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Arts Education as a Career: Meet Emerging Teaching Artist Asiko-oluwa Aderin

December 22, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

When art students are considering career paths, becoming a teaching artist may not come to mind. But for one Norfolk State student, that’s now a viable career option, thanks to Arts for Learning’s new Emerging Teaching Artist program.

Asiko-oluwa Aderin is a junior who’s majoring in fine arts with a concentration in graphic design. She’s a visual artist who works in digital and acrylic mediums, using geometric, abstract motifs that explore themes of Black excellence and empowerment.

Asiko created the design for this Chesapeake Public Library outreach van
A collaborative mural by NSU students Victoria Jensen and Asiko Aderin, painted on the wall of a Norfolk market
Another view of the mural

Last summer, Asiko guided children at A4L’s STEAM camp at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. She was then invited to join A4L’s new Emerging Teaching Artist program, helping children create nature-inspired picture frames in special workshops at Norfolk Botanical Garden while working with an experienced mentor, teaching artist Cindy Aitken. That’s the whole idea of the program—pairing up college students with professional artists and A4L staff who can guide them on essential elements of being a teaching artist, from developing professional programming to reading a business contract.

A4L Chief Operations Officer Anna Green, along with other members of the Education and Program team, designed the program for college students with less than one or two years of teaching experience. Although Asiko is a visual artist, students working in all art forms are welcome to apply for the program.

“Through the program they’ll receive professional development that will contribute to their working knowledge of classroom management, program development with curriculum preparation, and arts administration practices,” Anna says. “Our goal in working with these emerging artists is to cultivate them on to our teaching artist roster with one to two signature programs, or to help them advance throughout their profession.”

Asiko also taught high school students graphic design and comic book making in a ten-week residency for Norfolk nonprofit Next Step to Success. Through that experience, she discovered the joy of making a positive impact. On the last day of the residency, she asked students to tell her what they were taking away from the experience.

“One student in particular—who had presented a few challenges in terms of staying engaged and staying interested—he actually said that through the course of the program he had a love for art sparked,” Asiko says. “I think that was so cool, because as I went through the residency, one of my goals became to facilitate creativity within each individual child, however that may look like. To go from a kid who was like, ‘No, I’m not interested in art’ to ‘Okay, maybe this is something I can explore in the future’—it was really nice to be able to spark that in somebody.”

Drew Lusher, A4L’s Artist and Programming Manager, says Asiko came to Arts for Learning with some key attributes of effective teaching, such as a calm and reassuring presence and the ability to engage authentically with students. He’s seen strong growth in her in the months she’s spent in the Emerging Artist program.

“Once we worked with Asiko to unpack the content of her art form and align it with the interests and needs of her students, she grew into an amazing teacher,” Drew says. “I enjoyed the opportunity to observe her in the last week of the Graphic Novels program. The impact of her teaching on the students and the classroom environment was palpable.”

As for Asiko, she says arts education is an avenue she may want to pursue professionally, thanks to her experience in the Emerging Artist program. “I’ve been reaffirmed in my ability to teach and work with different age groups.” And at age 21, she may have one advantage over much older teachers. “While maintaining a professional demeanor and authority, I’m able to really connect with the students in a way that doesn’t feel intimidating and that they’ll still listen and have fun.”

Asiko has an exciting challenge ahead of her this spring when she moves on to the next phase of the program—she’s been selected to serve as the teaching artist in an after-school residency at Portsmouth’s Westhaven Elementary School, one of three schools participating in the first phase of the IDEAL (Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages) program. During the course of the ten-week residency, fifth graders will create mixed media works of art as they explore various aspects of self-identity through dance, written and spoken poetry, and visual art. Students from schools in Norfolk and Virginia Beach are also participating and will have opportunities to collaborate with one another.

“A lot of the residency is based off of trying to help these students figure out their own identities and where they fit into their communities,” Asiko says. “That conceptually is so in line with the work that I’m trying to do artistically that’s it’s going to be really neat to explore these concepts.”

We’re thankful for the sponsorship of #BankofAmerica that helped underwrite the launch of the Emerging Artist Teaching program. Their support is helping create new opportunities in the workforce for artists.

Students or colleges interested in participating in the program may contact Drew Lusher, Artist and Programming Manager, at Artsed@Arts4LearningVA.org.

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, News, Program Spotlight Tagged With: art education, art jobs, Arts Ed, careers, emerging artists, teaching artists

A Summer to Remember

September 2, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

At the start of this Labor Day weekend, we celebrate with a look back at a summer filled with all things art. Our artists and staff members were busier than ever, working to inspire and engage students in and through the arts.

A Splash of the Arts

Over the course of four Saturdays in July, 40 Arts for Learning artists performed at the Hampton History Museum and Mill Point Park. Hampton City Schools sponsored the series of free performances and activities for families and students. Given the enthusiastic response from attendees, we hope this will become a summer tradition in Hampton!

