Teaching Artist Fellowship

"A teaching artist (artist-educator) is a practicing professional artist with the complementary skills and sensibilities of an educator, who engages people in learning experiences in, through or about the arts."
- Eric Booth

VSA arts recently launched a Teaching Artist Fellowship as its next step to engage and support teaching artists with disabilities in the visual and theater arts.

The arts enrich the learning environment and make it more inclusive of students with disabilities. VSA arts recognizes that teaching artists provide the passion, guidance, and talent necessary to introduce the arts to all learners. VSA arts’ educational programs are a vital part of building these teaching artist collaborations to engage students with disabilities. Artists with disabilities working in the classroom demonstrate the importance of creativity and expression in the learning process.

The inaugural program, supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education and the Dana Foundation, continues through 2007. The Fellowship will support the Fellows’ personal teaching goals, enhance classroom practice, and share the Fellows' knowledge of issues specific to teaching artists with disabilities with the larger community.