The Work of Teaching Artists

This course has been designed by the longstanding and expert team of teaching artists and staff at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, considered by many to be the birthplace of teaching artistry. In this course - The Work of Teaching Artists - Lincoln Center Education (LCE) will guide you through their systematic approach to arts education, demonstrating the skills needed for teaching artists to activate the artistry of others. You will be introduced to LCE’s seven “Purpose Threads,” which provide a framework for understanding the teaching artist field, and experience a step-by-step approach to the “Work of Art Thread,” based on LCE’s more than 40-year history in aesthetic education. Throughout the course, you will view and practice a range of facilitation strategies and learn about a planning process that is applicable in a variety of educational settings.

This course is part of the 4-course program, The Basics of Teaching Artistry. Please click here to learn more.

• Activating Artistry and LCE’s Work of Art Thread
• This session builds on the previous sessions. Now we zero in on “Activating Artistry” and consider how it lives at the center of teaching artist practice. We introduce the LCE’s “Purpose Threads,” which identify types of practice across the field of teaching artistry according to intention. This session sets special focus on Lincoln Center Education’s “Work of Art Thread,” in which teaching artists seek to deepen their students’ personal engagement with works of art.
• Integrating Inquiry and Reflective Practices
• In this session participants use questions to guide the flow of a conversation from observation through analysis into interpretation. They will identify and practice specific questions that foster inquiry and reflection - practices that help students learn to pose their own questions.
• Planning and Designing Workshop Experiences
• In this session, participants will create activities that open up artistic processes to engage their students. These activities build on each other, highlighting participant choice-making and discovery.
• Building Environments for Engagement
• This session introduces Lincoln Center Education’s Fundamentals of Teaching Artistry and investigates the ways teaching artists establish safe and engaging learning environments through their facilitation skills. These include use of language, management of space and movement, and formation of groups, along with monitoring learner readiness for engagement.