Frames and Games Summer Workshops

We partnered with Norfolk Botanical Garden for a series of workshops for kids, with our artists helping children create take-home frames using items from nature. We have two more workshops still to come on Saturday, September 10, which are free with the price of admission to NBG.  https://norfolkbotanicalgarden.org/learn/children-family-programs/

These summer workshops are part of our new Emerging Artists program for student artists who want to explore becoming a teaching artist as a career. Thanks to Bank of America for underwriting this new program. Read more here: https://bit.ly/A4Lemergingartists.

Summer Arts Camps

With hosting by the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, our teaching artists mentored students through four weeks of summer camps: musical theater, visual arts, and STEAM. Kids got the chance to create while having tons of fun.

Next Step to Success

In a new partnership, we joined with Next Step to Success to bring our Strings Impact program to teens. Teaching artist Tina Culver helped students learn the basics of how to play the violin. We also presented visual art instruction to students. Next Step to Success is a nonprofit in Norfolk geared toward underserved youth ages 13-16, providing after-school and summer enrichment to help participants develop the tools to succeed in life. 

Alternatives Inc.

We continued our longstanding partnership with Alternatives Inc. in July, providing a series of arts-rich residencies, including this one where students worked on our Arts + Learning Snacks’ mini-comic. Alternatives Inc. is a youth development nonprofit on the Peninsula whose vision is “healthy, principled, and creative young people valued as members of the community.”

Library Performances

Our artists performed at a number of libraries around Hampton Roads this summer, offering quality arts enrichment to children and families when school was out. Thanks to local arts commissions for underwriting performances in Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Williamsburg, and to the Portsmouth Service League for sponsoring two performances in Portsmouth.

Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation

In another new summer partnership, our artists presented 16 performances and 24 workshops to children in programs at the Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation Department.

Common Casting Call

Arts for Learning joined forces with The Zeiders American Dream Theater, Virginia Musical Theatre, Children’s Theatre of Hampton Roads, City of Virginia Beach, and Virginia Public Arts for a common casting call. Dozens of aspiring actors, singers, and other artists came out for this audition opportunity held the last week of August.

We thank all of our community partners who helped make this a summer to remember!

We also thank the individuals who support our mission as we try to reach more students through the arts while paying our artists fair professional wages. Join with us as we work toward equitable access to the arts by making a tax-deductible donation.

And make sure you don’t miss any news by signing up for our monthly newsletter: https://arts4learningva.org/

Happy Labor Day weekend to all!

Filed Under: Program Spotlight, Summer camps, Summer Programs Tagged With: arts camps, performances, summer arts, teaching artists

When I grow up I want to be a… Teaching Artist!

July 29, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

When you think of career paths for artists, you may think of an actor or dancer who performs on the stage, or a visual artist who sells artwork at a gallery. At Arts for Learning, we’re helping create new opportunities in the workforce by highlighting a different career path that’s not as well known—working as a teaching artist.

Just this month we launched a new program where we’re partnering with Hampton Roads’ colleges to recruit, train, and mentor students in the arts. The Emerging Artist program creates a pipeline of new opportunities for student artists who may be unaware of the potential career path of becoming a teaching artist for an arts-in-education organization.

Two Norfolk State students are the first to be selected for the program, which features paid opportunities for emerging artists to work one-on-one with students in various settings. Anjenette Britton and Asiko-oluwa Aderin joined A4L teaching artist Cindy Aitken last Saturday in the first of four workshops at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, helping children make nature-inspired picture frames. Asiko-oluwa is also leading a graphic novel workshop for teens Monday, August 1 at the Portsmouth Public Library.

The emerging artists will be mentored by Cindy Aitken and Katherine Willet as teaching artists themselves and by members of the A4L Education and Program Team. Molly Stanley, a former teacher who serves as Learning and Community Engagement Manager, will work with the emerging artists on classroom management and how to develop arts-integrated curriculum for students. Chief Operations Officer Anna Green will guide the pair on some of the essential business aspects of being independent teaching artists, such as knowing how to read a contract.

You can meet Anjenette and Asiko-oluwa at our final Saturday workshops at the Norfolk Botanical Garden: September 10 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

 

The Emerging Artists Program wouldn’t be possible without the sponsorship of #BankofAmerica. Thank you for underwriting this program that will help create new opportunities in the workforce!

#BofAGrants

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, Arts Integration, News, Program Spotlight Tagged With: Bank of America, BofA grants, emerging artists, teaching artists

‘Make Comics Now’ with A4L’s Matt Harrison

October 15, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

https://arts4learningva.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Make-Comics-Now.mp4

Norfolk-based artist Matt Harrison is new to the Arts for Learning roster this year, teaching a popular workshop called “Make Comics Now.” Matt comes from a teaching family—his parents are retired elementary school teachers and his wife is a middle school English teacher, and he says conversations about classroom theory and its practical applications have been a constant throughout his life. Mentoring students is one of his favorite things, whether in his role as a comic artist or in his pay-the-bills job as a web developer.

