Help Joe Create Pathways for Future Teaching Artists

Hi there! My name is Joe Westermann, and I am a Fort Worth, TX raised, now NYC-based theatre artist, currently working toward MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at The New School for Performing Arts. In the Fall of 2020, I co-founded a non-profit arts education program for high school students in my hometown of Fort Worth, TX called Spotlight Cast & Crew (SC&C). The mission of SC&C is to provide a musical theatre experience that is directed, choreographed, designed (lighting, sound and costume) and performed by students in grades 8-12 in the greater Fort Worth Area. The objective of SC&C’s mission is to provide an annual three-week intensive in the summer at no cost to any of the students involved. I serve as the organization’s Co-Founder and Program Director, and also work alongside the student participants every year leading them through a series of workshops and mentorship sessions pertaining to different subjects within the realms of Theatre Arts and Leadership.

In order to complete my masters degree program, I need to carry out a final Capstone project. For this endeavor, I have designed a project that will be centered creation of a curriculum for a course designed for high school students, which will equip them with the tools and knowledge essential to pursue careers as teaching artists. In order to create this curriculum, early-career NYC teaching artists will be engaged in a collaborative workshop process that will take place over two sessions: one to generate ideas and draft lesson plans for the curriculum, and the other to test teach the curriculum (as a group, to each other) and gain feedback from one another. Following the second workshop session, a panel discussion about the process and the field of teaching artistry will be held for a small audience. For the final portion of my Capstone, I will then be independently conducting pilot sessions of the course with the curriculum that will be generated in these sessions with high school students in April via Zoom.

The creation of this course addresses a critical need by introducing students who are interested in the arts to the concept of teaching artistry much earlier in their education careers. Historically, this concept has largely been introduced to students pursuing careers in the arts at the collegiate, or even as late as the professional level. By creating a course for students to be introduced to this career pathway earlier on, their chances of pursuing the arts beyond their high school years would increase exponentially. Additionally, students in this course will be introduced to the modern landscape of the teaching artistry field. While originally focused on K-12 settings, teaching artistry has expanded to reach more diverse age groups and social contexts. Teaching Artists now work in many different areas, including: creative aging programs, climate change education, corporate training, and socially engaged initiatives, among others. This progression in the field has opened up teaching artists to numerous pathways and opportunities to pursue. Furthermore, the leadership and planning skills that are an integral part of a teaching artist's skillset (and which would be covered at length in this course) are applicable in most all career pathways. Ultimately, this course would provide students with essential skills for any career path they wish to pursue in college and beyond. The curriculum for this course will include: tips for lesson planning, a breakdown of the different methods and styles that teaching artists utilize, and tools for incorporating one's own artistry into their teaching methodology.

I am asking for your help to make this project a reality! All funds raised for this endeavor will go toward paying the Teaching Artists I will enlist to be involved in the curriculum-building workshops, as well as all of the materials and supplies needed to carry out these workshop sessions.

The work of Teaching Artists has single-handedly shaped my life and career, and I am passionate about creating more opportunities for the same to happen to other student artists. With your support, I can make steps toward creating Creative Pathways for the next generation of Teaching Artists.

Thank you in advance for your support! Be sure to follow the journey of this project by visiting this website !