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Something NEW in Connecticut

The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism (CCT) is piloting a Teaching Artist Mentorship Program in 2010. The program is designed to meet two goals. The first is to help artists strengthen their skills, understanding and abilities, particularly in the areas of developing, documenting, and assessing high quality arts learning experiences. The second is to develop a cadre of leaders among teaching artists who will share their expertise and serve as 'coaches' to colleagues.

Six CCT Directory Teaching Artists (L'Ana Burton, dance; Jackie Coleman, theater; Rolande Duprey, puppetry; Leslie Johnson, writing; Thomasina Levy, music; and Mark Patnode, visual arts) were invited to participate in the pilot. They will attend intensive professional development sessions in February, 2010, and, working in pairs, will co-conduct a 12-day Teacher Artist Collaboration (TAC) in a CCT Higher Order Thinking (HOT) School. TACs are high level 12-day residencies that are developed and implemented collaboratively with classroom teachers.

In one key element of professional development artists will work with Barbara Cox, Arts Education Partnership Coordinator of the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Minnesota. Barbara will engage Connecticut's pilot artist 'coaches' and 'scholars' in the "Artist to Artist" peer coach/mentor model developed with teaching artists in Minnesota and North Dakota. Barbara will present what it means to be part of a culture of inquiry, using planning and reflection tools from "The Artful Teaching & Learning Handbook." These tools help artists to unpack their residency work, making collaborative inquiry and lesson structure visible to participants.

We are excited about bringing the advancements of our Minnesota artist colleagues to Connecticut. We are equally excited to work collaboratively with CCT Directory Teaching Artists to build a mentorship program that will enhance the delivery of arts learning, strengthening capacity and services offered by CCT's Directory Teaching Artists.

We plan to share the results of the pilot and its implications at the HOT Schools Summer Institute in July, 2010.

Bonnie Koba is the Senior Program Manager for Arts in Education at the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism