Teaching Artists

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A History of Collaboration

The Faculty of Education has a long history of inviting Teaching Artists into our learning spaces. Teaching Artists have worked with instructors in both arts- and non-arts-focused courses to enhance learning experiences and support learning goals.

What is a Teaching Artist?

Teaching Artists are professional artists who dedicate part of their career to teaching, either in school or community settings. In schools, they work with educators to design and deliver arts-focused or arts-integrated learning opportunities that meet curriculum and/or course expectations. They go by many names (e.g., visiting artist, artist-in-residence), but the term 'Teaching Artist' has gained popularity in recent years to describe the work of artists who are equally committed to both the arts and education.

To read more about Teaching Artists, check out these pages:

What is a Teaching Artist? (Essay by Eric Booth)

What does a Teaching Artist do? (Berklee)

Our Teaching Artist Roster

Please visit our Teaching Artist Roster to learn more about teaching artists that work with the Faculty of Education at Queen's University.

Teaching Approaches

Teaching Artists, like arts educators, facilitate learning in, about, and through the arts. All of these approaches contribute to a well-rounded arts education in both school and community learning environments.

Learning In The Arts

Learning and appreciating skills specific to different art forms (e.g., learning to make a coil pot or learning chords on the guitar)

Learning About the Arts

Analyzing, critiquing, and/or appreciating art, art making, and the world of art including contextual aspects (e.g., personal, historical,
social, cultural, environmental)

Learning Through the Arts

Using the arts as entry points to explore and learn about ourselves, other people, our surroundings, and diverse fields of study

What Does
'Arts Integration'
Mean?

According to the widely used definition developed by The Kennedy Center, arts integration is:

"An approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both."

In the Ontario Curriculum, this approach is referred to as integrated learning in the arts or "learning through the arts", which can be leveraged to deepen students' learning across multiple subject areas (e.g., literacy, math, science) or enhance broader skills such as communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Arts integration is common in K-12 classrooms, but can be applied to a variety of learning contexts. Teaching Artists have worked with instructors in the Faculty of Education to enable learning through the arts in subject-specific courses and those aimed at developing a broad range of professional skills.

Arts Integration In Practice...

“For the past number of years my IS Geo students have been fortunate to participate in a workshop with Nancy Douglas. Geography is a very visual subject and using the lens of the Arts to reflect concepts of geographic thinking has been awesome! Using Quality of Life Indicator data, students created an artistic mobile which reflects that data.”

-Anne Mansfield (Lecturer, Faculty of Education)

“Inviting a VOICE COACH into our FOCI class helped everyone to recognize the importance of projection and breath work as they prepare to work in classrooms. We link voice work to assessment by thinking about self-assessment, self-regulation, concentration, and motivation."