The Teaching Artist, Defined
 

Today, the term "teaching artist" is generally applied to individuals working in their chosen field who are also able to bring their art to learners in the community. Learners can be found anywhere from community centers to hospitals, from after-school programs to shelters. But for the vast majority of teaching artists the focus is on reaching school children in grades K-12. A teaching artist seeks a path different than a state-certified K-12 public classroom educator, choosing to focus on studio or performance processes and how to bring this creative knowledge to the community through their art.
 

Faculty Spotlight: Ken Bingham

Interview by Caitlin Perkins, UARTS Continuing Education Director

I was inspired by a recent visit to Ken Bingham’s Creative Writing classroom and wanted to share a bit of the experience with students considering taking this course. Professor Bingham has created a high-energy and supportive environment for writers—both established and emerging—in his classroom. He runs the critique sessions like a conductor, creating space for everyone to be heard and ensuring the author gets a range of constructive feedback.
 

I reached out to Ken after class to ask him about his course and the student experience here at UARTS, here’s what he had to say:

What motivates you to want to teach in adult education? Or what makes them different than college students?

Every writer needs feedback, whether they've been published countless times or looking for their first publication. It's important that an ongoing affordable workshop is offered for all and any writer so that they can hone their craft and continue to polish it. I teach college classes in Creative Writing, both graduate and undergraduate, but, because of the cost and the nature of credit-programs, students do not get much of an opportunity to retake the class. Not so with adult education. Some of the writers that I work with have been with me for ten years time.

Why UARTS?

Because it's creative, keeps its doors open to fresh ideas and exciting possibilities. And they believe in the course I'm teaching.

What’s the first thing you teach about writing?

That there are no rules. NONE. If someone tells you a rule, dismiss it. As a writer, you make your own rules. Period.

Where do students stumble when it comes to creative writing?

Writers often stumble when they try to make a first draft a final draft. In a first draft, don't worry about anything. Throw it all in there. If you're not sure it works or not, there's no better time to check it out than in that first draft. Let the people giving you feedback judge how well it's working or not. The responses might, and most often will, surprise you.

What does surprise students about creative writing as they start out?

That it's so easy and so freaking fun. It's what we all did when we were kids, played around and let the world yield to our own imagination. It's not hard to find that voice and that vision again.

Where does this writing workshop take students, where do they go from here?

This last class has presented the most significant success of my career here at UARTS. The students have had incredible output, offered breathlessly brave critiques, and came up with so much publishable material it blows me away.

Interested in what other students had to say about Ken’s Creative Writing workshop?

I signed up for this class expecting the chance to do some writing, maybe some exercises and hopefully meet a few like-minded folks. What I got was so much more. I got a supportive community that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
 

I could try to express what this class, and Ken's tutelage, has meant to me, but my best stab at effusiveness will fall well short. To say that this class altered the course of my life would be an understatement. It lead to me quitting my corporate job and pursuing my writing dreams at one of the best graduate writing programs in the country. Greg Houser, MFA student; University of Alabama
 

Ken Bingham creates an atmosphere of sparkling enthusiasm in a weekly class that features lively discussions about style, plot, wording and overall impact of class members' manuscripts.  An ongoing core of eager writers re-enroll each term to sharpen their skills.  Bingham's astute observations along with  feedback from classmates create a fun, gutsy, gratifying class that makes you want to write---a weekly jolt of excitement that keeps a writer re-charged and motivated. Jonathan Frank, Longtime Class Member.

I love this class and have benefited from not only constructive critique that accompanies the written work but also from the exposure to new works from exiting writers, the comraderie of spending a few hours with like-minded individuals and the unique voices that make this melting pot of creative writers so wonderful. It’s like hanging out with the members of your family that you actually like! Chad Meadows, MFA Student, Farleigh Dickinson University.

Best writing course in the City! Great Prof! Great students! Great writing! Carol Nelson Shepherd, Author of Girl Lawyer
 

By Caitlin Perkins, Director UArts Continuing Education

Gayatri Aditya is a UArts Teaching Artist Certificate Program Student. She participates in this online program from Shanghai, China.

I had a chance to catch up with Gayatri, one of our Teaching Artist Certificate program students who lives in Shanghai. Literally, catch up to her–she is a busy woman. She has been a participant in our TAC program since last fall, but she just got back from Ooty in Tamil Nadu region of India where she spent four days as a teaching artist-in-residence at a remote rural school.

Gayatri and I spoke about her fall Capstone Project, which will complete her Teaching Artist Certificate program. Even though it was early morning in Shanghai, she was beaming with happiness to report that because of her participation in the Teaching Artist Certificate program, she had just secured a job at the Bright Start Academy in Shanghai. She starts teaching her new program in September teaching art to a group of 16 two-year old children!

Gayatri explained that she would develop a series of lesson plans to work with the school’s curriculum, and laughed as she explained that she would definitely be referring back to the coursework from the Human Behavior and Child Development class in getting ready to work with such young children.

Leading up to our conversation, I’d been following Gayatri’s journey to Ooty in July of 2016. She worked with a Tribal school in Ooty,Tamil Nadu to help build a school.

Gayatri did a four-day workshop and intervention in the Tribal school in Ooty. This particular school sits inside a forest surrounded by tea plantations, and the tea farm worker’s children attend the school until the 4th grade. The teachers are government appointed, and Gayatri said that they are extraordinary, working at the school with no power or electric connection, let alone wireless. She laughed saying that simple teaching tools she has so often relied on didn’t exist, “They write everything. No photocopier. No Internet. No electricity. No lights. They are in the middle of the forest!”

The children have text books, but there are no storybooks. We spent a lot of time reading stories, but as she started her four day residency, “I realized on the first day that the children couldn't draw!”

And, in closer observation she saw that the children were being “overly corrected” or "inappropriately corrected' when they showed their drawings to their teachers. Disturbed by the barriers that had been put up, Gayatri said she went home that night and remembered something her mentor Cheilaugh Garvey said: “Children learn best when they are let out in nature.”

The next day, Gayatri took from Garvey’s lesson and asked the children to go out and collect whatever they could find. Then they made “drawings” using these found materials. The children made patterns or designs of their choice and then we let the rain and wind wash it away the next day. The drawing project was amazing!

Gayatri added to their experience by having the students photograph their drawings and designs.

Gayatri left for Chennai/Madras, India on June 24th, and upon her return she shared this experience with her fellow UArts TAC classmates, indicating that [she had] “put all that we learned last month into practice. It really works! I suddenly found Lowenfeld's [stages of artistic development] observations and charts coming into being!”

While the school project with Ooty is over, Gayatri explained that they have identified needs the school has and she will continue to raise awareness and funds to support it. She started the a fundraising campaign in June and has already raised funds and volunteer support. You can read more about Gayatri’s projects with the children on this blog: https://gayatriadityablog.wordpress.com/2016/08/07/first-blog-post/