it will be customized to the needs of the LA arts education community. Goals of the project include increasing opportunities for LA performing artists to become teaching artists, providing a new training and referral source for the LA arts in education community and establishing new organizational partnerships.

Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts - 2008

Dana renewed funding for the Teaching Artist Training Project for Alabama artists to work as teaching artists in the “Black Belt” of Alabama.  The goals of the project are to 1) provide basic arts education opportunities to students in Black Belt schools; 2) develop a cadre of trained local teaching artists who can effectively connect their art disciplines to the other content areas; and 3) provide teachers in Black Belt schools with professional development opportunities so they can effectively implement Course of Study arts standards in their classrooms.

Eight new teaching artists, along with the fifteen artists trained as a result of the 2007 Dana grant, will attend a series of workshops designed and taught by nationally recognized teaching artist trainers.  Local schools interested in hosting the trainees for residencies must send classroom teachers and administrators to one of the workshops to involve them in the training as well.  The veteran teaching artists will then spend four-week residencies in several schools and the new artists in two-week residencies. The veteran artists will mentor the new artists.  All trainees will receive follow-up training and evaluation of their residencies.

Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts - 2009

The Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts received a third Dana grant to train eight to ten Teaching Artists to teach in rural counties throughout Alabama. The project will be modeled after AIEA’s Dana-funded pilot project which trained artists in Alabama’s Black Belt, twelve of the nation’s poorest counties in a state that is also rated at the bottom in education funding. 

AIEA will recruit Alabama artists who have received recognition for their work and who desire to work in a rural school environment. Through a sequence of multi-day workshops led by arts integration experts, teaching artists will become familiar with the Alabama Course of Study: Arts Education, acquire skills necessary for effective teaching, analyze how teaching their art form can meet course of study requirements, and begin developing relationships with teachers and rural schools.

The goals of the project are: 1) Provide expanded arts education opportunities to students in rural schools with no arts specialist; 2) Expand a cadre of trained teaching artists who can connect their art disciplines to other content areas; and 3) Provide professional development opportunities to rural school teachers to help them implement Arts Course of Study standards in their classrooms.