Professional Artist School-based Training Program


Presented by Arts for All in partnership with The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, The Armory Center for the Arts, The Music Center, and Culver City Unified School District

Arts for All's Professional Artist School-based Training Program annually accepts 16 professional artists, 4 per discipline in music, dance, theater, and visual arts, to participate in a 3-part series of workshops culminating in the presentation of sequential lessons in Culver City Unified K-8 classrooms. Participants will receive a Professional Designation in Arts Education certificate and letter of recommendation upon the successful completion of this workshop.

The next round of the program will run from January 2009 - June 2009. The application will be available on this site in the fall of 2008.

Who Qualifies?
Participants from around Los Angeles County will be selected through a competitive application process that includes the attached brief essay questions.

Requirements:
• Prior experience teaching youth in the arts;
• A commitment to improving oneself as a teaching artist;
• An interest in the artistic process, critical thinking and school relationships;
• A desire to work in groups and to give and receive critical peer feedback;
• Availability to participate in all workshop activities throughout the course of 6 months.
• Registration fee of $150*.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE
PART I: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
Thursdays, 1 – 4 p.m.
In this 6 week (18 hours) workshop series, participants will receive in-depth training emphasizing the California Content Standards including Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) standards; acquire knowledge of child development issues; explore various teaching strategies and models; acquire classroom management techniques; integrate interdisciplinary models; and develop an understanding of different assessment methods.

PART II: OBSERVATION & PEER PRESENTATIONS
Thursdays, 1 – 4 p.m.
During this 9 week series (25.5 hours), four classrooms in the Culver City Unified School District will function as a laboratory. Each classroom will receive six sequential lessons from a Music Center master teaching artist who will be matched by arts discipline with workshop participants. Participants will join in the classroom teacher/professional artists planning meeting, observe the master teaching artist's sequential lessons, debrief with them after each class, and develop a series of their own lesson plans. Participants will have two days of peer presentations to rehearse their lessons and receive feedback from their mentors and peers, in preparation for Part 3: Practical Application, plus participate in a teacher planning meeting.

PART III: PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Thursdays, 1 – 4 p.m.
This 6 week series (14.5 hours), which is the ultimate goal of the program, provides qualified participants with an opportunity to teach sequential lessons in a classroom with their mentor teaching artist observing and providing feedback on their teaching performance.

CLOSING CLASS – Sharing and evaluation
Thursday, 1 – 4:30 p.m.
This final session brings together the course participants, mentor artists, and classroom elementary and middle school teachers to share their experiences including the significance of and challenges faced as part of this training program. Future opportunities for training, employment, and inclusion on www.LAArtsEd.org will also be presented to participants.

INSTRUCTORS
PART I is coordinated and taught by Lorraine Cleary Dale, Director of Professional Development at the Armory Center for the Arts. Since her position was created in 1996, Lorraine has trained artists, students, and pre- and in-service classroom teachers. She is an accomplished educator, national presenter, exhibiting artist, and arts education consultant. Presently Lorraine is serving as a member of the Instructional Materials Advisory Panel evaluating Primary VAPA instructional materials for adoption by the CA Department of Education.

PART II is coordinated by the Music Center's Director of Curriculum and Teaching Artist Training, Susan Cambigue-Tracey, who selected the four highly experienced Master Teaching Artists from the Music Center's roster to serve as mentors. Susan has been a nationally recognized dance educator as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Artist-in Schools Dance Program, performer, dance writer, and arts education consultant for 44 years. During this time she has also served as a teaching artist for The California Arts Project (TCAP) Open and Leadership Institutes, and a dance education consultant/writer/workshop leader for the Galef Institute.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This training program is a key strategy in Arts for All: Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education, which is designed to increase sequential K-12 instruction in dance, music, theatre and the visual arts throughout the districts in the County. To learn more about Arts for All or the online Resource Directory, please visit www.lacountyarts.org.

* Registration fee is $150.00 (includes refreshments and resource notebook). Primary Funding provided by The Dana Foundation. This program would normally cost $3,750 per person.

Additional funding provided by the Arts for All Pooled Fund. Current Pooled Fund members include:
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, Boeing, The Getty Foundation, Angell Foundation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and Target. Previous funders included The James Irvine Foundation, the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation, Creative Artist Agency, and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. The Dana Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts and the Herb Alpert Foundation each support specific Arts for All initiatives.