Teaching Artist Project

Teaching Artist Project (TAP) is a comprehensive training and internship program for working artists who desire to incorporate social justice and social emotional learning into their teaching practice. This program, appropriately called our Signature Program, is committed to the professional development of teaching artists through a social justice methodology that translates creative process into educational practice.

TAP core workshops are in-person for our 2025-26 cycle. Our 8 month Signature Program runs from October 2025 to May 2026 including internships and externships, which will be in-schools and in arts administrative offices.  Some of our community building and art sharing events will remain virtual and scheduled in advance.

Each session centers our creative process and identity through experiential workshops that includes, but is not limited to,  process based facilitation, power & privilege, teaching artist sustainability & entrepreneurship, and internships focused on applicable classroom skills, building a portfolio of work, administrative skills and experience.

Through the 8-month long Teaching Artist Project training, participants will:

• Expand teaching through experiential, inquiry and reflection processes

• Investigate social justice education, pedagogies and philosophies

• Explore creative processes and critical thinking

• Implement strategies for classroom management 

• Acquire and utilize teaching methods for multiple learning types and levels

• Create collaborative arts lessons

• Build community with artists, teachers and organizations across New York City

• And much more!

Our program will run from October 2025 to May 2026. The majority of TAP weekend workshops, and all internships, will be held in person in New York City. You must either live in NYC, or make arrangements to be in person regularly throughout the duration of the program.

TAP supports Community-Word Project’s global mission to facilitate culturally responsive, multidisciplinary art programs for students, teaching artists, and communities to develop and amplify their voices and creative skills. Formerly known as the Teaching Artist Training andInternship Program (TATIP), Teaching Artist Project was the first of its kind and remains today the only comprehensive training program for working Teaching Artists.Teaching Artist Project alums have gone on to serve over 250,000 students throughout the world.

The History of TAP

In 1997, CWP Founder & Executive Director, Michele Kotler, took the first steps to start a vision that had been in her since her 6th grade teacher, Mr. Kluger, opened her world to the power of creativity. CWP was born from that vision.

Michele approached Sarah Lawrence College with a proposal to pilot a training program for five MFA students. Her first group of graduate trainees were all writers and willing to be guinea pigs for this fledgling program. Together, they spent five days working on pedagogy, lesson plans, teaching paths, classroom management, and more. The students then joined Michele in the classroom for ten-weeks of hands-on experience. It was a great learning opportunity for everyone and it put more adults in the classroom, which provided the students opportunity for individual help.

What began as a dream, became what we now call Teaching Artist Project (TAP). TAP facilitates an 8-month program based on Michele’s original seed (our Signature Program), provides customized training to other organizations, and collaborates with our community partners in the TAP Alliance.