Although Matt enjoyed drawing when he was a kid, he didn’t become interested in comics until he was a young adult and stumbled on a friend’s box of old comic books.

“I started with X-Men and Spider-Man. The way those shows worked, it wasn’t episodic, it was a continuous story from one to the next. It made me very curious about continuity, so once you start down that path about caring about comics and which way the story goes, it can quickly spiral out of control. So I wound up collecting way more comics than I knew what to do with.”

Eventually Matt transitioned from an interest in traditional mainstream comics to indie comics, where he says he’s now developed a “simple, cartoony, humorous aesthetic.” He’s published more than a dozen mini-comics of eight to 48-pages long and regularly exhibits his work at comic conventions. He also works as an illustrator using a different style, which he describes as somewhat realistic straight-to-ink contour drawings of people from photos. Clients include the Naro Expanded Cinema which features his posters at their cult movie nights.

When you look at Matt’s website, www.rootbeercomics.com, you see an eclectic variety of topics and styles in his comic books, zines, and comic strips. Titles range from “Ninja Turtles with Guns” and “Lincoln versus Booth” to “Harrison Ford is Old.”

“I like to do short projects because that lets me experiment with a lot of different themes and styles of drawings. I can knock out a comic in a month and then move on to the next idea of interest.”

So why Root Beer Comics? First came the impossibility of finding a domain name when you’re named Matt Harrison. Second came the need to choose something unique, memorable, and easy to spell. But root beer also has a deeper meaning to Matt.

“I love root beer. It sets the tone for the humor stuff.  Also, there’s beer, which is an interest that a lot of people have, and then there’s root beer, which is kind of tangentially related to that but not really. And that’s kind of like what my comics are. If mainstream comics are beer, my comics are root beer.”Matt describes what he calls a “pivotal moment” in his life when he realized that comics don’t have to look a set way, that they can look like anything.

“That barrier falls away and you realize anyone can make a comic, I can make a comic, it doesn’t matter that it won’t look like the Spider-Man comic that I saw, it will look like my version of that,” he says. “I realized that I didn’t have to wait until I’m an amazing draftsman, which is a day that may never come, before I put pen on paper and put it out there for people to see.”

That pivotal moment still resonates with him as he teaches.

My objective with teaching is to recreate that moment in other people’s lives so the chains come off and they can get started in this creative hobby that can benefit them in a lot of ways.”

Matt led two Make Comics Now residencies in-person at summer camps and is currently teaching students virtually through Alternatives Inc’s after-school program. Although he’s found COVID-19 safety protocols have made establishing relationships with students more challenging, he hasn’t let that stand in the way.

“Ultimately, I think you just jump right in and treat them like they’re already old friends and eventually they’ll come along for the ride.”

Are you interested in learning more about Matt leading a workshop? Contact us at scheduling@Arts4LearningVA.org for more information.

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, ArtsEd Tagged With: cartoons, comic books, comics, graphic novels, teaching artists, virtual learning, Zoom teaching

#BecauseOfArtsEd: Celebrating National Arts in Education Week

September 16, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

It’s a week to celebrate the transformative power of the arts in education. Here at Arts for Learning Virginia, we served more than 78,000 students during 2019/2020. We’ve collected thoughts from some of those we’ve impacted plus from some of our talented artists. Enjoy!

Strings Impact

Teaching artist Tina Culver leads the Strings Impact violin program in Portsmouth Public Schools.
Teaching Artist Tina Culver leads the Strings Impact violin program in Portsmouth Public Schools.

Mila Stith, student violinist, Portsmouth Public Schools: “I liked when we got to play in front of our family and friends. Sometimes my teachers would come and support us too. It made me feel good so I could show them what I could do. My mom would be so happy and proud of me and my brother.”

Jamita Stith, parent of two student violinists: “Teachers come, teachers go, but the fact that every spring they had violin coming, it gave the kids something to look forward to. And music is very, very, very important. My kids practiced twice a week and they got to take a violin home if they needed it.”

Tina Culver, Teaching Artist for Strings Impact:  “If there hadn’t had been programs like this available for me, my childhood would have been so much different. It’s important for me to feel that I can pay it forward and be a part of growing positivity in the community.”

After-School Creative Enrichment (ACE) Theater Residency in Norfolk

Christian Osho and Harmony Riddick participated in the ACE theater residency program at Norfolk’s Bay View Elementary School.

Joy Osho, Parent: “My kids both participated in an Arts for Learning program, and they loved it. Now all they want to do is sing, dance, act, and make people laugh!! Chris has found his love for comedy. Harmony has really grown into a young artist since participating in this program.”

