March 4, 2011

Pennsylvania: Teaching Artists and Arts Education Organization Webinars

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) has initiated a series of free arts education webinars. The series began with a session designed to help constituents apply to PCA for teacher-artist partnership and long-term residency funding. Because these two grant categories recently were opened to all school districts across the state, PCA used the webinar to orient first-time applicants and help them prepare competitive applications for funding.

Following that initial seminar, PCA offered a seminar specifically designed to help teaching artists use technology in the classroom. Modeled after the Harnessing New Technologies for Arts Learning and Participation workshop offered at NASAA’s Assembly 2010 convening in Austin, this session was presented by Deb Vaughn of the Oregon Arts Commission and Margaret Weisbrod Morris of the Kansas Arts Commission. The seminar reviewed a variety of technology strategies for increasing engagement in arts learning and enlivening the connections between artists, students and teachers.

PCA has seen strong participation in the webinars, with more than 100 attendees to date. It has found that the webinars generate positive feedback from constituents and provide a quick and cost-effective vehicle for making technical assistance more accessible to PCA’s arts education network. Looking ahead, PCA plans to continue its arts education webinars with topics ranging from advocacy and marketing to strengthening and motivating teaching artists and arts education organizations.

To learn more, contact PCA Program Director Jamie D. Dunlap.