ACT's artist residency program pairs professional teaching artists with special education classes for interactive arts learning in their classrooms. Students learn from their artist-in-residence over the course of (6) weeks, exploring a variety of art forms, mediums, and art making approaches. Many residencies culminate in an end-of-season showcase, performance, or exhibition, in which students share their work with their families, neighboring classrooms, and the community. The program is free to schools.
This year's residencies focused on bringing new classes to ACT to expand our reach, grow as an organization, and engage new school partners in ACT programming. Half of the classes participating in this year's program are new to ACT. In other words... 8 classes out of 16 total classes have never partnered with ACT before.
Taryn Ortega-Furgeson is an experienced ACT Teaching Artist who partnered with a new classroom this year to explore Creative Movement. For Taryn, the highlight of the residency was creating a dance routine together with contributions from each student. Taryn reflects, "They were so great at encouraging each other and providing suggestions when someone became stuck." Like Taryn's program, all of ACT's residencies explored social and cognitive skills, in addition to artistic skills.
Another highlight of the program often shared by classroom teachers is the authentic connections made by visiting teaching artists and the students. At Explorer Elementary, one classroom teacher shared that Jennifer Helner, ACT Teaching Artist, was able to encourage a skeptical student out of his shell by remembering his favorite color of paint to use each session. By the end of the program, the student became more comfortable using other colors, and although he is a student of few words, he chose to write, "We will miss you" on the card he made for Jennifer, demonstrating the impact of relationships built by residencies.
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