Christopher Mathews, Norfolk Public Schools’ educator: “We put them in a place that said your story matters even if it’s a hard story to tell and you telling it can be therapeutic for you. But it can also be something that brightens the world through the creativity you bring.”

Brittany Cottrill, Parent: “I could see my daughter’s confidence and understanding of emotions greatly increase during this program. She helped out behind the scenes and was very proud of herself. She showed compassion at home toward me in ways I hadn’t seen before.”

ACE theater residency final performance
Everyone in the ACE residency pitched in to create a performance celebrating the power of kindness.

Mikayla Cottrill, Student: “I really liked the activities that we got to do, especially the ones that helped us with the acting part. And I liked that the (teaching artists) were fine, even when we were still learning how to do everything. During the performance, people on stage were helping each other. I liked the performance because people were able to see the scenes that we’d put together.”

Instructors help a student with a yoga pose during Rhythm and Me
Instructor Natasha Leshanski helps a student with a yoga pose, while supported by instructor Jasmine Marshall.

Rhythm and Me Adaptive Dance Residency in Portsmouth

Natasha Leshanski, Teaching Artist: “We want the kids to feel confident, we want them to be moving their bodies, and we want them to enjoy themselves. So everything else takes a back seat to those things. We’re constantly telling them, ‘Of course you can do more things. That feeling you’re feeling is discomfort because you’re trying something new.’ So as long as they’re willing to put themselves out there, it’s success day after day.”

Monica Morgan, Parent: “The number one benefit for Naomi was social, meeting new peers. Learning to follow instructions, step-by-step, was also very positive. The instructors did marvelous. They came down to their level and they were very patient with each and every one of the children.”

Naomi Morgan, Student: (Favorite part of program): “Dancing DJ! Doing dance moves!”

A4L Teaching and Performing Artists

Dancer Joel Casanova
Dancer Joel Casanova

Joel Casanova, Dancer: Arts for Learning helps me support myself in a way that’s also meaningful. I don’t have to sacrifice making ends meet with supporting kids and doing what I love. The thing that pays my bills is also affecting children for the rest of their lives.”

Storyteller Via Goode
Storyteller Via Goode

Via Goode, Storyteller: “I was fortunate enough when I was growing up to take clarinet lessons, and I lived in a school district where I was able to take field trips and I know what a difference it made to me. And so being on the other end where you’re giving it to the schools so that the children can experience that is just very, very rewarding for me.” 

Musician Jennifer Gammill
Musician Jennifer Gammill

Jennifer Gammill, Singer/Musician: “I feel like Arts for Learning is on my team, and they’re like, ‘Hey, we want you to be an artist. You can make money doing what you do.’ I feel super supported.”

 

 

Storyteller Sheila Arnold
Storyteller Sheila Arnold

Sheila Arnold, Storyteller: “I love watching kids’ engagement whether it’s laughter or just seeing the look on their face. They’re deep into the story and they can’t find themselves out. They’re cool middle-schoolers and all of a sudden they’re wrapped around my finger and they didn’t know they were going to do that.”

“People say, ‘They’re kindergarteners— they sat for an hour! How did you do that?’ I love it when teachers ask me how I did that, and I say, ‘I kept it interesting and they learned.’”

We want to keep making an impact on children’s lives. We’ve shown that we can adapt and continue our mission despite the challenges of COVID-19, but we need your support so that we can keep moving forward. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution—any amount helps.

National Arts in Education Week celebrates the transformative power of the arts in education. Passed by Congress in 2010 through House Resolution 275, the week is designated to bring attention to this cause for elected officials and educational decision makers across the country and to support equitable access to the arts for all students. For more information, visit Americans for the Arts, a national advocacy group.

Filed Under: ArtsEd Tagged With: 747 nonprofit, 757 arts, ACE theater residency, Americans for the Arts, Arts Ed, arts education, Arts in Education Week, BecauseofArtsEd, Norfolk Public Schools, performing artists, Portsmouth Public Schools, Rhythm and Me, storytellers, Strings Impact, teaching artists

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Main Office

Arts for Learning
420 North Center Drive
Suite 239
Norfolk, Virginia 23502
Phone: 757-466-7555
Fax: 757-455-9859

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Arts for Learning Style)

No, we’re not talking about this year’s Best Picture winner (although we DID love it!) We’re talking about springtime at Arts for Learning where we have so much going on—new residencies, workshops, public performances, and more for students from Pre-K to 12th grade! Residencies Strings Impact: Fourth through sixth graders at three elementary schools in […]

Join the A4L Mailing List!

Sign up to receive the latest news on arts integration from Arts for Learning! Thank you for supporting arts-in-education.

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By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Arts for Learning, http://www.arts4learningva.org. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

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