Teaching Artists Organized (TAO)

 Welcome to Teaching Artists Organized (TAO)             

               a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives

Read about TAO. . .



What's Happening now....

DISCOUNT FOR TAO MEMBERS!

This Weekend: ARTS for EDUCATORS - Introduction to Arts Integration Across Subject Areas

MOCHA: Museum of Children's Art in Downtown Oakland

Friday Jan 27: 4:30-7:30 pm, Saturday Jan 28, 9:00-4:00 pm, Sunday Jan 29 9:00-4:00 pm

Facilitator Roxanne Padgett ~ Open to ALL disciplines 

Cost: $300 -- 10% discount offered to TAO members and MOCHA Educator Members

Inviigorate your teaching practice with the visual arts. Are you a teaching artist or seasoned art teacher looking for new ideas? Always wanted to teach art to children but weren’t sure how? This workshop is for your; we welcome arts specialists and classroom teachers, as well as parents, youth workers, afterschool staff, teaching artists and anyone who regularly interacts with children. We will review the fundamentals of visual art and provide an introduction to arts integration using engaging, hands-on visual art lessons to enhance student learning across subject areas. Those with little or no art experience are encouraged to attend, as are experienced art teachers.

Participants will develop techniques for teaching visual art lessons that enhance students’ creative thinking, communication and individual expression. Plus:

  • Learn methods for using art to enhance student learning, with a focus on building literacy skills
  • Gain an expanded toolbox of art projects for classrooms using accessible and inexpensive art materials
  • Begin developing documentation practices to show student learning through the visual arts
  • Explore reflection techniques for talking to students about their art and the artworks of others
  • Learn management techniques for handling art materials in a variety of settings
  • Become comfortable with and/or enhance your own artistic expression
  • All participants will receive reading materials and lesson plans.

Roxanne Padgett is a visual teaching artist and arts educator and is currently the Arts Education Manager at the Museum of Children’s Art. Roxanne is an arts integration specialist for a variety of Alameda county school partnerships that develop arts learning programs with the museum. She is currently working on a book to be published in the fall of 2012 and believes “Art is for Everyone”.

Classes held at MoCHA at 538 Ninth St. Suite 210, Oakland

To register with your credit card please call MoCHA at 510-465-8770 and state that you are a TAO member to receive your discount.. 

This course also qualifies as an elective in the AISP (Arts Integration Specialist Program). Total hours: 17

For information on AISP go to www.artiseducation.org

What's Happening Now

25 Jan 2012 11:55 AM • Sabrina Klein

                                                                                                                            

Teaching Artists Institute: March 24, 2012 

Race and diversity in the classroom and how Teaching Artists can lead the conversation

Confronting Racism in the Classroom:  The Unique Role of the Teaching Artist in Creating Culturally Responsive Learning Environments.  Facilitators: Lynn Johnson (Glitter and Razz), Sarah Crowell (Destiny Arts), Dave Maier (Berkeley Rep), Sabrina Klein (TAO). We all come to classrooms with history, culture and identity--and so do our students and teachers. Tapping diversity as a rich resource means we can create safe environments for making art and having conversations that make visible and honor each voice and each culture.  Explore your own story, find connections with others, develop curricular ideas that will celebrate uniqueness and foster recognition of similarities beyond race, culture, gender and personal differences.

Time and Place:  9:15 to 4:30 pm at the TAO Co-op Space at 5951 College Avenue, Oakland. Coffee, tea and juice available in the morning, light lunch snacks included.

Each day-long Teaching Artist Institute can be taken individually or in combination, with a discount for registration for multiple workshops.  

Register  NOW!

This professional development workshop is in response to Teaching Artist Hiring Organizations (TAHOs) asking for professional development to assist their artists in classroom management and culturally responsive teaching strategies.   TAO-member TAHOs are entitled to send one person from their staff or roster free to each workshop, and individual TAO members receive significant discounts. Discounts also available to TBA members.

                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                 

TAO Membership Drive  is on -- Join "The Faces of TAO" today (read below for special offers)

Who are Teaching Artists?
A unique hybrid professional, the Teaching Artist is both professional artist and qualifed educator.  Many of us blaze our own paths for professional development  We are creative, innovative practitioners who resist codification and classification, but embrace professional standards for ourselves and our partners--teachers, social workers, parents, administrators, youth workers, students from pre-K through graduate school.  

