OAC teaching artists engage in professional learning that prepares them to work with sponsors.
Refining Your Project
The OAC teaching artist you select can help you narrow the possibilities you envisioned and further explore how to make a residency meaningful to your school or organization.
Lively brainstorming sessions with artists begin most residencies with the Cleveland-based modern dance troupe Inlet Dance Theater. "If they have a specific idea," says dance artist and director Bill Wade, "we might brainstorm ways to make it happen. If not, we go into 'think tank' mode to help them explore what's possible."
Visual artist Debbie Brod says the process of collaboratively developing a residency often involves "finding the meeting place" for what interests the sponsor and what she does as an artist.
Choosing the Core Group
A planning team outlines a vision and process for an OAC Arts Learning artist residency. The final product is usually a magical surprise.
OAC artists also can advise you about different ways to choose a core group. Most artists can create a residency for any group of learners.
"I'll work with whatever core group they give me—whether it's a specific grade or class, the most advanced students or the ones who are struggling," says musical artist Holly Pratt of her residency experiences in schools.
You may want to discuss with the artist how you will identify who is interested in participating. For example, in her school-based residencies, Pratt sometimes begins by conducting one-day activities with individual classrooms so she and the teachers can identify which students want to participate.
Like all OAC Arts Learning artists, Holly Pratt can help design a residency project for learners of any age or level of ability.
If you know the project is likely to engender high levels of interest, the artist also can advise you about appropriate selection criteria. Some sponsors, for example, ask learners to write about why they are interested or what they hope to gain. While that may be ideal for a creative writing residency, it may be less effective for others. For example, Eric Paton, who teaches multicultural drum techniques, says learners who are least likely to write essays sometimes benefit most from his instruction. In school residencies, he encourages teachers to "leave room for students who learn differently."
Another consideration in selecting a core group is the range of roles your project may involve. The core group for one of John Fleming's theater residencies, for example, might need not only the natural-born performers but also a mix of creative, technical and manual skills. "People should have a chance to do things that make them look good," he says. "A student who writes beautifully may not be the best person to speak their words in front of a group."
Many OAC Arts Learning artist residency projects require a range of talents and interests.
Designing Residency Activities
Residencies can consist of a variety of activities. Artists may conduct workshops and other professional learning activities with staff, give an opening presentation or performance to a large group of learners, spend time with different groups both conducting and assisting with learning activities, work with small groups or individuals and conduct activities with parents or community members. The planning team develops the framework for that process, creating a timeline and schedule to ensure that the artist has adequate opportunities to interact and work with learners in the core group, as well as to work with staff and conduct activities with peripheral groups.
Engagement, learning, self-discovery and teamwork are central in the design of activities. What form results take is secondary. In fact, Eric Paton doesn't use the term "performance" or "concert" to describe what happens when learners take the stage. He calls it a "final sharing." Similarly, John Fleming sees the culminating activity as "presenting a process."
Although Japanese taiko drumming requires discipline, teams working with artist Eric Paton can build in opportunities for choice and creativity.
Artists can help you create space for inquiry, exploration and creative decisions by the core group. For example, a group working with Debbie Brod might choose a theme for learners' works of visual art but remain open about how that theme is expressed visually. They may decide that the core group will create three-dimensional works of art but build in time for the core group to select the theme or explore different materials.
Artists can help you find ways to encourage uniqueness and self-expression. For example, when Eric Paton teaches taiko, a Japanese form of ensemble drumming that requires a disciplined and coordinated performance, he often gives students choices in their movements, drum-making activities and explorations of Japanese culture. Holly Pratt's residencies typically have a strong focus on harp playing, but some groups also have added other instruments or have incorporated choreography, visual art and sign language. Decisions about roles and the group process, she says, also provide rich opportunities for group creativity.
Planning Your Documentation, Assessment and Evaluation Strategies
Capturing evidence of learning is an important part of an artist residency. Documenting activities through still photographs, video and audio recordings is one of the best ways to create a record that can be used to assess the process and outcomes or share results with the public.
Critical Response, an assessment process developed by Liz Lerman Dance, is part of many residencies with Inlet Dance.
John Fleming says he uses the audiovisual capabilities of his cellphone to capture moments of learning. "If we're talking about the big idea, and someone says something that shows understanding, I might ask them to repeat their thought so I can record it." In schools, he shares those recordings with teachers. Debbie Brod says photos of participants in action also can aid evaluation. "If they look happy, engaged and focused, that suggests it was a success," she says.
Although traditional assessments can be incorporated, the fluidity of a residency and the rich learning involved may require different approaches to assessing learning. Inlet Dance Theater, for example, introduces groups to Critical Response, a four-step process developed by Liz Lerman Dance. (The approach can be adapted to a wide range of creative activities.)
Bill Wade says a facilitator leads learners through a series of questions as they watch a performance while another team member captures the responses. The same kind of inquiry occurs throughout the creative process. "Pausing to ask what they are noticing creates an environment of exploration," he says. A follow-up session where learners discuss how it felt to perform and what kinds of feedback they received from the audience also can be a valuable part of the evaluation," says Wade.
This article was published in December 2011
