How can teaching artists organize power?

June 26, 2019 Natasha Huey

Handmade, pro-union buttons distributed at the event. Photo Credit: Jessalyn Aaland

On June 1, I attended Organizing Power: Unions + Art/Nonprofit Workers curated by Jessalyn Aaland. This exhibit and event was a part of YBCA’s Public Square, a full museum experience showcasing the YBCA Fellows’ year long projects through workshops, visual and performance art, dance, music, and more. Organizing Power, along with about half of the exhibits in the Public Square, engaged the central question, “how might we re-imagine political power?” According to Jessalyn, one approach to this question, and the aim of this particular event, was “to give art workers, and all workers, the tools they need to form unions…

San Francisco to become an Arts Equity School District?

June 24, 2019 Todd Berman

On Tuesday, June 25, the San Francisco Board of Education will be voting on the Resolution to Adopt the Declaration of the Rights of All Students to Equity and Access in Arts Learning put forward by Commissioners Alison Colins and Gabriela López.

Member Meeting and Spring Party Re-Cap

June 14, 2019 Natasha Huey

Learning the foundational steps of Salsa Rueda

Natasha Huey has written about our June 6 Member Meeting and Spring Party:

“And now with the music!”

In just a few short minutes, we graduated from stepping in place on beat to spinning and switching partners in a giant circle in Ryan’s Salsa Rueda class. The revisions, scaffolded challenges, and opportunity for joy, creativity, and collaboration were nothing new to the teaching artists in the room, even if Cuban Salsa was.

Working together for our teaching artists

February 7, 2019 Todd Berman

How can we make our arts education ecosystem more sustainable for our teaching artists and our organizations?

This is the question we were tackling at our February 1 arts education policy roundtable.

We all win with the Teaching Artist Guild Asset Map

November 29, 2018 Todd Berman

The Teaching Artists Guild has launched a great new tool for arts education, yada, yada, yada - now we’re in a brawl with New York City and we need you all to show up.

Congratulations to the Dream Catchers

March 28, 2018 Todd Berman

The Spark to Think Differently

Arts Ed Alliance member Camille Olivier-Salmon accepted the Community Arts Partner award on behalf of herself and Emily Keeler for their work with the SF Arts Education Project.

Inspired by Powerful Women

Marcus Shelby was awarded a Community Artist Partner Dreamcatcher for his meaningful jazz collaborations with SFUSD students, especially his work at Rooftop Alternative School.

The Best Art Campus in the World

After a joyful dance performance by her Access SFUSD students, Heidi Seretan accepted an award as Inclusive Arts Specialists.

San Francisco is the Campus

collaborative, mixed media on canvas
by students of ACCESSSFUSD: The ARC

Heidi Seretan's assertion that San Francisco is the best campus is further bolstered by this collaborative art by her students that was hanging in a downstairs gallery.

Keep Supporting the Arts!

As the supervisor of the Public Education Enrichment Fund, Kathy Fleming has diligently sought to measure which students are receiving arts education services, and so she was awarded the Administrator Dreamcatcher. You may remember her from our event in 2017 when she unveiled SFUSD arts education data.

Keep Building Student Creativity

Eve Cheung is this year's winner of the Elementary Principal Dreamcatcher for her many years of championing the arts at Junipera Sera Elementary School.

We Have a Contract with our Families

In accepting the Dreamcatcher for his work as principal at MLK Middle School, Michael Essien talked about the responsibility he feels to the parents and children at his school.

The Opportunity to Shine

David Greenbaum brought his instrument with him to accept his Credential Arts Teacher Award for teaching music to over a thousand students a year at various elementary schools.

The Way I Live

Damian Nuñez is the Secondary Arts Coordinator Dreamcatcher awardee.

Vision Vision Vision

Joseph Alter received the Credentialed Art Teacher Dreamcatcher Award for teaching digital arts with Hilltop High School.

I Just Love Art

Ingrid Brook-Kothlow can't help it, she just loves art. She shares her passion with her elementary school students and earned an Elementary Arts Coordinator Dreamcatcher award.

The Dreamcatcher awards are the Oscars of arts education in San Francisco. The Visual and Performing Arts Department of the San Francisco Unified School District is proud to recognize arts education leaders from various parts of the community, including arts teachers, school arts coordinators, principals, administrators and community arts partners.

They began presenting the awards in 2007, the same year that the Arts Education Master Plan was released. The 2018 awards were presented on March 15 at the community reception for the SFUSD Arts Festival in the glamorous grand hall of the Asian Art Museum.

Sketchnotes by Todd Berman, marker on paper.

From Ratchet to Revolution, Rasheed Shabazz

March 27, 2018 Todd Berman

Media is constantly reframing realty to denigrate African-American heroes. Rasheed Shabazz teaches his students to use social media and memes to take back the narrative. Watch this video of his presentation for all the funny memes, and to become aware of when the media becomes dehumanizing.

Tutorials as Cultural Exchange, Merav Tzur

March 7, 2018 Todd Berman

Merav Tzur is an accomplished contemporary artist who works in a variety of media, including video. Her practice was transformed when she discovered amateur tutorial videos online - see below for her video about how to create the tree of knowledge. Watch the video of her presentation to find out why she finds the medium so meaningful for her media students at Ohlone college.

Artists as Activists, Gina Griffiths and Ann Ledo

March 6, 2018 Todd Berman

At San Francisco's Creative Arts Charter School, Ann Ledo-Lane and Gina Griffiths help their 1st and 8th grade students use their art to speak out, take action, and learn all the things. At the heart of their practice is collaboration.

Watch them present and be inspired to show off your own arts education practice at the 2018 Curriculum Slam.

Creating Narratives of Youth of Color, SoMapagmahal Photography Mentorship Program

February 26, 2018 Todd Berman

SoMapagmahal Photography teachers Erina C. Alejo and Dara Katrina brought their young artists, David, Dayzsha, and Julianna, on stage with them because the whole purpose of their program is to give youth of color the power to tell their own stories. Their goal is to reactivate brown joy, and they are clearly successful.

It's Personal, Jennifer Klecker

February 24, 2018 Todd Berman

Jennifer Klecker took a break from the classroom to go back to school. The revelations that transformed her own art practice inspired her to transform her approach to teaching. Watch this video of her 2017 Curriculum Slam to learn how helps her students at Independence High School in San Francisco find the spark that inspires them.

For Students, By Students: How to Build the High School Survival Kit, Sierra Reading

February 22, 2018 Todd Berman

As a fashion instructor for teenagers at Youth Art Exchange, Sierra Reading wants to make sure her students understand that they have the power to drive the fashion industry. She helped here students work together to design a backpack that would serve their needs.

Watch the video of her March 16, 2017 presentation as part of the "Student Voice. Community Power." Curriculum Slam. Apply by March 12 to present at the 2018 show.

Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Teaching Artists

February 21, 2018 Aimee Espiritu

On December 7, a group of arts educators and administrators met to discuss how to make our industry more sustainable for teaching artists and the organizations that employ them. We came up with many ideas for how to better recruit and retain teaching artists which our facilitator, Aimee Espiritu, has compiled here.

The Table With Walls, Carolina Zamora

February 14, 2018 Todd Berman

Video of a 2017 Creative Practice Exchange performance by Carolina Zamora.

Zamora describes how the sensory table in her pre-Kindergarten classroom enable her students to play and take risks, which sets the foundation for a lifetime of meaningful exploration and education.

Strut your arts educator stuff

February 1, 2018 Todd Berman

Apply to present. Submissions are due by 5 pm on March 19, 2018.

The Challenges of Partnerships :: an Arts Education Policy Roundtable recap

December 19, 2017 Todd Berman

Every two months, we hold a gathering of arts educators for an arts education policy roundtable. On December 1, 2017, we met underneath Peter Ilyin's 1938 oil paintings of San Francisco's waterfront in room 125 of the Veteran's Building to discuss what makes for successful partnerships with public schools.

This post was created with significant assistance from notes by Nicole Sumner of Artways Playways. Email sumnernicole@gmail.com to learn about her workshop, "Hard Wired to Play: A Course Exploring the Specturm of Play as if Your Leanring and Mental Health Depended on it."

Don't miss Honor Your pARTner :: an Arts Education Partnership Showcase on Thursday, February 15, 2018.

The new Pay Rate Calculator for Teaching Artists

November 20, 2017 Todd Berman

Our colleagues at the Teaching Artists Guild have launched a new tool for all arts educators. Today, they held a video chat to talk all about the new Teaching Artist Pay Rate Calculator; you can see notes and view the video below.

A first dive into our survey data

October 11, 2017 Todd Berman

At our October 6, 2017 Arts Education Policy Roundtable, we took a first look at data from our survey about teaching artist pay rates and employment structure. We decided to take on this survey project after our discussion at the April 2017 Policy Roundtable about how we can work together to address a local teaching artist shortage.

This post outlines our initial reactions, findings, and first steps. We will continue the conversation on October 25 in Oakland at That Teaching Artist Life…Taking Action to Support Teaching Artist Sustainability.

Working together on the Teaching Artist Shortage

April 7, 2017 Todd Berman

Who here has noticed a teaching artist shortage?

Everyone raises their hand.

We met for our bi-monthly Arts Education Policy Roundtable meeting on April 7. On our agenda: The teaching artist shortage and advocacy issues. The discussion about the teaching artist shortage had such momentum that we went ahead and spent most of the meeting discussing that. Some of the ideas raised are captured below in three sections:

Teaching Artist Shortage: sharing experiences,
Teaching Artist Shortage: ideas for solutions,
Advocacy

Arts Ed Data was Unveiled at AEABA Roundtable Meeting

April 3, 2017 Todd Berman

Kathy Fleming of the Public Education Enrichment Fund (PEEF) office chose our February 3 convening of Arts Education Policy Roundtable as the venue to unveil data from a study of what arts education was offered at elementary schools in San Francisco for the 2015-16 school year. The PEEF office has created a profile for each elementary school in the city.

For the data file, you'll need to use the "filter views" feature - look for the funnel-shaped icon.

You can look at the Report, Searchable Data File, and Instructions for the Searchable Data File. This data represents all arts programs funded through the Public Education Enrichment Fund, DCYF, and the Elementary Arts Program. Arts programs that are funded in other ways will be included in data for 2016-17 which will be released in October.

Not included in the data are arts programs that were provided by organizations or funded through other means. We will be working with Ms. Fleming to figure out how our members can best provide the data to fill in those gaps for this year and last year.

Data for middle and high schools can be found via the California Arts Education Data Project.

The SFUSD elementary school arts education data was presented to the San Francisco Board of Education on March 14, 2017 and the PEEF budget for 2017-18 was approved the following week.