We integrate high quality art-making and learning through the arts with other core disciplines, and guide people of all ages and all backgrounds to reach for emotional, intellectual, psychological, physical and spiritual creativity. 

Right:  Teaching Artist Violet Juno with Spanish Teacher Julio Navarette. in San Jose's Dowtown College Prep, Spring 2009.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

NEW MEMBER BENEFITS! Your TAO membership card now gets you discounts as an educator at Blick Art Stores, East Bay Depot for CreativeReuse, East Bay Symphony (watch for deals after Oct 1!), Berkeley Rep (coming soon), The Container Store, The Crucible, Michael's art supply stores and more, including discounts on TAO's Teaching Artist Institute this fall. See below. 

Our membership drive continues! We broke our goal of over 100 members so we can promote our searchable database as THE place to find quality teaching artists in a range of disciplines. Our new goal is to reach 150 by the end of this school year!
 

The TAO database can become the source for organizations looking to hire teaching artists. Help us make this a reality. Just a few more names in our database, and we can promote it to schools as a resource for teaching artists, professional development in arts learning and partnerships with arts organizations.

Special Offers: Anyone who joins TAO during October can receive a free coupon good for $25 at one of four local restaurants (depending upon availability--Addis Ethiopian or Cocina Poblana in Oakland; Gilman Grill or Sushi Ko Bar and Grill in Berkeley; and now Infusion Lounge, Marrakech or Roots in SF).  We have a limited supply of coupons so get your membership in now! 

Current TAO members: Help us get your name out to future employers by encouraging your teaching artist friends to join TAO. Every friend who names you as a reference earns you 10% off your next year's membership.  

TAO members receive discounts to all TAO events and workshops, including our newly confirmed line-up of professional development for fall.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

This month's Spotlight:

CAC grant will implement the Teaching Artists Support Collaborative (TASC) of California


In concert with a heady list of teaching artist-based organizations from around the state, TAO has agreed to act as lead facilitator working in collaboration with the TASC Steering Committee members (listed below) to move a statewide network of organizations forward.  With a new $25,000 grant awarded at the CAC's public meeting November 17th, we will re-convene the Steering Committee to update and revise a draft Strategic Plan (now two years old) to align with the new calls to action from leaders in the field.   

TASC will aim to establish a statewide network of committed people and organizations (governmental, public benefit and commercial) to promote and work toward the recognition of teaching artists as equally valued partners with others in the work to improve the quality of life, education and communities throughout California.  See Spotlight for more info


Also Worth Noting....The Teaching Artist Research Project (TARP) 3-year report is available.  Drawing on surveys from over 3,500 artists and organizations and 200 in-depth interviews with leaders in the field, the report is the most complete picture of Teaching Artists and their critical role in bringing arts education back into schools, as well as in improving the quality of education.  Read   more.

And...

 President Obama issued a White House proclamation in October 2011 that recognizes the value of the arts and humanities. Within the proclamation, President Obama states:

"Millions of Americans earn a living in the arts and humanities, and the non-profit and for-profit arts industries are important parts of both our cultural heritage and our economy...We must recognize the contributions of the arts and humanities not only by supporting the artists of today, but also by giving opportunities to the creative thinkers of tomorrow. Educators across our country are opening young minds, fostering innovation, and developing imaginations through arts education."



Useful News and Alerts

16 Sep 2011 12:55 PM • Sabrina Klein
31 Jul 2011 4:57 PM • Belinda Taylor
25 Jul 2011 1:40 PM • Sabrina Klein

Jobs and Professional Development

25 Jan 2012 11:55 AM • Sabrina Klein
19 Jan 2012 3:50 PM • Sabrina Klein
07 Dec 2011 6:45 PM • Elana Lagerquist
  

            


 

        Why art matters. . .one story


 
 
@ Teaching Artists Organized (TAO)   Contact us:  510.493.7533    tao@teachingartistsorganized.org   
   Studio Space: 5951 College Ave (downstairs at College Ave Presbyterian Church), Oakland, 94618