On Saturday, April 26, Megan Morrison, CWP Program Director, and Patti Chilsen, Assistant Program Director, held a workshop at the NYU Forum on the Teaching Artist. Craft to Classroom Workshop used poetry and theatre to explore three questions:
How can Teaching Artists employ their history as artists?
How do Teaching Artists transform skills and passions into effective educational tools?
How do Teaching Artists negotiate a commitment to both process and product?
Workshop participants were guided through an interactive process for exploring their artistic history. They explored their ‘creative elements’ by identifying their personal skills and passions. They used these materials to build collaborative poetry and performance that reflected the community voice.
The workshop focused on the process of the artist and the process of the educator side by side. One participant commented, “Love the process building up to product!”
There was a strong focus on discovery; finding the educational components present in our creative lives. A new Teaching Artist stated, “I am so intrigued by this way of learning and teaching discovery for yourself rather than being talked at!”
How do we make the power of discovery that is found in art equally alive in our classrooms?
