Partners in Education

Creating Capacity: A Framework for Providing Professional Development Opportunities for Teaching Artists

In 1998, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Education Department convened the National Conversation on Artist Professional Development & Training to explore the issue of professional development of teaching artists. The participants represent a small group of arts organizations and individuals from across the country that have made a significant investment in the field, and who expressed interest in working collaboratively to investigate this topic. The group met five times over three years. The publication Creating Capacity is the result of those meetings.

The purpose of Creating Capacity is to focus artists and arts organizations on philosophy, rationale and guiding questions that can inform the design of professional development to enhance artists' knowledge, skills, and understandings of working in educational settings. The core components of this framework are the Self-Assessment Tool, the Resource Checklist, and the Teaching Artists Continuum.

While the tools at the heart of Creating Capacity can be used by an individual, they are conceived as assessment and planning tools for a group of administrators and teaching artists engaged in designing a professional development program for their organization. The framework can be used as a starting point or as a reference point along the way, if an arts organization already has a program of professional development for teaching artists. It can be used to stimulate discussion, spark brainstorming, and consider new ideas. It can also be used to assess progress over time, and to identify the next areas for improvement and exploration.

Members of the National Conversation intend to continue their dialogue about professional development for teaching artists and seek feedback from practitioners in the field. The authors of Creating Capacity invite readers to share their responses to the document, ways in which it is used, thoughts, and ideas.

Download the full text PDF version of Creating Capacity:A Framework for Providing Professional Development Opportunities for Teaching Artists

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