Kadenze has been a strong supporter of teaching artists – those people who straddle the worlds of education and the arts. The number of teaching artists has grown exponentially over the past decade and their impact can be found on every continent of the planet. One force driving this growth has been The International Teaching Artists Collaborative (ITAC), a global network of Teaching Artists. Every 2 years Teaching Artists (known by different titles such as community artist, participatory artist, socially engaged artist etc.) gather for international networking, professional development, accessing next, best, and radical practices, partnership building, knowledge exchanges and more.
And that time has come once again, this time teaching artists are heading to Auckland, New Zealand for ITAC 7! As always ITAC 7 promises to be an exciting event. Organisers describe it as: “an ode to unhurried exploration, to the patient unravelling of ideas, to thoughtful reflection and to the profound wisdom that can emerge when we allow ourselves to linger – so sit and savour every moment of the creative process.” Given the pace at which teaching artists work these days this is an approach to relish.
Kadenze has been a global leader in providing online professional development for teaching artists everywhere; including a rich collaboration with ITAC to design and deliver Teaching Artistry for Social Impact. This program ensures participants develop their skills to produce social impact through their creative practice, illustrating how teaching artist bring vision, intention, and aesthetic practice to their socially engaged work. Exemplars come from around the world and illustrate the design and efficacy of that practice in different cultural settings.
The course can be taken as a standalone learning experience or can be enhanced by engaging with the four case studies of teaching artists’ responses to the climate emergency in 2021 in the ITAC IMPACT: Climate Case Studies.
Teaching Artistry for Social Impact, is for artists with some experience and an understanding of teaching artistry, and was followed by Kadenze’s very successful earlier program called The Basics of Teaching Artistry, an entry-level program for those wishing to develop their practice as teaching artists. Brad Haseman from the Kadenze Academy introduces the basic principles of being a teaching artist in the first course called Introduction to Being a Teaching Artist (and rated 4.5/5 on Class Central). Next, three leading international arts organisations have collaborated to design and deliver the three remaining courses in the program. The longstanding and expert team of teaching artists and staff at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, considered by many to be the birthplace of teaching artistry, details the skills that effective teaching artists need; followed by Queensland Performing Arts Centre (Brisbane, Australia) which identifies the central issues for teaching artists about to engage and co-create with their audiences and communities. The final course, from the Sydney Opera House, (Sydney Australia) addresses ‘place’ as an enabling driver to develop teaching artist approaches for creativity and learning.
The four courses are sequenced in a structured way and can be found here:
Introduction to Being a Teaching Artist
Teaching Artists, Audiences and Communities
The Places of Teaching Artistry
Earlier this year Kadenze also launched a program to help prepare teaching artists wanting to partner with schools and other educational organisations. Called Your Joyful 21st century Learning Framework, this is an entirely contemporary take on the pressures facing educational institutions in the aftermath of the shambles that was COVID. Globally, Education is experiencing massive upheaval (the OECD estimates 20 million teachers will walk away in the next 5 years), creating bountiful opportunities for teaching artists. One key move going forward is to ensure learning design embraces a pedagogy of creativity. It needs to capture each learners’ creative capacities, ignite curiosity, encourage imaginative experimentation and good humour, and value embodied intelligences. Only then will student motivation be reinvigorated, student progress flourish and joy, wonder and adventure be returned to learning.
Kadenze wishes all teaching artists heading to Auckland this week a safe journey, and for those who cannot make it there physically, may we see you online instead?
Brad Haseman