In a world where the role of arts and culture is increasingly important in shaping societies and promoting social well-being, teaching artists can be central in creating bridges between artistic practices and diverse communities. However, teaching artistry remains “largely invisible. Even within the arts, lots of people don’t know there is such a vocation. There are few good pathways into the field and few reliable ways to build a career that recognizes and rewards increasing skill” (Booth, 2023). This research project focuses on professionalizing teaching artists - in an international context – and on their ability to integrate imagination and embodied learning in diverse society as a distinctive artistic practice. The project also aims to engage in the continuity of this professionalization by creating a local Lowlands hub in collaboration with Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and Fontys Academy of the Arts Tilburg.
Operating from a Teacher Development Team (TDT), the research aims to inspire teaching artists in Flanders and the Netherlands and allow them to innovate constructively. The TDT serves as a professional learning and research community in which participants jointly professionalize and research both artistically and pedagogically-didactically in practicums, lectures, and Learning Labs. The central question is: What professionalization do teaching artists achieve through an international hybrid learning community, and how can this learning community take on a sustainable form?
Output is foreseen in the form of a book publication, the creation of a knowledge center (ITAC Hub Lowlands) and a lecture-performance highlighting the impact of teaching artists worldwide on society and the arts.
picture: (c) Colin Czerwinski
