Register for the Connect Arts Education Conference – 9/17 at Grounds For Sculpture

The 2015 Connect Arts Education Conference will take place on

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ

 Registration is $20 per person and includes lunch.

Like the Connect Conference on Facebook for updates and to CONNECT with other attendees!

The Teaching Artist Purpose Threads:
A Way to Identify, Discuss and Develop the Current Scope of Our Work
Lincoln Center Education Presenters/Facilitators: Jean E. Taylor, Teaching Artist & Jose Velez, LCE Associate Director

Lincoln Center Education’s International Teaching Artist Training & Development Labs began in summer 2014 as a way to give back and strengthen the field. Working with Eric Booth, LCE developed The Teaching Artist Purpose Threads and The Rubrics for Excellence and Sustainability in Teaching Artistry to support meaningful exchanges between teaching artists and to compliment your current Teaching Artist practice.

10:00 am -11:35 am Full Group Workshop

Workshop from Lincoln Center Education: The Teaching Artist Purpose Threads
Facilitated by Jean Taylor and Jose Velez, this interactive, reflective workshop will explore The Teaching Artist Purpose Threads and The Rubrics for Excellence and Sustainability in Teaching Artistry to: Gain insight into the scope of work within the field of Teaching Artistry and a better understanding of your own Purpose Thread(s); Learn ways to more effectively align purpose and practice in your work; Consider ways to utilize the Rubric for self-assessment and training; and Recognize the strength of the Teaching Artist community to serve as resources for each other

11:45 am Breakout Session 1 (select one workshop)

There & Back Again – Creating and Following a Successful Residency Path
Presented by Stephen Fredericks of The Growing Stage – the Children’s Theatre of New Jersey

Stephen Fredericks, Founder and Executive Director of The Growing Stage – the Children’s Theatre of New Jersey will provide tools, tips and strategies to help you create and follow a successful residency plan. From a map of the process through to what is left behind, no aspect of residency planning will go un-noticed. This workshop will help both new and experienced teaching artists design a plan for highly successful long-term school arts residencies.

Art and the Law: The Artists’ Toolbox
Presented by Joey Novick, Esq., Executive Director Emeritus of the New Jersey Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

Copyright and trademark laws are important tools for the protection of an artist’s work. Learn the basic differences between the two, how artists can benefit from trademark and copyright registration, and how artists should be careful when posting creative work on the web.  Are you an employee or an independent contractor? Learn the difference between the two with regard to unemployment compensation, workers comp, federal tax liabilities, and ownership of creative works.

3D-Printers, Turbines and Kids…Oh My!: A Student-Centered Approach to STEAM
Presented by Teaching Artist Ben Pranger and members of the faculty of Montclair Cooperative School

Teaching artist Ben Pranger and the Montclair Cooperative School will discuss their ongoing AIE STEAM residency linking the arts and sciences through the design and creation of a series of wind-activated kinetic sculpture projects. They will share strategies for cross-curricular planning and lesson design as well as their emergent approach for making collaborative art where students propose ideas and take an active role in guiding and interpreting the project. Participants will get to see a 3D printer in action and take part in a hands-on workshop that will demonstrate how to make small wind turbines from recycled materials.

12:35 pm- 1:20 pm Lunch and Networking

1:30 pm Breakout Session 2 (select one workshop)

Open-Ended Questions and the Power of the Video Interview to Assess the Impact of Residencies
Presenters include: Maureen Heffernan and Michelle Marigliano of Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania and Eloise Bruce, Teaching Artist

Learn to draft and pose open-ended questions to elicit narrative assessment responses from students and teachers. See examples of successful narrative video interviews; learn to create written evaluations to accompany narrative prompts and try your hand at writing and responding to narrative assessment prompts.

It Takes a Community: Crowdfunding as a source for Creatives

Small-business owners Erin & Jim McHugh will discuss their journey from freelancers to owners/managers of a thriving brick-and-mortar Arts Center in their hometown of Woodbury, NJ. They’ll share their personal experience with networking, Kickstarter, social media, and how those tools helped them and the resulting community revitalize their downtown through the arts. Format will include an informal talk and question/answer session.

Comics and the Common Core: Finding the Intersection Between Your Art and the Standards
Presented by teaching artist Kevin Pyle

Teaching Artist and Graphic Novelist Kevin Pyle traces how he found inspiration connecting comics and the common core.  Participants will take part in a “Comics Jam” as well as a variety of hand-on activities connecting comics to learning.  While educational initiatives change names and emphasis, the story-telling aspects in visual art, music, theater and dance remain universal. Providing examples of actual arts-integrated experiences this interactive workshop will help you identify where your art form and academic standards intersect and how to make room in that space for creativity and art.

3:00 pm Breakout Session 3 (select one workshop)

Developing and Presenting Effective Teacher Professional Development: A Roundtable Conversation
Moderated by Kerri Sullivan, Director of Arts Education and Outreach,Appel Farm Arts & Music Center; other panelists include Jenifer Simon, Director of NJ Programs, Partnerships and the Artist/Teacher Institute,  Patricia Flynn, Teaching Artist,  Gail Scuderi, Teaching Artist, Caitlin Evans Jones, Director, Partnerships and Professional Development, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Cassandra Demski, Curator, Education, Grounds For Sculpture, Michael Fackelman, Arts Administrators of NJ and more.

Panelists engage with workshop participants in a roundtable conversation about designing and delivering effective Teacher Professional Development (PD). Often included in long-term residencies, teaching artist-provided PD can be a powerful tool for long-term impact in the school. Learn about new, different and highly- effective models for teacher PD, working with teachers to plan and implement PD and best ways of working with adult learners. The panel will include experts from a wide-range of arts PD providers- from teaching artists to summer intensives and school district art administrators, allowing you to see the continuum of PD in which teachers participate, and to hear firsthand about the best- and most challenging- PD in which the experts have participated.

Connecting with Social Media
Presenters include: Jim DeVivo, Director of Education and Jennifer DeWitt, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey; Deb Cooperman, Writer/Author/Creative Career Coach (pending) Nicole Warchol, Middle School Language Arts Teacher, David Brearly Middle-High School and her class (via skype)

Teaching Artists, Administrators, Educators and Students are using social media to connect to each other, larger communities, and the world. A panel of individuals representing these different perspectives will talk about how they are using social media as both a tool and resource to enrich the value and impact of their work. Bring your tablet, smart phone or laptop to learn how you can you use platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Periscope and more to expand your ideas, projects, and outreach.

Participants should bring their mobile and computer devices: laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. and be connected to the Grounds For Sculpture wireless internet service

The Dance about Us: Dance to Learn and Co-Creation
Presented by Teaching Artist Laura Marchese

Participants will co-create a large group dance based on information they share about themselves. This information will provide the inspiration and imagery for the creation of original movement including duets and trios, a unison section and large group improvisation.  If time allows, we will also create an original sound score using voices and hand held instruments.

Our work will be based on the Co-Creation unit of Dance to Learn, and will serve as a model and structure for creating a movement experience connected to academic content for our students. Dance to Learn, a four year developmental curriculum, provides a creative experience where critical thinking, creative problem solving, and collaboration are embedded and essential, and the unique contribution of each student is incorporated and valued.

4:20 pm Closing Remarks

4:30 pm Event End 

Map & Directions to Grounds for Sculpture by car or train.